Britannia Radio

God Or Moral Nihilism: The Ending Of The Meno

From the desk of Richard Cocks on Tue, 2011-11-29 19:22

In Fall 2011, I taught Plato’s dialog, the Meno, to my upper-level Ethics class. What is relevant for our purposes is that the dialog addresses the question of the nature of justice and virtue. The character of Socrates suggests that if virtue can be taught, there must be teachers and students of this important topic. Since there are none, Socrates argues that virtue must be more like right opinion than knowledge, but that right opinion can be just as useful a guide to action as actual knowledge, though more unstable. But if this right opinion can’t be taught, how is it acquired? Socrates proposes that excellent rulers, prophets and soothsayers often speak the truth under divine inspiration. This means that though what they say is correct, they don’t really know what they are saying, or at least how they are managing to say it. Similarly, the virtuous are not able to articulate from where their right opinion stems because it too is divinely inspired and a gift from the gods.

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The Liberals, The Left And The Difference

From the desk of George Handlery on Tue, 2011-11-29 16:08

A self-defense that sacrifices the protected self.

After a turbulent life, you will surmise that nothing that could surprise you could happen. A piece of stunning information that the writer picked up lately proves that, the theory of having seen it all, is wrong.

The reader is likely to have two meanings for the term “Liberal”. In the USA, the term’s usual definition is that, the liberal is left-of-center but claims that he is the center. Most liberals will resent the leftist tag. In their view, their education, intelligence and the sensitivity derived from their philosophy, puts them above party politics. Due to their cerebral qualities and ethics, liberals claim to be able to see merits in any position. This enables them to discover a value in what the left advocates. Therefore, they support these against the reactionaries located on their right of the political spectrum.

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