2. Plato’s Ethics
• Plato follows Socrates in maintaining that
happiness is man’s ultimate goal and that the
only that leads to it is virtue, for there can be no
happiness without the practice of virtue
• Only a virtuous man can be happy
• For Plato as with Socrates, virtue is identical with
knowledge or wisdom
• A virtuous man is a wise man, a man who knows
what is really good for him
3. Plato’s Ethics Contd.
• A wicked or vicious man is a foolish man, a
man who pursues what is harmful to him
• Such a man is suffering from ignorance, he
does not really know what he is doing
• Ignorance is the cause of wrong doing, for no
man really does evil knowingly
• Wisdom, according to Plato, is the virtue of
the rational part(reason)
4. Plato’s Ethics Contd.
• Courage is the virtue of the spirited part (the higher
emotions)
• Temperance is the subordination of the spirited part
and the appetitive parts (both the higher and the
lower emotions) to rule the rational part (reason)
• Justice in the soul is the general harmony that results
from the proper functioning of each of the three parts
of the soul
• When each part plays its role properly then a general
harmony follows, and this harmony is justice in soul
5. Plato’s Ethics Contd.
• Thus Plato makes each of the four cardinal virtues of
the Greeks the appropriate virtue of each of the three
parts of the soul, with justice being the harmony that
results from each part fulfilling its function properly
• However, he does not say that temperance is the
virtue of the appetitive part (as one would expect) but
virtue which corresponds to rational part.
• Both the higher as well as the lower emotions (the
passions) should be subordinate to the rule of reason.
