Platos Moral Psychology :: Argumentative Rationality Argument Papers

Platos Moral PsychologyI argue that Platos psychological theories are motivated by concerns he had about moral system. In particular, Plato excretes the modern broadsheet of keen-sightedity as the maximization of battlefieldively evaluated expedience because, had he adopted such an figure statement, his theory of justice would be subject to criticisms which he holds are fatal to the contractarian theory of justice. While formulating a theory to remain within ethical constraints sometimes violates the canons of scientific theorizing, Plato avoids this mistake.The first expert account of justice Plato considers in the Republic is the contractarian account.(1) It holds that is always instrumentally rational for star to further her own interests and in that certain situations (exemplified by the pris angiotensin converting enzymers dilemma) it is more rational to forego ones own interests (providing others do so also) than to behave in a straight-forwardly rational way. The rul es allowing one to escape prisoners dilemmasthe rules it is rational to coincide providing all others accept them alsoare simply the rules of morality. Hence it is rational to be moral.(2)Plato agrees that reasonableness requires opportunismed action. However, he distinguishes between perceived self-interest and genuine self-interest and argues that some(prenominal) apparent conflict between moderateness and morality is simply a conflict between ones perceived self-interest and the requirements of justice. Pursuing of ones actual self-interest never conflicts with the demands of morality. Since, for Plato, it is more rational to pursue ones real, than ones apparent, self-interest, rationality and morality do not conflict. It is rational to be moral.Plato rejects the contractarian reconciliation of morality with individual rationality primarily because the thinks that the contractarian conception assumes that a persons motives for being just are inevitably based her self-inter est, while our concept of the just person holds that to be genuinely just one must value justice for its own sake. The contractarian account is also unacceptable because it has no foorce in the case of the Lydia Shepherd.(3) Finally, Plato holds that we must reject the contractarian account because a better account is available to us, viz., his own account of justice. But to show this Plato must establish each of the following 1. at that place really is a difference between perceived self-interest and actual self-interest, that there can be a difference between what one believes to be in ones interest and what really is in ones interest. 2. Provide an account of what ones actual self-interest is.(4) 3.