Luigi Speranza – GRICE ITALO; ossia, Grice e Treves:
la ragione conversazionale dei giudici e l’implicatura conversazionale della giustizia
nella filosofia italiana – ventennio fascista – la scuola di Torino – filosofia
torinese – filosofia piemontese -- filosofia italiana – By Luigi Speranza, pel
Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice, The Swimming-Pool Library, Villa Speranza (Torino). Abstract.
Keywords. IVSTVM. Grice: “Aristotle claims that IVSTVM is analogical. Ross's
suggestion about 'good' would, moreover, be at best only a description of one
special case of analogical unification, and would not give us any general
account of such unification. I might add that little supplementary assistance
is derivable from those who study general semantic concepts; such persons seem
to adhere to the principle that silence is golden when it comes to discussion
of such questions as the relation between analogy, metaphor, simile, allegory
and parable. So far as Aristotle himself is concerned it seems fairly
clear to me that tie primary notion behiad the concept of analogy is that of
'proportion'. This notion is embodied, for example, in Aristotle's
treatment of justice. where one kind of justice is alleged to consist in a due
proportion between return (reward or penalty) and antecedent desert (merit or
demerit) but it remains a mystery how what starts life as, or as something
approximating to, a quantitive relationship gets converted into a
not-quantitive relation of correspondence of allinity. It looks as if we might
be thrown back upon what we might hope to be inspired conjecture. Filosofo piemontese. Filosofo italiano. Torino, Piemonte. Compie gli studi
al liceo AZEGLIO (vedi) e poi nella facoltà dove entra in contatto, fra gl’altri,
con BOBBIO, FOA, LUZZATI, ENTRÈVES, e simpatizza con il gruppo di giustizia e libertà
abbracciando i principi del socialismo liberale. Si laurea sotto la guida di SOLARI con una tesi su Henri
de Saint-Simon. Insegna a Messina, dove viene arrestato per sospetta attività contro
IL REGIME FASCISTA. Trasferito a Urbino e escluso dal concorso bandito sulla
sua cattedra. Insegna a Parma, si trasfere a Milano. Protagonista della
rinascita post-bellica della sociologia in Italia, co-opera attivamente col centro
nazionale di prevenzione e difesa sociale e col suo segretario generale Argentine,
coordinando fra l'altro una vasta ricerca su “L'amministrazione della giustizia
e la società italiana in trasformazione” da cui escono volumi di vari filosofi.
Presiede questo comitato facendosi attivo promotore della sociologia del
diritto. Fonda la rivista italiana della
disciplina, di cui ottiene il riconoscimento accademico e che insegna a Milano.
Difende una posizione filosofica relativista e prospettivista, influenzata da
Mannheim, Mills e Kelsen, del quale ultimo introduce in Italia la dottrina pura
del diritto positivo. Alieno dal dogmatismo e paladino di una concezione
critica della scienza, rifiuta ogni visione metafisica del diritto in favore di
una visione metodologica che sfocia nella sociologia del diritto intesa come
scienza prevalentemente empirica, non avalutativa, ma ispirata a valori, nel
suo caso quelli di libertà e giustizia sociale -- è considerato insigne maestro
per un'intera generazione di filosofi e sociologi del diritto. Due sono i
problemi che la sociologia del diritto deve affrontare: da un lato la
posizione, la funzione e il fine del diritto nella società vista nel suo
insieme. Dall'altro la società nel diritto, cioè quei comportamenti effettivi
che possono essere conformi e difformi rispetto alle norme, ma comunque
forniscono informazioni su come una società vive le regole che si è data. Del
primo problema si sono occupate soprattutto le dottrine sociologiche e polito-logiche,
mentre sul secondo si sono soffermate le dottrine giuridiche anti-formalistiche.
Saggi: “Il diritto come relazione” (Torino); “Diritto e cultura” (Torino); “Spirito
critico e spirito dogmatico” (Milano); “Libertà politica e verità” (Milano); “Giustizia
e giudici nella società italiana” (Bari); “Introduzione alla sociologia del
diritto” (Torino); “Sociologia del diritto -- Origini, ricerche, problem” (Torino);
“Sociologia e socialism - ricordi e incontri” (Milano); “Dizionario biografico
dei giursti italiani” (Bologna, Il Mulino); Il magistero; in La Nuova
Antologia, Colombo, La lezione in La Nuova Antologia, FERRARI, FSociologo del
diritto, in Rivista internazionale di filosofia del diritto, in Ratio Juris, ss. FERRARI, GHEZZI, La scienza del dubbio.
Volti e temi di sociologia del diritto (Mimesis, Milano-Udine), Losano, Sociologo
(Unicopli, Milano); Marconi, Il legato culturale, in Sociologia del diritto, Tanzi,
dalla filosofia alla sociologia del diritto, ESI, Napoli, Nitsch, T. esule in
Argentina. Sociologia, filosofia sociale, storia. Con documenti inediti e la
traduzione di due scritti di T., Memorie dell'Accademia delle Scienze di
Torino, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, Sociologia del
diritto, Dizionario di filosofia, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. When it comes to The Debate
between Socrates and Thrasymachus in the Republic, We should bear in mind that
Grice’s purpose of looking at the discussion of Justice is to see if the
course of that discussioncould be looked on as a conscious, subconscious, or
unconscious venture by Socrates or Plato into the discipline of philosophical
escha-tology. The discussion begins with a pressing invitation to Socrates to take
part in an examination of the question "What is Justice?" It is clear
that despite the intrusion of distractions Socrates has not lost sight of this
focus. Two preliminary answers are put
forward; that of Cephalus ("to tell the truth and pay one's debts");
and that of his son Polemar-chus ("to give every man his due"). The
first of these answers seems to be an attempt to exhibit the nature of Justice
by means of its paradigmatic rules, while the second attempts to provide a
general characterization or definition. Socrates points out that even
paradigmatic rules allow of exceptions, with the consequence that a practical
principle will be needed to identify the exceptions; while Polemarchus's
suggested definition is faulted on the grounds that counterintuitively it
allows Justice on occasion to be exhibited in causing harm. It seems to be open
to Polemarchus to reply to Socrates that the connection of Justice with
punishment makes it questionable whether it is counterintuitive to suppose that
Justice sometimes involves causing harm. Indeed we might inquire why the
answers suggested by Cephalus and Polemarchus are given house-room at all if
they are going to be so cursorily handled. (3) The debate with
Thrasymachus. A number of different factors to my mind raise serious questions
about the role of this debate in the general scheme for the treatment of
Justice in the Republic. The quality of Thrasymachus's dialectical apparatus
seems to be (to put it mildly) not of the highest order. Socrates himself remarks that
in the course of the debate the original question ("What is
Justice?") becomes entangled in a confused way with a number of other
seemingly different questions such as whether the just life is the happiest
life (or is more, or less, happy than the unjust life), whether the just life
is worthy of choice, etc. What does Thrasymachus achieve beyond the generation
of confu- Socrates' replies to
Thrasymachus are by no means always intellectually impeccable; yet so far as I
can see, this fact is not pointed out. Glaucon and Adeimantus are dissatisfied with the
upshot of this debate and call upon Socrates to show that the just life is the
happylife, not making it clear what the connection is between this demand and
the answering of the original question about the nature of Justice. (e)
Socrates endeavors to meet the demands of Plato's older broth-ers, but to do
this, he resorts to the elaborate presentation of an analogy between the soul
and the state. What justifies the presentation, in the current context, of the nature
of this analogy? (4) Blow-by-blow details of the debate with
Thrasymachus. Round 1. Thrasymachus at the outset couples the thesis that
"jus-tice is the interest of the stronger" with the admission that
rulers are not infallible in their estimates of where the interest of the
stronger lies. As the comments of Socrates, Polemarchus, and Cleitophon make
clear, this leads Thrasymachus into an intolerable tension between the idea
that the edicts of the ruler command obedience because they spring from a belief
on the part of the ruler that obedience is in the interest of the stronger, and
the idea that obedience is demanded if, but only if, it would in fact be
conducive to the interest of the stronger. Thrasymachus seeks to repair his
position by distinguishing between (a) what the ruler commands and (b) what the
ruler commands qua ruler; the latter cannot but be conducive to the interest of
the stronger, though no such assurance attends the former. Though no one
points this out, the attempted escape seems to carry the consequence that
whether the ruler's commands do or do not call for obedience may be, and may
continue to be, shrouded in obscurity. But apart from this initial
confusion, the debate in Round 1 is characterized by a number of further
disfigurements or blemishes, responsibility for which may attach not only to
Thrasymachus but, by as-sociation, to Socrates. Some of these disfigurements or
blemishes may indeed also be visible in subsequent rounds. It is not made clear, nor
indeed is the question raised, whether the kind of justice under discussion is
political (or politico-legal) jus-tice, or moral justice. The general tenor of
Thrasymachus's remarks would suggest that his concern is with political or
politico-legal jus-tice. Indeed it seems not impossible that it is part of
Thrasymachus's position that there is no such thing as moral justice, that the
concept of moral justice is chimerical and empty. If this were his position, he
could be characterized as a certain sort of skeptic; but whether or not it is
his position should surely not be left in doubt. Thrasymachus nowhere makes it
clear whether he regards the popular application of the term "just,"
which Thrasymachus may not himself endorse, as a positive or a negative
commendation. Are justacts supposed to be acts which fulfill some condition
which acts should fulfill, or acts which are free from an imputation that they
fulfill some condition which acts should not fulfill? It is not clear whether
Thrasymachus's thesis that justice is the interest of the stronger is to be
taken as a thesis about the "nominal essence" or about the "real
essence" of justice. Is Thrasymachus suggesting that the right way to
conceive of justice, the correct interpretation of the term "just,"
is as signifying that which is in the interest of the stronger? Or is he
suggesting that whatever content we attach to the concept of justice, the
characteristic which explains why just acts are done and why they have the
effects which standardly attend them, is that of being in the interest of the
stronger? Thrasymachus seems uninterested
in distinguishing between the use of the word "just"
("right") as part of a sentential operator which governs sentences
which refer to possible actions (e.g., "it is just (right) that a
person who has contracted a debt should repay it at the appointed time,"
"it is just for a juror to refuse offers of bribes") and its use as
an epithet which applies to actually performed actions (e.g., "he
distributed payments, for the work done, justly"). The two uses are no
doubt intimately connected with one another, but they are surely
distinguishable. (e) Thrasymachus is not at pains to make it clear
whether the phrase "the stronger" refers to the ruler or government
(the official boss) or to the person or persons who wield political power (the
real boss). These persons might or might not be identical. As a result of
these obscurities the precise character of Thrasyma-chus's position is by no
means easy to discern. Round 2. At the end of Round 1, as it seems to me,
Socrates seeks to counter Thrasymachus's reliance on a distinction between what
the practitioner of an art ordains simpliciter and what the practitioner
ordains qua practitioner of that art, by suggesting that if we take this
distinction seriously, we shall be led to suppose that when the practitioner
acts qua practitioner, his concern is not with his own wellbeing but with the
well-being of the subject matter which the art con-trols; so rulers qua rulers
will be concerned with the well-being of their subjects rather than of themselves.
This contention seems open to the response that there is nothing to prevent the
well-being of the subject matter from being, on occasion, that state of the
subject matter which is congenial to the interest of the practitioner. This
indeed may be the tenor of Thrasymachus's outburst comparing the treat-ment of
subjects by rulers with the treatment of sheep by shepherds. If so,
Socrates does not seem to have any better reply than to suggest that the
dominance of concern on the part of rulers to obtain compensation for their
operations hardly supports the idea that it is common practice for them to use
their offices to feather their own nests; a response to which Socrates adds an
obscurely relevant demand for a distinction between the practice of an art
which is typically not directed toward the interests of the practitioner, and
the special case of a concomitant exercise of the art of profit-making, which
is so directed. Thrasymachus, however, complicates matters by introducing
a new line of attack against the merits of justice vis-à-vis injustice. He
suggests that in the private citizen justice (devotion to the interest of the
stronger, that is, of the ruler) is folly, while injustice (devotion to his own
interest) is sensible even if dubiously effective; while the grand-scale
injustice of rulers, as exhibited in tyranny, has everything to recommend it.
It is not clear that this manifesto is legitimate, since it is not clear that,
on his own terms, Thrasymachus is entitled to count tyranny as injustice; the
tyrant is not preferring his own interests to the interests of someone stronger
than himself, since no one is stronger than he. It is true, of course, that
while Thrasymachus may not be entitled to call tyranny injustice, he may be
equally not entitled to call it justice, since though the tyrant may be the
strongest person around, he is certainly not stronger than himself. So perhaps
Thrasy-machus's plea for injustice may turn out to be a misfire. Round 3.
In response to a query from Socrates, Thrasymachus recapitulates his position,
which is not that injustice is a good quality and justice a bad quality, nor
(exactly) the reverse position, but is rather that justice is folly or extreme
simplicity, whereas injustice is good sense. With this contention there is also
associated Thrasyma-chus's view that injustice implies strength, and that the
unjust life rather than the just life is the happy life. Socrates' reply
to Thrasymachus invokes arguments which seem weak to the point of feebleness.
In his first argument he gets Thra-symachus to agree that the just man seeks to
compete with, or outdo only the unjust man, whereas the unjust man competes
both with the just and with the unjust. Reflection on the arts, however,
prompts the observation that in general the expert competes only with the
inex-pert, whereas the nonexpert competes alike with the inexpert andwith the
expert, so it is the just man, not the unjust man, who runs parallel to the
general case of the expert, and who therefore must be regarded as possessing
not only expertise but also good sense. Among the flaws in this argument one
might point particularly to the dubious analogy between the province of justice
and the province of the arts, and also to a blatant equivocation with the word "compete,"
which might mean either "try to perform better than" or "try to
get the better off.” In the succeeding argument against the alleged
strength of injustice, Socrates remarks that injustice breeds enmity, observes
that efficient and thoroughgoing injustice requires "honor among
thieves," and concludes that a fully unjust man would in real life
be weaker than one who was less fully unjust. Maybe this argument shows that
the unjust man cannot, with maximum effectiveness, literally "go the whole
hog" in injustice; but this is far from showing that he should never have
started on any part of the hog. Finally, Socrates counters Thrasymachus's
claim that the unjust life, rather than the just life, is the happy life, by
getting Thrasymachus to agree that at least for certain kinds of things the
best state of a thing of that kind lies in the fulfillment of the function of
that kind, which will also constitute an exhibition of the special and peculiar
excellence of things of that kind; and also that justice is in the required
sense the special excellence of the soul; from which he concludes that justice
is the best state of the soul and as a consequence gives rise to the happy
life. This argument, perhaps, palely foreshadows Socrates' strategy in the main
part of the dialogue; but at this point it seems ineffective, since no case has
been made out why Thrasymachus should agree to what one would expect him to
regard as the quite uncongenial suggestion that justice is the special
excellence of the soul. (5) Transition to the main body of the Dialogue.
Glaucon and Ad-eimantus express dissatisfaction with Socrates' handling of
Thrasy-machus. Glaucon invokes a distinction between three classes of
goods: those which are desirable only for their own sake, those which are
desirable both in themselves and for the sake of their conse-quences, and those
which are desirable only for the sake of their con-sequences. He remarks that
it is the view of Socrates, shared by himself and Adeimantus, that justice
belongs to the second class of goods, those which are doubly desirable; but he
wishes to see the truth ofthis view demonstrated, particularly as the generally
received opinion seems to be that justice belongs to the third class of goods
which are desirable only for the sake of their consequences and have no
intrinsic value. He wishes Socrates to show that justice is desirable in
respect of its effect on those who possess it, independently of any rewards or
consequences to which it may lead. He wishes Socrates to show that it is
reasonable to desire to be just rather than merely to seem just, and, indeed,
that the life of the just man is happy even if his reputation is bad. Otherwise
it will remain feasible: that the institutions of justice are acceptable only
because they secure for us the greater good of protection from the inroads of
others at the cost of the lesser evil of blocking our inroads upon others, and that if the possession of
Gyges's ring would enable our inroads upon others to remain undiscovered, no
reasonable person would deny himself this advantage. Adeimantus reinforces the
demands expressed by Glaucon by drawing attention to the support lent by the
prevailing education and culture to the received opinion about justice as
distinct from the view of it taken by Socrates, Glaucon, and himself. Apart
from the tendency to represent the rewards associated with justice as really
attending not justice itself but the reputation for justice, Adeimantus
observes that even when the rewards are thought of as attending not merely the
semblance of justice but justice itself, the rewards are conceived of as
material and consequential rather than as consisting in the fact that justice
is its own reward. He also points to the fact that even when recognition that
it is injustice rather than justice which pays leads to the pursuit of
injustice and thereby to the incurring of divine wrath, the prevailing culture
and education teach that the gods can be bought off. So unless Socrates follows
the course proposed by Glaucon, he will be saddled with the charge that really
he agrees with Thrasymachus, that so-called justice is really pursuit of the
interest of the stronger, the strength of whose case lies in his command of the
big battalions, and that the so-called injustice involved in the alternative
pursuit of one's own interests is really inhibited only by the threat of force
majeure. In his attempt to accede to the demands of Glaucon and
Adeiman-tus, Socrates embarks on his elaborate analogy between the state and
the soul. The details of this presentation lie outside the scope of my present
inquiry, which is concerned only with the structural aspects of Socrates'
procedure.III. Does Thrasymachus Have a Coherent Position? When we operate as moral
philosophers in the borderland be-tween Ethics and Political Theory, one of the
salient questions which we encounter is whether there is a distinction between
moral and political concepts and how such a distinction, if it exists, should
be characterized. In this connection it will be of great importance to con-
sider the viewpoint of a philosopher, if such a philosopher can be found, who
maintains that there is no distinction, or at least no genuine distinction,
between moral and political concepts in this area or in some significant part
of this area. If it were possible without undue distortion to exhibit
Thrasymachus as a kind of moral skeptic—as someone who holds, for example, that
while political justice, or polit-ico-legal justice, is an intelligible notion
with real application, the same cannot be said of moral justice, which can be
seen to be ulti-mately an illusion-then it might be philosophically
advantageous to regard Thrasymachus in that way. We should examine, therefore, the
prospects of success for such an interpretation of Thrasymachus's po-sition.
Can he be viewed as one who regards political justice, but not moral justice,
as a viable concept? If we attempt to proceed further in this direction, we encounter a
difficulty at the outset, in that it is unclear just what concept it is which
the friends of moral justice suppose to be the concept of moral justice. Is the
term "moral justice" to be thought of as referring to moral value in
general, as distinct from other kinds of value? Or is the notion of moral
justice to be conceived as possessing some more specific content, so that,
while both fairness and loyalty are morally admirable qualities, only the first
can be properly regarded as a form of moral justice? And if the notion of moral
justice is to be supposed to cover only a part of the domain of moral value, to
which part of that domain is its application restricted? To the region of
fairness? To that of equality of opportunity? To that of respect for natural
rights? Rival candidates seem to abound. In the case of Plato's
Thrasymachus it seems that he, perhaps like Plato himself, is not disposed to
engage in the kind of conceptual sophistication practised by Aristotle and by
some philosophers since Aristotle; for Thrasymachus, the friends of moral
justice (on the as-sumption that the representation of Thrasymachus as a kind
of moral skeptic is legitimate) will be philosophers who treat the term
"moral justice" as one which refers to morality, or to moral virtue
in general,a usage which Aristotle also recognizes as legitimate, alongside the
usage in which "justice" is the name of one or more specific
virtues. If our program requires that we
try to represent Thrasymachus as a certain sort of moral skeptic, obviously one
part of his position will be that the concept of moral justice is unacceptable.
One or both of two forms of unacceptability might be in question, namely
alethic unacceptability and semantic unacceptability. The suggestion might be
that positive ascriptions of moral justice are never in fact true, and so are
always alethically unacceptable, or that such ascriptions, together perhaps
with their negations, suffer from some form of un-intelligibility, and so are
semantically unacceptable. Some indeed might contend that general alethic
unacceptability generates semantic unacceptability, that if a certain kind of
characterization is always false, that implies that that kind of
characterization is in some way unintelligible. Let us assume that the revised
presentation of Thrasy-machus will be one which, for one reason or another,
ascriptions of moral justice are semantically unintelligible. This assumption
will leave open a considerable range of possibilities with regard to the more
precise interpretation of the notion of semantic unacceptability, ranging
perhaps from the extreme suggestion that ascriptions of moral justice are just
gibberish, to the suggestion that they admit no fully successful rational
elucidation. Within the boundaries of this
position, the new Thrasymachus might perhaps hold that, though the concept of
moral justice is semantically unacceptable, a related concept, which we may
call "moral justice»," is fully admissible. Moral justice* is to be
supposed to have precisely the same descriptive content as moral justice;
ascrip-tions, however, of moral justice* will entirely lack the ingredient of
favorable valuation or endorsement which is carried by the term
"moral justice." It might, however, be objected that the proposed
separation of the descriptive content of moral justice from its evaluative
content is quite inadmissible; if we are looking for predicates which from an
ascriptive point of view are specifications of the general descriptive condition
for moral justice, but which at the same time lack the evaluative element which
attaches to the term "moral justice," we shall need predicates which
are considerably more specific than "morally just»." Indeed, some
might claim that it is pure fantasy to suppose that any predicate, however
specific, could signify a descriptive character which falls within the general
character signified by the term "moral justice" after detachment of
the term's eval-uative signification. Description cannot be thus severed from
evalua-tion. (5) Whatever may be the final upshot of debate about the
possibility of separating the descriptive and the evaluative significations of
the term "morally just," it is clear that a further element in the
position of the new Thrasymachus will be that whatever semantic unacceptability
may attach to moral justice, there is a further kind of jus-tice, namely
political (or politico-legal) justice, which is free from this defect.
Political justice is a concept which is both intelligible and has application.
The old Thrasymachus, however, wished to combine this recognition of the
intelligibility and the applicability of the concept of political justice with
the contention that the applicability of the concept of political justice to a
particular line of actual or possible action provided a basis not for the
commendation but rather for the discommendation of that line of action; the
wise, prudent, or sensible man would be led away from rather than toward the
adoption of a certain course of action, would become less rather than more
favorably disposed toward the idea of his becoming engaged in it, if he were
told, perfectly correctly, that political justice required his engagement in
it. This further contention has the air of paradox; how could the fact that
political justice, or indeed any kind of justice, requires a man to undertake a
particular course of action, be in the eyes of that man a bad mark against
doing the action in question? Can the new Thra-symachus align himself in this
matter with the old? It can fairly easily be seen that the idea that the
position of the old Thrasymachus involves paradox is ill-founded. That this is
so can best be shown by the introduction of one or two fairly simple
distinctions. First, a value (or disvalue) may be either intrinsic or
extrinsic. Roughly speaking, the value (or disvalue) of x will be intrinsic if
it attaches to x in virtue of some element in the character of x; it will be
extrinsic if it depends on the nature of some effect of x. To present the distinction
somewhat more accurately, a value or disvalue of x will be intrinsic if its
presence is dependent on some property of x which may indeed be a causal
property, but if it is a causal property, it is one whose value or disvalue
does not depend on the value or disvalue of that which is caused. The property
of causing raised eyebrows is a causal property and may be one with which value
or disvalue is associated; but if the eyebrow-raising is something with which
value or disvalue is associated, this is not because of the antecedent value or
disvalue of elevated eyebrows, but rather because of a connection between
raised eyebrows and sur-prise. A value or disvalue will be extrinsic if it
attaches to x in virtue of a causal property the value or disvalue of which
depends upon the antecedent value or disvalue of that which is caused. Second,
a value or disvalue may be either direct or indirect. A value which is a direct
value of x must rest, if it rests on other features at all, on features of x
which, at least on balance, are values rather than disvalues; simi-larly, a
direct disvalue of x, if it rests on other features of x, must rest on features
which are at least on balance disvalues. An indirect value of x may rest on a
prior disvalue of x, provided that this disvalue is less than that which would
attach to any alternative state of x. The disvalue of being beheaded may be
indirectly a value, provided that (for example) it is less than the disvalue
which would attach to the only other option, namely to being burned at the
stake. The least of a number of possible evils may thus be indirectly a good.
The old Thrasymachus, then, was perfectly entitled to deny that political
justice is directly a kind of good, provided he was willing to allow (as he
was) that indirectly it is, or may be, a good. There is then no conceptual
barrier to incorporating in the position of the new Thrasymachus the thesis
that political justice is only indirectly a good; it is acceptable only as a
way of averting the greater evil of being at the mercy of predators. (6)
This would perhaps be an appropriate moment to consider a little more closely
what I have been speaking of as Thrasymachus's combination of rejection of the
concept of moral justice and acceptance of the concept of political justice.
There are two ways of looking at this matter. One, which is, I think, suggested
by my discussion, is that there are two distinct concepts, which some
philosophers regard as being both parallel and viable, namely moral justice and
political justice. The special characteristic of Thrasymachus is supposed to be
that he allows the second concept while rejecting the first. I shall call this
approach the "two-concept" view of justice, according to which the
unqualified term "justice" might be used to refer to either of two
distinct concepts. The second way of looking at things I shall call the
"one-concept" view of justice, according to which the least
misleading account of the difference between moral justice and political
justice will be not that two different concepts are involved, but that two
different kinds of reason or backing may be relied upon in determining the
application of a single concept, namely that expressed simply by the word
"justice" without the addition of any adjectival modifi-cation. The
term "justice" will always ultimately refer to a system of practical
rules for the regulation of conduct, perhaps not just any andevery such system
but one which conforms to certain restrictions— for example, perhaps, one which
is limited to the regulation of certain kinds of conduct or regions of conduct.
The difference between moral and political justice might be thought of as lying
in the fact that in the case of moral justice the system of rules is to be
accepted on account of the intrinsic desirability that conduct of a certain
sort should be governed by practical rules or by practical rules of a certain
sort, where a system of rules of political justice rests on the desirability of
the consequences of making conduct subject to rules, or to those particular
rules. This possibly more Kantian conception of the relation between moral and
political justice will perhaps carry the consequence that the view of Socrates
and his friends that moral justice is desirable independently of the
consequences of acting justly is no ac-cident, but is a constitutive feature of
moral justice; without it, moral justice would not be moral. It should of
course be recognized that the idea that there is only one concept of justice,
though there may be different kinds of reason for accepting a system of rules
of justice, does not entail that one and the same system of rules of justice
may be acceptable for radically different kinds of reasons; there might be a
single concept of justice without its ever being true that different sorts of
reason could ever justify the acceptance of a single system of rules of
justice. We may, of course, if we wish to treat a one-concept view of justice
as in fact invoking two concepts of justice; but if we do, we should recognize
that the two concepts of justice are higher-order concepts, each relating to
different kinds of reasons governing the applicability of a single lower-order
concept of justice. (7) Let us take stock. We seem to have reached a
position in which (a) we have failed to detect any incoherence in the
views of the old Thrasymachus, and (b) it seems to be a live possibility that
intrinsic desirability is not an accidental feature but is a constitutive
feature of moral justice. We should now inquire what considerations, if any,
would be grounds for dissatisfaction with the viewpoint of Thra-symacus.
IV. Moral Justice and Skepticism (1) The claim that what I am presenting
is a reconstruction of Socrates' original defense of moral justice rests on my
utilization of some of Socrates' leading ideas, notably on the idea that the
presence of moral justice in a subject x depends upon a feature or features of
components of x, that the relevant feature or features of the compo-nents is
that individually each of them fulfills its role or plays its part, whatever
that role or part may happen to be (or, perhaps better, taken all together,
their overall state is one which realizes most fully their various separate
roles), that in satisfying this condition, they, the com-ponents, enable x to
realize the special and peculiar virtue of excellence of the type to which x
essentially belongs, that this fact entitles us to regard x as a good or
well-conditioned T (where "T" refers to the type in question), and
this in turn, if membership of T consists in being a soul, ensures that the
life of x is happy, in an appropriate sense of "happy." My account
also resembles the original account given by Socrates in that it deploys the
notion of analogy which was a prominent ingredient in Socrates' story, though
it seeks to improve on Socrates' presentation by making it clear just why the
notion of analogy should be brought into this discussion, and by making its
appearance something more than an expository convenience. My presentation seeks
also to link the idea of maximal or optimal fulfillment of function not merely
with the concept of moral injustice but more centrally and more directly with
the more widely applicable concept of what one might call "health."
This change carries with it an increase in the number of stages to be
considered from two (the political and the moral) to three (the physiological,
the political, and the moral). My presentation also introduces the suggestion
that the very same factors which determine whether a particular entity x, belonging
to a certain type T, merits the accolade of being a T which is healthy,
well-conditioned, or in good shape, also by their presence (in lower de-grees)
determine the difference between the existence (or survival) of x, rather than
its nonexistence (or nonsurvival). The same features, for example, which at the
physiological stage determine whether a body is or is not well-conditioned,
also determine by their appearance or nonappearance in lower degrees whether
that body does or does not exist or survive. (This example in fact calls for a
more careful formulation.) I shall proceed to a more detailed discussion of the
three stages recognized in my account. The complications are consid-erable, and
intelligibility of presentation may call for omissions and convenient
distortions. (2) Stage 1. At this stage (the physiological stage) there
appear a number of different items or types of item, namely: physiological things, such as
human and animal bodies (ф-thing,, -thing» ф-thingn; physiological components (ф-components or bodily organs).These will include both distinct types of
d-component or organ, like the Liver and the Heart, and distinct instances or
tokens of these types, like my liver and my heart, or my liver and your heart.
Entry will distribute a number of
different types of bodily organ one apiece among human or animal bodies. For
these purposes sets of teeth and pairs of human legs will have to count as
single organs. Functional properties of
physiological components or organs. These correspond to the jobs or functions
which the various organs crucially fulfill in the life of the -thing or body to
which they belong, such as walking, eating, achieving, and digestion. For
convenient oversimplification I assume that each organ has just one
functional property, which will be variable in degree. (d) Certain
properties of -things (bodies) ("global properties") which will be
dependent on the functional properties exhibited by the arrays of physiological
components or organs which belong to the things in question. The properties
under this head which presently concern me are two in number: one, which will
not be variable in degree, will be the property of existence or survival, which
will depend on the array of physiological components belonging to a particular
d-thing achieving a minimal level with respect to the functional properties of
the members of the array, that is to say, a level which is sufficient to ensure
that the array of physiological components continues to exhibit some positive
degree of the functional properties of that array. The other -thing property
which will concern me is one which will be variable in degree; it is the
property of well-being, or wellbeing as a -thing of the sort to which it
belongs. Maximal well-being will depend on an optimal combined exemplification
of the functional properties of a -thing's physiological components. The higher
levels of this latter property are commonly known as "bodily health"
(with-out qualification), or as "bodily healthiness." At all levels
the phrase "bodily health" may be used to signify the dimension
within which variation takes place between one level and another. (3)
Before I embark on a consideration of the details of subsequent stages, perhaps
I should amplify the account of my intended proce-dure, including the general
structure of my strategy for the characterization and defense of moral
justice: (a) The items involved in the stage 1 (physiological entities or
bod-ies, their components or organs, the functional properties, and certain
overall features of bodies, such as existence and being in good shape, which
are dependent on the functional properties of organs) exist or are exemplified
quite naturally and without the aid of analogy at this level. The stage
therefore may be regarded as providing paradigms which may be put to work in
the specification of related items which appear in subsequent stages and into
the constitution of which analogy does enter. (b) Those members of the
list of items, mentioned in 3(a) as appearing in later stages, which are
properties as distinct from things, may be specified in two different ways. One
way will be to make use of abstract nouns or phrases which are peculiar and
special to properties belonging to that stage, and which do not incorporate any
reference to more generic properties specifications of which are found also at
stages other than the one to which the property under discussion itself
belongs. The other way is to build the specifications from what at least seem
to be more generic properties, together with a differentiating feature which
singles out the particular stage at which the specified properties apply.
Leaving on one side for a moment the second mode of specification, I shall
comment briefly on the first. This may be expected to yield for us, at the
political stage, such properties as those expressed by the phrases
"political justice" and "political existence," and by
whatever epithets are appropriate for the expression of the features of this or
that part of a state on which the global properties of political justice and
political existence will depend. Again, at the psychological stage, the
first method will give us, unless the state is beset by illusion, expressions
for the psychological properties of moral justice and psychological existence,
and for the particular features of parts of the soul (whatever these parts may
be) on which the presence of moral justice and psychological existence will
depend. It will be noted that more than one important issue has so far been
passed over; I have ignored the possibility that political and moral justice
might be different specifications of a more general feature for which the name
"justice," without added qualification, might be appropriate; I have
left it undetermined whether "parts of the state" are to be regarded,
as they were by Socrates, as particular political classes or in some other way,
perhaps as political offices or de-partments; and I have so far ducked the
question of the objects of reference of the phrase "parts of the
soul." Such matters obviously cannot be indefinitely left on one
side. (c) I turn now to the considerably more complicated second mode of
specification of the relevant range of properties. As already re-marked, this
mode of specification will incorporate references to seemingly generic properties
the appearance of which are not restricted to just one stage, a fact which
perhaps entitles us to talk here about "multistage" epithets
(predicates) and properties. Examples of second-mode specification will be such
epithets as "is in good shape as a body" and "is in good shape
as a state," both of which incorporate the more generic epithet "is
in good shape" which seemingly applies to objects belonging to different
stages, namely to animal bodies and to states. In addition to such
"holistic" epithets which apply to subjects which inhabit different
stages, there will also be "meristic" epithets, like "part"
itself, which apply to parts of such aforementioned subjects. One of my main
suggestions is that the multistage epithets which are characteristically
embedded in second-mode specifications always, or at least in all but one kind
of cases, apply only analogically to the subjects to which they do apply. I may
remark that we shall need to exercise considerable care not to become entangled
with our own bootlaces when we talk about analogical epithets, the analogical
application of epithets, and analogical properties. Such care is particularly
important in view of the fact that it is also one of my contentions that there
will be properties the possession of which may be nonanalogically conveyed by
use of the first mode, and analogically conveyed by use of the second
mode. It should be observed that although I have claimed that there are
two different modes of property-specification, I have not claimed that for each
individual property, at least within a certain range of prop-erties, a specimen
of each mode of specification will be available for use; it may be that in
certain cases the vocabulary would provide only for a second-mode
specification, or that a first-mode specification can be made available only
via a stipulative definition based initially on a preexisting second-mode
specification. Since in my view most of the difficulties experienced by
philosophers concerning this topic have arisen from doubts and discomforts about
the applicability and consequences of second-mode specifications, gaps which
appear in the ranks of first-mode specifications might be expected to favor
neo-Socrates rather than neo-Thrasymachus, unless neo-Thrasymachus can make out
a good case in favor of the view that where first-mode specifications are
lacking, second-mode specifications will also be lacking; in which case the
onus of proof will lie on the skeptic rather than on his opponent. It should
also be observed that further discus-sion of the relation between second-mode
and first-mode specifications might make a substantial contribution to two
distinct philosophical questions, namely: (i) whether it is sometimes
true that description presupposes valuation (since second-mode specification
seems only too often to rely on ideas about how things should go or ought to
go); (i) whether it is sometimes or always true that valuation
presupposes Teleology or Finality, since second-mode specifications
characteristically introduce references to functions and purposes. (d) I
shall now recapitulate the main features which I am supposing to attach to
first-mode and second-mode specifications, with a view to raising some further
questions about the two modes: (i) Properties which will be specified,
when one uses first-mode specifications by single-stage epithets (properties
like bodily health, political justice, and, perhaps controversially, moral
justice) may also be specified by the use of second-mode specifications which
will incorporate references to seemingly multistage properties such as
wellbeing and existence. The property of bodily health, for example, may also
be referred to as the property of well-being as a physiological entity, the
property of political justice as the property of well-being as a political
entity (or state), and the property of moral justice (perhaps) as the property
of well-being as a psychological entity (or soul). (ii) The global
properties of well-being as this or that type of entity will depend on a
maximal (or optimal) degree of fulfillment, by the various parts of the
subjects of those global properties, of a sequence of meristic properties
associated with the jobs or functions of those (iii) The very same
meristic properties on which the various forms of well-being depend will also
determine, at a lower degree of realiza-tion, the difference between the
existence and the nonexistence of the entities which inhabit a particular
stage. (iv) It might be possible, by a move which would be akin to that
of "Ramsification," to redescribe the things which inhabit a
certain stage, their components or parts, the jobs or functions of such
com-ponents, the property of well-being and the property of existence as being
just those items which, in a certain realm, are analogical coun terparts to the
prime items, in the physiological realm, respectively, of bodies, organs,
bodily functions, health, and life (survival). (v) These proposals might
achieve a combination of generalizationand justification (validation) of the
items to which they relate, given the assumption that the proposed
redescriptions are semantically and alethically acceptable. Among the
questions which most immediately clamor for consideration will be the
following: (Q1) How are we to validate my intuitive judgment that
second-mode specifications which involve multistage epithets will always, or at
least sometimes, be analogical in character? (Q2) How are we to elucidate
the phrase used in (iv) "in a certain realm"? (Q3) How is it to
be shown that the proposed redescriptions are not merely semantically but also
alethically acceptable? I will take these questions in turn. (e)
Question (Q1) calls for the justification of a thesis which, without offering
arguments in its support, I suggested as being correct, namely that if there
are multistage epithets, that is to say, epithets which apply sometimes to
objects belonging to one stage and also sometimes to objects belonging to
another stage, the application of such an epithet to one, and possibly to both,
of these segments of its extension must be analogical rather than literal. It
seems to me that, before such a thesis can be defended or justified, it needs
to be emended, since as it stands it seems most unlikely to be true. Consider
first the epithet "healthy"; there would, I think, be intuitive
support for the idea that when we talk, for example, of "a healthy mind in
a healthy body," at least one of these applications of the epithet
"healthy" must be analogical rather than literal, since only a body
can be said to be literally healthy. But if we turn to the epithets
"sound" and "in good order," though I think there will be
intuitive support for the idea that both bodies and minds may be said to be
sound or to be in good order, and indeed for the idea that bodies and minds can
truly be said to be sound or in good order just in case they can truly be said
to be healthy, there will not, I think, be intuitive support for the idea that
the application of the epithets "sound" and "in good
order" to either bodies or minds, or to both, is analogical rather than
literal. I would in fact be inclined to regard the application of each of these
epithets to both kinds of entity as being literal. I would suggest that the
needed emendation, while it allowed that the literal application of epithets
may straddle the division between its applicability to subjects that belong to
one stage and to subjects that belong to another, would insist that, when such
literal cross-stageapplications occur, they depend upon prior cross-stage
applications of some other epithet, where one or even both of the segments of
application are analogical rather than literal. How should the emended
thesis be supported? My idea would be that the barriers separating the
applications of an epithet to objects belonging to one stage from its
application to objects belonging to another will in fact be category-barriers,
and that there are good grounds for supposing that objects which differ from
one another in category cannot genuinely possess common properties, and so
cannot ultimately, at the most fundamental level, be items to which a single
epithet will literally and nonanalogically apply. If objects x and y are
categorically debarred from sharing a single property, then they are also
debarred from falling, literally and nonanalogically, within the range of
application of an epithet whose function is to signify just that property.
There is nothing to prevent a body and a mind from being, each of them,
literally in good order, provided that the condition needed for being literally
in good order is that of being either literally healthy (in the case of a body)
or (in the case of a mind) (analogically speaking) healthy. Perhaps the first
matter to which we should attend in an endeavor to form a clear conception of
(for ex-ample) the place of being (analogically speaking) healthy, a feature
which may attach to minds, within a generalized notion of being in good order,
or (perhaps) of being healthy, is the consideration that the question whether
the application of a certain epithet to certain things is literal or
analogical, is by no means the same question as the question whether its
application to those things is or is not to be taken seriously. It may, for
example, remain an importantly serious question whether John Stuart Mill is
properly to be regarded as a friend of the working classes long after it has
been decided that, if the epithet "friend of the working
classes" does apply to John Stuart Mill, it applies to him analogically
rather than literally; it does not apply to him in at all the same kind of way
as that in which the epithet "friend of Mr. Gladstone" may have
applied or, perhaps, failed to apply to him. The question whether a particular
person is in good shape may be a question an important aspect of which is
expressed by the question "Is his mind (analogically speaking)
healthy?"; if so, given that the first question is, as it may be, one to
be taken seriously, the same would be true of the second question. A
second consideration, which we should not allow ourselves to lose sight of, is
one which has already been briefly mentioned in thefirst part of this essay. We
are operating in an area in which, not infrequently perhaps, we shall be under
pressure from what Aristotle would have called an Aporia. We find ourselves
confronted by a number of seemingly distinct kinds of items, and by a number of
features each of which is special to one of these kinds. If we heed intuition —
also, perhaps, if we heed the way we talk —we shall be led to suppose that
these features are all specifications of some more general feature which is
manifested, with specific variations, throughout the range formed by the kinds
in question, a putative general feature for which ordinary language may even
provide us with a candidate's name. Furthermore, if we heed intuition, we
shall be led to suppose that the members of this range of special features have
a common explana-tion, a further general feature which accounts for the first
general feature, and also, with the aid of specific variations, for the
original range of special features. To follow this route would seemingly be
just to follow the procedures which we constantly employ in describing and
accounting for the phenomena which the world lays before us. In the present
case, the application of this method would be to a range of items which
includes bodies, states, and (perhaps) souls and also to such special features
of these items as (respectively) bodily health, political justice, and
(perhaps) moral justice. Unfortunately, at this point, we encounter a
major difficulty. The items which are the subjects to which the members of the
range of special features attach, namely bodies, states, and souls, insofar as
they are genuine objects at all, seem plainly to belong to different categories
from one another; and these categorial differences would be such as to
preclude, if widely received views about categories are to be accepted, the
possibility that there are any properties which are shared by items which
differ from one another with respect to the kinds to which they belong. It
looks, then, as if the possibility that there is a generic property of which
the special properties are differ-entiations, and the possibility that there is
a further generic property which serves to account for the first generic
property, have both been eliminated. I have in fact not attempted to set out a
theory of categories which would carry this consequence, and it would certainly
be necessary to attempt to fill this lacuna. But the prospects that this
undertaking would remove the difficulty do not at first sight seem encouraging.
If, then, we are not to abandon all hope of rational so-lution, we shall be
forced to do one of three things: (i) Relinquish the idea of applying
here procedures for descriptionand explanation which are operative in examples
which are not bedeviled by category difference. (ii) Argue that the
category differences which seem only too prominent on the present occasion are
only apparent and not real. (iii) Devise a less restrictive theory of the
effect of category differences on the sharing of properties. In the light
of these problems, we should obviously be at pains to consider whether
attention to the notion of analogical application would have any chance of
providing relief. I propose to leave this problem on one side for a
moment, returning to consideration of it at a later point; immediately, I shall
address myself to a possible response to the suggestion that the question
whether the possible application of a given epithet to a certain subject is an
issue which it is proper to take seriously, is quite distinct from the question
whether such application, if it existed, would be analog-ical or literal. The
response would be that the distinction between the two questions does not have
to be a simple black-or-white matter; it might be that, while the fact that if
such application existed at all it would be an analogical application is not a
universal obstacle to the idea that the application is one which should be
taken seriously, it is also not true that there is no connection between the
two questions; if the inquiry into the application of the epithet is one of a
certain sort or one which is conducted with certain purposes in view, then the
idea that such application would be analogical stands in the way of the idea
that the application is one to be taken seriously; if, however, the character
and purposes of the inquiry are of some other sort, then the two questions may
be treated as distinct. It might, for example, be held that if the inquiry
about the application of an epithet is one which aims at reaching scientific
truth, at laying bare the true nature of reality, then the fact that the
application of the epithet would be analogical conflicts with the idea that it
should be taken seriously; if, however, the inquirer's concern is not with
scientific truth but rather with the acceptability, either in general or in a
particular case, of some practical principle (or principle of conduct), then
the two questions may be treated as distinct. Something like this
"halfway" position is perhaps discernible in Kant; in, for example,
his claim that Ideas of Pure Reason, with regard to which no transcendental
proofs are available, admits of "regulative" but not of
"constitutive" employment, a suggestion which is perhaps repeated in
his demand for a nondogmatic kind of teleology, a teleol-ogy which somehow
guides our steps without adding to our stock of beliefs. The situation,
however, is vastly complicated by the fact that the notion of what is
"practical" is susceptible to more than one in-terpretation; on a
wider interpretation, any principles or precepts would count as practical
provided that they relate to questions about how one should proceed. On a
second interpretation of "practical," only those examples of
principles and precepts which are "practical" in the first sense will
count as "practical" which relate not just to some form of procedure
but to procedure in the world of action as distinct from procedure in the world
of thought. Imperatives which are practical in the second and narrower sense
will, as Kant himself seems to have thought, include those which tell us how to
act but will not include those which tell us how to think; they will be
concerned with the conduct of the business of life but not with the conduct of
the business of thought. This ambiguity leaves principles and precepts which
concern conduct of the business of thought in a somewhat indeterminate
position; they will be practical in the wider sense since they are concerned with
questions about how we should conduct our-selves; however, what is given with
one hand seems to be swiftly taken away by the other when we observe that the
conduct they prescribe is conduct which is specifically involved in arriving at
decisions about scientific truths and the nature of reality. For me the issue
is made even more complicated by the fact that I have instinctive sympathy
toward the idea that so-called transcendental proofs should be thought of as
really consisting in reasoned presentation of the neces-sity, in inquiries
about knowledge and the world, of thinking about the world in certain very
general ways. This viewpoint would introduce interconnections between what we
are to believe and how we are to proceed which will be by no means easy to
accommodate. I return now to discussion of the quandary which I
propounded a little while ago, and the severe limitations on explanation
seemingly imposed by category-differences between features which need to be
explained. As I see it, my task will be to provide a somewhat more formalized
characterization of the phenomenon of analogical application than has yet been
offered, perhaps a logico-metaphysical char-acterization, which will at the
same time be one which both preserves those category-differences and their
consequential features, and at the same time avoids undue restrictions on the
application of standard procedures for the construction of explanations. This
may seem like a tall order, but I think it can be met.Let us first look at the
notion of instantiation and at one or two related notions. If I am informed
that x instantiates y (that x is an instance of y), and also that y specifies z
(that y is a specification of z, that being y is a way of being z, that y is a
form of z), then I am entitled to infer that x instantiates z. If, however,
instead of being informed that y specifies z, I am informed that y instantiates
z, the situation is different; I cannot infer from the information that x
instantiates y and y instantiates z, that x instantiates z. The relation of
instantiation is not transitive, since if azure specifies blue, and blue
specifies color, then it looks as if azure must specify color. Let us now
define a relation of "subinstantiation"; x will subinstantiate z just
in case there is some item or other, y, such that x instantiates y and y
instantiates z. We might perhaps offer, as a slightly picturesque
representation of the foregoing material, the statements that if x specifies y,
then x and y belong to the same level or order of reality as one another, if x
instantiates y, then x belongs to a level which is one step lower than that of
y, and that if x subinstantiates y, then x belongs to a level which is two
steps lower than that of y. Now it seems natural to suppose that when a number
of more specialized explanations are brought under a single more general and so
more comprehensive ex-planation, this is achieved through representing the
various features, which are separately accounted for in the original
specialized expla-nations, as being different specifications of a single more
general fea-ture. If, however, we were entitled to say that the crucial
relation connecting the more specialized explicanda with a generalized
expli-candum is not, or at least is not in those cases in which the specialized
explicanda are categorically different from one another, that of specification
but rather of subinstantiation, then we shall be able to avoid the
uncomfortable conclusion that the admissibility of generalized ex-plicanda
involves the admissibility of the idea that categorically different subject
items may be instances of common properties. An item need not, indeed perhaps
cannot, instantiate that which it subinstan-tiates. To conclude my
treatment of the quandary, I need to show, as best I can, that a systematic
replacement of references to the relation of specification by references to the
relation of instantiation would have no ill effect on the standard procedure
for generalizing a set of specialized explanations, with which we have provided
ourselves, of the presence of discriminated specialized properties. To fulfill
this under-taking, I must consider two cases, one involving the application of
aprocedure for generalization which is characterized in terms which involve
reference to the relation of specification, and the other in which all
references to specification are replaced by references to additional and
"higher-level" occurrences of the relation of instantia-tion.
Case I. (i) We start with a group of particulars (x, through x,), with regard
to each of which we are informed that it possesses property D; and with two
further groups of particulars (y, through Ym and z, through z,) instantiating,
respectively, properties E and F. (ii) The generalization procedure begins when
we find further properties A, B, C, such that x, through x,, Y, through Ym and
z, through Z, instantiate, respectively, A, B, and C; and (as we know or
legitimately conjecture) A implies D, B implies E, and C implies F. (iii) We
next find the more general properties P, Q, such that A and D, specify in way
1, respectively, P and Q; B and E, specify in way 2, respectively P and Q; and
C and F, specify in way 3, respectively, P and Q (iv) We are now, it
seems, in a position to predict that whatever instantiates property P, will, in
a corresponding way, instantiate property Q; that is to say, to predict for
example that anything which has A will have D; and though I would hesitate to
say that provision of the materials for systematic prediction is the same thing
as explana-tion, I would suggest that, at least in the context which I am
consid-ering, it affords sufficient grounds for supposing that explanation has
in fact been achieved. Case I1. Case Il begins to differ from Case I only
when we reach stage (iii). In Case Il stage (iii), instead of saying that A and
D specify in way 1, respectively, P and Q, we shall say something to the effect
that A and D are "first group" instances, respectively, of P and Q;
and precisely parallel changes, introducing, instead of the phrase "first-group
instance" either the phrase "second-group instance" or
"third-group instance" will be made in what we say about properties B
and E and properties C and F. Though I would not claim to have a wholly
clear head in the mat-ter, it seems to me that the difference between Case Il
and Case I generates no obstacle to the attribution of legitimacy of the
procedure for generalization with which I am currently concerned. The scope for
systematic prediction, and so for explanation, will be quite un-affected. If I
am right in this suggestion I shall, I think, have succeeded in providing what
was mentioned in Part I of this essay as a desider-atum, namely a development
of a concept of Affinity, which would be less impeded by category-barriers than
the more familiar notion of Similitude. (f) I now turn briefly to
question Q2. This is the question how to interpret the expression "in
respect to a certain realm" within such phrases as in "an analogical
extension, in a certain realm, of the property of health, in the primary
physiological realm to which animal and human bodies are central." I
should make clear the problem of ambiguity which prompts this question; there
is one way of looking at things, one conception, according to which there is a
certain realm, which is that to which souls are central, and into which there
is projected an analogical extension of the property of health. In this
conception the notion of souls is logically prior to the notion of the
psychological realm to which souls are central, and both are logically prior to
the property which is the analogical extension of the property of health, which
in the primary physiological realm is the property of bodies. But there is
another conception which might particularly appeal to those who regard souls as
being, initially at least, somewhat dubious entities, according to which souls
are introduced into the psychological realm to be the subjects or bearers of a
property in that realm which is an analogical extension of the property of
health, which in the physiological realm belongs to bodies. According to this
conception, fairly plainly, the conception of souls is logically posterior both
to the notion of the psychological realm and to the analogical extension of the
property of health which exists in that realm. Question Q2 is in effect an
accusation: it suggests that the two conceptions are mutually inconsistent,
since souls cannot be at one and the same time both logically prior to and
logically posterior to both the concept of the realm to which they are
supposedly central and to a certain property, analogous to bodily health which
exists in that world; it further suggests that Socrates (or neo-Socrates) need
both of these conceptions, but, of course, cannot have both of them. To
meet this objection, I would suggest that a promising line to take would be to
deny that we start with a certain realm, the psychological realm, the nature of
which is determined either by the subject-items, namely souls, which are
central to it, or by the properties, such as a certain analogue of bodily
health, which characterize things in it; and that we then proceed at a later
point to add to it the remaining members of these two classes of elements.
Rather, we start off with analogues of two of the elements in the primary
physiological realm,souls which are analogues of bodies and a class of
properties one of which is an analogue of bodily health, and call the realm to
which these analogues belong the psychological realm. In this way the
incoherence covertly imputed by question Q2 will be dissolved, since neither of
these psychological elements (souls and properties like the analogue of bodily
health) will be logically prior to the other. What in fact has been done is to
introduce, first, a double analogical extension of two types of items which
belong to the primary physiological realm and, second, the notion of a
psychological realm for use in a convenient way of talking about what has
initially been done. No doubt more than this will need to be said in a
full treatment of the topic; but perhaps for present purposes, which are
primarily directed toward defusing a certain criticism, what has been said will
be sufficient. V. Prospects for Ethical Theory (Question Q3)
Question Q3 might be expanded in the following way; we can imagine ourselves
encountering someone who addresses us in the following way: "You have
certainly achieved something. There is one class of philosophers who would be
inclined to deny that the notion of moral justice can be regarded as an
acceptable and legitimate con-cept, because there is no way in which the
intuitive idea of moral justice can be coherently presented in a rigorous
manner. What you have said has shown that such a philosopher's position is
untenable; for you have shown that if we allow the possibility of representing
moral justice as a certain sort of analogical extension of a basic no-tion,
namely health, which is a property of bodies, items which belong to a basic or
primary realm of objects, you have succeeded in characterizing in a sufficiently
articulated way the possession of moral justice to which the philosopher in
question is opposed on the grounds of its incoherence. That is no small
achievement, but it is not, nevertheless, from your point of view, good enough.
For there will be another class of philosophers who find no incoherence in the
notion of moral justice, but claim that lack of incoherence is a necessary
condition but not a sufficient condition for accepting moral justice as a
genuine feature of anything in the world. The uses that we make of our
characterizations of moral justice and other such items must be as part of an
as it were encyclopedic picture of the fundamental ingredients and contents of
the rational world; and if, of the two would-be encyclopedic accounts, one
contains everything which the other contains together with something which the
other does not contain, while the other account contains nothing beyond a
certain part of what the first account contains, it will be rational, in
selecting the optimum encyclopedic volume, to prefer the smaller to the larger
vol-ume, unless it can be shown that what is contained in the larger volume but
omitted in the smaller one is something which should be present in a
comprehensive picture of the rational world. To be fit for inclusion in an
account of the rational world, a contribution must be not only coherent but
also something which is needed. This demand you have not fulfilled."
To this critic I should be inclined to reply in the following manner. "I
agree with you that more is required to justify the incorporation of moral
justice within the conceptual furniture of the world than a demonstration that
the notion of moral justice is one which is capable of being coherently and
rigorously presented; and I agree that I have not met this additional demand,
in whatsoever it may consist. But I think it can be met; and indeed I think I
can not only say what is required in order to meet it but also bring off the
undertaking of actually meeting it. The required supplementation will, I
suggest, involve two elements; first, a demonstration of the value, in some
appropriate sense of "value," of the presence in the world of moral
justice, and second, a demonstration that it is, again in the same ap.
propriate sense, up to us whether or not the notion of moral justice does have
application in the world." I shall now enlarge upon the two ingredients of
this proposed response. First Supplementation. A person who is concerned
about the realization in the world of moral or political justice will encounter
at a number of points alternative options relating to such realization which he
may have to take into account. The number of such options will vary according
to whether a "two-concept" view or a "one-concept" view is taken
of justice; the number will be larger if a two-concept view is taken, and I
shall begin with that possibility. (1) On a two-concept view, there will
be two properties the realization of which has to be considered, moral justice
and political justice. One who is concerned about the application of
these properties, and who is unhampered by any skeptical reservations, will
have to consider the application of each of these properties to a particular
indi-vidual, standardly himself, and also to a general subject-item, such as a
particular totality of individuals each of whom might consider theapplication
to himself as an individual of each of the initial proper-ties. There will also
be a variety of distinct motivational appeals which the application of one of
these forms of justice has to a particular subject-item, the consequential
appeal of that realization (e.g. its payoff), or both. If we go beyond Plato,
we might have to add such forms of motivational appeal as that which arises
from subscriptions to some principle governing the realization of the initial
property. (2) On a one-concept view the initial array of options will be
considerably reduced, though it is perhaps questionable whether such reduction
will correspond to any reduction in genuinely distinct and authentic options.
On the assumption that it would not, I shall temporarily go along with the idea
that a one-concept view is the correct one. On this view a distinction between
moral and political justice will reappear as the difference between concern for
the application of a single property, that of justice, when it is motivated by
the intrinsic appeal of its realization in a given subject-item (one might
perhaps say its moral appeal) or alternatively, when it is motivated by the
idea of the consequence of such a realization (one might say by its political
appeal). One should perhaps be careful to allow that the idea that a single
concept or property may exert different forms of motivational appeal does not
carry with it the idea that one and the same body of precepts will reflect that
concern, regardless of the question whether the motivational foundation is
moral or political. It is crucially important to recognize that
situations which are only subtly different from one another may exert quite
different forms of motivational appeal. Nothing has so far been said to rule
out the possibility that while Socrates and other such persons may each be
concerned that people in general should value the realization of justice in
themselves because of its intrinsic appeal, that is to say, for moral reasons,
nevertheless their concern that people in general should value for moral
reasons the realization in themselves of justice is based at least in part on
consequential or political grounds rather than on any intrinsic or moral
appeal. It is possible to be concerned that people be sensitive to the moral
appeal of being just, and at the same time for that concern to be at least
partly founded on political rather than on moral considerations. If that is so,
then the concern for a widespread realization of moral justice might itself
have a nonmoral foundation. Such considerations as these might be sufficient to
ensure that the realization of moral justice in a community is of value to that
community. This value might consist in the fact that if themembers of a
community are morally concerned for the realization of justice in themselves,
their manifestation of socially acceptable behavior will not be dependent on
the real or threatened operations of law-enforcers, to the advantage of
all. Second Supplementation. If we were to leave things as they are at
the end of the first supplementation, though we should perhaps have shown that
the realization of moral justice in the world was of value to inhabitants of
the world and possibly also absolutely, we should not have escaped the
suggestion that this alone is not adequate to our needs; it would leave open
the possibility that all one could do would be to pray that moral justice is
realized in the world, and then when we have found out whether this is or is
not the case, to jubilate or to wail as the case might be. To make good our
defense of moral justice, we should need to be able to show that in some sense
the realizability of moral justice in the world is up to us. At this point it seems
to me we move away from the territory of Socrates and Plato and nearer to the
territory of Kant; it also seems to me that at this point the problems become
immensely more difficult, and partly because of that, I shall not attempt to
devise here a solution to them, but only to provide a few hints about how such
a solution might be attained. As we have been interpreting the notion of moral
justice, its realizability is an idea which is very close to that of the
validity of Morality; and if we were to follow Kant's lead, we should be on our
way to a supposition which is close to his idea that the validity of Morality
depends upon the self-imposition of law, an idea which, though obscure, seems
to suggest that what secures the validity of Morality is something which, in
some sense or other of the word "do," is something that we ourselves
do, and so perhaps in some sense or other "could," we could avoid
doing. What kind of "doing" this might be, and how it might be
expected to support Morality, to my mind remain shrouded in darkness even after
one has read what Kant has to say; there seems little reason to expect that it
would closely resemble the kind of doing with which we are familiar in the
ordinary conduct of life. There is also important uncertainty about the proper
interpretation of the word "could"; it might refer to some kind of
psychological or natural possibility, something which some would be inclined to
call a kind of causal possibility; or it might refer to some kind of
"rational" possi-bility, the existence of which would require the
availability of a reason or possible reason for doing whatever is said to be
rationally possible. Not everything which is psychologically possible is
also rationallypossible; and I think it might be strategically advantageous if
it could be held that the Kantian view assigns psychological possibility but
not rational possibility to the avoidance of the institutive act which
underlies Morality; but whether this is Kant's view, and how, if it is his
view, it is to be made good, are problems which I do not know how to
solve. VI. The Republic and Philosophical Eschatology Let me first
present what I see as the background to the reconstructed debate between
Thrasymachus and Socrates, or rather perhaps between neo-Thrasymachus and
neo-Socrates. Neo-Thrasyma-chus is a Minimalist and a Naturalist who has
affinities with Hume; he rejects the concept of moral justice on the grounds
that it would be at one and the same time a nonnatural and psychologistic
feature and also an evaluative feature. At this point we may suppose that
neo-Socrates, who is not committed to any form of Naturalism, will have
retorted to neo-Thrasymachus that a blanket rejection of psychologis-tic and
evaluative features will totally undermine philosophy. This part of the debate
is not recorded, but we may imagine neo-Thrasymachus to have responded that
neo-Socrates is in no better shape; for he can make sense of the notion of
moral justice only by representing it as a special case of a favorable feature,
namely well-being, which spans category-barriers between radically different
sorts of entities, such as bodies, political states, and persons. But
neo-Socrates himself will be committed to holding a view of universals which
will prohibit any such crossing of category-barriers by a single universal. To
this charge neo-Socrates may resort to two forms of defense, one less radical
than the other. The less radical form would involve the claim that while there
have to be category-barriers, these do not have to be as severe and restrictive
as the accusation suggests. The more radical form of defense would
refrain from relying on a more permissive account of category-barriers even
though it allowed that such increased permissiveness would be in order. It
would rely rather on a distinction between concepts which may span
category-barriers, whether these are more or less severe in nature, and
universals which may not span such barriers. A closely parallel distinction
between (i) an expression's having a single meaning and (ii) its being used to
signify a single universal can, I think, be found in Aristotle. This
distinction would be made possible by making concepts rest ona foundation of
affinities as distinct from the foundation of similarities which underlies universals;
affinities may, while similarities may not, be characterizable purely in
analogical terms. The working out of such a distinction would be one of a
variety of concerns which would be the province of a special discipline of
philosophical escha-tology. The key to its success would lie in the observance
of a distinction between instantiation and subinstantiation. The latter notion
would permit generalization and explanation to cross category-barriers and
would undermine the charges of incoherence brought by neo-Thrasymachus against
neo-Socrates and his favored notion of moral justice. At some level of
reinterpretation, then, Socrates's appeal to an analogy between the Soul and
the State would be at least partly aimed at showing that the concept of Moral
Justice, which Thrasymachus would like to banish as theoretically
unintelligible, is analogically linked with the concept of bodily health,
admitted by everyone, including Thrasymachus, as a legitimate concept, in such
a way that, despite radical categorial differences between the two con-cepts,
if the concept of bodily health is intelligible, the concept of Moral Justice
is also intelligible. However, to exhibit Moral Justice as a feature
which is really applicable to items in the world, such as persons and actions,
more is needed than to show that its ascription to such items is free from
incoherence. It will be necessary to show that such ascription, if it were
allowed, would serve a point or purpose, and also that it is in some important
way up to us to ensure that such ascription is admis sible. The fulfillment of
the last undertaking might force us to leav the territory of Socrates and Plato
and to enter that of Kant. When it comes to the debate on what Aristotle
has as ‘dikaios’ from his years at the Academy, before he moved to the Lycaeum,
between Plato’s Socrates and TRASIMACO in Republica, Grice makes it explicit
that what we should bear in mind that Grice’s purpose – and indeed Treves’s -- of
looking at the discussion of “δίκαιον” –
Cicero’s IVSTVM -- is to see if the course of that discussion between TRASIMACO
and SOCRATE could be looked on as a conscious, sub-conscious, or even un-conscious
venture by Socrates – indeed Plato, as Ryle would point out: “We are not sure
Socrates existed” -- into eschatology. TRASIMACO’s and SOCRATES’s discussion –
Grice: “I would not call it a conversation” -- begins with a pressing
invitation to Socrates to take part in an examination of the question
"What is δίκαιον?" – or as Hardie prefers, “What do you mean by δίκαιον?”
It is clear that, despite the intrusion of distractions, Socrates – whom from
now on Grice calls PLATO -- has not lost sight of this focus. Two preliminary answers are put
forward. The first is that of Cephalus ("δίκαιον =df ‘to tell the truth
and pay one's debts’ – Thou shalt pay thy debts – P. G. R. I. C. E. Clarendon
--). The second is that of of Polemarchus – Cephalus’s son, it happens -- δίκαιον =df to give every man
his due – cf. Horatio Nelson, a maxim crucial, but trite. A maxim tremendous,
but trite. CEFALO’s answer seems to be an attempt to exhibit the nature of δίκαιον
by means of a paradigmatic rule – alla Flew or Urmson. POLEMARCO’s answer,
instead, attempts to provide a general or generic – via genus -- characterisation
or definition, terminus or horos – logos. Socrates – or Plato -- points out that even a paradigmatic
rule allows of this or that exception – Hare: “Do not tell the truth to the
Nazi enquirer” -- , with the consequence that a practical principle is needed
to identify this or that exception. POLEMARCO’s suggested definition or conceptual
analysis is faulted on the grounds that, counter-intuitively it allows δίκαιον
on occasion to be exhibited in causing harm – cf. Lucas on the justification of
punishment in PHILOSOPHY. It seems to be open to Polemarco to reply to Socrates
or Plato that the connection of δίκαιον with punishment makes it questionable
whether it is counter-intuitive to suppose that δίκαιον sometimes involves
causing harm. Indeed, we might inquire why the answers suggested by Cefalo and
Polemarco are given house-room at all if they are going to be so cursorily
handled! The debate with Thrasymachus. A number of different factors to Grice’s
mind raise serious questions about the role of this debate in the general
scheme for the treatment of δίκαιον in Republica. The quality of
Thrasymachus's dialectical apparatus seems to be, to put it mildly, not of the
highest order. Socrates himself remarks that
in the course of the debate the original question ("What is δίκαιον?")
becomes entangled in a confused way with a number of other seemingly different
questions such as whether the just -- δίκαιον -- life is the happiest life, or
is more, or less, happy than the unjust [not δίκαιον] life, whether the just [δίκαιον]
life is worthy of choice, etc. What does Thrasymachus achieve beyond the
generation of confusion? Socrates's replies to Thrasymachus are by no means
always intellectually impeccable. Yet, so far as Grice and T. can see, this
fact is not pointed out. Glaucon and Adeimantus are dissatisfied with the
upshot of this debate and call upon Socrates to show that the just δίκαιον life
is the happy life, not making it clear what the connection is between this
demand and the answering of the original question about the nature of δίκαιον. Socrates
endeavours to meet the demands of GLAUCONE e ADEMANTO -- Plato's brothers, as
it happens: his was a philosophical family -- but to do this, Socrates resorts
to the elaborate presentation of a FULL-BLOWN analogy between the soul psyche
ANIMA and the state LO STATO. What justifies the presentation, in the current
context, of the nature of this full-blown – Cajetan, almost -- analogy? Blow-by-blow
details of the debate with Thrasymachus. Round 1. Thrasymachus at the
outset couples the thesis that " δίκαιον =df the interest – not the duty
-- of the stronger" with the admission that a ruler – the rex -- may not
not infallible in his estimates of where the interest – not the duty -- of the
stronger lies. As the comments of Socrates, Polemarchus, and Cleitophon make
clear, this leads Thrasymachus into an intolerable tension between the idea
that the edicts of the ruler or rex – think Fasage -- command obedience because
they spring from a belief on the part of the ruler that such intended obedience
is in the interest of the stronger, and the idea that obedience is demanded if,
BUT only if, it would in fact be conducive to the interest of the stronger.
Thrasymachus seeks to repair his position by distinguishing between (a) what
the ruler commands and (b) what the ruler commands qua ruler. The latter
cannot but be conducive to the interest – not duty -- of the stronger, though
no such assurance attends the former. Though no one points this out, the
attempted escape seems to carry the consequence that whether the ruler's
commands do, or do not, call for obedience may be, and may continue to be,
shrouded in obscurity. But, apart from this initial confusion, the debate
in Round 1 is characterised by a number of further disfigurements or blemishes,
responsibility for which may attach not only to Thrasymachus but, by association,
to Socrates. Some of these disfigurements or blemishes may indeed also be
visible in subsequent rounds. It is not made clear, nor indeed is the
question raised, whether the kind of δίκαιον under discussion is political (or
politico-legal) δίκαιον, or moral δίκαιον. The general tenor of
Thrasymachus's remarks would suggest that his concern is with political or politico-legal
δίκαιον. Indeed it seems not impossible that it is part of Thrasymachus's
position that there is no such thing as moral δίκαιον, that the concept
of moral δίκαιον is chimerical and empty. If this were his position, he
could be characterized as a certain sort of sceptic, avant la letter – the Porch
had not been built yet! -- ; but whether or not it is his position should
surely not be left in doubt. Thrasymachus nowhere makes it clear whether he regards
the popular, or vulgar, application of the term "δίκαιον," which
Thrasymachus may not himself endorse, as a positive or a negative commendation.
Are just δίκαιον acts supposed to be acts which fulfill some condition which
acts should fulfill, or acts which are free from an imputation that they
fulfill some condition which acts should not fulfill? In other words, is
Trasimaco defending Hall’s view on EXCLUDERS? It is not clear whether
Thrasymachus's thesis that δίκαιον is the interest of the stronger is to be
taken as a thesis about the "nominal essence" – alla Robinson: what
is there? you name it -- or about the "real essence" of δίκαιον. Is
Thrasymachus suggesting that the right way to conceive of δίκαιον, the correct
interpretation of the term " δίκαιον," is as ‘signifying’ that which
is in the interest of the stronger? Or is he suggesting that whatever content
we attach to the concept of δίκαιον, the characteristic which explains why just
δίκαιον acts are done and why they have the effects which standardly attend
them, is that of being in the interest of the stronger? Thrasymachus seems uninterested
in distinguishing between the use of the word " δίκαιον " – what Austin
would have as ‘just’, ‘fair’, or "right" -- as part of a sentential
operator which governs a sentence which refers to this or that possible action
(e.g., "it is δίκαιον -- just or right -- that a person who has
contracted a debt should repay it at the appointed time," "it is δίκαιον
--just -- for a juror to refuse offers
of bribes" -- and its use as an adjunctive – aggetivo -- epithet which
applies to actually performed actions -- e.g., "he distributed
payments, for the work done, justly -- δίκαιον. These two uses are no doubt
intimately connected with one another – cf. it is certain, x is certain --, but
they are surely distinguishable. Thrasymachus is not at pains to make it
clear whether the phrase "the stronger" refers to the ruler or
government, the official boss, or to the person or persons who wield political
power (legitimately or not): the real boss. These persons might or might not be
identical. Think Mussolini – I owe this remark to T. As a result of these
obscurities which Grice one and again forbirds from conversation – ‘avoid
obscurity of expression – be perspicuous [sic] -- the precise character of
Thrasymachus's position is by no means easy to discern. Round 2. At the
end of Round 1, as it seems to Grice, Socrates seeks to counter Thrasymachus's
reliance on a distinction between what the practitioner of an art ordains
simpliciter and what the practitioner ordains qua practitioner of that art –
think Picasso --, by suggesting that if we take this distinction seriously, we
shall be led to suppose that when the practitioner acts qua practitioner, his
concern is not with his own well-being but with the well-being of the subject
matter which the art controls.Therefore, rulers, qua rulers, will be concerned
with the well-being of their subjects rather than with the well-being of
themselves. This contention seems open to the response that there is nothing to
prevent the well-being of the subject matter from being, on occasion, that
state of the subject matter which is congenial to the interest of the
practitioner. This indeed may be the tenor of Thrasymachus's outburst comparing
the treatment of subjects by rulers with the treatment of (allegedly good) sheep
by an (allegedly good) shepherd – in fact, Catholics in Italy call Christ The
Lord is My Shepherd – PASTORE. If so, Socrates does not seem to have any
better reply than to suggest that the dominance of concern on the part of
rulers to obtain compensation for their operations hardly supports the idea
that it is common practice for them to use their offices to feather their own
nests; a response to which Socrates adds an obscurely relevant demand for a
distinction between the practice of an art which is typically not directed
toward the interests of the practitioner, and the special case of a concomitant
exercise of the art of profit-making, which is so directed. Thrasymachus,
however, complicates matters by introducing a fresh line of attack against the
merits of δίκαιον vis-à-vis injustice – non- δίκαιον. He suggests that in the
private citizen δίκαιον (devotion to the interest of the stronger, that is, of
the ruler) is folly, while injustice – non- δίκαιον -- (devotion to his own
interest) is sensible even if dubiously effective; while the grand-scale
injustice – non- δίκαιον -- of rulers,
as exhibited in tyranny – cf. Aristotle on ‘consttutio’ as an analogical term
in JOACHIM --, has everything to recommend it. It is not clear that this
manifesto is legitimate, since it is not clear that, on his own terms,
Thrasymachus is entitled to count tyranny as injustice – non- δίκαιον; the
tyrant is not preferring his own interests to the interests of someone stronger
than himself, since no one is stronger than he (is). It is true, of course,
that while Thrasymachus may not be entitled to call tyranny injustice – non- δίκαιον
--, he may be equally not entitled to call it justice -- δίκαιον --, since
though the tyrant may be the strongest person around, he is certainly not
stronger than himself. So perhaps Thrasymachus's plea for injustice – non- δίκαιον
-- may turn out to be a misfire.
Round 3. In response to a query from Socrates, Thrasymachus recapitulates his
position, which is not that injustice – non- δίκαιον -- is a good quality and
justice -- δίκαιον -- a bad quality, nor (exactly) the reverse position, but is
rather that δίκαιον is folly or extreme simplicity, whereas non- δίκαιον is
good sense. With this contention there is also associated Thrasymachus's view
that non- δίκαιον implies strength, and that the unjust – non- δίκαιον -- life
rather than the just δίκαιον life is the happy life. Socrates' reply to
Thrasymachus invokes arguments which seem weak to the point of feebleness. In
his first argument, Socrates gets Thrasymachus to agree that the just δίκαιον man
seeks to compete with, or outdo only the unjust -- non δίκαιον -- man, whereas
the unjust – non δίκαιον -- man competes both with the just -- δίκαιον and with
the unjust, non δίκαιον. Reflection on the arts, however, prompts the
observation that, in general, the expert competes only with the inexpert,
whereas the non-expert competes alike with the inexpert AND with the expert, so
it is the just δίκαιον man, not the unjust non δίκαιον man, who runs parallel
to the general case of the expert, and who therefore must be regarded as
possessing not only expertise but also good sense. Among the flaws in this
argument, one might point particularly to the dubious analogy between the
province of the δίκαιον and the province of the arts, and also to a blatant aequi-vocality
with "compete," by whose utterance,
in Greek, the utter might mean "try
to perform better than", but also "try to get the better off.”
In the succeeding argument against the alleged strength of injustice non δίκαιον,
Socrates remarks that injustice, non δίκαιον breeds enmity, observes that
efficient and thorough-going injustice, non δίκαιον, requires "honour
among thieves," and concludes that a fully unjust – non δίκαιον -- man would in real life be weaker than one
who was less fully unjust – non δίκαιον. Maybe this argument shows that the
unjust, non δίκαιον, man cannot, with maximum effectiveness, literally "go
the whole hog" in injustice, or non δίκαιον; but this is far from showing
that he should never have started on any part of the hog. Finally,
Socrates counters Thrasymachus's claim that the unjust, non δίκαιον, life,
rather than the just, δίκαιον, life, is the happy life, by getting Thrasymachus
to agree that at least for certain kinds of things the best state of a thing of
that kind lies in the fulfillment of the function or metier of that kind or
genus, which will also constitute an exhibition of the special and peculiar
excellence – ANDREIA, or virtus -- of things of that kind; and also that
justice, δίκαιον, is in the required sense the special excellence of the soul
psyche ANIMVS ANIMA; from which he concludes that justice, δίκαιον, is the best
state of the soul and as a consequence gives rise to the happy life. This
argument, perhaps, palely foreshadows Socrates's strategy in the main part of
the dialogue. But at this point it seems ineffective, since no case has been
made out why Thrasymachus should agree to what one would expect him to regard
as the quite uncongenial suggestion that justice, δίκαιον, is the special
excellence of the soul. Transition to the main body of the Dialogue.
Glaucon and Adeimantus express dissatisfaction with Socrates's handling of
Thrasymachus. Glaucon invokes a distinction between three classes of
goods: those which are desirable only for their own sake, those which are
desirable both in themselves and for the sake of their consequences, and those
which are desirable only for the sake of their consequences, which Glaucon dubs
‘futilitarian.’ Glaucon goes on to remark that it is the view of Socrates,
shared by himself and Adeimantus, that justice, δίκαιον, belongs to the second
class of goods, those which are doubly desirable; but he wishes to see the
truth of this view demonstrated, particularly as the generally received opinion
seems to be that justice belongs to the third class of goods which are
desirable only for the sake of their consequences and have no intrinsic value.
He wishes Socrates to show that justice, δίκαιον, is desirable in respect of
its effect on those who possess it, independently of any rewards or
consequences to which it may lead – duty without interest, in Prichard’s terms.
He wishes Socrates to show that it is reasonable to desire to be just, δίκαιον,
rather than merely to seem just, δίκαιον, and, indeed, that the life of
the just, δίκαιον, man is happy even if his reputation is bad. Otherwise it
will remain feasible: that the institutions of justice, δίκαιον, are
acceptable only because they secure for us the greater good of protection from
the inroads of others at the cost of the lesser evil of blocking our inroads
upon others – benevolence versus self-love --, and that if the possession of
Gyges's ring would enable our inroads upon others to remain undiscovered, no
reasonable person would deny himself this advantage. Adeimantus reinforces the
demands expressed by Glaucon by drawing attention to the support lent by the
prevailing education and culture to the received opinion about justice, δίκαιον,
as distinct from the view of it taken by Socrates, Glaucon, and himself. Apart
from the tendency to represent the rewards associated with justice, δίκαιον, as
really attending not justice, δίκαιον, itself but the reputation for justice, δίκαιον,
Adeimantus observes that even when the rewards are thought of as attending not
merely the semblance of justice, δίκαιον, but justice, δίκαιον, itself, the
rewards are conceived of as material and consequential rather than as
consisting in the fact that justice, δίκαιον, is its own reward. He also points
to the fact that,even when recognition that it is injustice, non δίκαιον,
rather than justice, δίκαιον, which pays leads to the pursuit of injustice, δίκαιον,
and thereby to the incurring of divine wrath, the prevailing culture and
education teach that the gods can be bought off. So unless Socrates follows the
course proposed by Glaucon, he will be saddled with the charge that really he
agrees with Thrasymachus, that so-called justice, δίκαιον, is really pursuit of
the interest of the stronger, the strength of whose case lies in his command of
the big battalions, and that the so-called injustice, δίκαιον, involved in the
alternative pursuit of one's own interests is really inhibited only by the
threat of force majeure. In his attempt to accede to the demands of
Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates embarks on his elaborate analogy between the
state and the soul. The details of this presentation lie outside the scope of Grice’s
inquiry, which is concerned only with the structural, eschatological aspects of
Socrates' procedure. Does Thrasymachus have a coherent position? When we operate, as moral
philosophers, in the borderland between ethics and political theory – not Hart’s
JURISPRUDENCE! – when or why was that chair instituted at Oxford, and wy doesn’t
it count as philosophy?--, one of the salient questions which we encounter is
whether there is a distinction between a moral concept and a political concept,
and how such a distinction, if it exists, should be characterised. In this
connection it will be of great importance to consider the view-point of a
philosopher, if such a philosopher can be found, who maintains that there is no
distinction – “I don’t count Mussolini as a philosopher” (Grice) --, or at
least no genuine distinction, between a moral concept and a political concept
in this area of the δίκαιον, or in some significant part of this area. If it
were possible without undue distortion to exhibit Thrasymachus as a kind of
moral (avant la letter) sceptic — as someone who holds, for example, that while
political justice δίκαιον, or politico-LEGAL justice δίκαιον – the deontological
alla Kelsen --, is an intelligible notion with real application, the same
cannot be said of moral justice, δίκαιον, which since Prichard, at
Oxford, can be seen to be ultimately an illusion, it might be philosophically
advantageous to regard Thrasymachus in that way. We should examine, therefore,
the prospects of success for such an interpretation of Thrasymachus's position.
Can he be viewed as one who regards political justice δίκαιον, but not moral
justice δίκαιον, as a viable concept? If we attempt to proceed
further in this direction, we encounter a difficulty at the outset, in that it
is unclear just what concept it is which who Grice calls The Friends of Moral Justice
δίκαιον suppose to be the concept of moral justice δίκαιον. Is the term – or phrase
-- "moral justice" δίκαιον to be thought of as referring to moral
value – axis -- in general, as distinct from other kinds of value? Or is the
notion of moral justice, δίκαιον, to be conceived as possessing some more
specific content, so that, while both fairness and loyalty are morally
admirable qualities, only the first can be properly regarded as a form of moral
justice δίκαιον? And if the notion of moral justice, δίκαιον, is to be supposed
to cover only a part of the domain of moral value, to which part of that domain
is its application restricted? To the region of fairness – Cricket is an Englishman?
To that of equality of opportunity – VICO, AEQVITAS alla romana? To that of
respect for this or that natural right? Rival candidates seem to abound – as we
well know – and not just at Oxford! In the case of Plato's Thrasymachus it
seems that he, perhaps like Plato himself, is not disposed to engage in the
kind of conceptual sophistication practised later by Plato’s former pupil, Aristotle
– I am reminded at this point of my own tutor Hardie, whose bedside book was
the ETHICA NICOMACHEA -- and by some philosophers since Aristotle –
notably my tutor, from Scotland, Hardie. For Thrasymachus, The Friends of Moral
Justice δίκαιον (on the assumption that the representation of Thrasymachus as a
kind of moral sceptic is legitimate) will be philosophers who treat the term or
phrase "moral justice δίκαιον " as one which refers to morality, or
to moral virtue in general, a usage which, not Philippa Foot, but Aristotle
also recognises as legitimate, alongside the usage in which "justice"
δίκαιον is the name of one or more specific virtues, and for which he offers an
analogical explanation in terms of quantitative merit/demerit to
non-quantitative reward-punishment – the proportio or aequilibrium praised by
Cicero. If our programme requires that we try to represent Thrasymachus as a
certain sort of moral sceptic, obviously one part of his position will be that
the concept of moral justice δίκαιον is unacceptable. One or both of two forms
of unacceptability might be in question, namely alethic unacceptability and
semantic unacceptability, concerning what an utterer might ‘signify’ by
uttering δίκαιον. The suggestion might be that a positive ascription of moral
justice, δίκαιον, are never in fact true, and so are always alethically
unacceptable, or that such ascriptions, together perhaps with their negations,
suffer from some form of un-intelligibility, and so are semantically
unacceptable. Cfr. Carnap: It is not the case that pirots karulise elastically.
Some indeed might contend that it is general or generalized alethic
unacceptability which generates semantic unacceptability, concerning what an
utterer might ‘signify’ – but recall Humpty-Dumpty on ‘glory’ --, that if a
certain kind of characterization is always false, that implies that that kind
of characterisation is in some way unintelligible. Let us assume that the
revised presentation of Thrasymachus will be one which, for one reason or
another, ascriptions of moral justice, δίκαιον, are semantically unintelligible,
by way of an utterer ‘signifying’ by the uttering of δίκαιον. This assumption
will leave open a considerable range of possibilities with regard to the more
precise interpretation of the notion of semantic unacceptability, concerning what
an utterer ‘signifies’ – consider Humpty Dumpty --, ranging perhaps from the
extreme suggestion that an ascriptions of moral justice, δίκαιον, are just
gibberish, as Humpty-Dumpty’s Jabberwocky, to the suggestion that they admit no
fully successful rational elucidation – cf. Grice’s pupil Strawson on the
bounds of sense – grenzen der sinnlichkeit.. Within the boundaries of this
position, the new Thrasymachus might perhaps hold that, though the concept of
moral justice, δίκαιον, is semantically unacceptable, a related concept, which
we may call "moral justice», -** δίκαιον - Owen would have a double star
here -- " is fully admissible. Moral justice* δίκαιον *-- I’ll use just
one star -- δίκαιον is to be supposed to have precisely the same descriptive
content as moral justice δίκαιον; ascriptions, however, of moral justice*, δίκαιον,
will entirely lack the ingredient of favourable valuation or endorsement which
is carried by the term "moral justice δίκαιον." It might,
however, be objected that the proposed separation of the descriptive content of
moral justice, δίκαιον, from its evaluative content is quite inadmissible. If
we are looking for a predicate which from an ascriptive point of view is the
specification of the general descriptive condition for moral justice, δίκαιον, but
which at the same time lack the evaluative element which attaches to the term
"moral justice," δίκαιον , we shall need predicates which are
considerably more specific than "morally just»." δίκαιον .Indeed,
some might claim that it is pure fantasy to suppose that any predicate, however
specific, could ‘signify’ a descriptive character which falls within the
general character ‘signified’ by the term "moral justice", δίκαιον , after
detachment of the term's very core evaluative ‘signification’! Description
cannot be thus severed from evaluation, or the etic from the emic. Whatever may
be the final upshot of debate about the possibility of separating the
descriptive ‘signification’ and the evaluative ‘signification’ of the term
"morally just," δίκαιον , it is clear that a further element in the
position of the new Thrasymachus will be that whatever semantic unacceptability
may attach to moral justice, δίκαιον, there is a further kind of justice, δίκαιον,
namely political (or politico-legal) justice, δίκαιον – of the type Hart adored,
and Hare, on occasion, too--, which is free from this defect. Political justice,
δίκαιον, is a concept which is both intelligible and has application. Thrasymachus,
however, wishes to combine this recognition of the intelligibility and the
applicability of the concept of political justice, δίκαιον, with the contention
that the applicability of the concept of political justice, δίκαιον, to a
particular line of actual or possible action provided a basis not for the
commendation but rather for the discommendation of that line of action; the
wise, prudent, or sensible man would be led away from rather than toward the
adoption of a certain course of action, would become less rather than more
favorably disposed toward the idea of his becoming engaged in it, if he were
told, perfectly correctly, that political justice, δίκαιον, required his
engagement in it. This further contention has the air of paradox; how could the
fact that political justice, δίκαιον, or indeed any kind of justice, δίκαιον, requires
a man to undertake a particular course of action, be in the eyes of that man a
bad mark against doing the action in question? Can the new Thrasymachus align
himself in this matter with the old? It can fairly easily be seen that the idea
that the position of Thrasymachus involves paradox is ill-founded. That this is
so can best be shown by the introduction of one or two fairly simple
distinctions. First, a value (or disvalue) may be either intrinsic or
extrinsic. Roughly speaking, the value (or disvalue) of x will be intrinsic if
it attaches to x in virtue of some element in the character of x; it will be
extrinsic if it depends on the nature of some effect of x. To present the
distinction somewhat more accurately, a value or disvalue of x will be
intrinsic if its presence is dependent on some property of x which may indeed
be a causal property, but if it is a causal property, it is one whose value or
disvalue does not depend on the value or disvalue of that which is caused. The
property of causing raised eyebrows is a causal property and may be one with
which value or disvalue is associated; but if the eyebrow-raising is something
with which value or disvalue is associated, this is not because of the
antecedent value or disvalue of elevated eyebrows, but rather because of a
connection between raised eyebrows and surprise, or moral indignation (in
Strawson’s case). A value or disvalue will be extrinsic if it attaches to x in
virtue of a causal property the value or disvalue of which depends upon the
antecedent value or disvalue of that which is caused. Second, a value or
disvalue may be either direct or indirect. A value which is a direct value of x
must rest, if it rests on other features at all, on features of x which, at
least on balance, are values rather than disvalues; similarly, a direct
disvalue of x, if it rests on other features of x, must rest on features which
are at least on balance disvalues. An indirect value of x may rest on a prior
disvalue of x, provided that this disvalue is less than that which would attach
to any alternative state of x. The disvalue of being beheaded – if you are
Charles I, if not Antoinette - may be indirectly a value, provided that (for
example) it is less than the disvalue which would attach to the only other
option, namely to being burned at the stake – as Bruno and a few other Italian
philosophers were on account of the technicalities of axe-yielding – never mind
the guillotine The least of a number of possible evils may thus be indirectly a
good. Thrasymachus, then, is perfectly entitled to deny that political justice,
δίκαιον, is directly a kind of good, provided he was willing to allow, as he
is, that indirectly it is, or may be, a good. There is then no conceptual
barrier to incorporating in the position of the new Thrasymachus – think my
pupil Nozick (And I did my best by teaching Rawls’s ‘Fairness’ on Saturday
mornings! -- the thesis that political justice, δίκαιον, is only indirectly a
good; it is acceptable only as a way of averting the greater evil of being at
the mercy of predators. This would perhaps be an appropriate moment to
consider a little more closely what Grice is speaking of as Thrasymachus's
combination of rejection of the concept of moral justice, δίκαιον, and
acceptance of the concept of political justice, δίκαιον. There are two ways of
looking at this matter. One, which is, I think, suggested by Grice’s discussion,
is that there are two distinct concepts, which some philosophers regard as
being both parallel and viable, namely moral justice, δίκαιον, and political
justice, δίκαιον. The special characteristic of Thrasymachus is supposed to be
that he allows the second concept while rejecting the first. I shall call this
approach the "two-concept" view of justice, δίκαιον -- senses are not to be multiplied, etc. -- according
to which the unqualified term "justice", δίκαιον, might be used to
refer to either of two distinct concepts. The second way of looking at things I
shall call the "one-concept" view of justice, δίκαιον,
according to which the least misleading account of the difference between moral
justice, δίκαιον, and political justice, δίκαιον, will be not that two
different concepts are involved, but that two different kinds of reason or
backing may be relied upon in determining the application of a single concept,
namely that expressed simply by the word "justice" δίκαιον -- without
the addition of any adjectival modification. The term "justice" δίκαιον
will always ultimately refer to a system of practical rules for the regulation
of conduct, perhaps not just any and every such system but one which conforms
to certain restrictions — for example, perhaps, one which is limited to the
regulation of certain kinds of conduct or regions of conduct. The difference
between moral justice, δίκαιον , and political justice, δίκαιον, might be
thought of as lying in the fact that in the case of moral justice, δίκαιον, the
system of rules is to be accepted on account of the intrinsic desirability that
conduct of a certain sort should be governed by practical rules or by practical
rules of a certain sort, where a system of rules of political justice, δίκαιον,
rests on the desirability of the consequences of making conduct subject to
rules, or to those particular rules. This possibly rather more Kantian
conception of the relation between moral justice, δίκαιον, and political
justice, δίκαιον, will perhaps carry the consequence that the view of Socrates
and his friends that moral justice, δίκαιον, is desirable independently of the
consequences of acting justly is no accident, but is a constitutive feature of
moral justice, δίκαιον; without it, moral justice, δίκαιον, would not be moral.
It should of course be recognised that the idea that there is only one concept
of justice, δίκαιον, though there may be different kinds of reason for
accepting a system of rules of justice, does not entail that one and the same
system of rules of justice may be acceptable for radically different kinds of
reasons. There might be a single concept of justice, δίκαιον, without its ever
being true that different sorts of reason could ever justify the acceptance of
a single system of rules of justice, or δίκαιον. We may, of course, if we wish
to treat a one-concept view of justice δίκαιον as in fact invoking two concepts
of justice δίκαιον; but if we do, we should recognise that the two concepts of
justice δίκαιον are higher-order concepts, each relating to different kinds of
reasons governing the applicability of a single lower-order concept of justice δίκαιον. Let
us take stock. We seem to have reached a position in which we have failed
to detect any incoherence in the views of Thrasymachus, and it seems to be a
live possibility that intrinsic desirability is not an accidental feature but
is a constitutive feature of moral justice δίκαιον. We should now inquire what
considerations, if any, would be grounds for dissatisfaction with the viewpoint
of Thrasymacus. When it comes to moral Justice δίκαιον and Scepticism, the
claim that what Grice is presenting is a reconstruction of Socrates' original
defense of moral justice δίκαιον rests on my utilisation of some of Socrates'
leading ideas, notably on the idea that the presence of moral justice δίκαιον in
a subject x depends upon a feature or features of components of x, that the
relevant feature or features of the components is that individually each of
them fulfills its role or plays its part, whatever that role or part may happen
to be (or, perhaps better, taken all together, their overall state is one which
realizes most fully their various separate roles), that in satisfying this
condition, they, the components, enable x to realize the special and peculiar
virtue of excellence ANDREIA or virtvs of the type to which x essentially
belongs, that this fact entitles us to regard x as a good or well-conditioned T
(where "T" refers to the type in question), and this in turn, if
membership of T, or U, for universalia, if you wish to forget about Russell,consists
in being a soul, ensures that the life of x is happy, in an appropriate sense
of "happy." Grice’s account also resembles the original account given
by Socrates in that it deploys the notion of analogy which is a prominent
ingredient in Socrates' story, though it seeks to improve on Socrates'
presentation by making it clear just why the notion of analogy should be
brought into this discussion, and by making its appearance something more than
an expository convenience. Grice’s presentation seeks also to link the idea of
maximal or optimal fulfillment of function not merely with the concept of moral
injustice non δίκαιον but more centrally and more directly with the more widely
applicable concept of what one might call "health." This change
carries with it an increase in the number of stages to be considered from two
(the political and the moral) to three (the PHYSIOLOGICAL, the political, and
the moral). Grice’s presentation also introduces the suggestion that the very
same factors which determine whether a particular entity x, belonging to a
certain type T, merits the accolade of being a T which is healthy,
well-conditioned, or in good shape, also by their presence (in lower degrees)
determine the difference between the existence or survival of x, rather than
its non-existence, or non-survival, or lack of operancy. The same features, for
example, which at the physiological stage determine whether a body is or is not
well-conditioned, also determine by their appearance or non-appearance in lower
degrees whether that body does or does not exist or survive, i. e. collapses
instead. This example in fact calls for a more careful formulation. Grice proceeds
to a more detailed discussion of the three stages recognized in his account.
The complications are considerable, and intelligibility of presentation may
call for omissions and convenient distortions. At Stage 1, the
physiological stage, there appear a number of different items or types of item,
viz.: physiological things, such as
human and animal bodies -- ф-thing,, -thing» ф-thingn; physiological components (ф-components or bodily organs. These will include both distinct types of
d-component or organ, like the Liver and the Heart, and distinct instances or
tokens of these types, like GRICE’S liver and GRICE’S heart, or GRICE’s liver and STRAWSON’s
heart. Entry will distribute a number of
different types of bodily organ one apiece among human or animal bodies. For
these purposes, sets of teeth and pairs of human legs will have to count as
each a single organ. Functional properties of physiological components or organs. These
correspond to the jobs or functions which the various organs crucially fulfill
in the life of the -thing or body to which they belong, such as walking,
eating, achieving, and digestion. For convenient oversimplification I
assume that each organ has just one functional property, which will be variable
in degree. (d) Certain properties of -things (bodies) ("global
properties") which will be dependent on the functional properties
exhibited by the arrays of physiological components or organs which belong to
the things in question. The properties under this head which presently concern
me are two in number: one, which will not be variable in degree, will be the
property of existence or survival, which will depend on the array of
physiological components belonging to a particular d-thing achieving a minimal
level with respect to the functional properties of the members of the array,
that is to say, a level which is sufficient to ensure that the array of
physiological components continues to exhibit some positive degree of the
functional properties of that array. The other -thing property which concerns
Grice is one which will be variable in degree; it is the property of
well-being, or well-being as a -thing of the sort to which it belongs. Maximal
well-being will depend on an optimal combined exemplification of the functional
properties of a -thing's physiological components. The higher levels of this
latter property are commonly known as "bodily health" (with-out
qualification), or as "bodily healthiness." At all levels the
phrase "bodily health" may be used to signify the dimension
within which variation takes place between one level and another. (3)
Before I embark on a consideration of the details of subsequent stages, perhaps
I should amplify the account of my intended proce-dure, including the general
structure of my strategy for the characterization and defense of moral
justice: (a) The items involved in the stage 1 (physiological entities or
bod-ies, their components or organs, the functional properties, and certain
overall features of bodies, such as existence and being in good shape, which
are dependent on the functional properties of organs) exist or are exemplified
quite naturally and without the aid of analogy at this level. The stage
therefore may be regarded as providing paradigms which may be put to work in
the specification of related items which appear in subsequent stages and into
the constitution of which analogy does enter. (b) Those members of the
list of items, mentioned in 3(a) as appearing in later stages, which are
properties as distinct from things, may be specified in two different ways. One
way will be to make use of abstract nouns or phrases which are peculiar and
special to properties belonging to that stage, and which do not incorporate any
reference to more generic properties specifications of which are found also at
stages other than the one to which the property under discussion itself
belongs. The other way is to build the specifications from what at least seem
to be more generic properties, together with a differentiating feature which
singles out the particular stage at which the specified properties apply.
Leaving on one side for a moment the second mode of specification, I shall
comment briefly on the first. This may be expected to yield for us, at the
political stage, such properties as those expressed by the phrases
"political justice" and "political existence," and by
whatever epithets are appropriate for the expression of the features of this or
that part of a state on which the global properties of political justice and
political existence will depend. Again, at the psychological stage, the
first method will give us, unless the state is beset by illusion, expressions
for the psychological properties of moral justice and psychological existence,
and for the particular features of parts of the soul (whatever these parts may
be) on which the presence of moral justice and psychological existence will depend.
It will be noted that more than one important issue has so far been passed
over; I have ignored the possibility that political and moral justice might be
different specifications of a more general feature for which the name
"justice," without added qualification, might be appropriate; I have
left it undetermined whether "parts of the state" are to be regarded,
as they were by Socrates, as particular political classes or in some other way,
perhaps as political offices or de-partments; and I have so far ducked the
question of the objects of reference of the phrase "parts of the
soul." Such matters obviously cannot be indefinitely left on one
side. (c) I turn now to the considerably more complicated second mode of
specification of the relevant range of properties. As already re-marked, this
mode of specification will incorporate references to seemingly generic
properties the appearance of which are not restricted to just one stage, a fact
which perhaps entitles us to talk here about "multistage" epithets
(predicates) and properties. Examples of second-mode specification will be such
epithets as "is in good shape as a body" and "is in good shape
as a state," both of which incorporate the more generic epithet "is
in good shape" which seemingly applies to objects belonging to different
stages, namely to animal bodies and to states. In addition to such
"holistic" epithets which apply to subjects which inhabit different
stages, there will also be "meristic" epithets, like "part"
itself, which apply to parts of such aforementioned subjects. One of my main
suggestions is that the multistage epithets which are characteristically
embedded in second-mode specifications always, or at least in all but one kind
of cases, apply only analogically to the subjects to which they do apply. I may
remark that we shall need to exercise considerable care not to become entangled
with our own bootlaces when we talk about analogical epithets, the analogical
application of epithets, and analogical properties. Such care is particularly important
in view of the fact that it is also one of my contentions that there will be
properties the possession of which may be nonanalogically conveyed by use of
the first mode, and analogically conveyed by use of the second mode. It
should be observed that although I have claimed that there are two different
modes of property-specification, I have not claimed that for each individual
property, at least within a certain range of prop-erties, a specimen of each
mode of specification will be available for use; it may be that in certain
cases the vocabulary would provide only for a second-mode specification, or
that a first-mode specification can be made available only via a stipulative
definition based initially on a preexisting second-mode specification. Since in
my view most of the difficulties experienced by philosophers concerning this
topic have arisen from doubts and discomforts about the applicability and
consequences of second-mode specifications, gaps which appear in the ranks of
first-mode specifications might be expected to favor neo-Socrates rather than
neo-Thrasymachus, unless neo-Thrasymachus can make out a good case in favor of
the view that where first-mode specifications are lacking, second-mode
specifications will also be lacking; in which case the onus of proof will lie
on the skeptic rather than on his opponent. It should also be observed that
further discus-sion of the relation between second-mode and first-mode
specifications might make a substantial contribution to two distinct philosophical
questions, namely: (i) whether it is sometimes true that description
presupposes valuation (since second-mode specification seems only too often to
rely on ideas about how things should go or ought to go); whether it is
sometimes or always true that valuation presupposes Teleology or Finality,
since second-mode specifications characteristically introduce references to
functions and purposes. (d) I shall now recapitulate the main features
which I am supposing to attach to first-mode and second-mode specifications,
with a view to raising some further questions about the two modes: Properties
which will be specified, when one uses first-mode specifications by
single-stage epithets (properties like bodily health, political justice, and,
perhaps controversially, moral justice) may also be specified by the use of
second-mode specifications which will incorporate references to seemingly
multistage properties such as wellbeing and existence. The property of bodily
health, for example, may also be referred to as the property of well-being as a
physiological entity, the property of political justice as the property of
well-being as a political entity (or state), and the property of moral justice
(perhaps) as the property of well-being as a psychological entity (or
soul). (ii) The global properties of well-being as this or that type of
entity will depend on a maximal (or optimal) degree of fulfillment, by the
various parts of the subjects of those global properties, of a sequence of
meristic properties associated with the jobs or functions of those (iii)
The very same meristic properties on which the various forms of well-being
depend will also determine, at a lower degree of realiza-tion, the difference
between the existence and the nonexistence of the entities which inhabit a
particular stage. (iv) It might be possible, by a move which would be
akin to that of "Ramsification," to redescribe the things which
inhabit a certain stage, their components or parts, the jobs or functions of
such com-ponents, the property of well-being and the property of existence as
being just those items which, in a certain realm, are analogical coun terparts
to the prime items, in the physiological realm, respectively, of bodies,
organs, bodily functions, health, and life (survival). (v) These
proposals might achieve a combination of generalizationand justification
(validation) of the items to which they relate, given the assumption that the
proposed redescriptions are semantically and alethically acceptable.
Among the questions which most immediately clamor for consideration will be the
following: Question 1: How are we to validate my intuitive judgment that
second-mode specifications which involve multistage epithets will always, or at
least sometimes, be analogical in character? Question 2 is: How are we to
elucidate the phrase used in (iv) "in a certain realm"? (Q3)
How is it to be shown that the proposed redescriptions are not merely
semantically but also alethically acceptable? I will take these questions
in turn. Question 1 calls for the justification of a thesis which,
without offering arguments in its support, I suggested as being correct, namely
that if there are multistage epithets, that is to say, epithets which apply
sometimes to objects belonging to one stage and also sometimes to objects
belonging to another stage, the application of such an epithet to one, and
possibly to both, of these segments of its extension must be analogical rather
than literal. It seems to me that, before such a thesis can be defended or justified,
it needs to be emended, since as it stands it seems most unlikely to be true.
Consider first the epithet "healthy"; there would, I think, be
intuitive support for the idea that when we talk, for example, of "a
healthy mind in a healthy body," at least one of these applications of the
epithet "healthy" must be analogical rather than literal, since
only a body can be said to be literally healthy. But if we turn to the
epithets "sound" and "in good order," though I think
there will be intuitive support for the idea that both bodies and minds may be
said to be sound or to be in good order, and indeed for the idea that bodies
and minds can truly be said to be sound or in good order just in case they can
truly be said to be healthy, there will not, I think, be intuitive support for
the idea that the application of the epithets "sound" and
"in good order" to either bodies or minds, or to both, is analogical
rather than literal. I would in fact be inclined to regard the application of
each of these epithets to both kinds of entity as being literal. I would
suggest that the needed emendation, while it allowed that the literal
application of epithets may straddle the division between its applicability to
subjects that belong to one stage and to subjects that belong to another, would
insist that, when such literal cross-stageapplications occur, they depend upon
prior cross-stage applications of some other epithet, where one or even both of
the segments of application are analogical rather than literal. How should
the emended thesis be supported? My idea would be that the barriers separating
the applications of an epithet to objects belonging to one stage from its
application to objects belonging to another will in fact be category-barriers,
and that there are good grounds for supposing that objects which differ from
one another in category cannot genuinely possess common properties, and so
cannot ultimately, at the most fundamental level, be items to which a single
epithet will literally and nonanalogically apply. If objects x and y are
categorically debarred from sharing a single property, then they are also
debarred from falling, literally and nonanalogically, within the range of
application of an epithet whose function is to signify just that property.
There is nothing to prevent a body and a mind from being, each of them,
literally in good order, provided that the condition needed for being literally
in good order is that of being either literally healthy (in the case of a body)
or (in the case of a mind) (analogically speaking) healthy. Perhaps the first
matter to which we should attend in an endeavor to form a clear conception of
(for ex-ample) the place of being (analogically speaking) healthy, a feature
which may attach to minds, within a generalized notion of being in good order,
or (perhaps) of being healthy, is the consideration that the question whether
the application of a certain epithet to certain things is literal or
analogical, is by no means the same question as the question whether its
application to those things is or is not to be taken seriously. It may, for
example, remain an importantly serious question whether John Stuart Mill is
properly to be regarded as a friend of the working classes long after it has
been decided that, if the epithet "friend of the working
classes" does apply to John Stuart Mill, it applies to him analogically
rather than literally; it does not apply to him in at all the same kind of way
as that in which the epithet "friend of Mr. Gladstone" may have
applied or, perhaps, failed to apply to him. The question whether a particular
person is in good shape may be a question an important aspect of which is
expressed by the question "Is his mind (analogically speaking)
healthy?"; if so, given that the first question is, as it may be, one to
be taken seriously, the same would be true of the second question. A
second consideration, which we should not allow ourselves to lose sight of, is
one which has already been briefly mentioned in thefirst part of this essay. We
are operating in an area in which, not infrequently perhaps, we shall be under
pressure from what Aristotle would have called an Aporia. We find ourselves
confronted by a number of seemingly distinct kinds of items, and by a number of
features each of which is special to one of these kinds. If we heed intuition —
also, perhaps, if we heed the way we talk —we shall be led to suppose that
these features are all specifications of some more general feature which is
manifested, with specific variations, throughout the range formed by the kinds
in question, a putative general feature for which ordinary language may even
provide us with a candidate's name. Furthermore, if we heed intuition, we
shall be led to suppose that the members of this range of special features have
a common explana-tion, a further general feature which accounts for the first
general feature, and also, with the aid of specific variations, for the
original range of special features. To follow this route would seemingly be
just to follow the procedures which we constantly employ in describing and
accounting for the phenomena which the world lays before us. In the present
case, the application of this method would be to a range of items which
includes bodies, states, and, perhaps, souls and also to such special features
of these items as (respectively) bodily health, political justice, and
(perhaps) moral justice. Unfortunately, at this point, we encounter a
major difficulty. The items which are the subjects to which the members of the
range of special features attach, namely bodies, states, and souls, insofar as
they are genuine objects at all, seem plainly to belong to different categories
from one another; and these categorial differences would be such as to
preclude, if widely received views about categories are to be accepted, the
possibility that there are any properties which are shared by items which
differ from one another with respect to the kinds to which they belong. It
looks, then, as if the possibility that there is a generic property of which
the special properties are differ-entiations, and the possibility that there is
a further generic property which serves to account for the first generic
property, have both been eliminated. I have in fact not attempted to set out a
theory of categories which would carry this consequence, and it would certainly
be necessary to attempt to fill this lacuna. But the prospects that this
undertaking would remove the difficulty do not at first sight seem encouraging.
If, then, we are not to abandon all hope of rational so-lution, we shall be
forced to do one of three things: (i) Relinquish the idea of applying
here procedures for descriptionand explanation which are operative in examples
which are not bedeviled by category difference. (ii) Argue that the
category differences which seem only too prominent on the present occasion are
only apparent and not real. (iii) Devise a less restrictive theory of the
effect of category differences on the sharing of properties. In the light
of these problems, we should obviously be at pains to consider whether
attention to the notion of analogical application would have any chance of
providing relief. I propose to leave this problem on one side for a
moment, returning to consideration of it at a later point; immediately, I shall
address myself to a possible response to the suggestion that the question
whether the possible application of a given epithet to a certain subject is an
issue which it is proper to take seriously, is quite distinct from the question
whether such application, if it existed, would be analog-ical or literal. The
response would be that the distinction between the two questions does not have
to be a simple black-or-white matter; it might be that, while the fact that if
such application existed at all it would be an analogical application is not a
universal obstacle to the idea that the application is one which should be
taken seriously, it is also not true that there is no connection between the
two questions; if the inquiry into the application of the epithet is one of a
certain sort or one which is conducted with certain purposes in view, then the
idea that such application would be analogical stands in the way of the idea
that the application is one to be taken seriously; if, however, the character
and purposes of the inquiry are of some other sort, then the two questions may
be treated as distinct. It might, for example, be held that if the
inquiry about the application of an epithet is one which aims at reaching
scientific truth, at laying bare the true nature of reality, then the fact that
the application of the epithet would be analogical conflicts with the idea that
it should be taken seriously; if, however, the inquirer's concern is not with
scientific truth but rather with the acceptability, either in general or in a
particular case, of some practical principle (or principle of conduct), then
the two questions may be treated as distinct. Something like this
"halfway" position is perhaps discernible in Kant; in, for example,
his claim that Ideas of Pure Reason, with regard to which no transcendental
proofs are available, admits of "regulative" but not of
"constitutive" employment, a suggestion which is perhaps repeated in
his demand for a nondogmatic kind of teleology, a teleol-ogy which somehow
guides our steps without adding to our stock of beliefs. The situation,
however, is vastly complicated by the fact that the notion of what is
"practical" is susceptible to more than one in-terpretation; on a
wider interpretation, any principles or precepts would count as practical
provided that they relate to questions about how one should proceed. On a
second interpretation of "practical," only those examples of
principles and precepts which are "practical" in the first sense will
count as "practical" which relate not just to some form of procedure
but to procedure in the world of action as distinct from procedure in the world
of thought. Imperatives which are practical in the second and narrower sense
will, as Kant himself seems to have thought, include those which tell us how to
act but will not include those which tell us how to think; they will be
concerned with the conduct of the business of life but not with the conduct of
the business of thought. This ambiguity leaves principles and precepts which
concern conduct of the business of thought in a somewhat indeterminate
position; they will be practical in the wider sense since they are concerned
with questions about how we should conduct our-selves; however, what is given
with one hand seems to be swiftly taken away by the other when we observe that
the conduct they prescribe is conduct which is specifically involved in
arriving at decisions about scientific truths and the nature of reality. For me
the issue is made even more complicated by the fact that I have instinctive
sympathy toward the idea that so-called transcendental proofs should be thought
of as really consisting in reasoned presentation of the neces-sity, in
inquiries about knowledge and the world, of thinking about the world in certain
very general ways. This viewpoint would introduce interconnections between what
we are to believe and how we are to proceed which will be by no means easy to
accommodate. I return now to discussion of the quandary which I
propounded a little while ago, and the severe limitations on explanation
seemingly imposed by category-differences between features which need to be
explained. As I see it, my task will be to provide a somewhat more formalized
characterization of the phenomenon of analogical application than has yet been
offered, perhaps a logico-metaphysical char-acterization, which will at the
same time be one which both preserves those category-differences and their
consequential features, and at the same time avoids undue restrictions on the application
of standard procedures for the construction of explanations. This may seem like
a tall order, but I think it can be met.Let us first look at the notion of
instantiation and at one or two related notions. If I am informed that x
instantiates y (that x is an instance of y), and also that y specifies z (that
y is a specification of z, that being y is a way of being z, that y is a form
of z), then I am entitled to infer that x instantiates z. If, however, instead
of being informed that y specifies z, I am informed that y instantiates z, the
situation is different; I cannot infer from the information that x instantiates
y and y instantiates z, that x instantiates z. The relation of instantiation is
not transitive, since if azure specifies blue, and blue specifies color, then
it looks as if azure must specify color. Let us now define a relation of
"subinstantiation"; x will subinstantiate z just in case there is
some item or other, y, such that x instantiates y and y instantiates z. We might
perhaps offer, as a slightly picturesque representation of the foregoing
material, the statements that if x specifies y, then x and y belong to the same
level or order of reality as one another, if x instantiates y, then x belongs
to a level which is one step lower than that of y, and that if x
subinstantiates y, then x belongs to a level which is two steps lower than that
of y. Now it seems natural to suppose that when a number of more specialized
explanations are brought under a single more general and so more comprehensive
ex-planation, this is achieved through representing the various features, which
are separately accounted for in the original specialized explanations, as being
different specifications of a single more general fea-ture. If, however, we
were entitled to say that the crucial relation connecting the more specialized
explicanda with a generalized expli-candum is not, or at least is not in those
cases in which the specialized explicanda are categorically different from one
another, that of specification but rather of subinstantiation, then we shall be
able to avoid the uncomfortable conclusion that the admissibility of
generalized ex-plicanda involves the admissibility of the idea that
categorically different subject items may be instances of common properties. An
item need not, indeed perhaps cannot, instantiate that which it
subinstan-tiates. To conclude my treatment of the quandary, I need to
show, as best I can, that a systematic replacement of references to the
relation of specification by references to the relation of instantiation would
have no ill effect on the standard procedure for generalizing a set of
specialized explanations, with which we have provided ourselves, of the
presence of discriminated specialized properties. To fulfill this under-taking,
I must consider two cases, one involving the application of aprocedure for
generalization which is characterized in terms which involve reference to the
relation of specification, and the other in which all references to
specification are replaced by references to additional and
"higher-level" occurrences of the relation of instantia-tion.
Case I. (i) We start with a group of particulars (x, through x,), with regard
to each of which we are informed that it possesses property D; and with two
further groups of particulars (y, through Ym and z, through z,) instantiating,
respectively, properties E and F. The generalization procedure begins when we
find further properties A, B, C, such that x, through x,, Y, through Ym and z,
through Z, instantiate, respectively, A, B, and C; and (as we know or
legitimately conjecture) A implies D, B implies E, and C implies F. We next
find the more general properties P, Q, such that A and D, specify in way 1,
respectively, P and Q; B and E, specify in way 2, respectively P and Q; and C
and F, specify in way 3, respectively, P and Q (iv) We are now, it seems,
in a position to predict that whatever instantiates property P, will, in a
corresponding way, instantiate property Q; that is to say, to predict for
example that anything which has A will have D; and though I would hesitate to
say that provision of the materials for systematic prediction is the same thing
as explana-tion, I would suggest that, at least in the context which I am
consid-ering, it affords sufficient grounds for supposing that explanation has
in fact been achieved. Case I1. Case Il begins to differ from Case I only
when we reach stage (iii). In Case Il stage (iii), instead of saying that A and
D specify in way 1, respectively, P and Q, we shall say something to the effect
that A and D are "first group" instances, respectively, of P and Q;
and precisely parallel changes, introducing, instead of the phrase
"first-group instance" either the phrase "second-group
instance" or "third-group instance" will be made in what we say
about properties B and E and properties C and F. Though I would not claim
to have a wholly clear head in the mat-ter, it seems to me that the difference
between Case Il and Case I generates no obstacle to the attribution of
legitimacy of the procedure for generalization with which I am currently
concerned. The scope for systematic prediction, and so for explanation, will be
quite un-affected. If I am right in this suggestion I shall, I think, have
succeeded in providing what was mentioned in Part I of this essay as a
desider-atum, namely a development of a concept of Affinity, which would be
less impeded by category-barriers than the more familiar notion of
Similitude. (f) I now turn briefly to question Q2. This is the question
how to interpret the expression "in respect to a certain realm"
within such phrases as in "an analogical extension, in a certain realm, of
the property of health, in the primary physiological realm to which animal and
human bodies are central." I should make clear the problem of ambiguity
which prompts this question; there is one way of looking at things, one
conception, according to which there is a certain realm, which is that to which
souls are central, and into which there is projected an analogical extension of
the property of health. In this conception the notion of souls is logically
prior to the notion of the psychological realm to which souls are central, and
both are logically prior to the property which is the analogical extension of
the property of health, which in the primary physiological realm is the
property of bodies. But there is another conception which might particularly
appeal to those who regard souls as being, initially at least, somewhat dubious
entities, according to which souls are introduced into the psychological realm
to be the subjects or bearers of a property in that realm which is an analogical
extension of the property of health, which in the physiological realm belongs
to bodies. According to this conception, fairly plainly, the conception of
souls is logically posterior both to the notion of the psychological realm and
to the analogical extension of the property of health which exists in that
realm. Question Q2 is in effect an accusation: it suggests that the two
conceptions are mutually inconsistent, since souls cannot be at one and the
same time both logically prior to and logically posterior to both the concept
of the realm to which they are supposedly central and to a certain property,
analogous to bodily health which exists in that world; it further suggests that
Socrates (or neo-Socrates) need both of these conceptions, but, of course, cannot
have both of them. To meet this objection, I would suggest that a
promising line to take would be to deny that we start with a certain realm, the
psychological realm, the nature of which is determined either by the
subject-items, namely souls, which are central to it, or by the properties,
such as a certain analogue of bodily health, which characterize things in it;
and that we then proceed at a later point to add to it the remaining members of
these two classes of elements. Rather, we start off with analogues of two of
the elements in the primary physiological realm,souls which are analogues of
bodies and a class of properties one of which is an analogue of bodily health,
and call the realm to which these analogues belong the psychological realm. In this
way the incoherence covertly imputed by question Q2 will be dissolved, since
neither of these psychological elements (souls and properties like the analogue
of bodily health) will be logically prior to the other. What in fact has been
done is to introduce, first, a double analogical extension of two types of
items which belong to the primary physiological realm and, second, the notion
of a psychological realm for use in a convenient way of talking about what has
initially been done. No doubt more than this will need to be said in a
full treatment of the topic; but perhaps for present purposes, which are
primarily directed toward defusing a certain criticism, what has been said will
be sufficient. When it comes to the prospects for ethical theory -- Question
3 Question 3 might be expanded in the following way. we can imagine
ourselves encountering someone who addresses us in the following way: "You
have certainly achieved something. There is one class of philosophers who would
be inclined to deny that the notion of moral justice, δίκαιον, can be regarded
as an acceptable and legitimate concept, because there is no way in which the
intuitive idea of moral justice, δίκαιον, can be coherently presented in a
rigorous manner. What you have said has shown that such a philosopher's
position is untenable; for you have shown that if we allow the possibility of
representing moral justice, δίκαιον, as a certain sort of analogical extension
of a basic notion, namely health, which is a property of bodies, items which
belong to a basic or primary realm of objects, you have succeeded in
characterizing in a sufficiently articulated way the possession of moral
justice, δίκαιον, to which the philosopher in question is opposed on the
grounds of its incoherence. That is no small achievement, but it is not,
nevertheless, from your point of view, good enough. For there will be another
class of philosophers who find no incoherence in the notion of moral justice, δίκαιον,
but claim that lack of incoherence is a necessary condition but not a
sufficient condition for accepting moral justice, δίκαιον, as a genuine feature
of anything in the world. The uses that we make of our characterizations of
moral justice, δίκαιον, and other such items must be as part of an as it were
encyclopedic picture of the fundamental ingredients and contents of the
rational world; and if, of the two would-be encyclopedic accounts, one contains
everything which the other contains together with something which the other
does not contain, while the other account contains nothing beyond a certain
part of what the first account contains, it will be rational, in selecting the
optimum encyclopedic volume, to prefer the smaller to the larger volume, unless
it can be shown that what is contained in the larger volume but omitted in the
smaller one is something which should be present in a comprehensive picture of
the rational world. To be fit for inclusion in an account of the rational
world, a contribution must be not only coherent but also something which is
needed. This demand you have not fulfilled." To this critic Grice should
be inclined to reply in the following manner. "I agree with you that more
is required to justify the incorporation of moral justice, δίκαιον, within the
conceptual furniture of the world than a demonstration that the notion of moral
justice, δίκαιον, is one which is capable of being coherently and rigorously
presented; and I agree that I have not met this additional demand, in
whatsoever it may consist. But I think it can be met; and indeed I think I can
not only say what is required in order to meet it but also bring off the
undertaking of actually meeting it. The required supplementation will, I
suggest, involve two elements. First, a demonstration of the value, in some
appropriate sense of "value," of the presence in the world of moral
justice, and second, a demonstration that it is, again in the same ap.
propriate sense, up to us whether or not the notion of moral justice does have
application in the world." I shall now enlarge upon the two ingredients of
this proposed response. First Supplementation. A person who is concerned
about the realization in the world of moral or political justice, δίκαιον, will
encounter at a number of points alternative options relating to such
realization which he may have to take into account. The number of such options
will vary according to whether a "two-concept" view or a
"one-concept" view is taken of justice, δίκαιον; the number will be
larger if a two-concept view is taken, and I shall begin with that
possibility. On a two-concept view, there will be two properties the
realization of which has to be considered, moral justice δίκαιον and political
justice δίκαιον. One who is concerned about the application of these
properties, and who is unhampered by any sceptical reservations, will have to
consider the application of each of these properties to a particular individual,
standardly himself, and also to a general subject-item, such as a particular
totality of individuals each of whom might consider the application to himself
as an individual of each of the initial properties. There will also be a
variety of distinct motivational appeals which the application of one of these
forms of justice, δίκαιον, has to a particular subject-item, the consequential
appeal of that realization (e.g. its payoff), or both. If we go beyond Plato,
we might have to add such forms of motivational appeal as that which arises
from subscriptions to some principle governing the realization of the initial
property. On a one-concept view the initial array of options will be
considerably reduced, though it is perhaps questionable whether such reduction
will correspond to any reduction in genuinely distinct and authentic options.
On the assumption that it would not, Grice temporarily goes along with the idea
that a one-concept view is the correct one. On this view a distinction between
moral justice, δίκαιον, and political justice, δίκαιον, will reappear as the
difference between concern for the application of a single property, that of
justice, δίκαιον, when it is motivated by the intrinsic appeal of its
realization in a given subject-item (one might perhaps say its moral appeal) or
alternatively, when it is motivated by the idea of the consequence of such a
realization (one might say by its political appeal). One should perhaps be
careful to allow that the idea that a single concept or property may exert
different forms of motivational appeal does not carry with it the idea that one
and the same body of precepts will reflect that concern, regardless of the
question whether the motivational foundation is moral or political. It is
crucially important to recognize that situations which are only subtly
different from one another may exert quite different forms of motivational
appeal. Nothing has so far been said to rule out the possibility that while
Socrates and other such persons may each be concerned that people in general
should value the realization of justice, δίκαιον,in themselves because of its
intrinsic appeal, that is to say, for moral reasons, nevertheless their concern
that people in general should value for moral reasons the realization in
themselves of justice, δίκαιον, is based at least in part on consequential or
political grounds rather than on any intrinsic or moral appeal. It is possible
to be concerned that people be sensitive to the moral appeal of being just, δίκαιον,
and at the same time for that concern to be at least partly founded on
political rather than on moral considerations. If that is so, then the concern
for a widespread realization of moral justice, δίκαιον, might itself have a non-moral
foundation, as Prichard attempted at Oxford with his duty and interest, repr.
by Urmson. Such considerations as these might be sufficient to ensure that the
realization of moral justice in a community is of value to that community. This
value might consist in the fact that if themembers of a community are morally
concerned for the realization of justice, δίκαιον, in themselves, their
manifestation of socially acceptable behavior will not be dependent on the real
or threatened operations of law-enforcers, to the advantage of all.
Second Supplementation. If we were to leave things as they are at the end of the
first supplementation, though we should perhaps have shown that the realization
of moral justice in the world was of value to inhabitants of the world and
possibly also absolutely, we should not have escaped the suggestion that this
alone is not adequate to our needs; it would leave open the possibility that
all one could do would be to pray that moral justice, δίκαιον, is realized in
the world, and then when we have found out whether this is or is not the case,
to jubilate or to wail as the case might be. To make good our defense of moral
justice, we should need to be able to show that in some sense the realizability
of moral justice in the world is up to us. At this point it seems to me we move
away from the territory of Socrates and Plato and nearer to the territory of
Kant; it also seems to me that at this point the problems become immensely more
difficult, and partly because of that, I shall not attempt to devise here a
solution to them, but only to provide a few hints about how such a solution
might be attained. As we have been interpreting the notion of moral justice, δίκαιον,
its realizability is an idea which is very close to that of the validity of morality;
and if we were to follow Kant's lead, we should be on our way to a supposition
which is close to his idea that the validity of morality depends upon the
self-imposition of law, an idea which, though obscure, seems to suggest that
what secures the validity of Morality is something which, in some sense or
other of the word "do," is something that we ourselves do, and so perhaps
in some sense or other "could," we could avoid doing. What kind of
"doing" this might be, and how it might be expected to support
Morality, to my mind remain shrouded in darkness even after one has read what
Kant has to say; there seems little reason to expect that it would closely
resemble the kind of doing with which we are familiar in the ordinary conduct
of life. There is also important uncertainty about the proper interpretation of
the word "could"; it might refer to some kind of psychological or
natural possibility, something which some would be inclined to call a kind of
causal possibility; or it might refer to some kind of "rational"
possi-bility, the existence of which would require the availability of a reason
or possible reason for doing whatever is said to be rationally possible.
Not everything which is psychologically possible is also rationallypossible;
and I think it might be strategically advantageous if it could be held that the
Kantian view assigns psychological possibility but not rational possibility to
the avoidance of the institutive act which underlies morality; but whether this
is Kant's view, and how, if it is his view, it is to be made good, are problems
which I do not know how to solve. When it comes to The Republic and
Philosophical Eschatology, Grice presents what he sees as the background to the
reconstructed debate between Thrasymachus and Socrates, or rather perhaps
between neo-Thrasymachus and neo-Socrates. Neo-Thrasymachus is a Minimalist and
a Naturalist who has affinities with Hume – and his name is Nozick; he rejects
the concept of moral justice, δίκαιον, on the grounds that it would be at one
and the same time a non-natural and psychologistic feature and also an
evaluative feature. At this point we may suppose that neo-Socrates, who is not
committed to any form of Naturalism, will have retorted to neo-Thrasymachus
that a blanket rejection of psychologistic and evaluative features will totally
undermine philosophy. This part of the debate is not recorded, but we may
imagine neo-Thrasymachus to have responded that neo-Socrates is in no better
shape; for he can make sense of the notion of moral justice, δίκαιον, only by
representing it as a special case of a favourable feature, namely well-being,
which spans category-barriers between radically different sorts of entities,
such as a body, a political state, or a person. But neo-Socrates himself will
be committed to holding a view of universals which will prohibit any such
crossing of category-barriers by a single universal. To this charge
neo-Socrates may resort to two forms of defense, one less radical than the
other. The less radical form would involve the claim that while there have to
be category-barriers, these do not have to be as severe and restrictive as the
accusation suggests. The more radical form of defense would refrain from
relying on a more permissive account of category-barriers even though it
allowed that such increased permissiveness would be in order. It would rely
rather on a distinction between concepts which may span category-barriers,
whether these are more or less severe in nature, and universals which may not
span such barriers. A closely parallel distinction between an expression's having a single meaning and its
being used to ‘signify’ a single universal can, Grice thinks, be found in
Aristotle. Vide Grice, “Aristottle on the multiplicity of being” and the
three modes of unification of universalia via recursion – the logically
developing series, the focus, or the analogy or proportion. This distinction
would be made possible by making concepts rest ona foundation of affinities as
distinct from the foundation of similarities which underlies universals;
affinities may, while similarities may not, be characterizable purely in
analogical terms. The working out of such a distinction would be one of a
variety of concerns which would be the province of a special discipline of
philosophical escha-tology. The key to its success would lie in the observance
of a distinction between instantiation and subinstantiation. The latter notion
would permit generalization and explanation to cross category-barriers and
would undermine the charges of incoherence brought by neo-Thrasymachus against
neo-Socrates and his favored notion of moral justice, δίκαιον. At some level of
reinterpretation, then, Socrates's appeal to an analogy between the soul and Mussolini’s
Italian state, say, would be at least partly aimed at showing that the concept
of Moral Justice, δίκαιον, which Thrasymachus would like to banish as
theoretically unintelligible, is analogically linked with the concept of bodily
health, admitted by everyone, including Thrasymachus, as a legitimate concept,
in such a way that, despite radical categorial differences between the two concepts,
if the concept of bodily health is intelligible, the concept of Moral Justice, δίκαιον,
is also intelligible. However, to exhibit Moral Justice as a feature
which is really applicable to items in the world, such as persons and actions,
more is needed than to show that its ascription to such items is free from
incoherence. It will be necessary to show that such ascription, if it were
allowed, would serve a point or purpose, and also that it is in some important
way up to us to ensure that such ascription is admis sible. The fulfillment of
the last undertaking might force us to leav the territory of Socrates and Plato
and to enter that of Kant, or even worse, if we follow Gentile, Hegel! Samuele
Renato Treves. Renato Treves.
Treves. Keywords: giudice, giustizia, giusto, ventennio fascista. Refs.: Luigi
Speranza, “Grice e Treves” – The Swimming-Pool Library.


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