Why I'm reading Plato

University of Brighton Philosophy Society

Mike Cohen (Independent Scholar)

Abstract

I recently attended a talk by Ian Cobain in which a question arose that has been rattling around my head ever since. Is wrong doing a question of degree? Ian spoke about police who perform torture and the role of British Intelligence officers who exploit the fact that their suspects have been tortured. Socrates famously says that no one does wrong knowingly: the more wrong an action the more ignorant the wrongdoer. In this sense the question occurs to me: does this not suggest that the MI5 officers 'know' what is happening in these interrogation centres is indeed absolutely wrong? Through reading Plato I have become more aware, less ignorant and therefore more concerned to add my voice to those who shout and push the 'authorities' further down the road of accepting that this behaviour is wrong in an absolute sense. I believe that Plato -- in his attempt to create a platform from which to talk about ethics in an objective, absolute, sense -- can help in this endeavour. I will attempt to explain my view that Plato's theory of Forms, when moved from the basis of the immortality of the soul onto a modern notion of evolutionary biology can still lend support to the idea of objective ethical truths.

For many years I have carried around the idea -- given to me by Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies -- that Plato is enemy number one. To use one of Plato's metaphors: this pigeon has been flying around the aviary of my mind for as long as I can remember. My talk, which will be an interactive, multi-media presentation on 'Why I'm Reading Plato', will in effect open the cage door and let this particular pigeon fly.