13) Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one’s time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution
C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
Seems like they're looking for E. However, this assumes:
*We take Plato's Socrates to be the 'real' one. If we take Aristophanes instead, E. can't be the right answer. Kierkegaard does some interesting work on this question in The Concept of Irony.
*Plato has a belief in permanent moral and political truths. Perhaps the belief that it is better to suffer the bad than to do it. But it's Plato's Socrates who argues that he is to be subject to the laws of Athens even if those laws produce an unjust result, which sounds to these ears very much like A.
*We forget the moral and political basis on which Aristotle justifies slavery, the role of women, and limited participation in political decision-making. He might not have recognized it as bound to his particular historical context, but we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment