Final Exam Paper

1. The First Meditation discusses the importance of doubting everything. Releasing the prejudices that one is accustomed to, one finds himself in need to embark a search for knowledge based on a foundation of solid truths.
Descartes establishes that in order to doubt his present opinions, he needs simple reasons, and rather than doubt his all his opinions individually, he has to admit that the entirety of his beliefs is wrong. Everything the author accepts as true he has come to learn from his senses, and though the senses can sometimes deceive with objects that are either very small or far away, he admits that our sensory knowledge is sturdy.
In the Second Meditation, after making the choice to doubt everything, the author comes to the conclusion that his body and his senses must not exist, but does that mean he himself does not exist either? And if one doubts the existence of his or her body and senses, then the rest of the world must not exist either, therefore, one is persuaded that he himself does not exist. This leads the author to the conclusion that he exists, since he was there to be persuaded. Descartes reasons that while we must doubt everything, "doubting" is a form of thinking, which is solid proof that the he that is doing the thinking exists, and is a thinking thing.

If something is believed to be true by the majority or the ruling class, does not necessitate it to be true.
John Stuart Mill in On Liberty emphasizes three types of liberty; the first one he discusses to no coincidence is the freedom of thought. Mill argued that for an opinion or belief to be considered true, they must be challenged and debated. The only way one can be confident that he /she is right is to ensure complete liberty to contradict his or her opinions. A minority thought or opinion must not be suppressed simply on the basis of it being a minority, since the human race is not infallible and the minority opinion might turn out to be correct, and persecution of non-conformist thinking is wrong. Society's intolerance of such thinking may lead to fear of expressing radical and groundbreaking thought and ideas, which would cause the human race to stifle. Ensuring and encouraging thought, with relation to the First Meditation, an individual seeks out his personal truths for his personal satisfactions, and this pursuit is strongly protected by John Stuart Mill.
As long as the aforementioned pursuits of truth are harmless to those around him, the individual is granted freedom in the endeavor.

2. In addition to freedom of thought and freedom of tastes and pursuits, J.S. Mill believes in the freedom to assemble freely with others. These individual freedoms must be protected by society, and the government may only interfere with the individual's decisions only to prevent harm to others, otherwise it creates social tyranny.
Utilitarianism discusses pleasure. There are three types of pleasure that Mill defines: animal pleasure, intellectual pleasure and moral pleasure. Animal pleasure occurs when basic human needs such as hunger or sexual desire are satisfied. Intellectual pleasure (which includes aesthetic pleasure) occurs when one pursues knowledge and learns, and, by Descartes, defies falsehoods in one's beliefs and establishes solid truths. Moral pleasure occurs when one is responsible for another individual's well-being. Utilitarianism brings us "the greatest good for the greatest number" principle, which requires the population to promote the least amount of suffering for the greatest number of people. One is obliged to always act to produce the greatest amount of happiness among all people, within reason. By eliminating or diminishing suffering of others, society progresses and elevates societal moral standards. The "greatest good for the greatest number" segues shrinking of the gap between the wealthy and the poor, and it grants moral pleasure to those contributing to provide food and shelter to those in need, which introduces the idea of redistribution of goods.
On Liberty and Utilitarianism display faith in an individual's judgment and reason, that he will exercise his freedom to ensure the well-being of others. Although promising on an individualistic level, difficulties may arise when the principles that Mill discusses are applied to masses.
While ensuring moral pleasure and while seeming fair, "the greatest good for the greatest number" principle has a risk of disregarding the minority's interests in order to satisfy the majority's needs. J.S. Mill in On Liberty states that the majority may not perpetually dominate over the minority, and that every individual's interests are valid and worth protecting. Additionally, when the idea of redistribution of goods, discussed in class, takes place, some of the wealthy, from whom what is believed to be "excess" is taken to give to those in need, begin to feel that their interests are not accounted for and what they have to give they themselves do not believe to be excess.
3. Plato's society has a three class structure: the Rulers or Philosopher Kings, the Guardians, and the Workers. The Philosopher Kings are intelligent, and "only they possess the necessary insight to what is good for a community as a whole" (Cornford 119). For a just society to flourish, the ruler must be dominated by their rational faculties and wisdom. Plato claims that only philosophers can have knowledge, the objects of which are essential Forms, therefore knowing the truth. “The Forms resemble the laws of nature sought by modern natural science: a law in an unseen principle, a unity underlying an unlimited multiplicity of similar phenomena, and supposed to be unalterable” (Cornford 181). Since the philosophers are the only ones who have the only true grasp on the above, they must be Kings.
The Guardians are the manifestation of the Courage of the state. They are the "spirit" aspect of the state. Guardians must be carefully selected and trained; they must be gentle to their own people and dangerous only to enemies, as they, after careful training, acquire remarkable physical qualities: quick senses for enemy detection, swiftness for pursuit, and strength to fight the enemy.
The Workers represent the "appetite" part of the soul for the state. The Workers and the Guardians must follow their Rulers. Children are evaluated for the traits of Workers, Guardians and Rulers from an early age and are trained specifically and exclusively for the roles for which they were nominated. When each of the classes performs these roles adequately and does not attempt to take over tasks of other classes, the entire society will operate smoothly and in harmony.
Mill substantially disagrees with Plato's notion of a society. First and foremost because he denies the concept of a "Philosopher King": a person or a group of people who would have absolute knowledge of what is good for the rest of the people. Mill in On Liberty states that there is no absolute truth or knowledge, that all that is accepted as truth must be challenged and debated, and that true knowledge comes from experience. According to Mill, the government should have limitation of its power exercised over an individual. In fact, in Mill's society an individual may do as he please as long as he inflicts no harm towards others, including harm by omission, even if his actions are harming himself.
Mill's societal structure is more preferable to me as it allows for freedom of choice and freedom of thought. Mill's society through individualism encourages development, while Plato's state, though just, appears stagnant with little room for development.
4. Democracy, according to Plato, is the child of oligarchy. Oligarchy occurs when the wealthy rule, and oligarchy's aim of life is to become as rich as possible. The interests of the richest are a priority, which results in failure of to prevent accumulation of wealth in few hands. The poor become burdened with debt and poverty; they grow angry with those who have acquired their property. While the rich grow richer and multiply their capitals, the poor are longing for a revolt to claim the power from the wealthy by killing some and exiling others, and granting the rest equal share in government. Once the power is in the hands of the poor, they elect leaders by lot, who they believe will satisfy the needs of the many: "In the democratic temperament the principle of freedom and equal rights for all is applied to a whole mob of appetites in the lowest part of the soul" (Cornford, pg. 280). The main identifier of this regime is freedom: liberty and freedom of speech are granted to every man, and he is allowed to do whatever he likes. Plato believes that this sort of newfound freedom results in the democratic man abandoning moderation and turning to unnecessary pleasures. The unquenchable thirst for freedom causes the state to abandon proper ruling, and the state descends into tyranny by the poor revolting continuously against the rich, and the rich trying to limit the freedoms of the poor. Democracy is the best of the worst states as it allows the most liberty for an individual and the worst of the best because Plato believes that this freedom will be abused to satisfy appetites of the lower levels of the soul.
John Stuart Mill in On Liberty stresses the significance of an individual's liberty. Mill states that liberty is crucial for the development of society as it promotes free thought and diversity, which averts stagnation. An unpopular idea may be right and may open roads for intellectual development, and if wrong, challenging this opinion would allow people to understand their own ideas better. The freedom of tastes and pursuits allows one to make choices to further develop his/her character and thus be of value to others. Individuality and liberty, Mill claims, are crucial to individual and social progress, and Mill believes that people will seek to make choices to better themselves, and they are not solely driven by appetites, but by a search of individual truths, as long as they do not inflict any harm on others. Diversity allows identification of weaknesses within a person, and opens opportunities of combining the best traits of different individuals.
5. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes Socrates that tension is necessary for individuals to “rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal” (King 2). He expresses hope that through such tension, man will rise above prejudice to the “majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.” His view on education calls for an ascent from the cave of intolerance mirroring Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Martin Luther King believed that African Americans, by John Stuart Mill, have the right to "constitutional and God given" freedoms that they have been denied for 340 years, and the laws that were practiced towards African Americans were unjust. But there cannot be such a thing as an unjust law, as it brings them harm, therefore, these laws of segregation must be abolished, because "segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful". King, like Descartes, calls to doubt the established unjust laws and to reject them, to work together to for the greatest good for the greatest number, for 20 million African Americans were smothered in poverty and nothing was done to prevent that, which disagrees with that Mill advocates for in Utilitarianism.