Thanks very much for that feedback!

Glad you find the videos useful. If you'd like to support the work I do, here's my Patreon page - patreon.com/sadler

You’re very welcome

Yes, that connection between courage and the other virtues becomes a commonplace for Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, and later virtue ethics

That's quite high praise. It certainly does open up access, and the possibility to develop resources. . .

I'm a middle class law student (scholarship) from Brazil, I had so little opportunity to study philosophy, to study social sciences and human sciences like psychology, history, sociology, I'm mostly on my own, and if it was up to the place I was born, chances are that I would be not studying or being happy about studying things exactly like professors teach and thinking it is the absolute truth... I've always had a taste for philosophy (it will be my second degree, if I can ever get a chance to do one), mostly hermeneutics (which is very, very important when you study law, because hermeneutics is like profiling the author, the society, everything, by the text that was written, by the way they chose to put their ideas on paper, by the historical context, you know better than me about it) and ethics (which applies to my articles published which are on the subject of bioethics, mostly experiments with human subjects). Internet blew the distance between me, on a rural city in the extreme south of Brazil, and knowledge, of being curious about a thing, and then researching it instantly, and finding people like you. Yes, it is quite a high praise, but it is somewhat earned.

I'm humbled -- why don't you send me some of the articles you're written - greg@reasonio.com

I'll just translate them and I'll send them to you, thank you Gregory.

You're welcome -- and thanks in advance for sending them

+MrZpasm I haven't been teaching face to face classes for several years. If you search plato meno sadler, however, you'll find a number of core concept videos on the dialogue

+Gregory B. Sadler Sorry to hear that.

MrZpasm I made the move to teaching entirely online by choice, actually. I still do provide workshops and talks face to face.

+Gregory B. Sadler I am glad to hear that! I meant to imply that you are good at leading discussions, and that it would be a loss to others. I'm not sure what teaching online is like, although I imagine the same thing is possible there, but anyway, glad to hear you're still at it.

Glad you enjoy and get use out of the videos!

I'm glad that you're finding your way into Plato's texts!

Gregory B. Sadler Curious if you'll be updating the aforementioned video - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hM2bY9d92tLXYas.html - with another chapter anytime this year?

sedna I'll be adding other videos, if that's what you mean

Gregory B. Sadler oops, yeah I meant if you'd be updated the series that video is part of. Good to know.

I love your online classes, Professor Sadler; I always wanted to take philosophy in college, but my Pell grants ran short after the current administration dropped short the lifetime Pell award limitation. But anyway, I did attain an associates degree in the social behavioral sciences/liberal arts/humanities call it what you will, and one class I did excel in was sociology. In sociology we talked of different actions driven by different motivations/causes (and as Parmenides ascertained all human actions even human thoughts are as susceptible the laws of cause and effect as billiard balls on a billiard table) and one action of which we discussed was called "instrumentally rational action" of which attested that people committed certain actions in the expectation that they would benefit personally from the action at some time sooner or later in the future. The expectance of reciprocation from these instrumentally rational actions could be rewarded from the public and/or from a religious deity, karma, or whatever religion a person may so subscribe. If they subscribed to no religion at all, then they would logically expect society or at the least their closest neighbors or community to reciprocate to them for their benevolence or noble actions "virtues acts". Some thinkers believe, give that human beings are naturally self-interested and self-centered for that matter, that the expectancy of reciprocation was the birth of so called virtues acts in the first place and is the impetus that drives them on. That the paradox lies in the fact that all good deeds are done with the person that is doing them interest in mind and not the one to whom the deeds are being done. Also, a driving force of virtues acts can be the negative reinforcements or consequences that the person may think will hound or follow them if they do not perform a benevolent or virtues act, which still has the person's own interest pinned first and foremost in the equation rather than the deed itself or the recipient of the virtues deed. So the big paradox would be, or least some thinkers believe, that benevolent and virtues acts are the biggest acts of selfishness that there feigningly are.

Yep, that sort of thing has been said before. A decent response to that sort of interpretation is that those making it fail to see the difference between the consequence of an action and the purpose or motive of an action. They're not always the same, and in the case of actual virtue expressed in action, they're not. Usually, those interpretations stem from a lack of understanding of what virtue and the virtues are. Sociology will not particularly well-equip anyone to think about virtue in ways that are actually adequate to the subject

+Gregory B. Sadler in the Penguin Classics version, with the exception of one footnote, "good" is used instead of virtue. I have read about Arete, and that Arete is the concept required to become an Agathos person. Are Arete, good, and virtue interchangeable, and would I be making a mistake if I substituted virtue for good in the notes I am taking on this writing?

So, three things. 1) Arete, standardly translated as "virtue" is not really a "concept required to become an Agathos person" 2) "Are Arete, good, and virtue interchangeable"? No 3) "would I be making a mistake if I substituted virtue for good in the notes I am taking on this writing?" Depends on which instance of "good"

+Gregory B. Sadler I should be more specific. I understand Arete to mean the qualities that are required to do, whatever something's appointed task is, well. So an agathos person, would perform his or her erga, well. I understand Arete to be the good qualities that allow a person to perform his or her erga well. So I think about it as Arete is required to perform human Erga well, and thus to be an Agathos person? If this is correct, does virtue equate to Arete? Would Virtuous be Agathos? I am sorry to pepper you with these questions, I just finished law school and have a few months before the bar. I decided to take this time to get as far as I could in Greek philosophy with a reasonable understanding of what they meant. I am sure you have a more detailed knowledge of these specific words in context, and that my cursory understanding is probably maddening.

Well, you hopefully have a long future of hitting those primary texts ahead of you!

You're welcome!

Well, I tend to be much more of an Aristotelian than a Platonist when it comes to the nature of the virtues

Cool, thanks for sharing.

Not sure what you're referring to about "only a very small amount of text has been translated". All of Plato has been translated at one time or another

We’re pretty happy here in our home town

@@GregoryBSadler Haha yeah I’d be to but had to test out my curiosity ;)

+Tom A I look at Reddit every once in a while. I can't say I really "get" that format. Yep, it's an intro class, focused on this text, so I didn't go into other dialogues, like the Gorgias. I don't think Socrates was conducting "class war" of any sort. Concerns of virtue and knowledge, when those are one's key criteria, are going to cut across class lines, and not be reliably found in any of the classes

thanks for the response. That is good feedback. I've been investigating too much a percentage of politics lately and its bleeding into everything :) If you don't get the format of reddit it's one of those things that really takes time. It *is* a strange interface, and it has tons of flaws but an active dynamic community. You and I are contemporaries and if I figured it out you can too ! :) Thanks for posting your content, it was enough to give me some additional momentum to pick up my interest where I left it off over 20 years ago. You inspired me to actually read the full text of 'Meno' instead of just going for the Cliff Notes version.

You're quite welcome. With the Reddit, it's mainly a function of time -- between the content production, teaching classes, research and writing, blogging, philosophical counseling, etc. I've got time for the social media I do use (FB, G+ Twitter, LI), not so much for other types

You're welcome! So. . . the nature of virtue. . . that you'll find explored a bit more in some of Plato's other dialogues

Glad it's useful for you!

I wouldn't generalize too much from a few students

Gregory B. Sadler You're absolutely right! Although I was being mostly sarcastic with that part of the comment:) I've got to remind myself that text on a screen doesn't convey sarcasm very well, if at all. I know there are many smart, interested college students who would continue school or some form of education, just for the sake of knowing. And who knows if interest in having knowledge for non monetary reasons has gone down, up , or stayed stagnant. That would be an interesting topic to look into! I think I may do that:)