Ethics of Maimonides

1. Socrates and Plato: Founders of Ethics

1 Socrates and Plato Founders of Ethics In this first chapter, Cohen provides the philosophical foundations for his Platonic, anti-Aristotelian reading of Maimonides: Plato establishes the Good as an idea, as an object of knowledge, whereas Aristotle reduces the good to the realm of economy and politics, ignoring the epistemological question concerning the interrelation between nature and goodness, which, according to Cohen, is central to Maimonides’ thought. The idea of the Good, according to Plato, resembles a scientific hypothesis in that it must give an account of itself. The content of the idea of the Good, however, exempts it from the relativity of all scientific hypotheses: in the idea of the Good reason itself is grounded and comes to its end. The Platonic concept of the “Good beyond Being” indicates a non-hypothesis or non-foundational origin of human knowledge that Cohen in the later parts of this essay equates with prophetic vision. (See 1.) Socrates became the founder of ethics as a science. Whereas pre-Socratic philosophers were primarily interested in nature , posing questions concerning the cosmos and its origins, Socrates rather focused upon the intricacies of human nature: Diogenes Laertius, in his ancient introduction to the lives of the philosophers , writes, Philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom , has had a twofold origin . . . [one leads] to Socrates, who introduced ethics or moral philosophy.1 1. By proclaiming virtue as knowledge , Socrates became the founder of ethics; that is, concerning all other questions and pursuits of knowledge, he discovered and claimed the value of ethics as an object of cognition. Moreover, he demonstrated that only as knowledge and through cognition will the meaning of virtue become conceivable , its purpose and content applicable . With the enthusiasm of a discoverer—since here we are dealing with the discovery of terra incognita, the realm of ethics—and with the religious zeal of a prophet, Socrates made all Hellenic pursuits Socrates, Founder of Ethics: What to Do with Socratic Irony ethics of maimonides 2 Cohen elaborates: When Socrates founded ethics as a philosophical discipline he considered it to be the focus of all philosophy. . . . Ever since Socrates, ethics, the doctrine of man, becomes the center of philosophy .2 The Socratic emphasis on the study of man finds its renaissance in thinkers of the humanist tradition: La vraie science et la vrai étude de l’homme, c’est l’homme.3 Know then thyself—presume not God to scan: The proper study of mankind is man.4 According to Cohen’s Socrates, ethical knowledge expresses itself as the task of knowing one’s self, an ideal transmitted to Socrates by the Delphic oracle “Know thyself” (gnwqi seauton). Ironically, however , this task of self-knowledge constitutes a kind of not-knowing, for it has nothing to start with—cannot touch the grounds for which it searches. Cohen subsequently says: Socrates distinguished himself as the originator of scientific veracity. He was wont, however , to proclaim two intersecting axiomatic principles: “Know thyself” (gnwqi seauton ) alongside “I know that I don’t know” (oida oti ouk oida). We may thus term Socrates the master of irony.5 of nature and natural sciences yield to the benefit of the human soul. Thus Socrates considered ethics not only as a science, but as the science par exellence. He proclaimed ethics as the core and focus of human cognition . 2. Socrates announced an agenda —the agenda of universal culture ; understandably, his ethics bequeathed to us no record in writing . The whole value of this unique achievement is preparation, pioneering ; a raising of the curtain, as it were, that had veiled the workshop of ethics. However, it was left to subsequent scholarly endeavor to clarify fully and to systematically present the meaning and purpose of the Socratic agenda. In this process, Socrates plays the role of the herald Elijah, and Plato that of the Messiah. [Malachi 3:23.] 3. Man’s ethical stature is the loftiest and most relevant achievement of humanity. If our heart is to be pervaded by the powerful feeling attending this idea, then it must not be kept apart from and isolated from the mind and its own universal interests. If ethics is not to remain an accidental result of temperament or background, nor of historical inertia and of the urge for adjustment to fashionable changes, nor the carrot and stick of autocratic authority, nor the pious fraud of superstition, nor balm for the incurable wounds of human fate, nor barter of the aes- [18.222.69.152] Project...