Morality as 
Good in Itself
Introduction to Ethics
Phil 118
Professor Douglas Olena
Three Types of Goods
21 „Some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as , for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them.¾
Three Types of Goods
21 „äa second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, which are desirable not only in themselves, but also for their results.¾
Three Types of Goods
21 „äa third class, such as gymnastics, and the care of the sick, and the physician¼s art; also the various ways of money-makingãthese do us good but we regard them as disagreeableä¾ and choose them for the „result that flows from them.¾
Three Types of Goods
21 Socrates places morality in the second class of goods.
Glaucon places morality in the third class of goods.
What is Morality?
21 Glaucon will argue these points, though he doesn¼t necessarily believe them:
	What is the nature and origin of morality according to the common view?
	Everyone who practices morality does so by constraint, against their will.
	„The life of the immoral is better than the life of the moral.
What is Morality?
21 Glaucon has never heard a satisfactory argument for morality as over against injustice. So, he will argue as if being immoral is recommended and see what Socrates responds.
The Common Viewä 1.
22 „They say that to do wrong is, by nature good; to have wrong done to you, evil;¾
Morality is a compromise between the best result, to do wrong and not be punished and to have wrong done to you and not be able to retaliate.
The middle ground is justice. Justice is tolerated as the lesser of two evils.
The Common Viewä 2.
22-23 If given the choice in freedom, how would moral and immoral people act when faced with problematic choices?
The story of the ringä
Glaucon concludes that one is moral only by „necessity, for wherever anyone thinks that he can safely be immoral, there he is immoral.¾
The Common Viewä 3.
23 Juxtapose two men: one immoral and seeming to be moral, the other moral and seeming to be immoral. 
Glaucon poses the question, „When both have reached the uttermost extreme, the one of morality and the other of immorality, let judgment be given which of them is the happier of the two.¾
Glaucon Continuesä
23 The moral man suffers persecution and torment, finally an ignominious death.
The immoral man lives a productive and honored, self centered life, doing what he does without conscience, „because he has no misgivings about immorality.¾
Thoughtä
Neither man offers pretense for what he does. One lives with no thought to right and wrong, while the other concerns himself never to do what is wrong. 
The immoral man may do good things but always with a self centered motive, „How does this advantage me?¾
Adeimantusä
24 Greek culture and literature claim that „The universal voice of mankind is always declaring that morality and virtue are honorable, but grievous and toilsome; and that the pleasures of vice ä are easy of attainment, and are only censured by law and opinion.¾
Adeimantusä
26 Why shouldn¼t we choose immorality when it brings all the rewards and none of the punishments?
„I would ask you [Socrates] to show not only the superiority which morality has over immorality, but what effect they have on the possessor of them which makes the one to be a good and the other an evil to him.¾
Conclusion
Adeimantus wants an answer without respect to reputations. In other words, what good is morality in and of itself?
Socrates¼ view is that morality is the highest good. Those things which are good in themselves.
How do you answer Adeimantus?