• There are actions that are considered moral by most people.
• Being honest, paying a debt, not stealing, abiding by contract.
• There are actions that are considered immoral by most people.
• Cheating, deceiving, reneging on a debt, stealing, breaking an oath.
• Some people think that ordinary morality is for suckers and losers.
• Some people think that immorality is for suckers and losers.
• Which is it? That's an important question.
  

• There are knowledgeable people, people who know how to _____.
• There are ignorant people, people who do not know how to _____, but (try to) do it anyway.
• They mostly don't even know they are ignorant: if they did, they would strive for knowledge before or at least while doing _____.
  
• The knowledgeable people know things like what is the right amount, how to get it and not get too much, and so they aim at the right amount, the best situation, and that involves not just more and more and more of a thing, but rather it aims at what is correct, what works best.
• The ignorant do not know the right amount, the best situation, what is correct, or what works best, and so their aim is not at what is best, what is the right amount, etc..
• Why? Simply because they are ignorant.
  
• But the ignorant aim at something anyway, even thought it is not the right thing.
• Why? Because they think it is the right thing (but remember, they are ignorant).
  
• Some things to notice.
  
• The knowledgeable stop at what is right, correct, efficient and works best.
• They do not do so because it is right, but because they know it is right.
• The ignorant do not stop at the right the correct the efficient, what works best.
• Why, because they do not know what it is.
• But both the knowledgeable and the ignorant try to do the same things: to live their best life
• You might think that there are no knowledgeable people: only ignorant people (who might be more or less ignorant, but are nonetheless ignorant in some real way)
• You might think that there are knowledgable people and ignorant people.
• It depends on the sphere:
  
• in terms of riding a bike, there are those who know and those who don't.
  
• In terms of Playing tennis, there are those who don't know at all, those who know, those who know better, and those who know better than that, etc.
  
• In terms of escaping death, no one knows how to do it.
• In terms of breathing, no one doesn't know how to do it.
  

• In some things, you can go for the maximum: the more the better.
  
• Think of knowledge or love. More is better.
• Think of being disease-free. More is better.
  
• In some things, you can go for the optimum: more than what is optimal is bad, and less than what is optimal is bad: what is optimal, however, is always a mean, a balance. What is optimal is not a maximum or a minimum.
  
• Think of tuning a guitar: more tuning is of no use once it's in tune. Stretching those strings more or less is bad. They are at the best point when they are in tune.

• There is a thing that we call 'the good life': an overall package of things that we think make up a life worth living.
  
• Everybody has a somewhat different view of what it is, what makes it up, and how to get it.
• Our choices in life aim at this good life.
• Is your best life a maximum or an optimum?
• The person bent on maximizing _(the good life)___ thinks life is about a maximum.
• money, sex, muscles, honor, ... (whatever can be piled up and counted and you can get more and more of)
• Callicles
  
• The person bent on optimizing _(the good life)___ thinks life is about an optimum.
• Socrates

• The structure of the game:
• maximizers want more, always more, more than what they have now and more than what others have.
• optimizers want that amount that is efficient, is correct, works best, etc. and do not think it makes any sense to have more of that than others or less than others: it's about the optimum, not more and more.
  

• 349d10-11 says: Each of these (that is, the moral human and the immoral human) is such as those who he or she is like (that is, either the knowledgeable and good or the ignorant and bad human
• Socrates wants to claim that living what is typically considered a moral life is very much like aiming at an optimum.
• Thrasymachus wants to claim that living what is typically considered a moral life is settling for less of what is good than what one could have if one were not moral.

• If we could enter the maximizer universe or the optimizer universe, which one would we want to enter?
• Some people want to compete and outdo and outstrip others, a maximum.
• Some people think that is impossible, or only possible for part of a life.
  
• Some want everyone to do as well as possible, an optimum.
• Some people think that is possible.
  
• For some, maybe some parts of life are about a maximum, others about a minimum.
  
• Are Thrasymachus and Socrates engaging in aguments with built-in confirmation biases?
  
• Is it just a matter of preference?
• Is there such a thing as a good life?
  

On Rudebusch's reading, Socrates seems to think:

7. The moral human is like the wise and good human, whereas the immoral human is like the foolish and bad human (350c4-5)

8. The moral human is wise and good (in his or her actions as such), whereas the immoral human is foolish and bad in his or her actions as such, (350c10-11).

The moral are Happy
Rudebusch now wants to show that the moral are not just excellent and wise, but are also happy. He takes premises 9-18 below to be unproblematic.

9. (Definition of what the function of a thing is)
Let P be a person, A an action done in background circumstances C, and x any thing.
Then A is the function of x just in case P can do A (in C) by means of x and either there is nothing else by means of which P can do A (in C) or nothing else by means of which P can do A (in C) as well as by means of x (352e2-3).

10. There is an excellence and a defect associated with anything that has a function (353b2-3).

11. Whatever has a function does its function well by means of the associated excellence, and does its function poorly by means of the associated defect (353c6-7).

12. Human beings can do actions such as taking care of, ruling over, and deliberating about things by means of their (human) souls, and either there is nothing else by means of which they can do such actions, or nothing else by means of which they can do such actions as well (353d3-8).

13. Human beings live as such by means of their (human) souls, and either there is nothing else by means of which they can so live, or nothing else by means of which they can so live as well (353d9-10).

14. The human soul has a function (353d3)

    14 follows obviously from 9 and 12 or 13.

15. The human soul's function is human living as such (353d9)

    15 follows obviously from 9 and 13.

16. There is an excellence and defect associated with the human soul (353d11)

    16 follows obviously from 10 and 14.

17. The human soul does its function well by means of the associated excellence, and does its function poorly by means of the associated defect (353e1-2)

    17 follows obviously from 11 and 14.

18. morality is the excellence and immorality the defect of the human soul (353e7-8).

    8 claimed that morality is excellence and wisdom, and that immorality is defect and foolishness. 18 follows from 8.

Rudebusch make the logic from 8 to 18 more explicit as follows:

a. morality is excellence.
b. It follows that the activity that the moral human being attempts as such is well done.
c. Discussion of premise 2 showed that the moral human being attempts (in her actions as such) to profit in human life as a whole.
d. Therefore morality is excellence at human living as such.
e. ** Therefore morality IS that by means of which human living as such is well done.
f. (Consequence of 15 and 17) that by means of which the human soul does its function well (human living as such) IS the excellence of the human soul as such.
g. From 15, 17 and **, it follows that morality is the excellence of the human soul as such.

Similar reasoning will establish that immorality is the defect of the human soul as such.

19. The moral human soul lives well ( as a human soul): the immoral poorly (353e10-11).

19 follows from 15, 17, and 18.

20. The moral human being lives well (as a human being); the immoral poorly (353e10-11).

20 follows from 19.

It is objected that one might be moral but not be actively moral, just as one might be skilled in French but not speak it much. That does not apply here, because we are talking about general living as a human being, and it is difficult to avoid that (one can avoid it under extreme circumstances: one is forced to it).

21. Whoever lives well is happy; whoever lives poorly is miserable (354a1-2).

This is meant to be uncontroversial.

22. The moral are happy; the immoral miserable (354a4)

Obvious from 20 and 21.

23. It is unprofitable to be miserable but profitable to be happy (354a6).

Meant to be uncontroversial.

24. immorality is never more profitable than morality (354a8-9).