Plato

Plato's Teacher and Student

Plato's Teacher and Student

Socrates -> Plato -> Aristotle

State of Flux

1. Plato believed that the world was in a state of flux (change).

2. He thought that if everything changed then we could not know anything as nothing is constant.

3. He therefore believed that true knowledge could not exist in a world of flux.

Wider Reading on State of Flux

1. Stoicism, Marcus Aurelias Book IV, 36:

"Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself”

2. Heraclitus had a doctrine called ‘panta rhei’, “everything flows”, change is fundamental to the nature of reality.

Quote from Heraclitus to expand on Plato's State of Flux

"You can never step in the same river twice" - You will never experience the same thing twice.

Plato's Dualism

1. He believed the body and soul are two separate entities.

2. He believed that a world existed beyond this one.

Plato's Absolutism

1. Objective truth exists and things are intrinsically right or wrong.

Plato's Rationalism

1. Knowledge is based on the use of reason.

2. We can work out reality using reason.

Images in Plato's Cave

1. Sun - The form of goodness in the world of forms.

2. Cave - The world of appearances.

3. Prisoners - Humans in the world of appearances.

4. Chain - Limitations in the world of appearances.

5. Fire - The prisoners' limitations of knowledge.

6. Puppet Master - People in society who knowingly manipulate others.

7. Objects held up - Distortion of objects in the world of appearances.

8. Escaped Prisoner - The philosopher.

9. World outside the Cave - The world of Forms.

Purposes of Plato's Cave

1. To show contrast between the World of Forms and the World of Appearances.

2. To show how the material physical concerns blind people to what is really important.

3. To show there is another world that we can't see, but can reach and it will enlighten us.

4. To explain the philosopher's search for knowledge.

5. To show the hostility people feel when faced with philosophical ideas that challenge their own beliefs.

6. To show the injustice of Socrates death.

Plato's World of Appearances vs World of Forms

1. The World of Forms is the world where everything is the perfect form of itself.

2. The World of Appearances is the world that we live in, and everything is a distortion of something in the World of Forms.

Criticisms of Plato's World of Forms

1. Doesn't give compelling evidence it exists, simply asserts it.

2. If taken to its logical extreme it is a paradox - is there an ideal form of negative qualities.

3. No scientific evidence to support it, so there is no way we can test it.

4. It is a 'World of Forms of the gaps' argument, similar to a 'G-d of the gaps' argument, which means it is used to explains things that we don't know by saying that we do not know it, so there must be a World of Forms.

Plato Quote describing the World of Forms

The Republic 507b:

"And we say that the particulars are objects of sight but not of intelligence, while the forms are the objects of intelligence, but not of sight."

Plato's Belief on the Soul in terms of Knowledge

1. Plato believed we never learnt anything new.

2. Our soul was in the World of Forms, so whenever we see anything we will recognise it, as our soul would recognise it from the World of Forms.

Anamnesis

Education is the process of remembering - an idea that Plato subscribed to.

Evidence for Plato's idea of the Soul being in the World of Forms

Summary of a story from Plato's dialogue 'Meno':

1. Socrates asks a slave-boy a geometry question.

2. The slave-boy gave the wrong answer, and when this was pointed out to him by Socrates, and Socrates continually questioned him, he gave the right answer.

3. He was not told the right answer, only hinted to it.

4. Plato argued he could only know the truth as he already knew it before, but had forgotten it.

Hierarchy of Forms

1. Form of Good (understood by Christians to be G-d)

2. Universal Qualities (beauty, truth, etc)

3. Concepts and Ideals

4. Physical Living Objects

5. Physical Inanimate Objects (imitations of objects such as photos, paintings and shadows)

Things that Support Plato's World of Forms

1. Encourages us to question why things are as they are.

2. It explains why we recognise things - HOWEVER - Richard Dawkins came up with meme theory, which states that these concepts (justice, beauty, etc) are passed from generation to generation, not genes but memes.

3. Explains the existence of evil - we don't live in the perfect world - it is a theodicy.