ancient philosophy influences - notes

what are the two types of knowledge

priori knowledge → gain knowledge from the mid

proseteri knowledge → gain knowledge from expreince

what did plao believe

• that there is a greater reality beyond the world we experience

• we can discover this through priori knowledge

• the real world is unchanging world of the forms

• philosophers should rule → only they understand true knowledge comes from reason

allegory of the cave

• people are trapped in a cave, all they can see are shadows on the wall

• one breaks free leaves the cave and is blinded by the sun

• he doesn’t understand the difference between real objects and their shadows

• he realises the truth

• goes to the cave struggles to ajust to the darkness

• tells his friends in the cave they don’t believe him and kill him

what each thing in the a of the cave stands for

• prisoners in the cave - humanity in general

• the chains - senses (restrict the way we see)

• outside world - the real world

• difficult assent - road to philsophical knowledge is difficult

• escape - access to knowledge

• shadow - every day experiences

• the sun - highest of all forms the form of the good

• cave - empirical world around us

• ajust to darkness - once you know the truth you can’t go back

• return to cave - duty to enlighten others

• percercution - philosophers will be ridiculed and threatened

assessing plato cave POSITIVES

• considers various factors

• memorable + simple

• easy to understand

• senses aren’t useful they often aren’t reliable and give false info

• helps to understand that there are imperfections in the world

assessing platos cave NEGATIVES

• doesn’t fully explain what the true world is

• vague, never explains how to leave the empirical world - needs more instructions

• doesnt explain why you want to leave - what is good about it

• why should philosophers rule the empirical world

• hasn’t proven the real worlds existence

• elitism

• the senses allow information which keeps us alive

forms

plato likens the sun to the form of god, and like him the form of the good illuminates others forms. in the cave, the prisoner is unable leave the cave until he understood the forms.

why does plato bleive in the forms

• in our world - everything changes however mathematical truths stay the same

• plato blieves that there is a similar unchanging truth about every type of object (e.g chairs are all similar because of their chariness)

• there are many beautiful things but they all have beauty in common so the form (idea) of beauty must exist in another unchanging world

• everything in the world has a perfect form in the world of the forms, which is where noting changes

world of the forms vs world of particulars

WOTF -

• each form is one particular thing

• known through intellect and reason

• eternal

• immuntable

• non physical (real physical infer change)

• perfect

  WOTP -

• many particulars

• known through empirical senses

• pass in and out of exstiance

• constantly changing

• physical

• imperfect

plato

• every horse we encounter is different

• but they all have a horsiness in common

• the horsiness help us recognise the form of the horse that is found in the world of the forms

• we recognise the horsiness since our souls recollect the forms of the horse from the world of forms

• at death, we return the world of the forms to await being reborn into a different body - the trauma of birth cases our soul to forget the forms

the form of the good

• the ultimate form

• all particulars have a form in common

• all forms have a form in good in common and this perfection of the forms comes form the form of the good

• its the reason why the forms are good it enables us to see the forms

• (everyone in the realm of the forms will have one common belief of the ideal form)

assessing plato forms - POSITIVES

• the one over the many augment, we have an innate ability to recognise the one over the many

• the idea of standard support blelief in unchain morally law. form sets a standard some forms are too important to just be ask opinion

• the forms encourage us not to take things at face value - there may be more to life than appreances

assessing plates forms - negatives

• wittengstein rejects due to similarities in overlapping characteristcs

• the third man argument - if objects have a common form then what does the from in the parictuclar have in common so a third thing is needed and to explain this it can go on forever (reducto ab abusrbum)

• is there a form for everything…

Aristotles understanding of realality

• disagrees with plato

• the real world is around us

• use empirical method to explain reason - reasoning and knowledge comes from the senses

• everything is constantly changing and moving

• move from potentially to actuality which can explained through the four causes

four causes

material - what things are made out of

formal - the structure or form of the finished thing

efficent - the maker how it came to exist

final - the purpose of the object

why…. used to show the nature of the real world and the task of a philopsher to explain it

cat and human

cat -

m - bones anatomy, organ etc

f- ‘catness’, whiskers tail toe beans

e- mummy and daddy cat

fi - to laze around the house and be cute >-p-<

humans -

m - cells, bones, organs etc

f- soul

e- parents

fi - to acheive eudamonia

assessing ar causes - positives

• makes sense as it follows the change of life (good observation as too why things change)

• easy to apply

• focus on purpose - rational to know when something isn’t fulfilling its purpose and we throw it away

assessing ari causes - negatives

• difficult to apply - humans final cause

• not everything has a purpose (extersentalism Sartre)

Ari’s prime mover

• explanations for the world changing

• the PM is a perfect unchanging immutable being

• eternal - never came into existence it has always been there

• perfect - its completed is actuality so there is no potential for change to occur so it has always been perfect

• impassive - it doesn’t experience emotion as it cannot change its inner state

• causes all things to change

• it cannot be aware of us its only aware of itself as it can onely think about perfect things

• we all move towards him

• cat analogy - the cat moves towards the milk but the milk is unaware that it is there

assessing ari prime mover for

• rational

• more difficult to believe in a god which is perfect has emotions

• avoids problem of evil

assessing ari prime mover against

• contradictory - how can it be eternal impassive ect

• why should humans be drawn… it doesn’t know that we exist

• not all knowing - it doesn’t know the world exists

• not worthy of worship as it isn’t involved

reson (plato)

• form of the good is nesscary and perfect

• the analogy of the cave illustrates the rational methods

• the form of the good is not directly involved with the world

• the form of the good isn’t conscious

• the senses can be an error

• the form of the good is indirectly responsible for the exstiance of things in the world

• everything gravitates towards the form of the good

• innate ideas

• influenced god

experience (ari)

• four causes empirical method

• no innate ideas

• experiences give us ceritantty (prosterei)

• PM isn’t directly or personally involved in the world

• we cannot have thought about things without our senses

• everything gravitates towards the prime mover

• prime moves isnt conscious

Descartes (plato support)

• wax example

• supports reaosning

• a piece of wax is hollow shape and colour

• leave by the fire it will melt

• our senes will tell us its something different but out reason knows that it is the same wax so our reason can fail us

hume (ari support)

• content of our minds are impressions and ideas

• our minds are able to manupliate ideas and add these together - we have never seen a unicorn but we have seen a horse and a horn

• if we have experienced something then we are able to think about it - people who are blind don’t know what the colours are as they have never experienced seeing them thus cannot use their reason to figure out what it looks like