Plato

Plato

·       Inspired by Anaxagoras’ idea of hylos/nous (dualism) – the separation of mind and matter

·       Combined the principles of Heraclitus and Parmenides and reworked them into his own unique philosophy.

Telos

End, purpose, goal – the perfection of oneself - separate from the physical world

Real World (Heraclitus)

Changeable, in process, always becoming never being, Random, unknowable, everything is matter, senses are real

World of Forms (Parmenides)

Unchangeable, eternal, not random, metaphysical (beyond physical), knowable, illusion

As to the question of Change – Plato

·       Change is driven from the Telos (metaphysical) not from necessity (cause/effect) which pushes change from behind.  The telos pulls from ahead.  Removes determinism

·       We are becoming in the real world (physical world), but we “are” or Being in the World of Forms. Therefore, because we “are” or “complete” in the World of Forms, it is more real than this world, the physical world.  This is the basis for Plato’s “Level of Beings.” “We are shadows of what we are to be.”

·       Unifying glue of each “thing” is its Form, also called its essence or nature.  All things have an essence or nature.

·       We must understand a thing's essence or nature, it's why, in order to understand its what.  What it needs is determined by why it is.  Understanding its nature lets us know what is best for it to achieve its end or telos.

·       Facts and knowledge about the thing are now attainable

·       Plato is interested in the why not the what.

·       Degrees of Being – material things continue to change (in process).  Spiritual things “are.”  For this reason material things are less real than things that have attained their Form, essence, or nature.

Human Connections

·       Telos/nature is discoverable – that discovery (knowledge) binds a thing to another thing of the same nature

·       The “truth” about a nature is discoverable and “ALL” things have a nature.

Forms

The fundamental things of reality and the true objects of our knowledge (think of a tree)

Universals

·       No sentence can be uttered without a universal

·       No relationship can be expressed without an idea of a form/universal

·      

Relationships do not exist in the real world, only the concept of the idea exists.  Example, less than, greater than, numbers, bigger, smaller

·       Laws of science cannot exist without reference to a universal

Nominalism (Materialistic Idea)

·       Categories do not exist.  We give things names, manmade idea, so we can understand “similar” things – dogs, cats, humans There is no actual unifying relationship all things are separate and unique (random)  (William of Ockham)

·       Plato argument – It’s not the name of the thing that binds it, it is its essence.  The name captures its reality, but did not create it.  It was here before it was named (eternal)

Problems with Plato:

“Virtue is Knowledge” – To know the good is always to choose the good…is basically what this statement by Plato means.

Plato believes:

1)      Evil is moral ignorance – ignorance of the truth that morality is always good for you, always profitable and always makes you happy

2)      Because evil is ignorance, virtue is knowledge – All you need is education

3)      Human Beings are their Form or Telos – in this case “the soul” pure spirit is the end or purpose and that is what a human is to attain for happiness.

Problems:

1)      Never require one to be judgmental

2)      We excuse evil (he just didn’t know)

3)      Denies evil exists as evil itself

4)      Dangerous expectation that the more educated one is the more moral they are. 

5)      #4 can cause great scandal by putting trust in education (false idols)

The most brilliant mind in existence is God, Lucifer was second.  Intelligence and evil are not connected

Problem #3:

If I am to become pure spirit, why do I have a body and what is its purpose?  It can be viewed as not important, not necessary, or as a prison. 

Not important – then I have no need to really take care of it.  My body is like clothing over my soul which my end purpose is to shed.

As a prison – Christ taught that our body would reunite with our souls and showed us this at His resurrection by rising BODY and SOUL, but in Plato’s world this would be a threat not a blessing since our souls are to be free from our bodies.

Reincarnation would be a possibility.  Plato was a great believer in reincarnation since the soul would simply take on another body.