ancient Philosophical influences Flashcards
(8 cards)
what is platos understanding of reality
In Republic, Plato explores the nature of knowledge and how only reason (episteme) can lead to true knowledge (doxa) as experience will only give us changing opinion - the physical world is always changing so how can we attain true certain knowledge from it
he argued there are realities with certain knowledge which doesn’t change - he called these the ‘forms’
he believed everything we learn through our senses are imperfect imitations of there ideal forms
the particulars will always be an imperfect representations of these ideals – a shadow of it if you like
what is the theory of the forms and the form of the good
Forms are perfect ideas - uncreated, ultimately real, immaterial, unchanging, transcendent (beyond space and time), pure ,archetypes (models).
Only known through reason.
Everything has a form - there are forms for beauty, justice and wisdom, forms for living things and objects, forms for mathematical concepts. The form is what they all have in common. They are systematically interconnected
Ultimate Form is the Form of the Good - The Form of the Good is considered the pinnacle of the Forms. It is the ultimate principle that illuminates and gives meaning to all other Forms and provides the basis for knowledge and understanding. The Good is the source of moral and intellectual virtues, and it is through striving to understand and align with the Good that individuals can achieve true wisdom, justice, and a harmonious existence.
believes as we have some innate knowledge of things its because our souls have been in the world of the forms before
what is the allegory of the cave
Cave= World of Appearances, Prisoners= Us, Objects = Imitations of the Forms, Fire= Sun of our World, Sun= Form of the Good, Escaped prisoner= The Philosopher, Journey out of the Cave= soul’s journey into realm of forms.
written in the republic
‘they see only their own shadows’ - metaphors for our world being an illusion and how we don’t know the real truth/ can’t distinguish between reality and illusion
platos diermurge - means ‘craftsman’ - is the person plato believed created the world and is good and desires the best for humanity
criticisms of plato
Aristotle - fails when pushed to the logical extreme - could potentially accept forms of maths like square or forms of qualities like justice but accepting forms of spite or jealously doesn’t seem logical
the third man argument- need a form to explain the relationship between the particular and the form which leads to an infinite regress of forms
is there an ideal form of a plant would it have fruit, flowers, leaves ect or is there a form for each specific plant like a rose what about the different variations of roses?
however it could be argued that this is misunderstanding plato where he focused on the forms of qualities and many philosophers would agree that we have innate knowledge of goodness ect
no scientific evidence to support the world of the forms - for Aristotle it makes sense to focus on whats around us not another realm- Dawkins would argue that any talk of the transcendent (a world beyond the physical) is meaningless as there is no evidence to support such a claim - for Dawkins real knowledge comes through empirical/scientific testing of the universe around us same with Aristotle
Richard dawkins - believes that ideas or concepts are passed on genetically from generation to generation. He calls these ideas memes.
Could this account for our
apparent recognition of ‘Forms’ such as Beauty, Truth, Justice or Symmetry
agreements/ strengths of plato
buddhism- agrees in principle with platos assessment of reality - they believe that life is ‘dukka’ or suffering which they believe comes from human desire to hold onto the physical realm
they agree with plato that physical reality is in a constant state of change and that true reality exists beyond this realm
Griswold - when plato discusses the perfect form a bed he sees it as plato being humorous and not series - plato is putting emphasis on the forms of qualities not things like beds
St. Augustine- argued that evils or negative things do not really exists at all. They have no true substance as they are simply privations of goodness - the absence of Good. - plato could argue there are no bad forms
Descartes was also a rationalist. He could be used to support Plato because he agreed that we have concepts that exist in the mind first and then help us construct reality.
The difference is that Descartes believed that these ideas existed solely in the mind and not in an independent reality elsewhere (like the WoF).
Explains why world is imperfect & problem of evil (world is imperfect copies of the form).
Encourages us not to accept things at face value: empirical knowledge can be flawed.
Aristotles understanding of reality
a posteriori - from experience
values empirical evidence from the world around us
Aristotle was one of platos brightest students
he was founder of many sciences including physics, biology and astronomy
he was fascinated with the question of what caused things - he used the term ‘aetion’ translated to cause
Aristotle saw we could have different explanations for existence and caused
the 4 causes
how things go from potentiality to actuality
material - what something is made from
formal- shape something has
efficient cause- what made it
final cause - telos/ purpose of it - this idea of great significance to aquinas
he thought something was good when it fulfilled its telos
strengths and weaknesses of the 4 causes
strengths
Derived from Aristotle’s observations of the natural world. Contrast this with Plato.
Causes can be readily applied to objects in the world
weaknesses
Is there really a final cause or purpose to the universe? Cant it just be there? (Bertrand Russell).
