Plato Flashcards
What does Plato rely on and why?
believed in reason opposed to the senses:
- Believed empirical knowledge (from the senses) cannot be accepted as a fact and it doesn’t show reality
→ Plato’s understanding of knowledge of reality based entirely on reasoning (called a priori – gained wholly from logical reasoning and independent of sensory experience)
What type of argument is Plato’s?
absolutist: metaphysical view that there is an absolute reality, i.e., a reality that exists independently of human knowledge
What is the basic idea of the allegory of the cave?
- Imagine prisoners in a cave who are chained to the floor so they can only see the wall infront of them, and the shadows of things passing the mouth of the cave. One man escapes and it is a hard journey out of the cave. At first, he is dazzled by the ‘real’ objects which were more real than the shadows he saw in the cave. He then returns to the cave to tell his fellows but they reject him
what does the allegory imply?
- Implies people are ‘philosophically ignorant’ and are like the prisoners → they can only see the shadows playing on the back of the cave and think the shadows are real
what does the world outside and the cave represent?
- World outside represents the ‘real’ forms; the person who escapes = philosopher king
- cave represents people only believe knowledge from their senses – empirical evidence. Thus, the cave demonstrates that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in this ‘cave’ of misinterpretation
what do the chained people symbolize?
ignorance of people
what does the raised wall symbolize?
limitations of our thinking
what do the shadows symbolize?
the way people who believe empirical evidence perceive things but they are merely seeing a shadow of truth
what does the prisoner who escapes demonstrate?
demonstrates the philosopher who seeks truth and knowledge from beyond the cave and outside of empirical evidence, and their journey emphasises a philosopher’s journey to finding wisdom and truth of the world
what does the outer world of blinding light symbolically demonstrate?
demonstrates the world of spiritual reality which is achieved through breaking the chains to hold us down. The dazzling of eyes which occurs on two occasions symbolises the difficulty of recognising the material world and accepting the ignorance after discovering true reality
what does the reaction from the prisoners once they escape signify?
that people are scared to look upon what’s beyond their ‘cave’ and more so scared of philosophical truths
what do the theory of forms explain
Plato’s explanation about why things in this world change and what is real
what 2 worlds did Plato believe in?
world of appearances and the world of Forms
what is the world of appearances?
our world where things appear to be real but aren’t permanent ∴ change/decay and eventually die
→ material world we experience is like the cave in the analogy because it gives the illusion of being real but is only a poor imitation of reality
≫ senses restrict us, like the prisoners’ chains in the cave and we rely on what we can see, hear and touch
what is the real of forms
where things are eternal and unchanging → we can gain knowledge of this world through reason
how did the changing nature of things present a problem for Plato?
how could people attain true & certain knowledge if the objects they wanted to know about were never the same from one moment to the next? ≫ as soon as a person thought they understood something, it was different again
» ‘You can never step in the same river twice’ – Heraclites
- Came to the conclusion that the things we see around us in the physical world are always in a state of process and change; ∴ can’t be the objects of completely true knowledge
details of the realm of forms
- Argued there are also other realities where we can have certain knowledge and in this world these objects don’t change
These realities are concepts, which Plato called ‘Forms’ or ‘Ideas’
Things we see in this world simply a poor imitation & example of their ideal form → only recognise things for what they are only because of out innate knowledge of their forms (we have an inborn intuition about the forms; at some point before we were born we experience them → our immortal soul came from realm of forms and body acts like a prison for the soul, which chains us to our senses ≫ like the prisoners in the analogy of the cave)
what is the word meaning all knowledge is recollection?
anamnesis
what is a form of something?
behind every concept or object in this visible world is an unseen reality called the FORM e.g., there is a form of beauty which is seen as an ideal blueprint for the earthly examples (particulars) of beauty. Forms are much more real than their particulars which are only pale reflections of their forms → e.g., the beauty of a painting is a poor illusion of the Form of Beauty
why can we recognise things in the visible world?
- Believes only reason we can recognise things in the visible world is because of their resemblance of the Forms
→ e.g., cats come in app shapes and sizes, colours and breeds but their distinguishing feature is the essence of cattiness ≫ all share something of the form of the cat
what is the hierarchy of the Forms?
- Believed all of the forms are connected to each other in a fixed order of importance.
Most important is the Form of the Good which is central to the existence of the entire universe → without the form of the good there would be no ideal form of beauty or justice etc. - It is the job of the ‘philosopher king’ to gain knowledge of the form of the good and this will lead to a full understanding of reality/truth and rational behaviour
- Hierarchy of the forms:
→ Form of the Good: everything falls below, like the sun in the allegory, illuminates all other forms
→ form of justice, beauty, equals e.g., all aspects of goodness
→abstract ideas – bed, tree, horse
→ mathematical reasoning
→ material objects & opinions based on senses
what is the analogy of the horseman/charioteer?
- Souls are like driving 2 horses: horses correspond to our spirit (easily controlled) and our appetite (difficult to control) while the horseman himself is our reason, which we are supposed to develop so we can better control the horses
what is the form of the good?
Impersonal power ‘sustains everything else’
Source of reality ‘responsible for everything that is right and fine’
Goal in reality ‘greatest of all that is known, because it’s the giver on knowledge’
- Thinks things further from the good are imperfect, more ‘shadowy’
why can only philosopher kings have complete knowledge and understanding of goodness?
Pl. is saying only people like him can rule (elitist!) with the assumption that because you know the good it will make you good
- You can’t be told about the form of the good, its ultimate, metaphysical ∴ can’t use our language to describe it
Can’t find form of the good with senses and cannot invent it → its eternal and changeless
BUT: he is capable of knowing the form of the good if he uses his reason: knowledge of this is innate, his soul has lived in the realm of forms therefore knows what cannot be described
→ person can learn about the form of the good by being questioned by a philosopher
≫ phil. Asks the person ‘what is good?’; philosopher only ever asks qs. How can…? Don’t you think that…? What about…?
