Plato Flashcards
(25 cards)
What does Plato believe about our senses
They can deceive us and we should use logic instead
What does the cave represent
The world of appearances in which most people are trapped - the empirical world
What do the shadows represent
The material objects that reflect the forms/particular
What does the world outside the cave represent
The world of forms- which is immutable and eternal
What do the chains represent
Our senses that keep us trapped in this world of decay and change
Why does Plato point up to the sky
He believes that there is another eternal, perfect and unchanging world
What are some features of the world of forms
Immutable Eternal Perfect Invisible (beyond the physical) True perception of reality It is the ideal of beauty One fixed perfect form of everything
Give some features of the world of appearances
Everything is changing Truth is unknown Empirical world Many opinions Imperfect
What is a phenomena/particular
An object in the material world that is a bleak-reflection of a form e.g my dog
What is a concept/ideal
The ideal form of an object eg it’s beauty
What is a form
The eternal and real ideal of something
Give some strengths of the cave allegory
Encourages us not to judge things at face value
We can’t be certain of our senses as they deceive us
Give some weaknesses of the cave allegory
Plato implies the senses to be useless but we have survived for millions of years because of them
Gaining knowledge from experience is a true and realistic argument (empiricism)
Why is the world of forms invisible
Plato says that if we could see it with our senses like we do in the empirical world then our senses would deceive us
what are some strengths of Plato’s theory of forms
It explains why we recognize things eg we find things beautiful because we are remembering (anamnesis) the form of beauty from the world of forms.
It helps us to understand why there is evil and problems in our world. It is imperfect and constantly changing which makes the truth of our world unknown.
If our senses are unreliable, we can question if they’re certain enough for us to build our world view upon them. Makes us think if the true world of forms is hindered from us by our senses
What are some weaknesses of Plato’s theory of forms
Even though Plato says our senses deceive us, the mind helps us to analyze what we see and if we can’t see anything how can we even deem the World of Forms to be true. Also, if Plato believes everything in our world is imperfect and that everything in the world of forms is the perfect version of an object in our world, then surely there must be ideals of evil things such as ‘the perfect nuclear weapon’.
Gaining knowledge through sense experience is a very true and realistic argument
We have survived by using our senses and relied upon them for millions of years- they’re trustworthy and help us to make decisions based upon them
There is no empirical evidence of the existence of another world outside our senses. We are therefore looking for empirical evidence from something that is rational and only known through reason-this is impossible
What are Plato’s views on epistemology
In his cave analogy it shows us that to understand that we live in an empirical world, we need to be a rationalist
Plato believes in an A priori argument, what is this?
We gain knowledge before sense experience
What does the journey of the prisoner escaping the cave symbolize
This symbolizes the journey to rationalism for empiricism and that it can be very tough and challenging but once you complete it you can understand the concept forms
What is the form of the good
It is at the top of the Hierarchy of forms and it shares goodness as it goes down the hierarchy. All the forms are perfect and their perfection comes from the form of the good
What is portrayed as the form of the good in Plato’s cave analogy
Once the prisoners escapes the cave he gets into the real world and sees the sun. The sun is portrayed as the form of the good because it enlightens us and shows us the truth about the World of Forms
What does Plato believe rationalism helps us with
Decision making, you can make better judgements on situations because you’re using pure reason and you can understand a situation from different points of view
Why shouldn’t we neglect our senses
Using our sense experience to gain knowledge is true. For example if I touch a hot pan and burn myself I now know not to do that again as it is harmful to me and I gained this knowledge by using my senses.
How does Aristotle’s third man argument argue
against the forms
A man is a reflection of a form of a man. Surely there must exist a form of a form of a man and therefore the series of forms would carry on infinitely.
