1.1 Ancient Philosophical Influences

Question 1

in which book does Plato’s cave allegory appear?

Answer 1

in the Republic

Question 2

what are the four main conclusions of Plato’s allegory of the cave?

Answer 2

• metaphysics: this world is not real, the world of the Forms is
• epistemology: knowledge is gained through the mind not the senses
• politics: the philosopher is the only one with knowledge and should therefore rule, democracy puts power into the hands of the cave dwellers
• ethics: only the philosopher can see what the goodness is

Question 3

what is the name of objects in our world which are the imperfect imitations of the Form?

Answer 3

Particulars

Question 4

what is the Form of the good?

Answer 4

• the ultimate form
• the perfection of the forms comes from the form of the good
• the form of the goof illuminates the other forms and is the ultimate end in itself

Question 5

what are the two main arguments for Plato’s forms?

Answer 5

1. the one over many argument: when we observe different things we are able to recognise they are the same sort of things even if we can’t explain why. Plato says we have an innate ability to recognise the Forms that our sould knew before we were born
2. the ideal standard: Forms can be used to support the argument of absolute moral rules. Forms such as goodness and justice seem too important to be a matter of opinion

Question 6

what are the four main criticisms of Plato’s forms?

Answer 6

1. must there really be a form of EVERYTHING? (dirt, anger, incest etc.)
2. how specific are forms?
3. what about new inventions and things that have become extinct, have the forms always existed?
4. evolution and chemistry mean we have empirical means of explaining what things have in common

Question 7

wider scholars views on Plato’s forms?

Answer 7

• Wittgenstein: rejected the one over many argument using his family semblance theory, there is only overlapping characteristics just as family members resemble each other without one thing that is specific to the family
• Bertrand Russell: he found it too difficult to accept the existence of a separate realm without empirical evidence
• scientists like Dawkins, evolution etc.

Question 8

what are Aristotle’s four causes

Answer 8

1. the material cause: what the thing is made of
2. the formal cause: the structure of the thing
3. the efficient cause: the maker of the thing
4. the final cause: the purpose of the thing, its telos

Question 9

what are the characteristics of Aristotle’s Prime Mover?

Answer 9

• immutable
• eternal, anything other would consitute change
• perfect
• impassive, it does not experience emotion as this would bring about change
• the PM’s perfection moves all things towards him without interacting with the world, he is everything’s telos

Question 10

what are arguments in favour of Aristotle’s four causes?

Answer 10

• most objects conform to the idea
• gives us a way of determining if something is good or not, if it does not fulfil its purpose then its not good

Question 11

wider scholars for Aristotle’s four causes

Answer 11

• Sir Francis Bacon: said the four causes were too abstract and speculative, choosing instead to favour hard empiricism
• existentialists: do we have a cause?
• Hume: rejected the idea of telos as anthropomorphic projections onto nature
• Nietzsche: made the same point as Hume, the causes obscure nature’s complexity
• Bertrand Russell: he found it too difficult to accept the existence of a separate realm without empirical evidence

Question 12

Kant’s critique of both Plato’s theory of the Form of the Good and Aristotle’s Prime Mover

Answer 12

• in ‘critique of pure reason’
• challenges the notion of accessing ultimate realities (such as Plato’s Forms or Aristotle’s unmoved mover) through reason alone
• ultimate realities lie beyond our cognitive grasp

• he instead seeks a middle ground between rationalism and empiricism
• while all knowledge begins with experience (empirical), not all knowledge arises out of experience (rational)
• Kant introduces the concept of a priori synthetic judgments, suggesting that the structures of the mind itself play a role in organising sensory experience

Question 13

who criticised both rationalism and empiricism?

Answer 13

Husserl:
- 20th century german philosopher
- empiricism focuses too much on sensory data without understanding the underlying essence of experience
- rationalism is overly abstract and disconnected from actual lived experience
- instead favoured phenomonology which he founded: instead of relying on abstract theories or empirical data it focuses on how things are experienced by consciousness

William James:
- similar, empiricism breaks experience into isolated parts
- rationalism is disconnected from practical experience
- he instead favoured pragmatism

Wittgenstein:
- same criticisms but linked to language
- meaning arises from the use of language in different contexts which cannot be fully catured by rationalist abstractions or empirical generalisations

Question 14

wider scholars for the argument that Plato’s form of the good is unconvincing due to its unchanging nature

Answer 14

Nietzsche
- in ‘beyond good and evil’
- critiques the idea of objective, unchanging truths or values, which challenges Plato’s Form of the Good

Alfred North Whitehead
- in ‘process and reality’
- criticises the notion of eternal, unchanging forms or beings, proposing instead that reality is fundamentally constituted by processes and change