Ancient Greece- Plato

Question 1

background

Answer 1

he was a pupil of socrates, who was very aware that he knew nothing- ‘I can’t teach anyone anything, I can only make them think’. instead of becoming a politic, plato devoted his life to continuing the tradition of philosophical enquiry.

Question 2

the forms

Answer 2

-plato believed that the world we live on is the physical world of particulars, while a better and spiritual world which all philosophers aspire to get to is called the world of the forms. the blueprint and perfect version of everything belongs there.
- he says that the soul comes from this world –> the soul then takes on a material body in the world of appearances
–> when the person dies, the soul returns to the world of the forms, then the person takes on a new life, forgetting everything from the previous life. for him, education doesn’t put anything into a Childs mind- it draws out what’s already there, hidden by forgetfulness.
- there’s a hierarchy for the forms- the form of good is above all, and theres subsections of beauty, truth and justice. in the world of appearances, we rely on the suns reflection to see everything, but we also need something like the sun to illuminate our understanding- this ‘sun equivalent’ is the form of the good. plato says that all forms are eternal.

Question 3

the divided line

Answer 3

A= forms (goodness, reality, beauty, truth)
B= mathematical objects
C= physical objects (perceivable by senses)
D= images of physical objects (shadows, reflections, illusions).

• this is platos way of illustrating the types of truths. he puts artists at the bottom of the social hierarchy since they make imperfect copies of material objects, which themselves are inferior to the forms.

Question 4

allegory of the cave

Answer 4

• the story describes a group of people who’re chawed to a wall and can only see shadows projected onto a wall- this is their reality, however it isn’t an accurate representation of the real world. this emphasises how everyone has their own reality. the shadows represent the fragment of reality that we normally perceive through our senses, while the objects under the sun represent the true forms that we can only perceive through reason.
• we live in a world where we accept everything as it is, and if we were to challenge our understanding, it would unsettle society- when the prisoner went back to tell his peers that there was a real world, they rejected it. theres more to the world than we’ll ever understand, and as humans, we have a limited brain.
  -THE SUN ANALOGY: shows that there are things we can’t comprehend in society, and we would only believe it if we saw it. also represents the form of goodness.

Question 5

influences on plato

Answer 5

1) Pythagoras- his therm demonstrates that certain ideas (e.g. mathematical concepts) are eternal and unchanging.
2) Heraclitus- believed that the world was in a constant flux- plato disagreed with this, stating that things had to be certain or fixed to have certain or fixed knowledge.
3) Socrates- he was the wisest man. the greatest philosopher, and the biggest positive influence.

Question 5

demiurge

Answer 5

he believed that this was the creator god that made everything (only after god had given it everything). this wants the best for humanity, and tries to make the universe the best it can. it can be compared to the form of the good.

Question 5

Aristotles objections

Answer 5

• there is no single ‘good’- someone can be really good at playing the harp, but also be a criminal- playing the harp well isn’t the same as living well.
• if the forms are so Important, why does no one study them?
• the forms have no practical value. in matters of health, there no ‘perfect health’, and the doctor only seeks what is healthy for an individual. knowledge of an ‘abstract health’ doesn’t help with diagnoses.
• practical knowledge is learned through observation, not through intellectual knowledge. for example, knowledge of politics comes from observations of constitutions. this shows that just knowing things doesn’t do anything.
• he said that plato ignores the varieties of real objects. for example, is there one ideal form of a plant? or does every type of plant have an ideal form? additionally, is there an infinity of forms since theres an infinity of numbers? if so, this means that the perfect form becomes meaningless.
  –> this can be argued as a misunderstanding of plato-he was unclear about whether there is a form for literally everything in the world.

Question 6

other criticisms

Answer 6

• plato argues that the physical world isn’t as ‘real’ as the world of the forms, however many would argue that the physical world has a very definite reality. for example, if you hit your head against the wall, you’d have an indication that it happened due to the pain.
• some scientists would argue that the physical world is the only one there is, and it can give us true insights into the nature of reality. theres also no scientific evidence to support this theory- theres no way to determine whether the forms are real or not.