Ancient Philosophical Influences Flashcards
Who were Plato and Aristotle?
-Plato and Aristotle are different in a number of key respects. Plato relied on reason and believed that the most important aspect of reality lay beyond this world. Aristotle relied on empirical knowledge and believed that the most important thing to do was gain understanding of this world. They can be categorised as rationalist and empiricist, respectively
-What they agree on is the importance of philosophical thought and reason as a means of gaining truth. This separates them from Christian thinkers who believe that truth comes through revelation
-Both thinkers have been influential in shaping the views of Christian’s and others on various topics
What is Plato’s story of the cave?
-The analogy of the cave plays a key role in Plato’s philosophy. He uses it to sum up his key philosophical ideas. In the story he asks us to imagine that a group of prisoners are chained in an underground cave.
-They have been there since birth and are chained by their neck and ankles. They can only see shadows projected on the wall by a fire.
-They believe that the shadows are all that exists. If one day a prisoner were released and were to venture outside the cave, once his sight adjusted he would realise that it was the outside world that was real and that the cave itself was just a shadow world.
-If the prisoner were to return and attempt to pass on his new knowledge, Plato argues that he would not be believed and the other prisoners might even threaten to kill him
What is the meaning of the prisoners?
Ordinary people in our world
What is the meaning of the cave?
The empirical world that we see and hear around us
What is the meaning of the chains?
The senses that restrict the way we experience things
What is the meaning of the shadows?
Our everyday sense experiences
What is the meaning of the escapee?
The philosopher who is able to access knowledge
What is the meaning of the difficult ascent?
An illustration that the road to philosophical knowledge is hard
What is the meaning of the outside world?
The real world, the world of the forms
What is the meaning of the sun?
The highest of all forms, the form of the good
What is the meaning of the return to the cave?
The philosopher once enlightened feels it is his duty to free and educate others
What is the meaning of the difficulty in adjusting to the darkness?
Once a philosopher knows the truth, it is difficult to experience things as the ordinary person does
What is the meaning of the persecution given by the other prisoners?
Like Socrates, who was executed by the leaders in Athens, the philosopher will be ridiculed and threatened
What are the key messages of the cave?
-Metaphysics. What is real? Plato’s view on metaphysics is that thus world is not real and that the real world is an unchanging world of Forms
-Epistemology. How do we gain knowledge? Plato’s view is that knowledge is through the mind (a priori) not the senses (a posteriori). The senses only provide opinions and shadows
-Politics. Who should rule? The philosopher is the only one who has knowledge and, thus, philosophers should rule. Democracy puts power into the hands of the majority who lack knowledge, the cave dwellers in the story
-Ethics. What is good? It is the philosopher who is able to see and understand the good; they know what goodness is
What issues does Plato’s analogy of the cave raise?
-It is not clear why it is important for the philosophers to rule if this is only a shadow world
-Plato may be right to suggest that our senses are not always reliable; however, the information we get through our senses is not unimportant; we need this to survive
-Plato does not offer proof of the existence of another realm and he is unclear how the two worlds relate to each other
-He is guilty of elitism. The philosopher is not completely different to the ordinary person. While he may be correct to say there are differences in knowledge, these are differences in degree of knowledge. Having 2 groups of people- those who know and those who are ignorants is too simplistic
What are Plato’s forms?
-To understand why Plato believes that there are forms, consider the difference between our world and the mathematical world. In our world, everything is in a process of change: people grow old and die, trees grow and shed leaves, water continually flows.
-Yet mathematical truths do not change: triangles always have 3 sides, 2 +2 will always be 4. Plato believes that there is a similar unchanging truth about every type of object or quality
-For example, if we were to examine lots of different chairs, we would see that despite their differences, there is something that they have in common
-Likewise, to use of of Plato’s own examples, there may be many beautiful things, and there is one thing that they have in common, this is the form of the idea of beauty
What are Plato’s forms and their particulars?
-In contrast to the form, there are many different objects in our world which may to some extent participate in the form. These objects, which are imperfect imitations of the form, are called particulars; they may to a greater or lesser extent have the quality of beauty, to use Plato’s example, but none of them is beauty itself
What is the form of the good?
-The form of the good is the ultimate form according to Plato. Just as a form is what all the particulars have in common (all cats share in the form of the cat) so too in a sense the ‘good’ is what the forms have in common
-The perfection of the forms comes from the form of the good. In the allegory of the cave, the good is represented by the sun in the outside world. Just as the sun gives light to the real world, so the form of the good illuminates the other forms:
-It is the reason why the forms are good
-It enables us to ‘see’ the forms
-It is the ultimate end in itself
Why are Plato’s arguments for the forms?
-The one over many argument.
-The ideal standard
What is the one over many argument?
When we observe different particulars, for example, chairs, cats or beautiful things, we are able to recognise that they are the same sort of thing even if we cannot explain exactly why that is. Even a small child can correctly identify that the new thing in front of her is a cat even though she has never seen one quite like this before. Plato argues that we have an innate ability to recognise the forms that our souls knew before we were born. Without the form, it is not possible to explain the sameness. We are able to recognise the ‘one’ that is over the ‘many’
What is the ideal standard?
The idea of forms can be used to support a belief in absolute unchanging moral rules. The form is the ideal standard of a property. While it may not seem important to judge which is the best dog or who is more beautiful (although judges at crufts and beauty pageants do often agree), some of the higher forms, such as goodness and justice, seem too important to be a matter of opinion. The form of the good gives us an absolute idea of what goodness really is, it is not a matter of opinion
What are the arguments against the forms?
-Wittgenstein rejected the one over many argument with his family resemblance theory. He suggested that there is no ‘one over many’ but merely a series of overlapping characteristics. Just as members of a family may each resemble other members of the family, but there is no one thing that is specific to the family
-The third man argument also responds to the theory’s claim to explain reality. If, as Plato argues, we need the idea of the forms to explain what objects have in common then what is to stop us once we have arrived at the form asking what the form and the particulars have in common and thus requiring a third thing (third man) to explain this. This process could proceed infinitely ans we would never get an explanation of anything
-Plato’s claim that there must be forms for everything can be carried to absurdity. Must there really be the ideal form of dirt, hair or even, as Stephen Law argues, ‘the form of the bogey’?
-There is also the problem of new inventions and things that become extinct. Plato’s belief in the unchanging nature of the world of the forms seems to require that the form of the IPad has always existed and the form of the t-Rex still exists
-The forms do not seem to have a practical value; study of them takes us away from useful scientific study of the world
What are Aritstotle’s four causes?
- Material cause. This is the thing that it is made from, for example, the bronze of a statue. This is the thing that the process of change begins with
- Formal cause. This is the structure or form of the finished thing. This is similar to Plato’s understanding of the word ‘form’ but for Aristotle the form is in the object itself. It is not an idea in another world
- Efficient cause. This is the ‘primary source of the change’. It is the maker of the object, it is the parents of a child. It is this that makes the material transform into it’s final form
- The last and most important of the causes for Aristotle is the final cause. It is the purpose for which something is done or made. In one of Aristotle’s own examples, the final cause or tells of walking about is to be healthy
Why do the 4 causes matter?
For Aristotle, the 4 causes illustrate several of his key ideas
-The world is the real world and the task of philosophers is to explain it
-The key to knowledge is the empirical method
-The world and all that is in it has purpose or telos
