Ancient Philosophical Influences Flashcards
Who was Heraclitus and what did he say?
Heraclitus was an ancient Greek philosopher who cast doubt on the possibility of gaining knowledge. He famously said ‘A man never steps into the same river twice’
What question did Heraclitus pose?
If the world is in a constant state of flux, how do we gain knowledge?
What is rationalism?
Rationalism is the view that knowledge can only be gained a priori (through pure logic)
What did Plato believe?
Plato believed that we must not be experiencing the world correctly - whereby, our minds are trapped in a state of ignorance
What do we experience according to Plato?
We experience imperfect, transient and everchanging things in the world of appearances (Particulars) They are imperfect representations of the form they partake in from which they gain characteristics.
Can you give an example of a particular?
When I look at a tree, I am really looking at the perfect, eternal and immutable form of treeness, but because of my ignorance I see a particular tree which is transient and mutable. It will decay and change due to flux. The tree partakes in the form of treeness.
Illustrate Plato’s allegory of the cave
Plato asks us to imagine prisoners in a cave who cannot move due to being chained. They can only look in one direction a wall on which appear shadows (the objects we experience) of real objects moving behind the prisoners that they cannot see. Those shadows are all the prisoners have ever known, and so they develop a language to talk about them as if they were real. One day, a prisoner escapes and is temporarily blinded by the sun, and then sees the real world. He returns to the cave to explain the truth, but the other prisoners choose not to listen.
Why does Plato reject experience?
Experience involves mere shadows of the real and that is why it cannot give us knowledge. Only a priori reasoning involving understanding of the forms can give us true knowledge.
