Ancient Philosophical Influences Essays Flashcards
What is the first essay ?
Explain Plato’s view on the hierarchy of the forms, including the form of the Good
what is the intro ? 1
Plato - philisopher from ancient greek who was a rationalist - meaning he thought we could gain knowledge of this world primarily through the use of reason.
Plato uses his theory of the forms to explain why things in this world change and what is real.
He observes that there is two world - world of appreances and world of the forms and the world of appearances is what we are living in
what scholars will you use 1?
plato, wittgenstein, socrates
what is your view essay 1 ?
its successful
what is the point in para 1 ?
Platos theory of the forms help to explain why change happens in the world and why it is not perfect.
In WOA - everything is chnaging and decaying , there is nothing permanent or perfect.
Link to socrates river example - never have the same river because diff water is always flowing throughout , just like life
Plato uses the analogy of the cave to illustrate his thoughts - hihglights why we need to use reason as this everchanging woa is not the real world and the world of the forms is a immutable, perfect and eternal forms are here.
what is a quote from plato in para 1 essay 1 ?
analogy of the cave shows that sense can trap us like the chained prisoners. “How could they see anything but the shadows is they were never allowed to move their heads?”- PLATO
what is the counterargument in para 1 ?essay 1
Analogy of the cave - too abstract , modern people dont want to think about another world , they place more importance on the world they experience now - thereforre wont pay much attention to what he is trying to say
Relying on our senses is actually important - backed up by aristotle who was an empiricist - we use our senses to work out what the world is like and to survive
Material world is all we know and all we have evidence for - difficult to use reason because how do we know who is right if we disagree
how will you counteract the counterargument in para 1 essay 1 ?
- Even if the analogy of the cave may not be relatable - it still teaches us to ask questions and look beyond our senses to discover what is truly real - like the prisoner who escaped and became enlightened
what is the point in para 2 essay 1 ?
a form is an ideal version of something
every object participates in a form and tier system - where form of justice, form of bauty, form of equals under form of good
why are a kind person and a pen that writes well both considered as good- because using reason we work out that these particulars participate in the form of the good, the ideal concept of goodness on the world of the forms
form of the good - enable us to ‘see’ the other forms . reason why the forms are good
our soul remembers the forms from before it was imprisoned in our bodies - he calls this anamnesis
offers an explanation to why we are able to recognise things and classify them into type of things
One over many argument - we have an innate ability to recognise the forms that our sould knew b4 we were born - we are able to recognise the ‘one’ over ‘many’
what is the counterargument in para 2 essay 1 ?
Wittgenstein - rejected the one over many argument with the family resemblance theory.
no ‘one’ over ‘many’ but merely a series of overlapping charcteristics . just as members of a family may resemble each member , but there is mo one thing that is specific to the family
ALSO- third man argument - if there is a form of the forms , would there not be a form of the forms of the forms - this seems illogical as could go on for infinity
issues with things going extinct and things coming into existence
also - if there is one FOG - why are there disagreements about what goodness is.
how will you counteract the counterargument in para 2 essay 1 ?
ideal standard argument (look more into this ) - whos is it ??
what is the second essay ?
Critically discuss the ideas expressed in Plato’s analogy of the cave
what is the intro for essay 2 ?
Plato (philosopher from ancient greece who was a rationalist. Meaning he thought we could gain knowledge of the world primarily using reason.
Analogy of the cave - explains that most of us do not rely on our senses .
what scholars will you use for essay 2 ?
Plato, Aristotle
what is the point in para 1 essay 2 ?
Brief overview of the analogy
provides a coherent way to show the world of appearnces, worlf of forms and form of the good.
Shows us that senses can trap us like the chained prisoners who didnt want to listen to the insights of the returned prisoner - we can be close minded and not want to consider other views - so its better to use reason and to be open to new ideas.
shows us that what we see in the material world are merely shadows and echoes and not the real world. - could provide hope for life after death
what is the counterargument for para 1 essay 2 ?
Too abstract when plato relates it to the wof - modern people dont want to think about another world , they place more importance on the world they are in now and therefore may not pay attention to the important message. they are too rooted in their senses
ARISOTLE - empiricist - sense are better and analogy of cave is wrong to show importance of reason - sense are important as they help us to survive and see the world for ourselves.
