Plato Flashcards
What did Heraclitus say and what was wrong with his statement?
“everything flows there is no changing essence to anything”
essence and change cannot coexist as essence is reliant on an unchanging core
What did Plato believe?
5 points
1) He was a rationalist and believed knowledge came from reasoning
2) Argues for epistemological humility ( our knowledge will always be incomplete)
3) He believed we cant gain true knowledge in a world that was constantly changing
4) He believed in dualism
5) He believed the forms were absolute and objective
What are particulars?
Objects that contain no real knowledge just opinions i.e “that ball is big” = opinion as there will be bigger balls
What are the forms?
Where true knowledge is as they are eternal and transcendent and where the ideal, universal values such as beauty and justice exist
What is the world of the forms called?
Noeton
What does ekasia mean?
Ignorance - the reason why we can’t see the world of the forms
Key features of the Forms
5 points
1) simple - not a mixture of anything
2) permanent
3) perfect
4) separate from particulars
5) The form of the goods = the supreme form
What is Plato’s analogy of the cave?
The journey a philosopher makes from illusion to reality - from ignorance to the world of the forms
What are Aristotle’s criticisms of Plato?
2 points
1) The third man argument: undermines the idea that the forms are ideal as we would have to appeal to an infinite amount of forms to make one judgement
2) Lacks empirical evidence
What are some modern criticisms of Plato?
What would Plato answer
1) Little grounding in empirical data
2) Counter- intuitive = if world of forms is invisible and only knowledgeable through intellect how are we able to predict behaviors of the world
however Plato would answer that science is a sophisticated version of the prisoners guessing at the images on the cave wall
What is the evidence for the forms?
1) beauty is forever changing = trying to imitate the beauty in the world of the forms
2) Empiricists cannot see past illusion world
3) Children from young age can distinguish bad from good and this is from there souls being in the forms previously
What is the illusion world called?
Horaton
What is the Demi-urge?
- Plato’s idea of God
- The demi-urge created the world the world of the forms and created the horaton with material that was already there
- He was limited by material which is hwy things are physical and changeable
What is the form of the Good
The form that illuminates all other forms and gives them there value
- the forms more higher down the hierarchy are more related to the Horaton
What did Plato want us to understand with his analogy of the cave
7 points
1) The relationship between the material world and the forms
2) material physical concerns can blind people to whats really important
3) ignorance of humanity when people don’t engage with philosophy
4) potential of true knowledge that philosophy brings
5) another world that we can’t see from the position we’re in
6) There are initial difficulties when grasping philosophy
7) The injustice of Socrates death
