Plato

Question 1

What does Plato rely on and why?

Answer 1

believed in reason opposed to the senses:
- Believed empirical knowledge (from the senses) cannot be accepted as a fact and it doesn’t show reality
→ Plato’s understanding of knowledge of reality based entirely on reasoning (called a priori – gained wholly from logical reasoning and independent of sensory experience)

Question 2

What type of argument is Plato’s?

Answer 2

absolutist: metaphysical view that there is an absolute reality, i.e., a reality that exists independently of human knowledge

Question 3

What is the basic idea of the allegory of the cave?

Answer 3

• Imagine prisoners in a cave who are chained to the floor so they can only see the wall infront of them, and the shadows of things passing the mouth of the cave. One man escapes and it is a hard journey out of the cave. At first, he is dazzled by the ‘real’ objects which were more real than the shadows he saw in the cave. He then returns to the cave to tell his fellows but they reject him

Question 4

what does the allegory imply?

Answer 4

• Implies people are ‘philosophically ignorant’ and are like the prisoners → they can only see the shadows playing on the back of the cave and think the shadows are real

Question 5

what does the world outside and the cave represent?

Answer 5

• World outside represents the ‘real’ forms; the person who escapes = philosopher king
• cave represents people only believe knowledge from their senses – empirical evidence. Thus, the cave demonstrates that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in this ‘cave’ of misinterpretation

Question 6

what do the chained people symbolize?

Answer 6

ignorance of people

Question 7

what does the raised wall symbolize?

Answer 7

limitations of our thinking

Question 8

what do the shadows symbolize?

Answer 8

the way people who believe empirical evidence perceive things but they are merely seeing a shadow of truth

Question 9

what does the prisoner who escapes demonstrate?

Answer 9

demonstrates the philosopher who seeks truth and knowledge from beyond the cave and outside of empirical evidence, and their journey emphasises a philosopher’s journey to finding wisdom and truth of the world

Question 10

what does the outer world of blinding light symbolically demonstrate?

Answer 10

demonstrates the world of spiritual reality which is achieved through breaking the chains to hold us down. The dazzling of eyes which occurs on two occasions symbolises the difficulty of recognising the material world and accepting the ignorance after discovering true reality

Question 11

what does the reaction from the prisoners once they escape signify?

Answer 11

that people are scared to look upon what’s beyond their ‘cave’ and more so scared of philosophical truths

Question 12

what do the theory of forms explain

Answer 12

Plato’s explanation about why things in this world change and what is real

Question 13

what 2 worlds did Plato believe in?

Answer 13

world of appearances and the world of Forms

Question 14

what is the world of appearances?

Answer 14

our world where things appear to be real but aren’t permanent ∴ change/decay and eventually die
→ material world we experience is like the cave in the analogy because it gives the illusion of being real but is only a poor imitation of reality
≫ senses restrict us, like the prisoners’ chains in the cave and we rely on what we can see, hear and touch

Question 15

what is the real of forms

Answer 15

where things are eternal and unchanging → we can gain knowledge of this world through reason

Question 16

how did the changing nature of things present a problem for Plato?

Answer 16

how could people attain true & certain knowledge if the objects they wanted to know about were never the same from one moment to the next? ≫ as soon as a person thought they understood something, it was different again
» ‘You can never step in the same river twice’ – Heraclites
- Came to the conclusion that the things we see around us in the physical world are always in a state of process and change; ∴ can’t be the objects of completely true knowledge

Question 17

details of the realm of forms

Answer 17

• Argued there are also other realities where we can have certain knowledge and in this world these objects don’t change
   These realities are concepts, which Plato called ‘Forms’ or ‘Ideas’
   Things we see in this world simply a poor imitation & example of their ideal form → only recognise things for what they are only because of out innate knowledge of their forms (we have an inborn intuition about the forms; at some point before we were born we experience them → our immortal soul came from realm of forms and body acts like a prison for the soul, which chains us to our senses ≫ like the prisoners in the analogy of the cave)

Question 18

what is the word meaning all knowledge is recollection?

Answer 18

anamnesis

Question 19

what is a form of something?

Answer 19

behind every concept or object in this visible world is an unseen reality called the FORM e.g., there is a form of beauty which is seen as an ideal blueprint for the earthly examples (particulars) of beauty. Forms are much more real than their particulars which are only pale reflections of their forms → e.g., the beauty of a painting is a poor illusion of the Form of Beauty

Question 20

why can we recognise things in the visible world?

Answer 20

• Believes only reason we can recognise things in the visible world is because of their resemblance of the Forms
  → e.g., cats come in app shapes and sizes, colours and breeds but their distinguishing feature is the essence of cattiness ≫ all share something of the form of the cat

Question 21

what is the hierarchy of the Forms?

Answer 21

• Believed all of the forms are connected to each other in a fixed order of importance.
   Most important is the Form of the Good which is central to the existence of the entire universe → without the form of the good there would be no ideal form of beauty or justice etc.
• It is the job of the ‘philosopher king’ to gain knowledge of the form of the good and this will lead to a full understanding of reality/truth and rational behaviour
• Hierarchy of the forms:
  → Form of the Good: everything falls below, like the sun in the allegory, illuminates all other forms
  → form of justice, beauty, equals e.g., all aspects of goodness
  →abstract ideas – bed, tree, horse
  → mathematical reasoning
  → material objects & opinions based on senses

Question 22

what is the analogy of the horseman/charioteer?

Answer 22

• Souls are like driving 2 horses: horses correspond to our spirit (easily controlled) and our appetite (difficult to control) while the horseman himself is our reason, which we are supposed to develop so we can better control the horses

Question 23

what is the form of the good?

Answer 23

Impersonal power ‘sustains everything else’
Source of reality ‘responsible for everything that is right and fine’
Goal in reality ‘greatest of all that is known, because it’s the giver on knowledge’
- Thinks things further from the good are imperfect, more ‘shadowy’

Question 24

why can only philosopher kings have complete knowledge and understanding of goodness?

Answer 24

 Pl. is saying only people like him can rule (elitist!) with the assumption that because you know the good it will make you good
- You can’t be told about the form of the good, its ultimate, metaphysical ∴ can’t use our language to describe it
 Can’t find form of the good with senses and cannot invent it → its eternal and changeless
 BUT: he is capable of knowing the form of the good if he uses his reason: knowledge of this is innate, his soul has lived in the realm of forms therefore knows what cannot be described
→ person can learn about the form of the good by being questioned by a philosopher
≫ phil. Asks the person ‘what is good?’; philosopher only ever asks qs. How can…? Don’t you think that…? What about…?

Question 25

how does Plato describe the form of the good?

Answer 25

the ‘goal at the end of questioning’

Question 26

Strengths:

Answer 26

• Offers a logical & reasonable theory concerned with the idea that there are universal concepts that exist independent of our experiences
   How shared ideas exist & explain imperfection in the world: why there’s evil in the world & people fall short of goodness
   Forms helps us account for imperfections in our world
   CC: if there’s one form of the good, why are there disagreements about what rye goodness is?
• Helps us understand the concepts of beauty, justice & love are absolute & universal
   We discover them within ourselves
   Have an innate knowledge of the Forms: anamnesis, a priori
   Eg babies smile at ‘beautiful’ people and cry at those less beautiful
   Mathematics can be looked at as a universal truth (not invented maths but we’ve discovered it)
   Scholarly views:
   Griswold: believes that Plato not serious when he mentioned the form of a Bed in the Republic. -> Plato’s real interest is in universal ideals eg beauty/truth/goodness
   CC: Scholarly view: J. Locke; tabula rasa (clean slate) not born with innate knowledge
• Quantum physics: laws that govern world of big objects (atoms upwards) DO NOT apply to quantum world -> knowledge of world from empirical evidence thrown into doubt; evidence that empiricism can be doubtable
• Links to xian thinking, (had a strong influence) world of Forms could link to heaven
   St Augustine affirms some truth in Platonic Forms but replaces Form of Good with transcendent God (who becomes incarnate)
• Rene Descartes’ dualism (cartesian dualism): mind and body completely separate
   Soul has lived before without physical body in realm of Forms) -> without it we wouldn’t have this innate knowledge
  CC: seems incoherent as there’s 2 separate substances, don’t need to think that the soul has the capability to reason
• In the material world there is nothing permanent or perfect, makes sense there’s a world where things are eternal, perfect and immutable, the World of Appearances is just a shadow and we’re deceived by our senses (better to use reason to understand how things really are) -> link to allegory of cave
  ≫ CC: the ‘philosopher king’ had to use their senses to see the shadows ∴ sensory experience must be needed to gain knowledge, realm of forms is just a psychological crutch (Freud)
  → hence, we can’t begin to reason until we use our senses

Question 27

weaknesses:

Answer 27

• Infinite regression – form of a form:
   Third Man Argument (Aristotle) an individual man is a copy of the Form of Man -> every object in the physical realm has a copy in the WoF > therefore must be a Copy of the Copy of the Form of Man and so on…
   Forms stop being universal and become more like particulars
• Forms may be useful to understand the world (such as the concept of justice) however it comes unstuck because its proposed as existing in a separate realm – it’s not provable: becomes superfluous; a lot of the Forms are meaningless and unnecessary eg bus tickets Why shouldn’t there be a form of evil, sin etc?
   Forms are just a psychological crutch (Freud and Karl Popper)
   Freud said any belief in a soul/ metaphysical realm is ‘an illusion based on wish fulfilment’
   Belief in God is an illusion; any belief in a perfect realm, soul or Form is simply an illusion, Plato just looking for an excuse and therefore creates an illusion
• Plato makes mistake by insisting that the forms have a separate metaphysical existence
   Essence of the forms would’ve been stronger, doesn’t have to exist in a separate world
   Kant: can’t jump from reasoning about this world (the phenomenal) to reasoning about God (noumenal); we can’t experience or rationalise the noumenal,
   At best the forms are just concepts but don’t have to have a separate existence
   In Book X of the Republic, Plato implies that there are separate forms for tables, beds etc: “there are beds and tables in the world – plenty of them – are there not? But there are only two ideas or forms of the, - one of the bed, the other of a table”
   However, in Book VI of the Republic (in his allegory of the sun, Plato implies only one form ultimately exists (Form of the Good)
• Form of the Good: goodness is relative and subjective (no absolute good)
   Aristotle: goodness comes in many varieties -> can’t be one form of it
   Dawkins: ideas e.g., goodness/truth/beauty passed on from generation to generation and only last to help us survive
   We’re a lot like our parents, therefore no form of the good, just what we pass on and how we’re brought up
  Very few people will obtain knowledge of the good therefore can the Forms be realistically understood and accepted: Plato wrong to assume a correlation between intelligence and goodness-> unconvincing as it leaves many questions unanswered