Plato

Question 0

Briefly summarise Plato’s Analogy of The Cave.

Answer 0

1. A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave since birth, unable to move their heads.
2. All they can see is the back wall of a cave, with a fire behind them.
3. They believe the shadows to be real.
4. One of the prisoners is freed and makes the slow and painful journey to the outside world.
5. At first the sunlight dazzles him but then he recognises the real world.
6. He returns to the prisoners to tell them about the real world, but as he can no longer see the shadows, they threaten to attack him.

Question 1

Was Plato an ‘empiricist’ or a ‘rationalist? Explain why.

Answer 1

Plato was a rationalist, believing that we can only discover truth through reason.

Question 2

What does the cave symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 2

The Horaton/ The material world/ The empirical world/ Our world

Question 3

What do the prisoners symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 3

Ordinary people in the everyday world.

Question 4

What do the chains symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 4

Our senses.

Question 5

What do the shadows symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 5

The state of eikasia we experience.

Question 6

What does the fire symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 6

A copy of the form of the good.

Question 7

What does the escapee symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 7

The person who becomes a philosopher.

Question 8

What does the difficult ascent symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 8

That the road to philosophical knowledge is hard.

Question 9

What does the outside world symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 9

The noeton/ The real world/ The world of the forms.

Question 10

What does the sun symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 10

The form of the good, the highest form which enables knowledge of other forms.

Question 11

What does the return to the cave symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 11

The philosopher’s duty to educate others.

Question 12

What does the difficulty in adjusting back to the darkness symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 12

Once we have knowledge it’s impossible to return to ignorance.

Question 13

What does persecution symbolise in Plato’s analogy?

Answer 13

Like Socrates, those with knowledge are often feared by the ignorant.

Question 15

What 3 main ideas is Plato trying to convey in his analogy of the cave?

Answer 15

1. Epistemology
2. Metaphysics
3. Politics

Question 16

Why does Plato believe that we can’t we trust our senses?

Answer 16

1. Our senses do not always give us accurate information, for instance a pencil may appear bent in water or colour blindness.
2. Everything in the universe is in a constant state of change and flux. We live in a transient world.
3. We all have differing ideas about what constitutes ideas like ‘goodness’ and ‘beauty’.

Question 17

What was the name of the book that Plato expressed his ideas in?

Answer 17

‘The Republic VII’

Question 18

Define the term ‘eikasia’

Answer 18

The inability to discern ‘reality’ from ‘unreality’. For instance, thinking that a dream is real.

Question 19

Describe Plato’s hierarchy of reality.

Answer 19

‘The Form of the Good’ —- ‘Higher forms’ (concepts like beauty and justice’) —– ‘Lower forms’ (objects like tables and chairs) — Material objects/ ‘particulars’ — Images of the material world (paintings and photographs) THE FURTHER AWAY WE GET FROM THE FORM OF THE GOOD, THE LESS REAL THINGS BECOME.

Question 20

Compare ‘The Horaton’ and ‘The Noeton’

Answer 20

HORATON (Our world/ the material world/ the world of the senses) vs NOETON (The real world/ the world of the forms/ the rational world)

• Transistory (moves in time and space) / Outside of time and space
• Changing and transient / Unchanging
• Impermanent / Permanent
• Superficial / What matters most
• Experienced through the senses / Beyond the senses
• Can be measured / immeasurable
• Subject to opinion / Universal
• Imperfect / Perfect

Question 21

Discuss, with reference to Plato, ‘What makes a flower a flower?’ .. ‘How do we know what a flower is?’

Answer 21

There are many different types of flower, but a small child recognises a flower for what it is. This is because it participates in the form of the flower, which gives it ‘flowerness’. We recognise the form of the flower because we have innate, a priori knowledge from when our soul existed in the noeton. This partial remembering of the forms is called ANAMNESIS. Our body is continent, but our soul is immutable and unchanging, which is why we recognise the forms.

Plato used the example of a slave boy. He shows a young slave boy a triangle. Even though the boy has had no formal education, he recognises the triangle for what it is.

Question 22

Describe the forms.

Answer 22

They are transcendental and unseen, existing only in the noeton. They are perfect, and give us an absolute basis for morality. Only philosophers can access them through reason and they are the measure of all things, acting as a classifying mechanism which allows us to impose order on our lives. Without them, there would be no realities in this world (the horaton).

Question 23

Give a quote about Plato which you could use in an introduction to an A type ‘explain’ question.

Answer 23

“The European philosophical tradition… consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” - Alfred North Whitehead

Question 24

Describe Plato’s views on politics.

Answer 24

Plato rejected democracy, as he argued that it treats people as though they are equal, when they are not. Only enlightened ‘Philosopher Kings’ are able to rule, as only they have seen ‘The Form of The Good’ and can distinguish what is truly good an just. This has led some, such as Karl Popper, to argue that Plato’s ideas inspired the rise of totalitarianist regimes like those of Hitler and Stalin in the 20th century.

Question 25

Identify 3 strengths of Plato’s ideas.

Answer 25

1. We can agree with Plato that our senses do not always give us accurate information about the world around us. For instance, we can recognise that the world is in a constant state of change and flux. Furthermore, people do not always agree on what constitutes concepts like goodness and beauty.
2. Plato’s analogy emphasises the importance of questioning everything rather than just taking it at face value. We can agree that this is important, even if we do not accept his overall metaphysical views.
3. Although we cannot definitively prove that there are forms and reality is dualistic, we cannot disprove it either. It is unfalsifiable.

Question 26

Identify 7 weaknesses of Plato’s ideas.

Answer 26

1. Our senses allow us to survive from day to day, and yet Plato is quick to criticise them.

2 Plato criticised art and poetry on the grounds that they are based on observation and guesswork, with no philosophical insight, and yet his analogy of the cave is a story in itself. This is hypocritical and somewhat undermines his message.

3. Plato’s theory is speculative metaphysics which runs counter to common sense
4. Plato’s ideas that only philosophers should rule is extremely elitist. Critics like Karl Popper have argued that this was partly responsible for the rise in totalitarianism in the 20th century.
5. Plato’s theory rests on the existence of the soul- which is a highly debated area of philosophy. Issues like interactionism arise.
6. What about the idea of infinite regress- is there a form of the forms? What about a form of the form of the forms? etc.
7. Is there a form of a dog turd? Does a perfect dog turd exist in the noeton? Plato’s ideas are absurd.