Plato Flashcards
What is Plato’s Real World called?
The World of the Forms
What does Plato call the material world?
The World of Appearances
How many worlds does Plato think exist?
Two
How does Plato think true knowledge is gained?
By reason, not the senses
Who should be leaders, according to Plato?
Philosophers
What does Plato call the best leaders of society?
Philosopher Kings
Who was Plato’s teacher?
Socrates
Who was Plato’s student?
Aristotle
What is Plato’s most famous analogy called?
The Analogy of the Cave
What do the shadows represent in Plato’s analogy?
The objects in the material world, experienced by the senses
Who do the prisoners represent in Plato’s analogy?
Empiricists, people in the material world who rely on their senses and experiences for truth/knowledge
Who does the escaped prisoner represent in Plato’s analogy?
The Philosopher, discovering true knowledge through reason.
What does the sun represent in Plato’s analogy?
The Form of the Good
What is the Form of the Good?
The highest of all the forms in the World of the Forms
What does the cave represent in Plato’s analogy?
The World of Appearances
What does the world outside the cave represent in Plato’s analogy?
The World of the Forms
Why are the prisoners chained in Plato’s analogy?
Because they are restricted by their senses and fooled into believing this world is all there is.
Why is the journey out of the cave so difficult for the freed prisoner?
Because learning to rely on reason rather than the senses/experience is difficult; philosophical enlightenment takes effort!
List all the key words used to describe the Forms
Ideal, concept, eternal, perfect, unchanging
What words does Plato use to describe the objects in the material world?
particular, phenomena
How do objects in the material world, relate to the Real World?
They are poor, imperfect and changing reflections of the Form; they participate in the Form.
How does Plato think we know about the Forms?
By recollecting / remembering (anamnesis) from when our souls were in the World of the Forms
What sort of concepts is Plato most concerned with when he talks about Forms?
Forms of justice, beauty and equality
What is behind the prisoners in Plato’s analogy?
A fire
What is cast on the wall in front of the chained prisoners in Plato’s analogy?
Shadows of objects carried by people on a walkway in front of the fire
What happens when the freed prisoner returns to the cave?
He can’t see well and the other prisoners threaten to kill anyone who tries to free them.
At the end of the analogy, whose death may be alluded to?
Socrates
What did A.N. Whitehead say about Plato?
“All Western philosophy is footnotes to Plato”
What does Whitehead’s quote mean?
That Plato is very important to Western Philosophy and much of it follows in the tradition of Plato’s rationalism.
What is Aristotle’s argument against Plato’s Forms called?
The Third Man Argument
What is the study of knowledge, or how we know, called?
Epistemology
What are the three ways of understanding how true knowledge is gained?
Empiricism, Rationalism and Revelation
Give an example of the senses deceiving us
A straight stick looks bent in a glass of water
