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philosophy > Plato > Flashcards

Plato Flashcards

1
Q

What is mans essential virtue?

A

Justice

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2
Q

What does justice bring?

A

Harmony and happiness, good in its own right and beneficial to society

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3
Q

What is the purpose of the noble lie?

A

To invalidate feelings of dissatisfaction in class

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4
Q

What does the bible lie state?

A

That our natures are determined by metals from the ground. Rulers are Gold, auxiliaries are silver and craftsmen are bronze. It maintains the division of power for the benefit of all.

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5
Q

How is an individual just?

A

If reason, emotion and desire within an individuals mind is balanced

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6
Q

What are cardinal virtues of the state?

A

Wisdom, courage, temperance, harmony and justice

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7
Q

What does Plato claim poses the greatest harm to the state?

A

‘Interference by the 3 classes with each other’s jobs does the greatest harm to our state’

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8
Q

What makes a guardian?

A
  • best of the best ( including women)
  • happiness not required
  • no family
  • no property- all is held in common
  • lovers of wisdom
  • mature
  • shouldn’t fear death
  • passed a series of rigorous tests
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9
Q

What is the role of a guardian?

A
  • to maintain peace
  • to love wisdom
  • to keep the classes in order
  • to protect the state
  • to breed in mating festivals to produce the best
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10
Q

What are criticisms of Plato’s guardians?

A
  • not required to be happy- Aristotle- need to be happy to flourish
  • live in peace - Hobbes - naturally selfish- reason of guardians is to override human instinct
  • lovers of wisdom- any teaching that is censored/ ignorant necessitates lack of wisdom
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11
Q

Why does Plato raise the genders equally?

A
  • if men and women are to be used for the same purpose they need the same training and education
  • women shouldn’t be confined to domestic duties- the ‘tearing of their puppies incapacitates them’
  • ‘ only difference is that the female bears and the man begets’, which is irrelevant in a society where women aren’t constrained to raising children
  • Plato accepts that ‘ a great many women are better than a great many men’- and gives then the opportunity to be the exceptions
  • ‘ natural capacities are similarly distributed in each sex’
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12
Q

How does Plato contradict his statements on gender equality?

A
  • ‘ all in all women will be the weaker partners’

- ‘ women and children are to be held in common by men’

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13
Q

How does Plato defend women in his family policy?

A
  • he believes that child bearing incapacitates women from their full achievement
  • all female guardians are in common to all male guardians in reproductive practice
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14
Q

Why does Plato call for an end to the family?

A

He wants equal opportunities for women and children and ultimately the best guardians possible.
He believes that unanimity is the greatest good for peace- society is the large family

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15
Q

What is the breeding prime?

A

Men- 20-40

Women-25-55

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16
Q

Why are generational names used for each other?

A
  • as a preventative against incest

- respect for elders

17
Q

What is a philosopher?

A

A lover of wisdom, someone who devotes themselves to the truth

18
Q

How does Plato justify that a philosopher should know the forms?

A
  • a lover of something loves the whole of it, not merely one aspect
  • the lover of truth lives the one thing that is evident in the forms
  • the lover of sights lives sensible instances of beautiful things, not beauty in its pure essence in the forms, the whole of beauty
  • the philosopher who loves the whole of knowledge knows the forms and is truly awake
19
Q

What does Plato imply in the analogy of the ship?

A
  • the captain is society and is ‘ larger and stronger than the crew, but a bit deaf and short sighted with limited seamanship
  • the crew are politicians and are ‘quarrelling with each other about how to navigate, each thinking he ought to be at the helm’, ‘controlling the captain by force and fraud’
  • navigator is the philosopher, sailors ‘regard the true navigator as a word spinner and star gazer, of no use to them at all’
20
Q

How does Plato explain the influence of society on philosophers?

A

He describes the philosopher to be ‘carried away with the stream until he finds himself agreeing with the popular ideas’. This is comparable to the impression of the mass media on the individual.

21
Q

How does Plato suggest that the philosopher succeed?

A

They must ‘ live quietly and keep to themselves’

22
Q

What are the forms?

A

Eternal truths that are the source of all reality

23
Q

Why does Plato compare ‘the good’ to the sun?

A

Because like all our awareness of the world is dependent on the sun, all knowledge in the forms is dependent on ‘the good’

24
Q

What are images equal to in epistemology?

A

Opinion

25
Q

What are objects of sight equivalent to in epistemology?

A

Belief

26
Q

What are scientific concepts equivalent to in epistemology?

A

Understanding

27
Q

What are the forms equivalent to in epistemology?

A

Pure reason

28
Q

What is the highest form of knowledge?

A

The good

29
Q

Why is knowledge needed?

A

For justice

30
Q

What is belief compared to?

A

The visible realm, ordinary physical objects, the reflection of knowledge in the visible world. The transition state between the real and unreal.

31
Q

What is it to be ignorant?

A

To be a lover of sight, living in the shadow world, dreaming. Focusing on imitations of sensual objects, like the prisoners in the cave

32
Q

What happens in the analogy of the cave?

A

There are prisoners tied up facing a wall for life who can see shadows of life behind them- they believe that the shadows of objects are real as they have never believed anything else. One prisoner escapes and sees objects and learns that the sun is the source of life and perception. The other prisoners don’t believe him and threaten him if he tries to set them free.

33
Q

What are strengths and weaknesses of the forms?

A
  • S- we can observe our ever changing material world and see knowledge, like maths, remain permanent, like the forms
  • CA- mathematical fact is learnt from experience rather than the realm of forms- Aristotle
  • S- it is impossible defeat argument as it defends itself within- any lack of understanding is because we do not have knowledge of the forms
  • W- hard to know whether understanding of the forms is in fact from experience because a priori- could in fact be one and the same
  • W- does everything ( negative things, that are not yet discoverable, or perishable) have a form? Do forms derive from individual things or the larger component which they make us? And would there be an overlap between these things?
  • CA- we cannot know of this until we have knowledge of all things from the forms
  • W- ‘the good’ implies an absolute morality- so which one? and those who follow a truth surely should have knowledge of all other things, which they don’t

philosophy (21 decks)

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