Plato

Question 1

What does Plato believe about our senses

Answer 1

They can deceive us and we should use logic instead

Question 2

What does the cave represent

Answer 2

The world of appearances in which most people are trapped - the empirical world

Question 3

What do the shadows represent

Answer 3

The material objects that reflect the forms/particular

Question 4

What does the world outside the cave represent

Answer 4

The world of forms- which is immutable and eternal

Question 5

What do the chains represent

Answer 5

Our senses that keep us trapped in this world of decay and change

Question 6

Why does Plato point up to the sky

Answer 6

He believes that there is another eternal, perfect and unchanging world

Question 7

What are some features of the world of forms

Answer 7

Immutable
Eternal
Perfect
Invisible (beyond the physical)
True perception of reality
It is the ideal of beauty 
One fixed perfect form of everything

Question 8

Give some features of the world of appearances

Answer 8

Everything is changing
Truth is unknown 
Empirical world 
Many opinions 
Imperfect

Question 9

What is a phenomena/particular

Answer 9

An object in the material world that is a bleak-reflection of a form e.g my dog

Question 10

What is a concept/ideal

Answer 10

The ideal form of an object eg it’s beauty

Question 11

What is a form

Answer 11

The eternal and real ideal of something

Question 12

Give some strengths of the cave allegory

Answer 12

Encourages us not to judge things at face value

We can’t be certain of our senses as they deceive us

Question 13

Give some weaknesses of the cave allegory

Answer 13

Plato implies the senses to be useless but we have survived for millions of years because of them

Gaining knowledge from experience is a true and realistic argument (empiricism)

Question 14

Why is the world of forms invisible

Answer 14

Plato says that if we could see it with our senses like we do in the empirical world then our senses would deceive us

Question 15

what are some strengths of Plato’s theory of forms

Answer 15

It explains why we recognize things eg we find things beautiful because we are remembering (anamnesis) the form of beauty from the world of forms.
It helps us to understand why there is evil and problems in our world. It is imperfect and constantly changing which makes the truth of our world unknown.
If our senses are unreliable, we can question if they’re certain enough for us to build our world view upon them. Makes us think if the true world of forms is hindered from us by our senses

Question 16

What are some weaknesses of Plato’s theory of forms

Answer 16

Even though Plato says our senses deceive us, the mind helps us to analyze what we see and if we can’t see anything how can we even deem the World of Forms to be true. Also, if Plato believes everything in our world is imperfect and that everything in the world of forms is the perfect version of an object in our world, then surely there must be ideals of evil things such as ‘the perfect nuclear weapon’.
Gaining knowledge through sense experience is a very true and realistic argument
We have survived by using our senses and relied upon them for millions of years- they’re trustworthy and help us to make decisions based upon them
There is no empirical evidence of the existence of another world outside our senses. We are therefore looking for empirical evidence from something that is rational and only known through reason-this is impossible

Question 17

What are Plato’s views on epistemology

Answer 17

In his cave analogy it shows us that to understand that we live in an empirical world, we need to be a rationalist

Question 18

Plato believes in an A priori argument, what is this?

Answer 18

We gain knowledge before sense experience

Question 19

What does the journey of the prisoner escaping the cave symbolize

Answer 19

This symbolizes the journey to rationalism for empiricism and that it can be very tough and challenging but once you complete it you can understand the concept forms

Question 20

What is the form of the good

Answer 20

It is at the top of the Hierarchy of forms and it shares goodness as it goes down the hierarchy. All the forms are perfect and their perfection comes from the form of the good

Question 21

What is portrayed as the form of the good in Plato’s cave analogy

Answer 21

Once the prisoners escapes the cave he gets into the real world and sees the sun. The sun is portrayed as the form of the good because it enlightens us and shows us the truth about the World of Forms

Question 22

What does Plato believe rationalism helps us with

Answer 22

Decision making, you can make better judgements on situations because you’re using pure reason and you can understand a situation from different points of view

Question 23

Why shouldn’t we neglect our senses

Answer 23

Using our sense experience to gain knowledge is true. For example if I touch a hot pan and burn myself I now know not to do that again as it is harmful to me and I gained this knowledge by using my senses.

Question 24

How does Aristotle’s third man argument argue

against the forms

Answer 24

A man is a reflection of a form of a man. Surely there must exist a form of a form of a man and therefore the series of forms would carry on infinitely.

Question 25

What is a weakness of the form of the good

Answer 25

If there is one absolute form of the good, then why do we disagree over what is right and wrong