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Plato. Michael Ryan Clark. Background. (428-347 BC) Was 29 years old when Socrates was put to death He had been a pupil of his Inspired Plato to better study the conflicts in how society is and how the true and ideal society should be.
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Plato Michael Ryan Clark
Background • (428-347 BC) • Was 29 years old when Socrates was put to death • He had been a pupil of his • Inspired Plato to better study the conflicts in how society is and how the true and ideal society should be. • First deed as a philosopher was to publish Socrates’ Apology • He set up his own school of learning called the Academy
The Eternally true, beautiful, and good • Plato was concerned with the relationship between what was eternal and undeniable and what “flows”. • Similar to Socrates and the Sophists • Interested in this relationship as it relates to both nature and in morals/society. • Goal was essentially to grasp a reality which encompassed both. • Wanted to draw people’s attention to what is eternally true, beautiful, and good.
A world of ideas • Plato believed that everything in the natural world flowed. • Believed that although everything is made of material that is subject to erosion. • But also thought that everything was made from a timeless mold that is eternal and undeniable. • His focus, unlike Democritus, was not on the changing elements, but the original and unchanging pattern that first existed. • He came to the conclusion that there must be a reality behind the material world, the world of ideas, which had original patterns that existed from the beginning.
example • Everyone loves Legos • Imagine you build a Lego building and take it down and put it back in the box. • The building cant rebuild itself, you have to do it. • You can do this using an original sketch implanted in your mind that was the model and remains both undeniable and eternal.
True knowledge • Plato strongly believed that we can not always trust the evidence of our senses. • Everything in the natural world around us in constantly flowing and changing. • His point was that we can never have true knowledge of anything that is constantly in a state of change.
Example • Mr. Dunn asks the class which color of the rainbow is prettiest. • Joe says pink, Kevin says purple, Jad says violet, and so on. • Many different answers. • He then asks what 8x3 is. • All the answers are the same, 24 (hopefully). • Reason is now being used instead of feeling, or the use of senses, a strong belief of Plato. • We can have inexact conceptions of things sought with our senses, true knowledge and understanding comes through reason.
Two regions • Plato believed mainly that reality is divided into two regions • World of Senses- we can have approximate knowledge and incomplete conclusions through the use of our five senses. • World of Ideas- true knowledge is gained using reason, and the studying of the original and eternal forms, not of changing ideas.
The philosophic state • Plato’s idea of the ideal state is one governed by philosophers. • Gives an example using the human body. • Body is composed of three parts, head (reason), chest (will), and abdomen (appetite). • When these parts work together, a harmonious being is formed. • The ideal state would include officials who each know their overall place. • His political philosophy is characterized by rationalism, and the idea that a good state depends on its being governed with reason.
Works cited • Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World: a Novel about the History of Philosophy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print. • http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm
