Plato the Philosopher Essay

Plato was an idealist. He believed that reality is not physical but abstract. What we might refer to as reality is just a distorted representation of ideals or forms we do not understand. “Further, the many things, we say, can be seen, but are not objects of rational thought; whereas the forms are objects of thought, but invisible.” (274) By way of explanation, Plato means that we are limited from true knowledge about things that truly exist because we are encompassed in several illusions created by our fickle

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, wrestled at the Olympic level, is one of the classical Greek authors, mathematicians and the founder of The Academy, the first higher learning institute in the west. In short, Plato is one of the great thinkers in history and his contributions to philosophy, ethics and politics are many and varied. One of Plato’s main philosophical ideas is based on the idea that the world

Plato, being a Socratic apprentice, followed and transcribed the experiences Socrates had in his teachings and search of understanding. In Plato’s first work, The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates forms the understanding between appearance vs. reality and the deceptions we are subject to by the use of forms. In the cave, the prisoners’ experiences are limited to what their senses can tell them, the shadows on the walls, and their shackles; these appearances are all that they have to form their ideas. When one of the prisoners begins to question his reality he makes his way out of the cave and into the day light. This prisoners understanding of his reality has now expanded, thus the theory of forms; when he returns to the cave to spread the news, the others do not believe him. They have been deceived by their reality and what

Only in the intelligible world or the last two stages in the divided line, ideas and forms exist. Plato describes ideas (or forms) as a concept that allows us to criticize other objects as well as allows us to know the objects of math, science, and the actual world. Ideas must be unchangeable, immutable and also they must be about was is real. It is easy to agree with Plato here on what an idea as well as true knowledge actually is. In order for something to be true, it cannot be interpreted and must be universal. For example, in geometry definitions are very precise like that of a square (which would be an idea or form in the intelligible world) which is; an object is called a square if and only if it is a rectangle with congruent adjacent sides. The object will only be a square if all the terms in the definition are met (the object is a rectangle and has adjacent sides that are also congruent). So, this idea would exist in the understanding level in the divided line due to the fact that the definition is universal and is true anywhere however it may not be in the highest form of true knowledge because it is based on real world images and proofs. The highest stage would be the dialectic stage. In this stage true principles of math

Plato’s Theory of Forms is discussed in several of his dialogues but the Republic is most well known for being written during what people call the “peak of his genius”. Plato believed that the things we normally experience on the day to day with our five senses; sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell, are not truly real. He believed “real

1. Forms: In my interpretation , Plato indicates “Forms” as an existence of “Absolute Truth”. He doesn’t clearly define what “Forms” are, but he believes that “Forms” do exist. I personally under some circumstances believe in the existence of “Forms”. For example, during the class, Dr. Haney gave an example about the definition of “Largeness”. He mentions that each individual has his own definition of largeness, and this definition is unique for each person. Thus, all together, the “Largeness”, according to Plato, isn’t large. I don’t quite understand why it is not. For instance, in my opinion, the individual’s definition is unique, however, it’s all based on some basic standard. For example, we all define largeness based on comparison on sizes or dimensions. Depends on what we compare to, our definition of largeness would be different. Thereby, all definition would share somewhat the idea of “Largeness”. Or in another words, I believed that “Forms” according to Plato is something in common, sharable idea. It is partially sharable, thus not additive. Some might ask, if its only partial, how could it be “absolute”? I would say that it depends on our own definition of “absolute”. To me, “absolute” means that it’s something viewed or existing independently, and “absolute” doesn’t relate to other things. Thereby, “Largeness”, for example, as in the comparison to something is unique and independent on any individuals.

In Plato’s Republic, Glaucon is introduced to the reader as a man who loves honor, sex, and luxury. As The Republic progresses through books and Socrates’ arguments of how and why these flaws make the soul unhappy began to piece together, Glaucon relates some of these cases to his own life, and begins to see how Socrates’ line of reasoning makes more sense than his own. Once Glaucon comes to this realization, he embarks on a path of change on his outlook of what happiness is, and this change is evidenced by the way he responds during he and Socrates’ discourse.

Example- he observed that every living creature has eyes which may vary in size and color, yet it has a common purpose of seeing. Even though both philosophers use “form” to understand objects, yet only Plato believes that it is required to gain knowledge , whereas Aristotle believes that it is needed only to study and object and discover it’s function. Plato then tries to explain his theory on human conditioning. In this he explains that “the human condition is likened to being trapped in a cave facing the back wall only able to see shadows unaware that there is anything else in the world”. However the reality is that there is a world outside the cave that contains the truth of the knowledge of the reality that is needed to gain knowledge. It is explained that one man is set free from the cave and it is then he realises that shadows were not reality . However when this enlightened person is sent back to the cave the ignorant people do not accept the reality and criticise him accusing him of being a liar. Plato believed that to gain knowledge we must “transcend” beyond this world into a higher reality where true realities exist. By doing this Plato is able to ignore the sensory distraction of the body in which he is trapped while also minimising the distractions of the appetites of the body such as food and sex. Plato uses Mathematics as the paradigm of knowledge as it’s truth exists beyond sensory

The first degree of belief are physical objects, as the second degree of belief are shadows and images of the physical objects. In the last book, Plato criticizes poetry and the fine arts. Plato feels that art is merely the imitation of the imitation of reality, and that poetry corrupts the soul. Socrates says that artists merely create things. As an example, if a painter draws a couch on his canvas, he is creating a couch. But the couch he creates is not the real couch, it is nothing but a copy of an ordinary, physical couch which was created by a craftsman. But the ordinary, physical couch is nothing more than an imperfect copy, or image of the Form of Couch. So, the couch on the canvas is nothing but a copy of a copy of the

Since the early sixth century, the questions of reality, matter, and change have perplexed philosophers. These questions have since become a major topic of inquiry amongst philosophers eventually garnering the attention of notable figures such as Plato and his pupil Aristotle. Although both Plato and Aristotle shared many similar notions of order and an eternal universe, their methods of inquisition as well as their theories of reality and truth vary significantly. This difference would eventually lead them to develop vary different notions of real knowledge. Plato primarily focusing on theoretical and mathematical proofs while Aristotle on observational and deductive reasoning primarily in the field of biology. Due to these stark differences in both men’s philosophy, I will be contrasting both their beliefs, theories and methods, as it relates to knowledge, its acquisition and change. I will also be discussing my opinions as the importance of their individual philosophy as it relates to answering these questions.

There are thousands of credible philosophers for people to study today, therefore the choice of who to study becomes a burdening task. Each single one has amazing knowledge and insight that we could all learn something from. There are people who don’t call themselves philosophers but bring philosophical thought to us, and then there are those who dedicate their lives to the love of wisdom. Philosophers have existed for thousands of years, and as long as the sun comes up, there will be philosophers in the future. The human mind is made for philosophizing. So as we young, blossoming philosophers try and make sense of the world in general and the philosophical world specifically, we must find people to enlighten us and

Plato believed that reality is more than what we sense around the world (e.g. taste, smell, hear, see and touch), he believed that behind these physical realities lies a perfect version of them in which he called Forms and that the greatest thing we can learn is to have knowledge and understanding of them. Plato’s theory means that what we can sense around us (for example a chair) is just a mere shadow of the perfect version which exists in the world of Forms. The perfect version of a chair is one in which for fills its purpose e.g. to be comfortable and to be sat on. Plato believed that everything had a perfect Form, from objects such as pens and books to things such as beauty and justice. He

In Platonism, few philosophical theories are as essential as the theory of Forms. This is besides the fact that it is generally overlooked in many of Plato’s writings even though it lays the foundations to many other theories of his. The Republic is where the theory is first mentioned, followed by discussion in Phaedo and criticized in Parmenides and Timaeus thereafter. (These works will be further discussed later throughout the essay.) Plato’s theory of Forms, (sometimes referred to as the theory of Ideas) states basically: that which is made of matter and can be physically perceived by a human through one of his five senses does not represent true reality. The realm of ideas and abstract thought is in fact the ideal representation of reality. (When used in this manner, the first letter of form is usually capitalized). The aim of this essay is to identify “What is a Form?” and “What are the critiques of Plato’s theory of Forms?”

Born in the 5th century BCE, Plato was a rationalist, idealist philosopher, believing that we are born with concepts within us, and that these concepts are the same for everyone (Solomon, Higgins, & Martin, 2012). Through his beliefs, Plato developed a theory which he believed answered the question of ‘What is reality?’, that he called the theory of Forms (Solomon, et al., 2012). According to Plato, the Forms are a perfect ideal of an object or a concept, which is unchanging and innate within us (Solomon, et al., 2012). It is because of the Forms, according to Plato, that we have the ability to know what something is even though we may not have seen that exact thing before (Solomon, et al., 2012).