Plato's Bias

Plato was never satisfied with accepting other’s ideas or views of things in this world. Instead he would question everything to discover for himself what things in the world meant. Plato as seen in some of his writing such as “The Republic” uses numerous amounts of theoretical questions to try and get a deeper understanding of themes such as justice. Plato refuses to accept that justice is naturally good and injustice is bad as he writes “see, that to do

Art might not be viewed the same way as another individual could. Some people could “see” or “look” at a painting, distinguishing their perspective or interpretation of an artwork. When I “look” at Alma Thomas’ Gray Night Phenomenon, it’s with a goal to identify what the art depicts. I would probably glance at the painting, not taking my time to analyze its different features. At first glance, I register the painting as simply a piece of artwork with a blue background and yellow specks in a pattern, however I don’t take much thoughtful processes to take place and bring emotions into viewing the piece. When one “looks” at something, it is more routine-like and to figure its function, without much appreciation of the artwork. In contrast to “looking”

“Allegory of the Cave” is a renowned piece that has affected many opinions throughout the span of history. The purpose of this complex piece was to persuade philosophers of his views on the importance of education. Plato states many opinions about how education however he doesn’t back the opinions up with supporting facts. Plato lacks supporting facts in this essay, however his abundance of intelligence helps persuade the audience to consider his theories. Plato claims that knowledge gained through perception is all opinionated and to have real knowledge we must go through reasoning. He believed that the truth could only be seen through the eyes of an educated and non-materialistic philosopher. Plato wanted his fellow philosophers to see that

Plato attempted to demonstrate that there was proof of a “divine goodness” by several illustrations. Such illustrations include his famous “Divided Line”, “The Simile of the Sun”, and “The Allegory of the Cave”. In these expressions, he aims to pick apart the foundation of knowledge and where it comes from. He believed that human souls could ultimately reach the highest level of reality and have a total understanding of all things. In other words, the soul who had reached the highest level of understanding no longer needed to question or perceive things, because he would recognize and comprehend “pure knowledge” or “pure goodness”. (Soccio)

What is life? This is the one question that to this day still cannot be answered. Over the years millions of people have had there own interpretation of what is means to live. However the quest to answer this rhetorical question goes back to the golden days of Greek civilization when the worlds greatest philosophers first attempted to find the answers to this question. "As his position takes form in the Republic, Plato claims that only a very few individuals are capable of understanding how human life is to be lived. If it could be done, the rest of us would be best off it we were to let out lives be controlled by such individuals". This position held by Plato has been one of much discussion and disagreement over the years. In this paper I

You are in a math test, and you forgot your calculator, so your friend gives you a calculator since you need it. Midway through the test, you still need it, but your friend asks for you to return it. Most people would normally return it, since that is what most people think is the just or fair thing to do. Justice, simply put, is being fair, but being “fair” can vary from person to person, making the definition very ambiguous. For instance, what if your friend does not give you the calculator and instead, your enemy gives it to you, and he or she asks for it to be returned.

Meanwhile, in kindergarten, I realized calling the artwork ugly prevailed a rude and disrespectful character. Another student spent time into creating the drawing and I simply ignored it. At that moment it looked peculiar and “ugly” as a result of the uniqueness in his drawing. If I were to expand my thinking, then I wouldn't have upset the other talented artist. I could've appreciated the work he created. Even better I had the opportunity to learn his style of art and soon that became a critical piece of my work. I learned to accept and appreciate his work. Why is it important to expand our viewpoints? One needs to increase knowledge in order to prosper with others and build stronger arguments. If one fails to do so, they belittle their minds to only think the way they want to

Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.

Singer and entertainer, Andy Stewart once said, “The point with public art, I think, is that it helps people form a sense that the place they live in is unique, that there's something special about it.” Public art can influence our emotions, thoughts, and actions. The art that is created can be consider to be an inspiration, or disrespectful towards the community and towards critics. Public art can bring depth into something that is not considered to be worthy of talking.

The crux of this argument will focus on three of Plato’s works: Gorgias, Apology, and The Republic.

In Plato’s Republic he defines justice as “doing one’s own work and not meddling with what is not one’s own” (Plato 139, 433b). This definition begs the question what is one’s own work? Plato states that one’s own work is the work that one’s nature is best suited for, as each person is born with a different nature (Plato 101, 370b). To come to this definition Plato compares justice within the human soul to justice within a city. If Plato can find justice within the city and prove that the individual is only a smaller version of the city then he will have found the form of justice, the aspect by which we recognize justice in anything else.

Democracy is often referred to as the rule of the many, but Aristotle called this definition incomplete. In his book “Politics”, he explained that in a city if the majorities are aristocrats and if they have political authority, then it is an aristocracy not a democracy. He therefore defined democracy as when “free people have authority and Oligarchy as when the wealthy have it” (1290b). Plato viewed Democracy as a flawed system with too much inefficiency that would make any implementation of a true democracy not worth it. While Aristotle viewed democracy as a system that could work if it is limited to certain restrictions and if it is the regime that best fits the culture of the people to be governed. In this essay it will be argued that Plato’s view on democracy as a flawed system is more prevalent or more compelling if the current political arena around the world is observed.

Good art allows me to flee the realms of reality. In my mind's limitless consciousness, I can escape the mundanity of everyday life. It opens a door in my head to a world only limited by my imagination. I am no more a slave to gravity, chained down on the earth when I am reading. I can be a bird and soar high above the clouds, or be a fish and swim deep down in the darkest depths of the ocean. I am there, I am that person, and everything else around me regardless of what it is, fades away. Sometimes these people are the one's I'd like to be but sometimes I encounter nefarious characters I wholly condemn. I am able to feel the emotions that the artist intends for me to feel. However, it is not merely reading or listening, but understanding

The most important trait in defining art is its beauty. As complex as the term “art” can be, the term “beauty” is nearly just as complicated. In order to understand art more clearly it is important to understand beauty. “We label an object beautiful because it promotes an internal harmony or ‘free play’ of our mental faculties; we call something ‘beautiful’ when it elicits this pleasure.” (Freeland 8). As defined above, beauty is not a direct message. It is something that subconsciously allows man to feel good and pleasurable. There is “an internal harmony” when we observe something beautiful that allows us to take away a deeper understanding of a work of art regardless of it being “nice looking” or “ugly”.

I think that the end result is truthfulness. Every artist must be sincere and truthful if he wants to be a great and true artist over and over again art is predictable to request and bond with human being feelings. Art can awaken aesthetic or ethical feelings. The amount of skillfulness that the artist has will influence over the capability they have so they can to generate an emotional response and by this means make available new insights. Art tends to smooth the progress of spontaneous slightly than coherent thoughtfulness, and frequently it is knowingly shaped with this purpose. Art calculatedly serves no other function. As a result of this forward motion, works of art are hard to pin down, refractive to attempts at arrangement, for the reason that they can be respected in more than one way, and are often vulnerable to many dissimilar interpretations. Even art that to every appearance depicts a commonplace proceedings or items may encourage manifestation upon prominent themes. Conventionally, the uppermost achievements of art make obvious a high intensity of ability or fluency within a medium. This characteristic might be considered a point of contention, since many contemporary artists (particularly, theoretical artists) do not themselves produce the moving parts they envisage, or do not even produce the labor in a straight, affectionate wisdom. Art has a capacity of transforming: predominantly confers