PLATO
PHILOSOPHY & ATHENS
Socrates (470-399 BC) Plato (427-347 BC) Aristotle (384-322 BC)
PLATO’S LIFE
Plato is a nickname for Aristocles He came from a distinguished Athenian
family Became a student of Socrates at age
28 At age 40 he founded The Academy Died at age 80
WRITINGS
Approximately 30 of his known writings survive.
Early dialogues Ethical investigations but few answers
Middle dialogues Socrates is a spokesman for Plato’s ideas
Later dialogues Socrates doesn’t appear
INFLUENCES ON PLATO
Socrates Displeasure with the Sophists Important more for influence and method
than for content. Pythagoreans Pre-Socratic philosophers mediated
through Socrates (Armstrong, p. 20)
SOCRATES VERSES THE SOPHISTS
Teachers of Rhetoric A well-spoken man could make lots of
money in Athens Not primarily interested in truth Relativists Protagoras
“Man is the measure.”
THEAETETUS
Socrates “you believe that everyman is the authority on what is true.”
Protagoras “true” “Well, I just took a survey and …”
MAN IS THE MEASURE
Every man’s idea is equally true
Plato counters with - - 1. Self-refuting 2. The Test of Future Experience
SOCRATES
Socrates executed when Plato was 28 Recorded in Apology, Crito, Phaedo
Plato was nominally a follower, but it was the death of Socrates that most greatly influenced him.
PLATO’S THEORY OF THE FORMS
Human beings participate in two different worlds1. Physical world (the lower world)
The world of particular things Everything in the world changes Everything in this world is known by sense
experience
2. World of Forms (the higher world) The world of universals Unchanging Know by
PLATO TOOK THE TWO WORLDS OF HERACLITUS AND PARMENIDES AND MADE THEM TWO FEATURES OF THE SAME WORLD.
WHAT IS A FORM
There is a form in the world for every class of object
Universals – properties shared by objects Eternal entities – numbers or propositions
that can only exist in the mind
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
Appear in book 7 of The Republic Prisoners bound in the back of a cave
and only able to see the back wall of the cave.
Behind them there is a fire producing light for the back of the cave.
Behind them men walk carrying statues which cast shadows on the back wall of the cave.
One prisoner frees himself
He discovers that the shadows are not the real world.
Finds the path out of the cave and after an arduous journey arrives in bright sunlight.
Amazed by the wonder of the world Goes back to tell the other prisoners –
kill him. You are the prisoners!
PLATO’S DUALISM
Metaphysical Dualism World of Forms World of Particular Things
Anthropological Dualism Body (bad) Soul (good)
Epistemological Dualism Know the world of particular things with body Know the world of forms with soul
WHY STUDY THIS “STUFF”
1. Philosophical systems find their way into pop culture. Postmodernism Music, Emergent Church, etc.
2. Historical – Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
Ethics, Politics, Epistemology, Metaphysics, etc.
Ex. Four Virtues (Courage, Moderation, Wisdom, Justice)
3. Historical - Counter Errors by understanding the past Syncretism - “Early Christianity combination
of Hebrew expectation and Greek metaphysical ideas.” NO!
How do you deal with similarity?
4. Many modern Errors have been countered by the ancients.
C.S. Lewis on the value of reading old books No need to recreate the arguments
HERMAN7 IDEAS THAT PLATO ATTACKED
Hedonism Empiricism Relativism Materialism Mechanism Atheism Naturalism
.
PLATO COUNTERS HEDONISM
Hedonism = Pleasure is the greatest good
Plato counters with the question, “Can there be such a thing as an evil pleasure?”
If yes, then there is a higher standard
PLATO COUNTERS ATHEISM
“Kill them all and let God sort them out.” Probably not our best response
Shows how seriously Plato took it. Atheism is a danger to the state
(Republic) C.S. Lewis said that the greatest thing
we could do for both God and man was to convert our neighbor.
PLATO COUNTERS EMPIRICISM
Empiricism - All human knowledge has its source in sense experience.
Plato calls all lower world understanding “opinion”
Only in the upper story do you have “knowledge”
Know the world of the forms via “reason”
PLATO COUNTERS RELATIVISM
Sophists “man is the measure of all things”
Plato argued for objective truths and values that are the same for all
PLATO COUNTERS MATERIALISM
What is really, real? Matter. Argues that there must me a reality
that is non-material – spiritual.
PLATO COUNTERS NATURALISM
Naturalism – the world can be explained without reference to any supernatural reality
PLATO COUNTERS MECHANISM
The world is just an elaborate machine Plato was a teleologist.
PLATO IS ON OUR SIDE
Read Armstrong pages 64-65
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