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Ancient philosophical influence PT.2 (An Evaluation of Plato's thought…
Ancient philosophical influence PT.2
Plato
Regarded by many as the greatest philosopher who ever lived
He founded a school called the Academy, where he taught both female and male students until his death
Plato and the Theory of the Forms
Believed that all the material things we experience in the world around us are imitations of their perfect Forms
When we see someone doing an act of justice because we know what 'true justice' is, as a concept
We recognise things for what they are only because of our knowledge of their Forms
The Forms then, are perfect examples of different aspects of this world. Material, physical 'stuff' is by nature changing and chaotic, but the Forms exist changelessly. They do not exist within time or space.
For Plato, by far the most important Forms were those of noble qualities.
The Form of Good
Plato thought that the Form of the Good was the most important of all the Forms and that it illuminated the others.
There was a hierarchy of the Forms - the purest and abstract where higher up and forms like objects where lower down
If someone knows what is good and what is bad, he or she will choose the voice of God. It is only ignorance which causes immorality
Plato's demiurge
Believed that world was created by a God he called the demiurge
The Demiurge made the world by fashioning it out of material that was already there
The demiurge is not in any sense 'Goodness-itself' or 'the source of all goodness', but is a being which can be measured against the external standards of the Form
Plato
The Analogy of the Cave
Plato wants us to understand
the relation between the physical, material world and the higher word of the Forms
the ways in which material, physical concerns can blind people to what is really important
the ignorance of humanity when people do not engage in philosophy
the potential for true knowledge that philosophy brings
that there is another world which cannot see from the position that we are in, yet which we can reach and which will give us enlightenment
the hostility that people often feel when faced with philosophical ideas that challenge their previous-held beliefs
the injustice of the death of Socrates
that education, if we take the world literally, is a 'leading-out'. It is not stuffing people's minds with information, but a drawing-out of things they already know and an encouragement for them to become new kinds of people.
There is an underground cave, where there are prisoners and chained in one direction - they cannot move their heads. Light comes behind them from a fire that they cannot see.
There was a low wall behind them and people go behind the wall with a variety of different objects are shown as shadows to the prisoners. Able to hear voices and echoes
One of them is released and walks out of the cave and would be confused and almost blinded by the light
When he tried to tell the other prisoners, they'll feel hostile towards the suggestion that they would be prepared to kill him if he tried to lead them out of the cave.
Audience would believe that the prisoner that was released was Socrates. However, the released prisoner also represents all whom take philosophy.
The sun is the form of good
Plato explains that understanding the nature of the Forms of the Good comes at the end of philosophical quest for wisdom
An Evaluation of Plato's thought
Some people argue that he never gives us any compelling reasons for accepting that this so - he simply asserts it
Richard Dawkins, it is nonsense to talk of a transcendent 'other world' beyond the physical
Scientists argue that the physical world is worth studying in tis own right can give us true insights into the nature of reality- and many scientists claim that this physical world is the only reality there is.
Aristotle criticised the theory, on the grounds that it becomes ridiculous when pushed to its logical extremes. It is harder to accept that there might be ideal forms of negative qualities such as Jealously or Spite.
Ideal form of a plant - different variations of a species of a plant. Our forms have stopped being universal at all.
This criticism is a misunderstanding of Plato. Plato's thinking is concentrated on the Forms of qualities, and there are plenty of philosophers who would agree that we do all we have an intuitive sense of knowledge of what goodness is, or of what justice is.
Not being entirely clear about the relation between the Forms and the object of this world
Plato's theory is disliked because it does not have any scientific evidence to support it.
Disliked because his dualism has been taken to extremes by those who came after him. Lead to thinkers to the idea that bodily pleasures are bad, and thought that people should punish their bodies if they want to make spiritual progress.
His view of goodness is challenged because the way of in which he relates it to philosophy. It appears that only those of certain intellectual calibre are capable of being or doing good; those with learning difficulties, then, could never be good people because they would not understand philosophical issues. This can seem to be an unnecessarily unfair and elitist approach.
Many would disagree with Plato's view that people only do wrong when they are ignorant of what is right; they argue that people often know perfectly well that something is morally wrong, but they go ahead and do it anyway.
Aristotle
the physical world around us is the key to knowledge and can learn about it using our senses
Rejected the idea that there is a 'world of Forms', separate from this world. He thought there was nothing to be gained from the dualist approach.
Aristotle thought that ideas can have no real existence just on their own. They have to relate to something, here in the physical world of our own experience
Aristotle's understanding of reality
Fascinated Aristotle was the question of cause. Why are things the way that they are - what caused them? What is the essence of this thing or that thing? Why does it exist in the world at all?
Aetion can be used to describe what something looks like or what it is made from, as well caused it to come into being.
In exploring these aetiological questions, Aristotle recognised that something can have several different explanations for its existence, on different levels.
The Four Causes
Material cause
Explains that something is made from. This is a question scientists often try to answer when they are learning about something.
Formal Cause
This is how Aristotle termed the form, or shape, that something has. The formal cause gives something its shape and allows it to be identified as whatever it is.
Efficient Cause
This the name Aristotle gave to the activity that makes something happen. Aristotle expressed this in terms of the actualising of potential.
Final Cause
The most important cause, is the final cause. The final cause of something is its purpose, its reason for existing at all. This can be understood as its 'telos', which means end.