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UNIT 1a Ancient philosophical influences - Coggle Diagram

- - - - -Imperfection, constant change, contingent, false, imitation, our senses deceive us- we perceive things rather than knowing them. a posteriori empiricism, not immutable, a reflection/ imitation of forms, subjective, qualititive, 'SENSIBLE REALM'- perception through senses.
        Our souls fell to the realm of appearances and got trapped within our physical bodies. Plato states that the soul wishes to return to the realm of forms.
        "EVERYTHING TANGIBLE FLOWS"
    - - The real world- reality. Perfection, unchanging, immutable, timeless, truth, true knowledge can be gained, a priori rationalism, perfect forms, objective, measurable, quantitive. INTELLIGABLE REALM- populated by ideals and universals.
        Our souls once existed in the Realm of Forms, and this is where they belong- immortal and eternal. The soul is our true identity and is concealed by the physical body.
    - - THE PROCESS OF ANAMNESIS. 1) Our souls once saw the perfect form of beauty/ justice/ tallness. 2)We can understand the concept of beauty because we have a memory of the form of beauty. 3) Something is beautiful because some individual beautiful entity within it reminds us of the perfect form. 4) Beautiful things in the realm of appearances are imitations of the perfect form of beauty.
      - ACCESSING PERFECT KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING THE FORMS- According to Plato, you can do this by becoming a rationalist philosopher and not trusting your senses which perceive imitations to be reality. Thinking rationally and deeply can help you logically work your way back to true knowledge that your soul learnt in your previous life. Remembering that all things are tangible imitations and are imperfect.
      - DUALISM. Plato distinguishes between the body and soul as two seperate entities, making him a dualist. Immortality of souls- immortal souls belong to the world of forms and were born into a physical body and 'fell' into the physical realm. The soul has vague recollections of the true forms that it experienced before personhood. This is why young children have understandings of concepts without being taught them.
  - - - THE SUN ANALOGY- Plato assumes that if something is 'true' in the realm of appearances, then it must be even more true/ perfect in the realm of forms. In order to see anything in the realm of appearances we need the sun to illuminate objects. THE SUN EQUIVALENT IN THE REALM OF FORMS IS THE FORM OF THE GOOD. This is the highest form that illuminates all other forms, like the sun. There is an ultimate aim to return to the form of the good. Knowledge of it encourages the philosopher to seek out good in all situation and become a better person.
      - PLATO'S CAVE- The inside of the cave represents the realm of appearances where things are an illusion (the shadows on the walls) and you are using your senses. The outside of the cave represents the realm of forms. The prisoner who is set free represents a philosopher wanting to use logic and is a rationalist, seeking the truth. Having been chained into the cave since birth, the prisoners believe that the shadows are all that exists. The chains are symbolic of the senses that restrict the way we experience/ perceive things. The sun that blinds the philosopher as he reaches the outside of the cave represents the form of the good. Difficulty adjusting to light/ darkness represents that once knowing the truth, it is difficult to experience things as a normal person does. The cave is the world as we see it- it is a distortion of the truth
        ALTHOUGH Plato's cave is hypothetical, using logic one can deduce that it is reasonable for the prisoners to believe the shadows to be truth if the situation were to be real. Therefore, Plato simply highlights in plain sight the deception of the senses, and how realistically we cannot trust our senses to provide us with the truth.
      - THE DIVIDED LINE ANALOGY- represents the journey of a philosopher crossing boarders/ boundaries of knowledge. The lines/ divides represent moving from empiricist thinking to rational thinking. Meant to be understood in reference to the cave.
        A= Shadows, reflections. B= objects e.g trees animals. A+B are found in the physical realm of appearances. C= lower forms such as ideas and thoughts. D= Higher forms such as ideals and perfect beauty. C+D From the realm of forms where perfect knowledge can be found.
  - - - PETER GEACH- Plato's theory of forms is not convincing because Plato states that our soul sees and remembers perfect forms from the realm of forms. However, it a) doesn't make sense to state that the soul has the ability to process sense information and b) Plato states that we cannot trust out senses and empirical information, so are our souls really processing true knowledge through logic and rationality in the realm of forms? This seems contradictory.
        THE CAVE- is incredibly hypothetical. An analogy should point towards something similar to it's subject, however the cave analogy seems too far removed from life in the realm of appearances. It would suggest that people in this world do not know that the sun or physical objects exist.
        EMPIRICISM- We have survived for millions of years trusting the senses- all animals on the planet use their senses in order to survive.
        THE PROCESS- Plato's theory falls down because the process of our souls 'falling' to the realm of appearances and being trapped inside of our physical body is simply belief and there is no description of how this happens. Although Plato believes that you do not need empirical evidence to find out the truth, this would excuse all theories or beliefs that there is no evidence for.
        ELITEIST- Plato believes that people will only find the truth if they become a rationalist philosopher. This not only diminishes all people with talent within this world such as artists who according to Plato would simply by copying imitations of perfect forms, but it also suggests that only a select group of people would be able to find true knowledge and that all other knowledge is inferior.
        ARISTOTLE- As an empiricist, he believed that there is no a posteriori evidence for the world of forms, and criticised Plato for saying that there is a perfect world of true forms which we once lived in, as we have no observable evidence of this. The forms also have no practical value.
        AJ AYER- As a logical positivist and emotivist, he criticised the form of the good because he believed that not all people have the ability to intuit goodness - good is simply as expression of a positive emotion and does not carry any real meaning.
        DEMIURGE- Creates more questions than answers
        KARL POPPER- Plato only put forward the idea of an unchanging eternal world because he could not deal with the insecurity of this world being a place of constant change and fluctuation.
        THE IDEA OF PERFECTION- Who determines what is perfect? If you have a form of a form, then what is preventing a form of the form of the form? INFINITE REGRESSION.
        DAVID HUME AND RICHARD DAWKINS- as materialists and empiricists, it goes against common sense to say that the world around us is an illusion. DOES IT REALLY MATTER? Human beings have survived for millions of years, and continue to make technological and scientific discoveries within the world. If there were a realm of forms, it's not preventing humans from doing anything, we would only be being deceived by our senses but this doesn't cause hindrances to our lives.
        RICHARD DAWKINS AND MEMES- Ideas and concepts are passed through generations- genetically and verbally. He calls these 'memes'.
      - Aristotle, Dawkins, Hume, Karl Popper, Peter Geach, Infinite regression, Existentialists, AJ Ayer, Eliteist
    - - PLATO'S "ONE OVER MANY ARGUMENT" three red objects in front of me, e.g a rose, a ball and a hat- these objects resemble one another and have something in common- redness, Therefore redness exists. Plato would use this to argue that there is one common form of red that all things relate to.
        PLATO'S IDEAL STANDARD ARGUMENT- There must be an unchanging and perfect standard of things as our intuition tells us what true goodness and beauty is. This ideal standard is the forms.
        BUDDHISM IDEAS- The idea of Dukkha and suffering occurs because humans desire to hold onto the physical realm and assert this as ultimate reality, when in reality it is only conventional reality. Buddhists believe that true reality exists beyond the physical realm.
        G.E MOORE would argue that all humans have the ability to intuit things like goodness, which aligns with Plato's theory.
        QUANTUM WORLD- Combined with Einstein's theory of relativity, proves human beings don't know everything about the universe so there could be another world which is the World of the Forms. This demonstrates that the theory is not totally weak.
        PLATO- Believed that the world of appearances is not only constantly changing but it also a world of emotions. Human experiences show that our emotions cloud our mind and stop us from thinking clearly so maybe there is another world where we can gain true knowledge.
        DESCARTES- Rationalist philosopher who lived in the 1500's. He believed the only thing we can trust is our rationalist thinking and that our senses deceive us.
        STEPHEN EVANS- Argues that Plato offers a rational argument for the existence of another reality, proving people with hope that the material world is not all that exists.
        MODERN SPIRITUALITY- Modern spiritual practices often look to alternate realities, showing that regardless of time period, believing in an alternative reality is actually feasible when there is also no evidence to suggest that it DOESN'T exist or DOES exist.
        IMMANUEL KANT- Acknowledged the idea of absolutes- certain actions are intrinsically good or bad.
        BRYAN MAGEE argues that Plato's theory of forms and his analogy of the cave encourages people to seek enlightenment rather than to settle for/ get caught up in the material world. "The theory that there is another world than this... gives value and meaning to our present world"
      - Descartes, Buddhist thought, Moore, Plato, Bryan Magee, Kant, Stephen Evans, Modern spirituality.
- - - - What a substance is made from, and this is what the process begins with. E.g the material of bronze for a statue.
    - - The characteristics of an object- what form it has. E.g, a bowl is shaped in the form of a bowl. If it were not shaped in this way, it would be a lump of material, like the Material cause. FORMS ARE IMMANENT- An idea. A sculptor may have an idea of a form- this is the formal cause.
    - - How an object comes into being. What brought something about or what made it. 'primary source of change.' It makes material cause transform into it's final form.
    - - The purpose or reason for something/ an object. HELEN LANG- "THE FINAL CAUSE... IS THE END OF ALL MOTION WITHIN THINGS... THE FINAL CAUSE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE FOUR CAUSES. THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH SOMETHING IS DONE OR MADE." E.g a statue= viewing or commemorating- a form of art to be viewed.
  - - - -Random existence that was not caused by anything, it has no purpose, and causes everything else to happen.
    - - -does not change and is not subject to the motion in the universe. Puts everything else into motion.
- - - - -All powerful, all knowing, all loving, immanent, interacts with the world, subject to change, is an autonomous creator, cares for it's subjects.