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Ancient Philosophical Influences - Coggle Diagram
Ancient Philosophical Influences
Plato
student of Socrates
--> wrote down all of his ideas
teacher of Aristotle
--> Aristotle argued with a lot of his points
Allegory of the Cave
used to help explain his rationalist understanding of reality
included:
prisoners
chains
shadows
cave
footway
fire
Prisoners
presented ordinary people
Meaning
living in a state of ignorance of true reality
tied = lack of freedom
Plato criticised those who did not understand the true reality of the forms
Shadows
physical objects
Meaning
people saw the shadows and believed they were real objects, didn't realise he shadows were just shadows
The Cave
physical world
Meaning
world of opinions + real objects
shadows are from man made objects
--> shows how far removed the shadows are from the true reality
The Sun
form of the good
Meaning
most real and pure form
--> sun allows us to see the world
--> form of the god allows us to understand other forms
Plato's Theory of the forms
Influences
1.Hericlitus
--> 'you never step in the same river twice'
--> the world is costantly changing
--> time is a platonic concept
2.Paramenidies
--> argued that nothing changes at all
--> personal experiences of the world are perspective
ISSUE:
proving the world of the forms exists
--> Plato responded that tangibility doesn't need to be necessary
e.g., priori knowledge
--> us as humans will never see forms because by the time we see them we will be too late to recognise them as forms.
Divided line theory
World of the forms (knowledge) <--------> World of appearance (opinions)
WOF - contains philosophy, forms, dialectic, mathematics, geometry
WOA - contains animals, shadows, reflections
Plato's Dualism
combined the concept that the world is constantly changing ( physical objects ) and that the world doesn't change ( the forms )
-argued that the physical world was less real, impure, imperfect, material, and that we can only have opinions on it
-forms are perfect, unchanging, immaterial, the world of knowledge
Key characteristics of forms:
unchanging
-eternal
-immaterial
-grasped through reason rather than sense
The Form of the Good
most perfect and real form
other forms depend upon this one
need the FOM to understand the world
--> ' we can't see without the sun '
--> need knowledge to understand
intelligible realm
source of reality and truth
-gives intelligence to thoughts
gives power to the mind
the factuality of knowledge
EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
Plato is right that we cannot trust out senses
illusion of a straw in water
falibility of the human eye
our knowledge gained posteriori can never be conclusive
Gives permanence to our existence
gives refuge to humans from the uncertaintity of a shifting world
seek permanence to comfort from the uncertainty from the world around us
Influential idea
impacted Christian ideas ( resurrection/life after death)
Buddhism ( has no creator )
WEAKNESSES
Why would people want to be free from a state of ignorance?
even in a world full of forms, what difference does it make to a person?
Richard Dawkins, (non physical realms are nonsense)
The Matrix (what if neo had taken the blue pill?)
Why would anyone return from the WOF?
it is asserted that studying the FOG is the most pleasurable activity of all, so why did he retun to the cave at all? (flawed allegory)
We cannot be certain that the WOF exists
if our experiences of the world are decieved, surely our reason can be decieved to?
Descarte (evil demon manipulating philosophical theory)
Aristotle
an empiricist
argued that obtaining knowledge is not always a pure rational matter, but one which involves practise
Criticisms of Plato
Problem of interaction
how can something in the material world have anything to do with the immaterial world?
Third man argument
e.g., red flowers and red pens are both explained through the Form of Redness, but how can we make them similar?
Alternative explanation for existence
matter vs form
matter - always stays the same (lego)
form - form changes depending on how objects are arranged
Aristotle's Four Causes
Material:
physical matter of an object
e.g., house --> cement, tiles, bricks
human --> skin, cells, DNA
Formal:
the arrangement of the material cause (how its shaped)
e.g., phone --> rectangle
human --> body/human shape
Efficient:
what brings the object into existence (who makes it)
e.g., house --> builder
human --> people
Final:
the purpose (telos) of the object
e.g., house --> to be lived in
human --> eudiamonia
explains the purpose of an objects existence
describes the objects in a non-materialistic way and gives us an idea to why it is there
we do nothing without a reason for doing it
the reason for motion and change in the first place
without the unmoving mover, no chain of cause and effect could occur and there would be no movement in the universe
the final cause of the universe is the prime mover
prime mover gives purpose to the universe and is the reason behind motion and change
The soul
For Aristotle, the soul (anima) is the
essence
of a person, and when to body dies, the soul dies to.
--> argued to be the formal cause of a human
5 characteristics of the human soul:
nutritive (grow + take on nutrition)
appetitive (desire)
sensory (our senses)
locomotive (to be able to move)
reasoning
The Prime Mover
Aristotle noted that..
the world is in a constant state of change + motion
the planet seems to be moving eternally
change + motion is always caused by something
everything in the world is in a state of both potentiality and actuality
Aristotle believed that the PM is the originating cause of all motion eternally which sustains a pattern of change
--> relates to the cosmological argument
EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
Compatible with science
theory of causality
true knowledge depends upon observation
scientists also turn to the experiences of the world to provide evidence for theories
Explanations can work at different levels at the same time
four causes shows us that there can be several different reasons/explanations for the existence of something
e.g., human chemical components, what we are made of and who made us, GOD
--> shows our material cause + our efficient cause
Influences..
influential or modern science
used by Aquinas to develop the cosmological argument
WEAKNESSES
There might be another reason behind motion
if there are many different reasons for motion, why jump to a singular conclusion?
David Hume --> if it is argued to have a first cause, it doesn't necessarily have to be the God of classical theism
The senses are unreliable
the concept of the four causes and the PM depend heavily on priori knowledge, senses can be unreliable
our brains are vunerable to incorrect perceptions
Objects do not (always) have a purpose
the word 'purpose' is used for a moral intention, objects such as flour, sugar, milk have no INTENTION of a purpose