Who is Plato

  • Student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle
  • Lived in the golden age of Greek Literature
  • High class, born into wealthy family
  • Credited for 35 dialogues and 13 letters (some are disputed)

Athens in Plato’s time

  • Under a direct democracy
  • All adult male citizens were to be involved in government + politics; women and slaves excluded
  • Athens expanded greatly in the 5th century which showed its governmental superiority
  • A dictatorship of 30 oligarchs was installed briefly and later overthrown in favor of democracy
  • The trial and execution of Socrates disillusioned Plato from politics
  • Plato attempted to create his Republic three times but failed every time

The Republic at a glance

  • Plato described as a revolutionary, conservative, fascist, communist, practical reformer, and dreamer due to the book
  • Main idea is to show that one who is just is the best kind of person
  • Plato wants the reader to think about his ideas instead of taking them at face value
  • Does Plato believe that philosophers can be rulers? How realistic are his proposals about education meant to be? What is the point of the rulers’ theroretical knowledge, and how is it to be applied in practice?
  • Plato treads the line between practicality and theory; doesn’t want a theory to be bastardized, but also doesn’t support a theory which is impractical
Book 1 Book 2-4 Book 8-9 Book 10
What is Justice Women, Family, Philosopher King, The Good, Higher Education, Dialectic, Curriculum Degeneration of lives Quarrel between philosophy and poetry

Plato’s two world ontology and epistemology

  • Ontology (onto = “what is”) and epistemology (episteme = “knowledge”)

  • Forms/Ideas - Ontology
    • Ideas and forms are tangible objects, things that you can “see” with your intellect
    • Abstract, stable, perfect objects of cognition
    • Emphasis on knowledge; involves critical thinking and articulation
    • The concept of Beauty in the forms is indubitably good; factual
    • World of knowing, absolutes
  • Particulars - Epistemology
    • Physical objects that are imperfect and mutable, things that you see with your eyes
    • A particular could be “beautiful”, but there are different beliefs about that
      • Beliefs are formed around particulars but are erroneous
    • Beliefs involve isolated or loosely connected truths
    • True belief doesn’t involve this

Why did Plato come up with the Forms

  • Wanted to find a solution to the political corruption of his day
  • A good person who can understand the world is spiritually ascending
  • Wants to expand the realm of philosophy; philosophers are just, and forms are necessary to understand the world
  • The Forms are a basis of a good person’s understanding
  • Wants his citizens to search for the truth by understanding the Forms

The Sun and the Line: 2 analogies for the Platonic good

  • The Sun
    • The sun provides light and growth in the physical world, allows us to see particulars
    • The good provides reality and truth to the intelligible world, allows us to know the Forms
    • The sun in the physical realm is like the good in the intelligible realm
    • The good makes it possible for objects of knowledge to be known by the mind, like the sun provides light
    • The good is the highest Form of knowledge
  • The Divided Line
    • Lower half: physical reality illuminated by the sun
      • 2 types of particulars
        • Shadows, images, copies are linked to imagination, dreams, and fantasies
        • Physical objects are linked to beliefs
    • Upper half: intelligible reality illuminated by the Good
      • 2 types of objects of knowledge
        • Mathematics, science are linked ot understanding and reasoning
        • Forms are linked to rational intuition and intellection
    • Hard to cross the line from physical to intelligible reality
    • Lessons
      • Separates lower and upper line
      • Getting from one point to another represents cognitive improvement
      • Emphasizes knowing things directly instead of indirectly (in images, shadows, etc.)
      • Mathematics is crucial in moving from the perceived world to the abstract