The Influence Of Virtue By Plato

Every philosopher has diverse ideas and beliefs, yet Plato’s rational ideologies, thought process, and reason speak the loudest to me and correlate with my beliefs. The philosopher, Plato, lived in Athens and died in 428-347 B.C. Plato lived as one of Socrates pupils and wrote the words of Socrates after his death. Before his death, Socrates was Plato’s role model and influenced Plato’s ideologies and outlook on life. Plato’s passions and ideas aspired from the relationship between the soul and the physical body and the flow of nature; these passions drove Plato to start his own school called the Academy. Similarly, he took interest in correlation of the eternal and immutable in nature, society, and morals. More specifically, Plato produced the allegory in the cave. Plato and Socrates formed the allegory of men who are chained in a cave and stare at a blank wall. Fire is the only light the men have, and shadows form on the wall, which is the only thing the men know. One day, the men break free and experience the outside world. This allegory exemplifies how humans keep themselves chained up by their senses and they must break free. Plato emphasized the idea of how reality is divided into two regions: world of senses and world of ideas. On the other hand, Plato advocated for women unlike most philosopher men. The novel, Sophie’s World, presented me with information on Plato and his ideologies, and I acknowledged that I agree with reason. To begin, one of Plato’s beliefs that I strongly agree with is when the novel states, “We can only have inexact conceptions of things we perceive with our senses. But we can have true knowledge of things we understand with our reason” (87). Plato’s mindset of true knowledge derives from his love of math and having a definite answer every time. I understand this concept and agree with it to a …show more content…
For each of these three parts there is a corresponding faculty of the soul. Reason belongs to the head, will belongs to the chest, and appetite belongs to the abdomen” (91). Once again, I embody this concept and interpret it as the brain, heart, and gut. Plato’s way of thinking and his perceptions intrigue me because of his rational way of thinking. Along with this indication, he claims, “Each of these soul faculties also has an ideal, or “virtue.” Reason aspires to wisdom, Will aspires to courage, and Appetite must be curbed so that temperance can be exercised” (91). He deeply analyzes each tenet and formulates a correct conclusion for reason, will, and appetite while intertwining those with the head, chest, and heart. I appreciate Plato because his thought process is different from other philosophers in the sense of connecting the eternal and immutable or the soul and the body.
In conclusion, I believe that I favor most of Plato’s ideologies and his thought process over other philosophers and am more intrigued with his concepts. Plato’s rational ideologies, thought process, and reason speak the loudest to me and correlate with my beliefs more than any other philosopher. The novel, Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder illustrates Plato’s views and showed me why I agree with Plato and his thoughts. To conclude, I favor Plato over every other philosopher because Plato dives deeper into understanding the tenets of rational ideologies, thought process, and