Chase Van Driel
Professor Culpepper
Core 140
10/09/15
Plato and Augustine
Even though Plato was alive before Christianity many of his ideas share similarities with Christian ideals. There was definitely still differences between him and Christian Philosophers though. In my paper I will discuss Plato’s ideas in regards to forms, and form of the good in particular as well as his ideas about divinity and gods, next I will discuss St. Augustine of Hippo’s ideas from Christianity. After introducing their beliefs, I will show the comparisons, and then the differences between the Form of Good and Christianity.
Plato lived in Greece from 430 to 347 B.C. and he was arguably the brightest student of Socrates. In the work the Republic Plato began to …show more content…
Augustine appreciated many ideas Plato put forward but he wanted to write his Philosophy using early Christian ideas about God, so he used ideas found in the Bible creating differences from Plato’s ideas. The first difference between the two concepts is in transcendence and immanence. Being transcendent is to be present beyond this world and having no interaction between the two possible. This is the stance Plato takes when he describes his forms and in particular the Form of the Good. God in some ways is transcendent, but God is also able to interact with people making him immanent. Immanence is related to the idea that God is omnipresent in the earthly realm, not just in the metaphysical one, but this one as well. One of the main reasons or the Main reason why there is a difference between the two ideas, is that the Form of the Good does not interact with humans at all and is present only in a different realm. While God interacts with humans and is somewhat involved in humanity. In the Old Testament God interacted quite a bit with humans, teaching them morality and showing them good from bad and right from wrong on many separate occasions. According to Christianity, humans and God have a relationship, where God tells us what the sins are and we are to obey his commands unless we want to go to Hell. Of course after the life of Jesus we were forgiven of sins, and granted passage to Heaven. Prophets come to humanity if people are straying from God’s path and need to be reminded of it. There is none of that in Plato, as the form of the good does not interact with people and does not tell them what they should do. Instead it only gives knowledge of what is good after humans reach the full knowledge of the forms and then gives them full control. The second difference between the two is that the Form of the
Professor Culpepper
Core 140
10/09/15
Plato and Augustine
Even though Plato was alive before Christianity many of his ideas share similarities with Christian ideals. There was definitely still differences between him and Christian Philosophers though. In my paper I will discuss Plato’s ideas in regards to forms, and form of the good in particular as well as his ideas about divinity and gods, next I will discuss St. Augustine of Hippo’s ideas from Christianity. After introducing their beliefs, I will show the comparisons, and then the differences between the Form of Good and Christianity.
Plato lived in Greece from 430 to 347 B.C. and he was arguably the brightest student of Socrates. In the work the Republic Plato began to …show more content…
Augustine appreciated many ideas Plato put forward but he wanted to write his Philosophy using early Christian ideas about God, so he used ideas found in the Bible creating differences from Plato’s ideas. The first difference between the two concepts is in transcendence and immanence. Being transcendent is to be present beyond this world and having no interaction between the two possible. This is the stance Plato takes when he describes his forms and in particular the Form of the Good. God in some ways is transcendent, but God is also able to interact with people making him immanent. Immanence is related to the idea that God is omnipresent in the earthly realm, not just in the metaphysical one, but this one as well. One of the main reasons or the Main reason why there is a difference between the two ideas, is that the Form of the Good does not interact with humans at all and is present only in a different realm. While God interacts with humans and is somewhat involved in humanity. In the Old Testament God interacted quite a bit with humans, teaching them morality and showing them good from bad and right from wrong on many separate occasions. According to Christianity, humans and God have a relationship, where God tells us what the sins are and we are to obey his commands unless we want to go to Hell. Of course after the life of Jesus we were forgiven of sins, and granted passage to Heaven. Prophets come to humanity if people are straying from God’s path and need to be reminded of it. There is none of that in Plato, as the form of the good does not interact with people and does not tell them what they should do. Instead it only gives knowledge of what is good after humans reach the full knowledge of the forms and then gives them full control. The second difference between the two is that the Form of the