Along with Socrates, Plato continued building philosophy around the conception of the divine attributes of the universe, termed ideal forms by Socrates. These ideas resembled the Pre-Socratic notions of the mind, being, and logos. The search for reality requires intense contemplation and intuition, years of study, and mastery on the nature of the universe, the shape of the world, the soul and its immortality, human thought, psychology, and politics, but they lacked the empirical focus that usually defines science. In Plato’s early dialogues, Socrates’ personality and charter are richly portrayed. Socrates argues that material comfort, success, respect, and professional competence are nothing unless based on a rational search to improve one’s
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The Republic is considered to be one of the world’s greatest works of philosophy and literature (Jackson 2004). It presents a comprehensive and radical theory of the state which views its role as not merely an agent of control, but as an agent of virtue. The Republic goes beyond political theory for it is very personal. It concerns justice in the state and in the individual (Jackson 2004). The individual is linked to the state and cannot exist outside it. Plato held the belief in an eternal and unchanging truth, the realm of the ‘forms,’ and that it is possible to have access to these ‘forms’. He was concerned that if there are no such things as universal standards then we are confronted with moral relativism. He believed that there are such things as good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and if it si indeed possible to know these things, then those who have this knowledge should be in a position to educate and rule (Jackson 2004). With the belief that political rule can be studied scientifically, Plato became the founder of political …show more content…
Plato is often credited in establishing the Academy. At the Academy, scholars conducted research in all areas of knowledge (Cumo 2011). Students learned from their scholars and often assisted in their research. With the establishment of the Academy, Aristotle attended the school where he became Plato’s student where he studied for 20 years until Plato’s death in 347 BCE. Aristotle studied under Plato but rejected many of his teacher’s views. He rejected Plato’s Doctrine of Forms, the view that abstract universal things exist independently of particular physical things (Boersema 2011). The two philosophers differed on basic conceptual and metaphysical issues which shaped nearly all subsequent Western philosophical thought. Like Plato, Aristotle immersed in questions about the nature of knowledge and in what way knowledge represents
The Republic is considered to be one of the world’s greatest works of philosophy and literature (Jackson 2004). It presents a comprehensive and radical theory of the state which views its role as not merely an agent of control, but as an agent of virtue. The Republic goes beyond political theory for it is very personal. It concerns justice in the state and in the individual (Jackson 2004). The individual is linked to the state and cannot exist outside it. Plato held the belief in an eternal and unchanging truth, the realm of the ‘forms,’ and that it is possible to have access to these ‘forms’. He was concerned that if there are no such things as universal standards then we are confronted with moral relativism. He believed that there are such things as good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and if it si indeed possible to know these things, then those who have this knowledge should be in a position to educate and rule (Jackson 2004). With the belief that political rule can be studied scientifically, Plato became the founder of political …show more content…
Plato is often credited in establishing the Academy. At the Academy, scholars conducted research in all areas of knowledge (Cumo 2011). Students learned from their scholars and often assisted in their research. With the establishment of the Academy, Aristotle attended the school where he became Plato’s student where he studied for 20 years until Plato’s death in 347 BCE. Aristotle studied under Plato but rejected many of his teacher’s views. He rejected Plato’s Doctrine of Forms, the view that abstract universal things exist independently of particular physical things (Boersema 2011). The two philosophers differed on basic conceptual and metaphysical issues which shaped nearly all subsequent Western philosophical thought. Like Plato, Aristotle immersed in questions about the nature of knowledge and in what way knowledge represents