Platonism

Faith and Reason Faith and reason are acknowledged as the primary sources for justifying religious beliefs. Socrates has played an essential role in reconciling both faith and reason as seen in the Plato’s text “Crito” is a discussion by Socrates and Crito about Socrates jail sentence. Crito tries to convince him to escape before the trial because of the fear of death. However, Socrates does not agree with his suggestions and faces the trial. Crito tries to reason with him, but Socrates refuse…

In The Republic, Plato tells a scene through the conversation between of one of his students, Glaucon, and his mentor, Socrates. The scene, titled Allegory of the Cave, represents the state of the human race, who is blind to reality. The allegory continues to demonstrate what happens when one person becomes enlightened. Socrates describes a scene set deep in a cave, where a group of men sit chained to a wall. Above and behind them another group of men hold up a flat cut-out shape that…

The third man argument refers to a criticism of Plato’s theory of forms. Plato believed that for every class of objects, a group of objects that share that same defining property or essences there was an ideal form that is over and above it. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes that for the theory of forms, for every property F there must be a form, F-ness, where all objects with F get that property. “From the existence of a plurality of F things and the fact that, for any such…

In order to better understand the concept of Virtue ethics it is necessary to analyze certain philosophers. These philosophers are Socrates through Plato, and Aristotle. There are three branches of normative ethics, and virtue ethics composes one of them; unlike deontology and consequentialism, virtue ethics focuses on the moral character of the individual, hence the name virtue – ethics (Hursthouse). Even though Aristotle’s and Plato’s approach to ethics, are that of virtue ethics, their points…

The Nature of Marriage, Family and Why Philosophers Should Rule according to Plato In Book V of Plato’s Republic, he details his view of an idealistic society. His main points include a platonic view of marriage, which is comparable to animal breeding. He also shows a strong belief in communal family. In addition, he explains why he believes that philosophers should rule. Marriage is expressed platonically in the polis, which contrasts with the ideal of common monogamy in today’s society.…

In the Republic Plato describes the perfect city in which justice and unity are not a myth, but reality. He believes in the hierarchical structure of the society, in which the philosophers, who posses the greatest knowledge, should rule. Plato 's argument is that every person should follow the path he is destined to follow and a good ruler is the one that has great wisdom and experience. This system is supported by the metaphysical idea of the Forms, the universal form of all, that have likeness…

Introduction: In Parmenides, Zeno and Parmenides also Socrates joins in the conversation; they are talking about the theory of forms in which they are discussing. I will be discussing that the whole-problem theory can be defended, but to a certain extent. I will start off with Zeno reading a book to Socrates and their discussion about the theory of forms. I will then move on to my criticism, on why I agree with the idea that the form won’t be the same and I will disagree with the point of the…

Evil has gone on since the beginning of time and it doesn’t stop at any point. If there is a God, then why would this God allow evil to come and ruin many people’s lives? In my paper, I give out the explanation on how God and evil can coexist with one another because good can triumph over evil through perseverance. This goes on with the relationship between justice and vengeance and how the two can’t live without the other. Though it may be hard to actually consider this, there are many forms to…

“It’s obvious that the same thing isn’t going to put up with doing or undoing opposite things in the same respect and in relation to the same thing at the same time, so presumably if we find that happening in the things in question, we’ll know that they’re not the same, but more than one thing (Republic IV 436C). He then tells us how reason and desire are different. Reason is different than desire because the desire of thirst would only deal with the thirst only. If both desire and thirst acted…

As Plato writes in the dialogue The Republic, the form of the good is responsible for all truth and knowledge in a society. Since Plato and his colleagues have been debating on how a city state should be ruled and the qualifications the ruler should possess, he begins to examine how the form of the good would be useful for a ruler’s education of the rational part of the soul. As Plato has previously stated, the rational part of the soul allows the mind to have knowledge and wisdom while trying…