Platonism

According to Plato, a famous Greek philosopher, “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.” Plato clearly places great faith in the abilities of philosophers, but why? Evidence for the beliefs of several philosophers, including Plato, might be found in Yann Martel’s novel, Life…

The literary phenomenon of an allegory is an underlying message, or hidden meaning, within a work. It is not directly stated, but revealed in symbolic representation throughout the work. Two examples of allegories are Plato's "The Myth of the Cave" and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. These two allegories have different meanings, but they have similarities within their storylines. In "The Myth of the Cave," a group of people are "living in an underground cave" and "have their legs…

In this essay, I will compare the images of the “Sea of Beauty” and of the sun in the allegory of the cave, explaining what each refers to, how it works for Plato, and what putting these images side by side reveals about Plato’s understanding of philosophy. The “Sea of Beauty” that Plato often refers to is the final step in his “Ascent of Love.” His “Ascent of Love” is related in the context of education and philosophy. Plato believes that one can only ascend to the “Sea of Beauty” through…

In Book X of Plato’s Republic, Socrates launches an argument questioning the value of art. In it he claims that artists have no conception of the forms and simply mimic the things around them because that’s the best they can do . I think Socrates misses the mark and doesn’t realize the value of art. Good art reflects select aspects of the form of what it imitates. It does so at the cost of misrepresenting or neglecting other facets of that form. Talking to Glaucon, Socrates argues that…

Plato started off book number seven with an allegory, which has been referred to the “allegory of the cave.” In this allegory, there was a large quantity of men who have been trapped in darkness since their birth. They are forced to sit still, while they stared at cave wall in front of them and rooted. A blazing fire is burning behind them and some bodies bearing objects moved around the fire irregularly. As the people walk by, shadows would generate on the cave wall and the prisoners would have…

The Best Possible World Ignorance and the State of Reality Written by: Cody McLean Course Instructor: Professor Dorter Seminar Leader: John Law Date of submission: October, 15, 2014 “Ignorance is bliss” is a statement overheard but not over spoken and the gravity of this statement is sometimes overlooked as it will become more apparent. The basis of our reality is perceptual, Man is born free but is chained to a false reality by his senses, and this reality is one of ignorance and…

The Dual Multiplex of the Divided Line Argument, in the conversational Platonic sense, is one possible way to come to accurate conclusions. In an argument, two or more opposing sides all present their evidence, and, upon deliberation, all sides come to a unanimous conclusion, which forms a thesis. In when more evidence is brought forward, the thesis is compared to the antithesis, and synthesis occurs through which a new, more refined thesis is created. In Plato’s Republic, this dialectical…

In the section of the Phaedo we read, Socrates argues that one has knowledge of the form absolute equality prior to birth, and that learning is a “recovering of knowledge which is natural to us” (40). Socrates’ argument for theory of recollection and that one cannot acquire knowledge of absolute equality through empirical means does succeed despite some minor issues with it. Socrates first proves that there is no example of absolute equality in one’s own experience. To do this Socrates and his…

CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES THROUGH PLATO “Understand, then, that as we said, there are these two things, one sovereign of the intelligible kind and place, the other of the visible…. In any case, you have two kinds of things, visible and intelligible.” - Plato (Republic, 509d: page 183) In his allegory of the ‘line’ and “cave Plato defines various types of knowledge and how each is acquired. Per the allegory of the ‘line’ his forms of knowledge are broken into two major categories, each with two…

Republic, a dialogue written by Plato in the fourth century B.C.E. to propose a series of ideas and theories that he and his master, Socrates, shared. This dialogue was eventually divided into ten individual sections that built off of each other. For example, book one of Republic inquires the question of what is justice, and book two comes back with the question what is more important, justice with the individual and the state. Each part of the dialogue has its own theme and questions; but what…