Life
 

Plato went to Sicily after Socrates died.

Southern Italy was a part of Greece at the time.

In Sicily, he wrote most of the early dialogues, and the first half of the Republic.

He came back to Athens, and formed the Academy.

It was in a grove (academia).

He taught there until his death (age eighty).

His most noticeable student was Aristotle.

Aristotle stayed with him until Plato's death.

Aristotle formed the Lyceum.

Aristotle was a Macedonian. He left Athens when the Macedonians started fighting again.

His student was Alexander of Mascedon.

Plato wrote in the dialogue form.

He uses obviously fallacious; they sound valid, but are invalid.

Socrates was consumed with social problems, moral problems, and political problems.

Plato was a metaphysician and epistemologist.

Plato doesn't take credit for his ideas.

The Republic

Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Metaphysical/Epistemological Abstract

1.         Perceptions are unfit objects for knowledge.

           The following are true of perception:

               a.   Sense knowledge is relative.

               b.   Each man is the measure of all things (Protagoras).

               c.  All things change (Heraclitus).

               d.  They cannot be grasped by essential definitions.

2.         Forms are proper objects of knowledge.

              a.  This knowledge is absolute and infallible.

              b.  Forms are eternal and unchanging (Parmenidies).

              c.  They exist apart from sensible things and God (Timaeus).

              d.  They are not in a place or time.

              e.  They are capable of essential definitions (Socrates).

3.         The Good is the object of wisdom.

                 a.   God and the soul are Parmenidean (#380d, 381a)

THE DIVIDED LINE

The Good WISDOM unchanging, eternal Higher Forms Lower Forms KNOWLEDGE Intelligible Realm - Rationalism objective, unchanging, eternal Physical Objects   BELIEF   Shadows & Reflections   OPINION Sensible Realm - Empiricism particulars, spatiotemporal, changing, temporary From the least real and least knowable to the most real and most knowable.

Forms require images to understand them. Examples of forms are found in geometry. They require our familiarity with particular circles, squares, and lines. Essential definitions are also in other fields; for example:

Dmitri Mendeleev's Periodic Table:



The higher forms don't require any images for us to understand them. These are found in the realm of pure mathematics. We cannot draw a picture of an algebraic equation or a differential equation? All the things philosophers concern themselves with would belong to this realm:

Love is the idea of the beauty of the beloved - John Carbonara
Justice is giving one's due - Plato's Republic
Knowledge is justified true belief - Plato's Theaetetus
Man is the the Rational Animal - Aristotle

In Aristotle's above definition "Rational Animal" is the definiens. The term Man is the definiendum. The thing you are defining (the definiendum) goes first, then the is of identity, next the property that separates that thing from other things, and last the kingdom (Animal) goes last.

When the being of one depends on something else, it is less real.

Reflections depend on the reflected object.

Material objects depend upon the forms they reflect.

A chair cannot be manufactured without a blueprint.

A photographer makes a brochure of the chair.

As we go up the ling, things become more real - and knowable.

In every field, we study general things - not particulars.

The senses lead to solipsism (You can only know your subjective state).

Reason tells you that solipsism is wrong. Things exists when we are not looking at them.

THE CAVE ANALOGY

The Republic

Plato (427-347 B.C.)
 

1.    Politics is directed towards citizens.

2.   The soul contains reason, emotion, and desire. See Note:

      Reason is the highest, and should balance emotions and desires.

3.   Virtue in the individual occurs when all three are balanced (#442a).

      Justice in the state occurs when all three are balanced (#442a).

      The end of virtue is happiness (#353).

4.   A state contains rulers, soldiers, and workers.

      Plato's Republic is totalitarian; everyone should not have a say.

      The worst form of government is a democracy.

5.   Citizens should be educated, selected, and bred.

      Rulers are to be educated as philosophers.

      It's a government of merit (meritocracy).  

6.  Personal property is abolished (Communism).
 

Virtue is a balanced temperament. Reason decides what emotions and desires to allow. Keep in mind that the color black is made by mixing red, yellow, and blue in equal amounts. Purple is made by mixing red and blue. Green is the mixture of blue and yellow, and orange is the mixture of yellow and red.

1. Identify the picture that represents a virtuous person.
2. Describe the vices.
3. Are there possible vices that are missing?

1	2
3	4
5	6
7

The Phaedo

Plato (427-347 B.C.)

The dialogue was named after the narrator. Phaedo recounts the events, and the conversation, that took place between Socrates and his companions on the final day of his life. Other characters are Simmias and Cebes.

Abstract:

1.         Forms are eternal and unchanging.

            A form is the true nature of a thing.

            A beautiful object is beautiful to the degree that
            it participates in absolute beauty. An act is just
            to the degree that it participates in absolute justice.

2.         The soul is formless, eternal, and unchanging (Parmenidean)

            The body is a composite thing. The soul is a simple nonthing.

            Since the soul is the opposite of the body,
            there is no reason to think it will share the same fate.

            The soul is what brings life to the body.

3.         Knowledge is justified true belief.

            Knowledge is recollection.

            Ideas like eternity, equality, perfection, and God
            could not have occurred to us in this lifetime, so
            we must have acquired them before we were born.

4.         Physical things copy the forms. They're constantly changing.

5.         The forms are the proper objects of knowledge.

            The forms cannot be known by the senses, but by intuition.

6.         The body is the cause of ignorance.

            The forms are known by the mind alone.

            The body hinders the soul's search for knowledge.

            Philosophers pursue a kind of death.

            True wisdom occurs after death.

7.         The Soul/Good/God are the proper objects of Wisdom.

            Mind is the cause of all things (Anaxagoras).

8.         Be on guard for misology and misanthropy.
            Misology is the hatred of logic.
            Misanthropy is the hatred of people.

...but first there is a certain experience we must be careful to avoid...That we must not become misologues, as people become misanthropes. There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse. Misology and misanthropy arise in the same way. Misanthropy comes when a man without knowledge or skill has placed great trust in someone and believes him to be altogether truthful, sound and trustworthy; then, a short time afterwards he finds him to be wicked and unreliable, and then this happens in another case; when one has frequently had that experience, especially with those whom one believed to be one's closest friends, then, in the end, after many blows, one comes to hate all men and to believe that no one is sound in any way at all...This is a shameful state of affairs...and obviously due to an attempt to have human relations without any skill in human affairs.
— Plato, Phaedo, 89d–e