Socrates, Plato & The Sophist

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Socrates, Plato The Sophist
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The Sophists

• Protagoras
• Gorgias
• Thrasymachus
• Argued that truth was relative.
• Taught rhetoric, the art of persuasion,
  regardless of the truth.

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Protagoras

• Man is the measure of all things. Of the things
  that are, that they are, of the things that are
  not, that they are not.

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Relativism

• Protagoras is a relativist about knowledge.
• The question is what type of relativist?
• Is knowledge relative to the
• Individual
• Culture
• Species

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Protagoras regarding God

• About the gods, I am not able to know whether
  they exist or do not exist, nor what they are
  like in form for the factors preventing
  knowledge are many the obscurity of the subject,
  and the shortness of human life.
• Agnostic- undecided about gods existence.

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Views on God

• Agnostic- undecided about gods existence.
• Atheist- God does not exist.
• Theist- God exist

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Gorgias

• 1) That nothing exist
• 2) That if anything does exist, it is
  incomprehensible
• 3) That even if it is comprehensible, it cannot
  be communicated.

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Cant express knowledge

• If reality is comprehensible, it cannot be
  accurately communicated.
• He claimed that we communicate with words,
• Words are only symbols or signs,
• Symbols can never be the same as the thing they
  represent.
• For this reason knowledge cannot be adequately
  communicated.

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Impossible to Express

• 1) People communicate with words
• 2) Words are (symbols, signs, sounds)
• 3) Words are not the same as the thing they
  represent
• 4) Our ideas are not the same as words.
• 5) For this reason knowledge (our ideas) cannot
  be adequately communicated with words.

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Skepticism

• The idea that we do not have knowledge.
• Gorgias skepticism lead him to the study and
  teaching of rhetoric.

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Thrasymachus

• Thra-sym-achus
• Injustice Pays!
• Justice is for the ignorant.

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Thrasymachus

• The wise pursue their own interest at the expense
  of others.
• Might Right.
• A view echoed by Thomas Hobbes and Nietzsche.

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Socrates (469-399 BC)

• Socrates asked probing questions of the
  intellectual elite in Athens.

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Socrates (469-399 BC)

• All sources agree that Socrates was exceedingly
  ugly, had an unorthodox (lowly) manner of dress,
  and often wandered around barefooted.

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The Oracle of Delphi

• Declared by the Oracle at Delphi to be the Wisest
  of men- he said he was wise because he admitted
  his ignorance!

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Dialogues or plays

• Socrates taught orally and did not put his
  doctrines into writing.
• He did not write books. His student, Plato,
  wrote dialogues that reflect his views.
• These are accounts of debates.

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Not a Sophist

• Unlike the Sophists (who were paid for teaching
  wealthy aristocrats the skills of oration and
  persuasive argument)
• Socrates charged no fees and taught students
  (including women) from various walks of life.

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Socratic Method

• The Socratic Method is used to arrive at truth-
  The Essential Nature of Things.
• Also known as dialectic method, it is where you
  continue to question something until you arrive
  at a definition of the thing in question. (If
  that is possible)

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Socrates and his Student Plato
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The Trial of Socrates 399 B. C.

• Socrates was accused of Impiety- (refusing to
  acknowledge the gods recognized by the State )
• Corrupting the young. 
• Jury of 500 Found Socrates Guilty.
• Sentenced to Death Could have escaped into
  exile. Choose to accept death sentence.

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Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 500,
sentenced to Death!
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Plato 428-384 B.C.

• Plato, the student of Socrates, founded the first
  University in the year 387- called the Academy.
• Science and knowledge were the chief goals of
  study.
• The mind was trained to cut thru rhetoric.

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Platos Philosophy

• Theory of Forms
• Allegory of the Cave
• Divided Line
• Platonic Forms
• Platonic Realism
• Division of the Soul
• Philosopher King
• Memories of the Soul

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Allegory of the Cave

• Plato ask us to imagine
• that men believe the shadows are real.
• This is told in class, and it is told well.
• Page 40 in Book.

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Plato on knowledge

• Plato thinks that because this world is
  constantly changing, that truth is this world is
  impossible.
• Truth for Plato is something, eternal.
• Objects in this world are not eternal, so are
  beliefs about them cannot always be correct.

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Divided Line (p.51)
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Platonic Forms

• PLATONIC FORMS
• UNIVERSAL IDEAS OR CONCEPTS
• ETERNAL
• CHANGLESS
• TIMELESS
• NON-MATERIAL ESSENCES

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Platonic Forms Continued

• All physical objects are copies of these original
  entities
• They exist in another plain of reality- in an
  immaterial realm.

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Modes of Thought
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Imagining

• Imagining is the lowest form of knowledge.
• It is the lowest because the mind does not know
  it is just an image- it thinks the image is real
  (as in the CAVE)
• An Imagine is an imperfect copy of a physical
  object. As such it is lower on the scale of
  knowledge than the physical thing.

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Belief

• A belief is held about some physical object.
• Physical objects do not correspond to the true
  or real Form that they copy.
• Beliefs about physical objects are not certain,
  because the objects and world are in a state of
  changing.
• Physical objects are not eternal.

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Thinking

• Thinking is a deeper level of understanding.
• One moves from the visible world, to the
  intelligible world of thought.
• The objects of mathematics, such as numbers,
  sets, geometric figures and formula make up this
  level of knowledge.

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Knowledge

• Perfect Intelligence- Knowledge of the Forms.
• At this level of understanding the mind grasp the
  unity of reality, and the truth that the ideas or
  Forms are what really exist!

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Platonic Forms

• Plato claimed that all physical objects copy the
  original, unchanging Form.
• Physical objects are imperfect copies.
• Like Heraclitus, he held that this reality is
  constantly changing and shifting.
• What is true today may be false tomorrow in this
  world.
• In the realm of the Forms- truth is eternal.

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How are Forms related to one another.

• Forms are related to one another.
• For Example
• Form Animal Form Shape
• Form Horse Form Circle
• Particular Horse Particular circle

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How are Forms related to Particulars

• Particulars- or Particular objects, partake of
  the Form.
• Socrates partakes in the Form Man
• The clock partakes in circle, clock, numbers
• How specific we need to get is a question.

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Platonic Realism

• The notion that Forms or Ideas exist in a
  separate reality is known as Platonic Realism.

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Universals and Particulars.

• This is an issue in metaphysics-
• What is the relationship between ideas and
  objects.
• Universals is another name for ideas or concepts.
  (General terms)
• Particulars is another name for objects or
  individual things that we encounter in the world.

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Ontological Status of Ideas

• Platonic Realism
• Exaggerated Realism
• Conceptualism
• Extreme Nominalism

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Platonic Realism

• Ideas are real. They have independent existence,
  apart from our thoughts.
• For Plato Universals have Transcendental
  existence apart from the particulars that
  participate. The Form is the cause of the
  essence of a thing, and the particulars are said
  to imitate or copy the Forms in an imperfect way.

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Exaggerated Realism

• Exaggerated Realism is the notion that Universals
  exist in the particulars as part of what makes
  them similar.
• The particulars are a mix or composite of form
  and matter.

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Aristotles Exaggerated Realism

• Aristotle did not accept Platos claim that there
  was a separate realm, or heaven of Forms.
• Aristotle claimed that forms were real, but
  existed in the objects that we perceive and in
  our minds.

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St. Anselms Exaggerated Realism

• St. Anselm argued that the doctrine of original
  sin and of the Trinity required this
  interpretation of what ideas are.

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Conceptualism

• All ideas are real, but the are dependent upon a
  mind, or thought.
• The function of a universal term is to denote a
  special relationship between particular objects.
  Universal are object concepts that we form in our
  minds by examining particulars.

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Extreme Nominalism

• Ideas are not real objects. They do not have
  real existence.
• Only particulars or individuals exist in nature.
  A general term, a universal, such as a word does
  not refer to anything it is only a word (voces),
  or a name (nomen), composed of letters and
  expressed as a vocal emission and is therefore
  only air.

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How do we know the Forms

• Why should we accept that there is a separate
  reality filled with ideas?
• Plato claims that he remembers the Forms.
• According to Plato our Soul is eternal, and once
  existed in the realm of the Forms.

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Memories of the Soul

• According to Plato our soul is eternal. It comes
  from the realm of the Forms and is infused with
  the body during pregnancy.
• All of us had complete access to all the Forms
• We all have within our soul, absolute knowledge.

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Division of the Soul

• According to Plato the soul is divided into three
  parts.
• Tripartite conception of the soul.
• Reason
• Spirit
• Appetite

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Reason

• Reason guides us rationally towards reasonable
  goals

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Spirit

• Spirit gives us the ability to comply with
  reason, to be brave and follow thru with our goals

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Appetite

• The appetitive side of our soul drives our
  impulses and desires.
• Reason, according to Plato, must keep the desires
  in check.
• Allowing our passions to make decision will lead
  to chaos and ruin.

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Plato and ignorance

• Ignorance leads to evil.
• Plato claims that no one knowingly does wrong.
• Akrasia- or weakness of the will, does not exist.
  
• People simply do not understand the harm they are
  doing by performing certain actions.

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Philosopher King

• Plato argued that society should be ordered like
  the soul.
• Reason- Philosopher King
• Spirit- Auxiliaries or Soldiers
• Appetites- workers/ artisans

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Platos Ideal Society

• Platos ideal society is an intellectual
  Aristocracy.
• Smart people deciding for everyone the right and
  the good.
• Because smart people have a true grasp of the
  world.

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Ranking of Social Structures

• Plato thought an intellectual aristocracy was the
  best form of government.
• He held that a democracy was the worst.