The Ideas of Plato

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The Ideas of Plato
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How Powerful is Platos Influence

• according to Alfred North Whitehead all
  philosophy is nothing more than a footnote to
  Plato.
• Plato was a student of Socrates, gained a passion
  for philosophy
• After Socrates death, Plato set up his Academy
• Knowledge is developed refined through
  discourse and questioning
• Unlike Socrates, Plato documented his ideas

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The Analogy (Allegory/Myth) of the Cave (Sproule
p.75-76)
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Plato believed

• Most of us have only partial and unclear
  knowledge
• Human beings could attain true knowledge
• In the existence of a single moral truth (like
  Socrates)
• In the existence of a single connected truth
  about everything in the universe
• Knowledge divided in two categories

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Platos Two Categories of Knowledge

• Of Visible World

• Of The Real Ideal World

• Achieved via senses
• Subject to change
• Based on opinion
• Of less value
• The world of experience includes what we imagine
  or believe might be true
• objects of this world are images

• Achieved via rational thought
• Permanent
• Based on reality/ BEING
• The greater truth
• Lower form of knowledge from mind is world of
  thinking (induction)
• Highest form of knowledge that of The Good how
  all things are connected

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A person who knows The Good

• Doesnt rely on the imperfect visible world for
  information
• All knowledge is acquired through the working of
  the mind
• Therefore, Plato is a RATIONALIST, since it is
  through reason and not the senses that we acquire
  the highest knowledge and wisdom.
• Read Platos Theory of Form Change p. 79-80
  and Platos Theory of Aquiring Knowledge p. 80