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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Plato believes there are two worlds...
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A physical, unreal world and a spiritual, perfect world.
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Plato believed that the world we see around us is...
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An illusion created by our senses.
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True knowledge can be gained through...
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our minds by accessing the realm of true reality which lies beyond our senses
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Outline the analogy of the cave
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In Plato's Analogy of the Cave, what do the prisoners represent?
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Ordinary people who have yet to discover true knowledge.
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The shadow play represents...
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the illusion created by our senses.
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The cave represents...
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the visible world as we see it, a distortion of the truth.
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The journey out of the cave into the outside world symbolises...
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the discovery of true knowledge.
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The sun represents...
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the Form of the Good, the most perfect of all realities.
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the return of the prisoner represents..
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that the philosopher who has discovered true knowledge is mocked by those who do not know true reality.
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What is a Form?
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Behind every concept and thing in the visible world there is an unseen reality, its Form. Forms are absolutes, timeless, eternal truths existing beyond, but participating in, the visible world.
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What are particulars?
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An earthly example of a Form. For example, a tree in the visible world is a particular of the Form of the Tree. Particulars only appear to exist and so are very pale reflections of the Forms. For this reason Forms are sometimes called Ideals.
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How do Forms and Particulars differ?
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Particulars depend on physical matter and are changeable and imperfect. Forms are immaterial, totally consistent, eternal and unchanging.
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How can we be aware of the Forms when they are beyond our senses?
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Each human has an immortal soul that had access to the Forms before it was implanted in the body.
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What is the importance of the Form of the Good?
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It is central to the existence of the whole universe. As the sun gives life to all things and illuminates them, enabling us to see them for what they are, the Form of the Good gives rise to all knowledge, letting us recognise other Forms.
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What is the body?
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Physical matter belonging to the visible world.
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What is the soul?
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Immaterial and belongs to the world of the Forms. Plato considers the soul more important than the body.
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The body allows us...
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to communicate with each other and forms our outward appearance. Through the body's senses we can form opinions about the visible world.
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Plato considers to the body not to be real as..
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it is constantly unchanging and therefore not truly real.
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We can never grasp real truths through the body as..
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it cannot access the realm of the Forms.
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The soul is...
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not physical and came from the land of Forms before it was implanted into our bodies. It longs to return there when the body dies. The soul is immortal and unchanging.
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The soul possesses..
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True knowledge which is acquired in the presence of the Form of the Good.
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The soul enables us to...
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gain true knowledge by "remembering" what it learned in the World of Forms.
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The mind...
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lies between the body and the soul.
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The mind can..
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access the soul but is connected to the physical processes and is aware of the information provided by the senses.
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What is Plato's understanding of the relationship between mind, body and soul?
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the body and soul oppose each other and the mind is caught in between.
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The mind wants...
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to develop its knowledge and understanding of the immortal soul but is distracted by the body and its physical desires.
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Key quote involving Platio understanding of the body, soul and mind.
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"The boyd is the source of endless trouble...it fills us full of loves and lusts and fears and fancies of all kinds...and takes away from us all power of thinking at all."
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What happens to the soul after the body dies?
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The philosopher's soul lives on immortal, in a state of bliss and wisdom. The souls of people focused on bodily demands and desires are reborn as lower creatures.
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True reality can only be known through...
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pure thought. This is prevented by the body. The philosopher must seek to be unhindered by bodily distractions.
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Criticisms of the Analogy of the Cave: Plato assumes that nobody who had discovered true knowledge would return to the world of shadows.
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Not always the case. Just because you know the truth doesn't mean you'll choose to live by it. We could know and understand that true goodness involves helping others but we could still choose to act selfishly.
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Criticisms of the Forms: Infinate regression
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E.g. If we need a Form of Beauty to recognise beauty in the visible world. We would then need a Form of the Form of Beauty in order to understand why beauty itself is beautiful. This would lead to infinite regression, as each Form is more perfect than the one before it.
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Criticisms of the Forms: unpleasant Forms.
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If there are Forms of all things in the visible world, there must also be forms such as the Form of Death and the Form of Disease, etc. As Forms have a greater reality than their particulars in the visible world, this would surely make them far worse in the world of Forms. This is surely contradictory as the world of Forms is supposed to be perfect.
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Criticisms of the Forms: levels of reality.
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It can be argued that something is either real or it isn't.
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Criticisms of the Forms: existence of the Forms.
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There is no physical evidence that the Forms even exist. Therefore Plato's theory of the Forms is unverifiable.
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Criticisms of the Forms: value of knowledge of the Forms.
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If it were possible to know the Forms in themselves this knowledge would have no relevance to our lives in the visible world.
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