3. P L A T O (427 – 347 B. C. E.)
• one of the world's best known and most
widely read and studied philosopher
• student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle
• born into a wealthy family in the second
year of the Peloponnesian War
• left Athens when Socrates died but returned to
open a school called The Academy in 385 BCE
• wrote about 20 books, made in the dialogue
style (a story which attempts to teach a specific
concept) with Socrates as the main character
4. LIFE
• Plato was born in Athens in 427 in died in 347B.C
• He belonged to an old aristocratic family
• His position by birth and his personal vocation were drawing
him into political life when the attraction of Socrates led him into
political life when attraction of Socrates led him to devote
himself to philosophy
• He was turned away from such a career by death of Socrates.
• Plato’s parents were both descended from Athenian nobility.
5. WRITINGS
• The body of Plato’s writing is almost completely preserved.
• Plato’s work together with those of Aristotle
• Form the pinnacle of all of Greek philosophy and culture.
• Plato’s philosophic genius combines with a miraculous gift of
language which enables him to find the perfect expressions and
metaphors for establishing a new way of thought.
• The platonic contribution to the formation of philosophical
terminology is incalculable.
• While Plato taught at the Academy he continued to write. He
amassed 35 dialogues and 13 letters (known as epistles)
6. • The youthful dialogues, the Apology, the Crito, Euthypyro are strongly
tinged with Socratic teachings.
• Among the most important dialogues of Plato’s mature years are the
Protagoras, the Gorgias, the Euthydemus
• on the Sophist; the Phaedo, on the immorality of the soul; the
symposium, or banquet on the love; the Phaedrus which contains
Plato’s theory of the soul and the Republic, on justice and the concept
of the state
• Theaetrus; the Parminedes; the Sophist and the Statesment; and in
Plato’s old age, the Timaeus; the Philebus.
9. Allegory of the Cave
•was presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in
his work Republic (514 BCE–520 BCE) to compare
"the effect of education and the lack of it on
our nature". It is written as a dialogue between
Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates,
narrated by the latter.
21. Plato introduces this passage as an analogy of
what is like to be a Philosopher, trying to educate
the public.
In fact, the real life Socrates…
was sentenced to death by the Athenian
government for disrupting the social order.
Most people are not just comfortable in their
ignorance but hostile to anyone who points this out.
22. But the Allegory of the Cave has captured
imaginations for 2,400 years because it can be
read in far more ways.
Importantly, the allegory is connected to the
THEORY OF FORMS developed in others Plato’s
dialogues.
23.
24.
25. Metaphysics (general worldview)
- a division of philosophy that is concerned with the
fundamental nature of REALITY and BEING
• Ontology (Theory of Being)
• Epistemology (Theory of Knowledge)
• Ethics (Moral Theory)
• Aesthetics (Theory of Beauty)
27. EPISTEMOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY IN A
PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT
• It is a study of what exist, in general.
• A particular theory about the nature of being or kinds of
things that have existence
• It is the study of knowledge, in general.
• The theory of the nature and ground of knowledge especially
with reference to its limits and validity
28. • Ontology and epistemology are both important
elements of the philosophy of knowledge. If they
often overlap, they have clear distinction :
epistemology is about the way we know things when
ontology is about what things are.
• So finally, it seems like the overlap of those 2 elements
of the philosophy of knowledge, are in fact the origin
of metaphysics.
30. Theory Of Forms – this is when metaphysics
was born
• the highest function of the human soul is to achieve the vision of the
form of the good
• maintains that two distinct levels of reality exist: the VISIBLE WORLD
of sights and sounds that we inhabit and the INTELLIGIBLE WORLD of
Forms that stands above the visible world and gives it being.
• that all things have a true being
• That the world were living is the representation of real one, that the
real world is outside the one that were living on.
• The real world is constantly changing and eternal,
a world of IDEAS not SENSES
31. Properties of the Forms
1. Transcendent - the forms are not located in space and time.
2. Pure - the forms only exemplify one property
3. Archetypes - The forms are archetypes
4. Ultimately Real - The forms are the ultimately real
entities, not material objects.
5. Causes - The forms are the causes of all things.
6. Systematically Interconnected – a system leading down from the
form of the Good moving from more general to more particular, from
more objective to more subjective.
32. • argues that non-physical (but substantial) forms (or ideas)
represent the most accurate reality. When used in this sense, the
word form or idea is often capitalized. Plato speaks of these
entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his
dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only
objects of study that can provide knowledge; thus even apart from
the very controversial status of the theory, Plato's own views are
much in doubt. However, the theory is considered a classical
solution to the problem of universals.
• In other words, the beautiful things we can see are beautiful only
because they participate in the more general Form of Beauty. This
Form of Beauty is itself invisible, eternal, and unchanging, unlike
the things in the visible world that can grow old and lose their
beauty.
33.
34. PLATO’S LEGACY
• Along with Aristotle, Plato is the most influential philosopher in
the development of Western thought.
• He lived about 200 years after Pythagoras. Aristocles, or what we
already know as PLATO also serve in Athenian Army during the
Peloponnesian War.
• Indirectly, he influenced the development of Christianity, as well
as religious theologians such as Saint Paul and Saint Augustine.
• Jewish-Christian-Islamic doctrine agrees with Plato’s metaphysics:
SPIRIT IS ABSOLUTELY DISTINCT AND INDIFINITELY SUPERIOR TO
THE PHYSICAL WORLD OF FLESH.
