Plato

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  • Plato
    • About Plato
      • A.N Whitehead said all European philosophy is a "series of footnotes to Plato"- Suggests he is a major philosopher.
      • Pupil of Socrates
      • For Plato, knowledge gained through senses (posteriori) = merely opinions. BUT that gained through reasoning (priori) = certain.
    • ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
      • The Symbolism:
        • The cave= world of sight/appearances.
        • Prisoners= Us, trapped in this world of appearances which we believe to be true.
        • The objects/statues= imitations of the forms.
        • The Journey out of the cave= journey of the soul upward to the realm of the forms
        • The sun= Form of the good- Enlightenment, sustains all the other forms.
        • Prisoner who escapes= Philosopher king
    • Theory of the Forms
      • Forms= perfect ideas, types of things. They are timeless, unchanging and beyond space.
      • The created world (world of appearances) is opposite to the realm of the forms. Things are contingent and mortal.
      • The forms are PERFECT
      • Explains why we all recognise the same essential elements in something- they all have bits of form in them.
      • Helps us understand the evils and imperfections in the world

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