Plato
- Created by: amyxx
- Created on: 24-04-15 11:42
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- Plato
- Virtual Reality
- have the appearance of truth but are not real e.g. computer games
- Cave - prisoners
- They are convinced that what they are looking at is real
- The Cave: Philosopher - the prisoner who escapes The Sun - lights up the spiritual world/Form of the Good Shadows - aren't real objects
- Prisoner returns = don't believe him. Shadows lack colour & are blurred & the sounds are muffled like our senses = The prisoners lives are empty & meaningles
- The person who discovers the truth is prepared to make the long, difficult journey up to the mouth of the cave to reach the real world (moving from darkness into light etc)
- used the cave story to explain the importance of questioning everything like a philosopher does in order to distinguish between the unreal physical world & the real spiritual world
- What is real?
- Empirical knowledge - A priori, gained from senses (can be flawed e.g. optical illusions)
- Need to distinguish between the 2 realms: Appearance & Realtiy
- Plato said that the best leader would be a philosopher who had no distractions e.g. family
- Forms
- The Good
- Truth
- Beauty
- Justice
- some things e.g. Evil do not have forms
- +ives: - It explains why we recognise the same essential elements in something -helps us to understand why there are imperfections in the world. -It encourages us to q in order to learn
- -Ives: - You can't prove Plato's 'real' world of the Forms actually exists. - If you have a form of a form (Goodness) then it could lead to infinite regression & some say that there is no absolute value of Good = shades of opinion
- -Ives: - It seems unlikely that everything has an ideal form e.g. cancer. - It doesn't help the world we live in. -Plato believes the senses are inferior but humans have relied on them for thousands of years
- -Ives: - Plato is not clear how the realm of Forms relates to our world
- Criticisms: Aristotle - There is no concrete proof that either the world of the cave or outside is real, how can you prove who is right & wrong
- The Good
- Plato's argument is absolutist - a truth which never varies
- According to Plato knowledge of the Good is the highest knowledge a human is capable of, the ordinary person struggles to see past the illusion of their senses
- Background: - Studied under Socrates, founded an academy in Athens, Aristotle studied under Plato but disagreed with some of what he said
- Raphael's Painting shows the differences between Plato & Aristotle
- Plato points upwards -His feet appear to be about to move = problem with our word is that it is constantly changing - In his hands he holds a copy of the
- Virtual Reality
- PHYSICAL LIVING OBJECTS
- PHYSICAL INANIMATE OBJECTS
- Truth
- CONCEPTS & IDEALS
- Justice
- Beauty
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