Plato

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Why did Plato reject empiricism

The worlkd is a constatnt state of flux, we can never have absolute knowlwdge of it 

We see distortions = the world consists of shadows 

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Cave analogy

Believe that truth is aquired from the World of Forms 

Philosophising the World of Forms is hard 

Hummanity is chained in a cave; the chains represent ignorance and the cave represents the world 

In the cave we see shadows of the present form 

The World of Forms has the perfect form of everything. Including the highest Form, which is the sun, which represents the form of the good - Absolute truth 

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Soul

Plato was a dualist, body and soul were seperate - Soul resided in the World of Forms before you were born = it immersed itslef in true Knowledge as the World of Forms consists of all the perfect forms 

Plato believed everyone has an opinion of what justice and beauty are (universial qualities). This opinion is gathered from a distorted shadow (on the cave wall)

plate believed there is an absolute standard of justice in the World of Forms 

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Hierarchy of Forms

Form of good - Justice, thruth, beauty - Universial quatilites (essence that makes up forms) - concepts and ideas (forms) - Psyical living objects (humans, animals) - psysical inanimate objects (furniture)

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Evidence for the World of Forms

Our souls once resided in the World of Forms, absorbing truth from the Forms 

We should have absolute knowledge, however due to the truma of birth - we forget 

Learning is merely about remembering, not about learning fresh knowledge 

Child genius = arguably points to Plato being correct. These children haven't lost all knowledge acquired by soul.

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