Ancient Philosophy: Plato

The philosophical views of Plato, in relation to:

• Understanding reality
• The forms
• The analogy of the cave 

Understanding reality:

- Plato was a rationalist, not an empiricist 

- He believed certain facts about the universe we know by mind and reason alone, not observation or senses. Empiricists deny this.

- For Plato, to know things of true goodness and beauty, our minds have to go beyond our senses.

- Plato believed the best part of humanity was the power of reason, something animals lack.

- If only we reason properly, we would always know the right way to live our lives.

- People do bad things because they don't use their reason properly.

- This raises questions about how we can relate the material, emotion-feeling body to the mind which…