1 life’s ultimate questions “plato” christopher ullman, instructor christian life college
TRANSCRIPT
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Student of Socrates (469-399 B.C.)
Socratic MethodA way through persistent questioning to eliminate
the worst hypotheses by finding the contradictions “I know that I know nothing.”
Constantly seeking wisdom in Athens
Philosophy’s most famousmartyr
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Plato (427 – 347 B.C.)• Plato and Aristotle seek to answer every major
philosophical question• “Everything in philosophy after Plato and
Aristotle is just commentary”• The death of Socrates when Plato was 28 was
the turning point in his life• Plato’s influence can be detected in the history
of Christian theology through the centuries
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Plato’s Philosophy
Touches on all of these areas
• Metaphysics• “What is real?”
• Epistemology• “How do we know
what we say we know?”
• Ethics• “What is a good
life?”• Aesthetics
• “What is beauty?”
• Politics• “What is justice?”
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What Plato Opposed Hedonism
“Pleasure is the highest good” Empiricism
“Sensed experience is the only sure source of knowledge” Relativism
Ethical: “The right thing to do depends on ___________.” Epistemological: “Truth depends on ___________.”
Materialism “Matter/energy is all that there is”
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What Plato Opposed
Mechanism “All events are controlled by machine-like laws
without purpose or design” Atheism
“There are no gods” Naturalism
“Nature is self-sufficient and self-explanatory”
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Plato’s Dualism: MetaphysicalExistence is of two types:1. Particular things: always changing, never
perfect, time-limited, mere material The realm of Becoming and Appearances
2. Forms: unchanging, perfect, eternal, nonmaterial
The realm of Being and Reality
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Plato’s Dualism: EpistemologicalInformation comes from two sources:
1. Sensed experience Unreliable because of
the deceivability of the senses and the impermanence of physical things
It can never result in anything but Opinion
2. Reason Reliable because
it focuses on apprehending the Forms It alone results in Knowledge
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Memory Keys to Plato’s Thought
• The ladder• The circle• The cave• The ring• The beast/lion/man• The chariot
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The Ladder
Thoughts must pass some tests in order to climb the ladder of knowing
• Error and sorrow result from letting a thought climb higher on the ladder than it should
OPINION
KNOWLEDGE
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The LadderOpinion• Thoughts based only on
particular sensed experiences should never be allowed to ascend higher than the lower rungs • Examples
• Images, sounds, tastes, scents• The physical objects themselves OPINION
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The LadderThoughts of universals can climb the
ladder• For example, the concepts
• “Dog,”• “Movement,” and• “Hue”
transcend the limits of a particular sensed experience
• The concepts outlast the physical object
• The concepts never change
KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge of the Forms is the only real
knowledge• Therefore, they point to the Forms
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The LadderThe middle rungs are accessible to
thoughts based on reason unaided by the senses, like
• Geometry• LogicThe upper rung is accessible to a
thought that is based on intuition, or immediate contact with the Forms
• Justice• Balance
KNOWLEDGE
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The LadderLife viewed from the bottom
rungs of the ladder appears
• Out of focus• Unordered• Avalanched by trivia
And is• Not representative of
reality
?
? ?
?
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The LadderLife viewed from the top
rungs of the ladder is • In focus• Ordered• Meaningful
And is• Representative of reality
!
!
! !
!
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The Circle What is a circle? Definition Has anyone ever seen a circle? Is there such a thing as a circle? The Idea of Circle is totally real, even though
there is no physical object that denotes it Ideas (Forms) are really real in a way that
physical objects can never be
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The Cave
There are prisoners shackled in a cave, being deceived by flickering, fire-lit images on the wall. They think that those images are what is real.
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The Cave
One person escapes his shackles and cautiously climbs up and out of the cave
Outside, he discovers what is actually real. All the objects are illuminated by a steady, non-flickering, brilliant light.
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The Ring
• What would you do if you knew nobody was watching?
• Is it better to be moral, or to be immoral?
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The Chariot
In humans, there are three powers at work: Appetites Spirit Reason
APPETITES
Spirit
REASON
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The Forms• Essence precedes existence• Essence is a necessary condition of existence
• Without essence, there are no categories, since there are no attributes that make categorization possible
• Each thing exists in at least one category• The Forms are known a priori, not a posteriori
• The disembodied soul, in the interims between reincarnations, beholds the Forms in all their glory
• Certain bodily experiences aid us in recollecting the Forms
• The Craftsman took formless material and fashioned it into the world, using the Forms as patterns