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PLATO
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PLATO’S LIFE
• Born in 428 B.C in Athens.
• Belonged to an aristocratic family.
• He had fine prospects in the public life and had political aspirations..
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PELOPONESSIAN WAR
• At the end of “Peloponnesian War” two groups gained power in Athens.400 and 30.
• Plato had mixed feelings about the take over as the two groups i-e 400 and 30 had tyrannical leanings and were causing instability.
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SOCRATES’S DEATH
• Plato supported Democracy but the system proved to be less than perfect in 399 B.C.Socrates Plato’s mentor stood before a jury of 600 Athenians.
• The charges against him were of not recognizing the gods of the city.
• Also the charges included inventing of new deities.
• And corrupting the youth of Athens.
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PLATO’S ACADEMY
• After Socrates‘s death Plato formed an Academy in 387 B.C where students were trained in metaphysics,epistemology,ethics,politics and natural and mathematical sciences.
• This Academy continued for 912 years.
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR “REPUBLIC”
• Philosophers initially focused on the questions of natural sciences.
• Poets and not philosophers addressed the in use of ethics and politics.
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5TH CENTURY B.C
• The war between Athens and Sparta resulted & Athens was defeated which resulted in a major shift.
• It thrusted issues of ethics into the hands of philosophers.
• The growth of democracy called for a new civic virtue “The ability to speak persuasively” which became more important than war craft.
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SOPHISTS
• Due to the above mentioned reason “sophist” came into existence.
• They were teachers of rhetorics who were willing to teach if the student was walling and able to pay the fee.
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SOPHIST’S AGENDA
• Persuasiveness over truth.
• Their ideas varied.
• Questioned the traditional moral values.
• There was no right/wrong but how an action served the interest of the agent.
• It did not believe in objective knowledge/objective truth.
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SOPHIST’S BELIFES
• Conventional morality is unjust because it deprives the strong of their
right and exploit the poor. • They called immorality a virtue because it helped one advancing in a
competition.
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SOCRATES V/S SOPHISTS
• Socrates wanted to combat this moral complacency of his fellow Athenians.
• He was concerned to see them live their lives in a selfish and unreflective haze.
• He was concerned to see them focused on gaining and increasing their powers using the theories of sophists to justify their actions
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SOCRATES V/S SOPHISTS
• Socrates acted like a “dagfly”
• Stinging his fellow citizens into daily examination.
• The unreflected life he said was not worth living.
• Plato took over his mission when Socrates died.
• Plato wanted to further extend the noble work and question Sophist’s belief of no such thing as objective truth and knowledge.
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PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY
1) Early
2) Middle
3) Late
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EARLY PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY
• This period was soon after Socrates’ death so is closest to philosophy.
• Focuses on ethical questions
• He used the method of “elenchus”
• Sometimes these dialogues ended in the state of “aporia”.
• This wa not a futile exercise as philosophical dialectical is essential to human well being making them more virtuous and happy.
• Plato did not accept everything taught by Socrates.He explores the views critically laying them out but not endorsing them.
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MIDDLE PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY
• Developed personal views.
• Dialogues in the form of a conversation between student and teacher.
• Here they were able to reach a conclusion.
• Focused on theory of forms epistemology,Metaphysics.
• Explored questions about
(1) How to live?
(2) What is soul?
(3) Nature.
(4) The role of love.
(5) The nature of physical world.
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LATE PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY
• Extremely controversial and difficult topics.
• Difficult to decide what themes and treds define this method.
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APORIA
• State of helplessness.
• An instability to proceed.
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APPETITE
• Largest aspect of our soul.
• It contains
- necessary desires (indulged).
- unnecessary desires (limited).
- unlawful desires (suppressed).
• Appetite is money loving.
• It should be strictly controlled by reason and reason’s henchman spirit.
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AUXILLARY
• Plato’s society is divided into three classes:
- Producers.
- Auxiliaries.
- Guardians.
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BELIEF
• Second lowest grade of cognitive activity.
• The object of belief is physical realm rather than the intelligible realm.
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ELENCHUS
• Socrates’ method of questioning.
• Showing his interlocutors that the beliefs are contradictatory.
• And that they don’t have knowledge about something which they thought they had knowledge of.
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EMPIRICAL
• An empirical question can only be settled by going out in the world and investigating.
• You have to investigate evidence in the world.
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EPISTEMOLOGY
Branch of philosophy concerned with :
- Knowledge.
- Belief.
-Thought.
Questions it deals with are :
- Can we know anything?
- How do we form out beliefs?
- What is knowledge?
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FORM
• The reality beyond reality which comprises of absolute entities which are called forms like
- Beauty
-Redness
-Sourness
• Only forms can be object of knowledge.
• Forms are the only things we can know about.
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FORM OF “ THE GOOD ”
• Most important.
• Our capacity to know
• Source of intelligibility.
• Responsible for bringing all other forms into existence.
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GUARDIAN
• The guardians are responsible for ruling the city.
• They are chosen from among auxillaries.
• Also known as philosopher-kings.
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IMAGINATION
• Lowest form of cognitive activity.
• Someone in a state of imagination would form his ideas from products of art like poets in Plato’s times.
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INSTRUMENTAL REASON
• Reason used to achieve and end by engaging in mean and analysis,
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INTELLIGIBLE REALM
• All existence can be divided into two parts visible and intelligible realm.
• The intelligible realm cannot be sensed but grasped with intellect.
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KNOWLEDGE
• Pertain to original unchanging universal truths.
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LOVERS OF SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
• Pseudo intellectuals.
• Appreciate things of beauty but do not realize “the form of beauty”.
• They have no knowledge just opinions.
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METAPHYSICS
• The branch of philosophy concerned with asking what there is in the world?
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PLEONEXIA
• A desire to have more.
• A yearning for more power money.
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REASON
• Part of our soul that lusts after truth.
• Source of all our philosophical desire.
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SENSIBLE PARTICULARS
• Things that we can sense.
• Things that undergo change over a period of time.