PHILOSOPHY AND PLATO

Philosophy and Plato

Philosophy and Plato

Introduction

Plato's most celebrated work 'The republic' doesn't only discuss the complexities of an ideal society and its relationship with an individual, but also treads metaphysical paths (Hugh 2000). Plato was a greek philosopher who was born in 427 BC and died in 347 BC. Plato was actually given the name Aristocles, but was called Plato possibly as a reference to his broad shoulders because apparently used to a wrestler. He was born into a wealthy family and his dad was descended from the last king of Athens (Anckaert 2004)Plato was undoubtedly one of the most important philosophers of antiquity. He was an Athenian aristocrat and an ardent disciple of Socrates. His thoughts indeed help lay down the foundations of the western thought.

Discussion

Like Socrates he was concerned to show that there were objective standards of right and wrong and that justice was not just a matter of convention. Plato also continued the speculations of the pre-Socratic philosophers on change, and endeavored to reconcile Heraclitus' doctrine with that of Parmenides through his famous doctrine of the Forms. Thus Plato believed, with Heraclitus, that the things of the world are subject to change and impermanence, but that these things, observed by the senses, are participators in ideal Forms, which exist apart from the material world and are unchanging and, as such known only by the mind. The goal of the philosopher is to learn to know the eternal forms and to instruct others in that knowledge (Whitehead 2001). Plato regarded ethics as the highest branch of knowledge; he stressed the intellectual basis of virtue, identifying virtue with wisdom. This view led to so-called "Socratic paradox that, as Socrates asserts in the Protagoras, no man does evil voluntarily".

Plato also explored the fundamental problems of natural science, political theory, metaphysics, theology, and theory of knowledge and developed ideas that became permanent elements in Western thought. His theory of knowledge also is implicit in his theory of ideas. Plato stated that both the material objects perceived and the men perceiving them as constantly changing; but, since knowledge must be concerned only with unchangeable and universal objects, knowledge and perception are fundamentally different (Plato 1999).

The basis of Plato's philosophy is his theory of Ideas, or doctrine of forms. The theory of Ideas which is expressed in many of his dialogues, particularly the Republic and the Parmenides, divides existence into two realms, an "intelligible realm" of perfect, eternal and invisible Ideas, or forms, and a "sensible realm" of concrete, familiar objects.

In the Republic Plato describes mankind as imprisoned ina cave and as mistaking shadows on the wall for reality; he regards the philosopher as the man who penetrates the world outside the cave of ignorance and achieves a vision of the true reality, the realm of Ideas. Plato's concept of the Absolute Idea of the Good, which is the highest form and includes all others, has been a main source of pantheistic and mystical religious doctrines in Western culture (Friedlander ...