epistemology
his theory of knowledge
metaphysics
his theory of reality
knowing
Knowing, or knowledge endures or stays put, is always true, is backed up by reason, and is the result of instruction.
believing
You can believe falsely, but you can't know falsely. It is quite possible to believe something false; it happens all the time. Believing does not necessarily involve truth. Belief is not the same as knowledge. It is changeable, may be true or false, is no
Form
Those ideal realities Plato takes to be both the objects of knowledge and the source of the derived reality of the sensible world: the Square Itself, for instance, and the Forms of Justice and the Good. Their being is eternal and unchanging.
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Epistemological Argument
The Epistemological Argument for the Forms is tied back to knowing: knowledge is enduring, true, rational belief based on instruction; we do have knowledge; this knowledge cannot be about the world revealed through the senses; it must be about another wor
Metaphysical Argument
Dealing with the nature of things, not the nature of knowledge
Something that two things may have in common, like two elephants. They're both large. They share the Form of the Large, yet they are still individual elephants. They have a certain 'character'
Semantic Argument
Semantics is a discipline that deals with words, in particular with the meanings of words and how words are related to what they are about. Basically, calling something by it's proper noun or name and not by a common name.
Ex. Dumbo, Gertrude, and Willy a
Divided Line
The image Plato uses to illustrate the relationships between the intelligible world of Forms and the visible world.
Plato intends the proportionality between the line segments to represent the fact that the intellegible world of the Forms is related to th
the visible
the world, likeness, shadows, reflections
The shadow of an eagle
Divided into A and B, likeness and things, imagination and opinion
the intelligible
the forms
The eagle itself
Even if an ecological tragedy were to kill all the eagles in the world, we could still think about eagles. The intelligible has this kind of superiority to the visible: It endures.
Divided into C and D, lower and higher forms, s
Making Intelligible
Coming to understand the form; examining an eagle or piety, for example, getting acquainted with what makes an eagle an eagle or a pious action pious
Producing
A particular eagle or pious action; producing an example or embodiment of the form (p. 129, 130)
dialectic (Plato's)
For Plato, the sort of reasoning that provides explanations within the intelligible world, explaining Forms by more basic Forms, and ultimately by the Form of the Good.
A purely conceptual process of moving from Forms to Forms, and eventually to the highe
Form of the Good
The ultimate explanation of everything, the Form in which everything else, both intelligible and visible, participates.
that Form to which dialectic will lead us in our search for the ultimate presupposition
The Starting Point - Plato cannot give proper e
Myth of the Cave
Told in the 7th book of the Republic, illustrates the progress/struggle toward wisdom.
1. People in cave see only the shadows of things, they only see images of reality - reflections, interpretations
2. Those who climb up on the wall, on which are carried
wisdom
The aim of education, what we strive for.
We may toward wisdom through the following progress:
1. Contemplating the images of worldly things, use of IMAGINATION
2. We can have probable beliefs or OPINIONS
about things and events in the world
3. When we re
Analogy of the Sun
The sun outside the cave represents the Form of the Good
First our adventurer can only see the lower Forms, reflections of the Sun, but gradually through dialectic he can come to see the Form of the Good itself.
education
For Plato, the process of turning the soul of the student toward what is more and more real, until finally the student sees for herself the True, the Beautiful, and the Good.
Not stuffing the mind with facts, but turning the soul to face reality, trusting
love of wisdom
The motivational drive that propels us toward more and more satisfying objects for our eros, moving us out of the cave and up the divided line to the ultimately real things.
Diotima
The woman from whom Socrates claims to have learned about love (eros).
ladder of love
From the bottom rung up:
1. a beautiful body
2. all beautiful bodies
3. beautiful souls
4. the beauty of laws and institutions
5. the beauty of knowledge
6. beauty itself
At each rung the lover is only partially satisfied and is therefore powerfully motiv
soul
Argues that the soul is immortal. Calls it a principle of activity and motion within living bodies. Such a principle of energy, capable of self-motion is exactly what we call a soul. So a soul is essentially a self-mover, a source of activity and motion.
Myth of the Charioteer
Describes the internal structure of the soul
According to the textbook:
the black horse represents desire
the white horse is spirit
and the charioteer is reason.
According to the quiz:
the horses represent desire
the reins are the spirit
and the chariotee
Form of the Moral
What is morality? Is morality good or not?
Thrasymachus
In Plato's Republic, the Sophist who presents the view that justice is the advantage of the stronger, and that immorality will bring happiness. Argues that being moral is "sheer simplicity" whereas being immoral is "sound judgment
happiness
Not a feeling, but a state of being. Eudaemonia. When the parts of the soul (desire, spirit, and reason) act harmoniously in bringing about action.
Good by nature (physis); it isn't just by convention (nomos) that we agree on that.
Plato wanted to show th
Glaucon
a participant in the dialogue of the Republic who tells the story of an ancestor of Gyges
Gyges
relates to the story of a shepherd who found a ring that could make him invisible, raises questions about morality. Would you want a ring like this? How would you use it? In the story, the shepherd uses the ring to seduce the king's wife and with her help
philosopher kings
The only foundation for a just and happy society, according to Plato's Republic, is for philosophers (lovers of wisdom) to become kings or for kings to become philosophers.
Those who love wisdom and are possessed of the ability to pursue it, those who hav
Third Man Argument
The argument that shows there is something wrong with Plato's theory of Forms�that positing a Form to explain a visible fact commits you to an infinite series of Forms, all of which are required to account for that fact.