Plato: Philosophy, Ideas, and the Soul
Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)
Born into an aristocratic family in Athens, Plato’s father was Ariston. As a youth, he had political ambitions but became disillusioned with the rulers of Athens. Aristotle was his most outstanding student. With the opportunity to combine philosophy and practical politics, Plato went to Sicily in 367 BC to become a guardian of the new ruler. He died in 348 or 347 BC.
The Theory of Ideas
Plato’s theory of ideas attempts to answer the problem of universal concepts, exploring whether they have a real existence separate from the sensible world. He proposed a perfect world, a realm of perfect, real, distinct, separate, and transcendent entities: the world of Ideas. This world of Ideas is the true world of reality. The sensible world, the world we perceive through our senses, is merely a copy or imitation of the world of Ideas.
The Two Worlds
Plato distinguishes between a visible reality, perceptible by the senses and changing, and an invisible reality, imperceptible by the senses and eternal.
- Sensible World: The world of specific realities, for example, the many beautiful things.
- World of Ideas: The world which subsists, for example, beauty itself.
Dualisms
- Cosmological Dualism: (World sensitive – World intelligible)
- Epistemological Dualism: (two degrees of knowledge: opinion (doxa) and Science (episteme))
- Anthropological Dualism: (Soul / Heritage – body / material)
The World of Ideas (MI)
Plato’s notion of an idea is not simply a mental concept, which only exists in the mind, but an extra-mental entity that has objective existence. Ideas are causes of things, but only as to their essence or mode of being true. For example, beautiful things are such because they mimic or participate in the Idea of Beauty or Beauty itself. (Participation)
- Immutable, Eternal, Simple: Ideas are immutable entities (they do not change, grow, or decrease), eternal (they are not born or die), and simple.
- Known Only by the Understanding: Ideas are known only through understanding, intelligence, or reasoning.
- Hierarchical Organization: There are many ideas, both as universal concepts, but this ideal world is not chaotic. It has a strict hierarchical structure, fixed by the supreme idea of the Good (identified with Truth and Beauty). The Good is the true and the beautiful, the sun that illuminates and gives life to the world intelligible.
The World of Sense (MS)
This is the reality perceived by the senses, generated, continuously evolving, just like the world of imperfect Ideas. Unlike the world of ideas, it is subject to constant change and is perishable, always material.
Dual Function of the Philosopher
- Epistemological Function: To encounter the Ideas, being able to distinguish individual sensible objects (copies of them).
- Educational Role: To guide and educate everyone else, leading the state from opinion (doxa) to knowledge (episteme).
The Body
The body is a prison for the soul because these two realities are heterogeneous (different from each other), both by their nature and origin. It is material in nature, belonging to the world of sense. The soul itself is to be in its natural place (MI), not by the body. While still attached to the body, the soul desires to escape the ties that bind (MS) and return to its origin (MI). The union between soul and body is an accidental union of biological life.
Characteristics of the Soul
- Definition: The principle that gives life to the body (prison) and is released at the time of death. It originally belongs to the intelligible world.
- United Accidentally: It is united accidentally (biological life) to the body.
- Spiritual, Eternal, Pre-existing, Immaterial, Perfect, Immortal: The soul is spiritual, eternal, pre-existing, immaterial, perfect, and immortal.
- Principle of Motion: The soul is the principle that moves itself and the principle source of motion that moves and animates the body itself, which is inanimate. What moves itself is immortal and inborn (innate).
- Superior to the Body: The soul is immortal, superior to the body, gives life, and governs it.
The Three Parts (Functions) of the Soul
- Sound: This is the highest part, knows the other parts and guides them.
- Irascible: Symbolizes courage and will. It easily lends itself to reason.
- Concupiscible: It symbolizes desire and passion. Sensitive, it is difficult to lead.
Reminiscence
If we can say that some things are white and some acts are just, it is because there are ideas or forms of whiteness and justice that serve as our framework. Nothing could be re-learned, but we know if this was not universal, i.e., the idea. The soul is immortal, imprisoned in a Body (Theory influenced by the philosophy of Pythagoras). The recognition of the soul: The unformed matter, it serves the soul for the knowledge of the ways of its former condition and, through this reminiscence, recognizes how sensible objects manifest the forms in the field, although they appear blurred and deformed. This serves the soul to remember the knowledge it had in its previous status.
The Idea of the Good
It is the purpose of the world, thanks to which man has the capacity to know. It is the most universal idea of all. Only a few can attain knowledge through a prolonged dialectical process.
Platonic Ethics: The Cardinal Virtues
In Plato’s moral philosophy, as in Socrates’, virtue has a practical purpose. It connects with virtue ethics.
Happiness
Plato understood happiness as”harmony in human life, both material and spiritual needs. (Balance between parts of the soul). For the Greeks in general, happiness was the pursuit of pleasure, but for Plato, it is not pleasure itself, because it is experienced only when needed and as they increase, pleasure increases pain. But the intellectual pleasures are more positive and are at a higher level in relation to bodily pleasures. Happiness: By nature, man seeks good when the man knows, not confusing the good with behavior.
Justice
Society: Each part of society must do what it has to do. Man: Each part of the human soul must do what it has to do.
Society and Politics: The Political Theory of Plato
Society: The natural environment of man (there is a natural inclination in man that leads him to live in society). It needs to achieve the common good and happiness for each of the men composing it.
Identification of Human Life with Social Life
- Moral Individual -> Nature of Man -> Single Well.
- Collective Moral -> Nature of the State -> State property.
Ideal Society
: You must meet the needs of men: to ensure economic order and material (division of labor), military activities (Warriors), governance requirements (Presidents)
Socal classes in the republic: governing wisdom (is consentraban only rule), warriors fortress (consentraban are in war and in battles) artisans temperance (qp hate are the only family to have land and labor as consentraban). These positions were chosen THROUGH qualities with people who were born