Plato’s Philosophy: Idealism and the Pursuit of True Knowledge
Plato’s Myth of the Cave
In Plato’s myth of the cave, shadows are cast by reality, but it seems the image is only what is. He failed to tackle real life, thought-life. Life pursuing shadows looks absolutely beautiful, but is beyond the world (lost time). Education is needed to shape a character and face reality, eliminating demands, as impurities are in the life of man but not his.
Levels of Reality and Knowledge
Levels of the real correspond to levels of knowledge:
- Opinion: Guided by sensitivity and shadows.
- Mathematical Knowledge: Always displays under assumptions, namely dialectical (this is only the beginning, the last thing).
However, Good cannot be defined (as ONE) or the idea of being because there is nothing more general than the idea of BEING.
Pythagoras and Heraclitus
Pythagoras summarized for all to share, so the last thing (arche) was the number. According to Heraclitus, we can only refer to being as there is not. Being offers are refused, with nothing. If something is not quite beautiful, including the imperfection or ugliness.
Ontological Duality
Ontological duality: As we know, we can look. Actually, it is beyond its appearance. But I can always go beyond; therefore, there seems to be no final or ultimate reality. Appearance is perceived with senses, real logos. What suffers over time cannot be real. Nothing in the world is full.
Aristotle’s Perspective
Aristotle says the distinction between reality and appearance is only analytical. A distinction is required by reason when we ask questions, but there is only one metaphysical world of visible things. Aristotle will have to look for that ONE ultimate metaphysical reasoning. Hard work.
Science and the Search for the Ultimate
Science seeks the last thing. It always moves because you can always divide something into smaller pieces. The science questions are met by finding the last element (impossible). Instead, the edge wondered why something rather than nothing. If you are the one, we would wonder why one and not at all.
Innate Knowledge and the Role of Language
If we know the things of the world, it is because we have prior knowledge of the idea that is present in them.
Plato puts it through a myth: The soul, before being flesh in a body, lived with ideas. It forgets to incarnate, but in contact with things which are nothing more than imperfect copies of the idea they represent, it falls back into the account, remembering. Knowing is, therefore, remembering.
What we give at the outset for granted is what we know in advance, a knowledge that goes hand in hand with our linguistic ability, from the hand of the logos. The claim to know is to remember would, therefore, be to know is to recognize. An animal, even though it may have feelings, is unable to attribute them to something, to recognize that these feelings are about something, and therefore sees nothing in particular. No animal is faced with a world.
Idealism and the Philosopher-King
A philosophy that argues that to have knowledge of the world we must have some previous knowledge about the world is called, usually, idealism.
Plato argues that there will be no justice (no cops will be really beautiful) until the philosopher governs. The problem is that the philosopher never wanted to rule over anyone but himself.