Plato’s Philosophy: Intelligible World and Key Concepts
Plato’s Intelligible World
The Intelligible World, or World of Ideas, represents true reality for Plato. It is the realm where Ideas reside. This world cannot be accessed using the senses but is reached through the use of the most excellent part of the soul, which, for Plato, is reason. The Intelligible World is the true reality and has a religious character with consequences in epistemology, ethics, and politics. In the *Allegory of the Cave*, the Intelligible World is represented by the outside world, which the prisoner accesses when he is freed from his chains and leaves the cave. Plato establishes a hierarchy of entities populating this world, with the Idea of Good at the top, which in certain texts is likened to God. Following the Idea of Good are the Idea of Beauty and the Idea of Truth, followed by other fundamental ideas.
Philosophical Dialectic
Dialectic is the philosophical method proposed by Plato to access the World of Ideas. The concept of dialectics has several meanings in Platonic philosophy, but the most important are:
- Dialectic understood as a rational approach: identified with philosophy and science.
- Dialectic understood as an erotic impulse (eros): identified with love.
The Idea of Good
The Idea of Good is the most important entity of all those that populate the Intelligible World. The range of functions that Plato gives it in his philosophy is such that many authors have identified it with God. This philosopher believed that the Idea of Good has two fundamental roles:
- To create the Sensible World.
- To give intelligibility to the ideas and the Sensible World.
The result is that all things aspire, in one way or another, to the Good. In the *Allegory of the Cave*, the Idea of Good is represented by the metaphor of the Sun.
Opinion
Opinion is the term given by Plato to one of the forms of knowledge. This knowledge is based on perceptions and concerns the Sensible World. Opinion is divided into two kinds of knowledge:
- Conjecture: the knowledge we have of things when we see their shadows or reflections.
- Belief: the knowledge we have when we perceive things directly and form an opinion of them.
Reminiscence
Reminiscence is the Platonic concept according to which knowing is remembering. Plato felt that this knowledge cannot be explained solely based on empirical experience and defended a peculiar vision: when we know the truth of this kind, we are not learning something new, but our soul remembers a truth that it had access to prior to incarnating and living in this material world. Our soul remembers something that it encountered while living in the World of Ideas.
The Philosopher-King
In *The Republic*, Plato presents his idea of the ideal state. In this state, society is divided into groups according to how each of them must meet various basic needs:
- Artisans: responsible for creating goods (food, clothing, etc.).
- Warrior-guardians: responsible for maintaining order within the city and protecting it from external aggression.
- Rulers: whose function is to enact laws and establish justice.
In charge of governing the designs of the polis is none other than the philosopher-king. In the *Allegory of the Cave*, Plato clearly states that only those who have known the Idea of Good will be able to manage both public and private affairs. Furthermore, in the same myth, Plato proposes a whole system of education for future philosopher-kings. Thus, from a very young age, they will be instructed in the various sciences, physical effort, and the practice of virtue. When they reach maturity, around fifty years old, the government should be taken care of by those who have demonstrated their moral and intellectual capacities.
Influences and Contrasts
Plato, in his search for truth, bases his philosophy on ontological dualism, consisting of a Sensible World and the Intelligible World. Given this dualism, there are several authors that may be associated with Plato and, therefore, can be related to these various worlds.
In the visible world, like Heraclitus, truth is achieved through the senses and is constantly changing, so science is not possible. Meanwhile, Plato argues that one should stay away from the senses to get to know the truth that lies in the Intelligible World. At this point, the Pythagoreans and Plato agree that for both, there is an immortal soul, which is in the Intelligible World, and this leads to a process of reminiscence. Parmenides, by contrast, is opposed to Heraclitus, and Plato agrees with him because, he said, the truth is achieved through reason. Thus, Plato, together with the knowledge of Socrates, raised the dialectic as a scientific method that lets us know the truth through the use of the most excellent part of the soul, which for Plato is reason. Protagoras, however, disagrees with any of them, as for him, there are no absolute truths, and as we have seen, for Plato, absolute truth is in the Intelligible World. Aristotle was against the ontological dualism proposed by Plato and criticized the hard ontological division between the Sensible World and the Intelligible World. In his view, what Plato had done, far from solving a problem, had doubled it. Now there is not a single reality that we had to realize, but two realities, one sensitive and one intelligible.
As discussed above, the Pythagoreans and Plato are also related in that, for both, there is an immortal soul. The doctrine of the soul of Plato has exerted an enormous influence throughout the history of Western philosophy. Christian philosophy was the first to assimilate the main ideas of this doctrine, to draw from it the concept, still in force, of the very soul of the Christian revelation. On the contrary, Nietzsche felt that spirituality was hatred and a betrayal of mortality. This ontological dualism, as it has serious consequences in the field of morality. Distinguishing between a fake world and a real world involves, from a moral perspective, renunciation and sacrifice in this life for the benefit of another in the afterlife.