Plato’s Philosophy: Key Concepts and Influences
Plato’s Philosophy: Core Concepts
The Intelligible World
Unlike the sensible world, the intelligible world refers to the realm of truth and scientific knowledge. This knowledge isn’t based on sensory perception but on intelligible reason. It consists of two elements: mathematical objects and ideas. In the myth of the cave, Plato believed it necessary to release prisoners from error, leading them away from the world of sense and placing them in the world of ideas. These ideas are entities separate from the individual, existing in a world beyond the mundane, accessed through reason.
Dialectics
Dialectics is the philosophical method proposed by Plato to enter the world of ideas. It’s the last step of awareness, a higher form of reasoning. To reach the world of ideas, one must acquire dialectics through science, providing maximum knowledge. This brings true happiness because it’s based on reasons that are fundamental. Before dialectics, one must acquire knowledge of mathematics and music. Plato uses the term ‘dialectical’ in several ways: as a method of rational dialogue, a process of ascent from the sensible world to the world of ideas, and as an erotic impulse.
The Idea of Good
Plato provides a hierarchy of ideas, with the Idea of Good at the top, which some authors identify with beauty and truth. Mathematical ideas follow, and then the rest of the ideas. Knowledge of the Idea of Good is fundamental; if we act improperly, it’s due to ignorance. Man aspires to the supreme Idea of Good through reasoned philosophical impulse.
Opinion (Doxa)
Also called doxa, opinion is one of the forms of knowledge for Plato, based on perception and referring to the sensible world, i.e., space-time phenomena. Opinion is divided into two types: conjecture, or the knowledge we have of things when we see shadows or reflections, and belief, or the knowledge we have when we perceive things directly and form a view.
The Philosopher King
For Plato, philosophy and politics must be intertwined. Philosophers should be kings, or kings should be philosophers; otherwise, the community will not be well-governed. No perfect man without a political life will allow institutions to perfect themselves. A just city needs social divisions, and citizens should occupy estates according to their activity within the state. The philosopher king emerges as a representative of group leaders, and their role is to make laws and establish justice among all members of Plato’s polis. According to Plato, leaders should be educated in various sciences, physical effort, and the practice of virtue from a young age. Upon reaching maturity, they must undertake the task of government over those credited with moral and intellectual capabilities: the philosophers.
Reminiscence
Reminiscence is the process of upgrading ideas in the mind that were previously specified in an earlier experience. As the sensory world engages with ideas, this memory is updated based on knowledge of sensitive things. According to Plato, to learn is to remember what the soul lived before. Regarding how the soul and body are joined, the author resorts to a myth to explain it.
Influence on Other Authors
- Socrates: Socrates’ death affected Plato’s pessimism toward states and his search for an ideal state of philosophy. Concepts such as the search for truth, the belief in an absolute truth, the dialectical method, rejection of relativism or sophist skepticism, ethical intellectualism, and the law based on the idea of justice.
- Cratylus: A disciple of Heraclitus, influencing Plato’s concept of the sensible world as changing.
- Hermogenes: A disciple of Parmenides, influencing Plato’s idea that senses lead to error and reason leads to truth, and the concept of authentic reality as eternal.
- Pythagoreans: Numbers are realities; mathematics is important to know the world; the idea of transmigration of souls; the community style as a philosophical way of life.
Relations with Aristotle
Differences from Aristotle include the theory of Platonic world of forms, differences between the concept of soul in Plato and Aristotle, differences in the theory of knowledge (importance of reason and senses in both), differences in ethical theory (Aristotle’s moral theory against intellectualism), and differences in political theory (Plato’s utopianism versus Aristotle’s realism). Similarities between the two include: science deals with ideas of things that change but the ideas/essences remain, and man is a rational and social animal.