GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THE AGE OF GREAT SYSTEMS
Plato [427-347 BCE]
The method of Socrates suggested a system of thought to be worked out. Plato’s system incorporates and transforms the doctrines of his predecessors…The problems suggested are the intimate ones: meaning of human life, human knowledge, human conduct, human institutions which depend for an adequate answer upon the study, also, of their interrelations and their place as parts of the larger Ontological Question [and indeed are not comprehensible without an ontology – at least “an implicit” one]. Plato developed such a system.
The division of philosophy into [1] logic or dialectic [including theory of knowledge], [2] metaphysics [including physics and psychology], and [3]ethics…is implied in Plato’s work.
1.1 Dialectic and Theory of Knowledge:
Plato recognizes the importance of the problem of knowledge. Sense perception and opinion cannot lead to genuine knowledge.
Eros, the love of truth, is necessary for advance…it arouses the contemplation of beautiful ideas…dialectic is the art of thinking in concepts: the essential object of thought.
Ideas do not have origin in experience…we approach the world with ideals: truth, beauty, the good; in addition to the value-concepts. Plato also came to regard mathematical concepts and certain logical notions, or categories, such as being and nonbeing, identity and difference, unity and plurality, as inborn, or a priori.
Therefore, conceptual knowledge is the only genuine knowledge. What guarantee, then, is there of the truth of conceptual knowledge? [Plato’s answer is based on the metaphysics of certain of his predecessors, especially Parmenides: thought and being are identical; Parmenides speaks of or indicates the world of logical thought as true, and the world of sense perception as illusion.]
For Plato, knowledge is the correspondence of thought and reality [or being] – knowledge must have an object. If the concept is to have value as knowledge, something real must correspond to it – realities must exist corresponding to all our universal ideas: there must be, for instance, pure absolute beauty corresponding to the concept of beauty…conceptual knowledge presupposes the reality of a corresponding ideal or abstract objects…Or, in contrast to the transient world of the senses, which is mere appearance, illusion: true being is unchangeable, eternal. Conceptual thought alone can grasp eternal and changeless being: it knows that which is, that which persists, that which remains one and the same in all diversity, namely the essential forms of things
1.2 Plato’s theory of knowledge:
Conjecture, Mere sense impression, and Belief Sensible objects Sense perception are a priori of Plato’s knowledge.
Understanding Mathematical and other hypotheses [and education] plays a key role. Rational [insight] Forms or ideas Dialectic forms the basis of his theory.
According to Plato, the Hierarchy of the Sciences, such as Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Harmonies, and Dialectic, is the coping stone of the sciences.
Dialectic knowledge considers forms as constituting a systematic unity – as related to the form of the Good; it rests on categorical first principles, not hypothesis
1.3 Doctrine of ideas: [Plato’s most original philosophical achievement.]
According to Plato, universals exist. Corresponding to the concept of horse, as example, there is a universal or ideal entity; it is the idea that is known in conceptual knowledge, reason
The variety of ideas or forms is endless: there are ideas of things, relations, qualities, actions and values…[these are some classes of ideas]: of tables and chairs; of smallness, greatness, likeness; of colors and tones; of health, rest and motion; of beauty, truth and goodness…The ideas or archetypes constitute a well-ordered world or rational cosmos; arranged in a connected, organic unity, a logical order subsumed under the highest idea: the Good
The Good, the supreme idea, the logos or cosmic purpose, the unity of pluralities, the source of all ideas…is also the truly real. The function of philosophy, by exercise of reason, is to understand this inner, interconnected order of the universe and to conceive its essence by logical thought
Outline of the doctrine: [1] The forms, or ideas defined as objects corresponding to abstract concepts, are real entities. The Platonic form is the reification or entificiation of the Socratic concept; [2] there are a variety of forms; [3] they belong to a realm of abstract entities, a “heaven of ideas”, separate from their concrete exemplification in time and space [the Platonic dualism]; [4] form is archetype, particular: copy; form is superior: forms are real, particulars mere appearances; [5] the forms are neither mental – they exist independently of any knowing mind, even God’s – nor physical: yet real; [forms are non-temporal and non-spatial: eternal and immutable]; [7] they are logically connected in a “communicative” hierarchy in which the supreme form is the Good; [8] forms are apprehended by reason, not sense; [9] the relation between a particular and a form which it exemplifies is “participation”; all particulars with a common predicate participate in the corresponding form; a particular may participate simultaneously in a plurality of forms or successively [in change] in a succession of forms
1.4 Philosophy of nature
Matter [the second principle, diametrically opposed to the idea] is the raw material upon which the idea is impressed. Dualism. Matter is perishable, imperfect, unreal, nonbeing
1.5 Cosmology
The Demiurge or Creator [more an architect than a creator] fashions the world out of matter in the patterns of the ideal world…The four factors in creation enumerated in Timmaeus are [1] the Demiurge or God: the active principle or dynamic cause of the world; [2] the pattern as archetype of the world; [3] the receptacle: the locus and matrix of creation; matter; brute fact; source of indeterminacy and evil; and [4] the form of the Good
Plato’s cosmology, garbed in myth: an attempt to identify the causes in [and creation of] the actual world [interpretation]
The influence of Plato’s doctrine of ideas, and cosmology is enormous – upon Aristotle: the four causes of Aristotle are the four factors in Plato’s cosmology… and in Christian [medieval] thought…[argument from design]
1.6 Psychology
“Faculty” psychology: [1] rational faculty [mind], [2] spirited faculty [emotions…it is doubtful that Plato considered will and free choice], [3] appetitive faculty: desire, motivation
1.7 Doctrine of immortality
[From psychology: the part of the individual, which “knows” sense impression and opinion, is the body; the soul knows or has genuine knowledge or science. Because the soul possesses apprehension of ideas prior to its contact with the world: all knowledge is reminiscence and all learning is awakening.]
Arguments for Immortality: Epistemological: [1] The soul has contemplated eternal ideas and only like can know like: [2] from the doctrine of reminiscences. Metaphysical: [1] From the simplicity of the soul: it cannot be produced by composition or destroyed by disintegration, [2] from vitality: as the source of its own motion, the soul is eternal [a survival of atomistic conceptions] [first cause argument, perhaps]…and various other metaphysical arguments. Moral and Valuational: from the superiority and dignity of the soul: it must survive the body; a variation: everything is destroyed by its “connatural” evil; the evils of the soul [its worst vices: injustice, etc.] do not destroy the soul – hence its indestructibility. [There are hardly any arguments advanced in the literature on immortality which are not foreshadowed by Plato.]
1.8 Ethics
Ethical being is one in which the superior principles dominate: rationality. Wisdom: reason over other impulses of the soul; bravery: reason over emotion [fear, pain]; temperance: reason over desire…Justice: wisdom with bravery and temperance
1.9 Politics
Plato’s theory of the state [in The Republic] is based on his ethics. Social life is a means to perfection of individuals. Laws result from imperfection of individuals which leads to the state. Classes in society result from functions of the soul; harmony among the classes results from functional relations of the healthy soul:
Ruling class: those embodying reason [philosophers]
Warriors: the spirited. Their function: defense
Agriculturists, workers, merchants, artisans: lower appetites. Their function: production
Justice in state: each class functions according to its character
The ideal society is a family: Plato opposes monogamy, private property, recommends for the two upper castes – who are to be supported by workers – communism and common possession of wives and children…Plato recommends: eugenic supervision of marriages and births, exposure of weak children, compulsory state education, education of women for war and government, and censorship
The state is an educational institution, the instrument of civilization; its foundation must be the highest kind of knowledge which is philosophy. The education of the children of higher classes will follow a definite plan: identical for the sexes during the first twenty years: myths selected for ethicality, gymnastics for body and spirit; poetry, music –harmony, beauty, proportion and philosophical thought; reading, writing; mathematics which tends to draw the mind from the concrete and sensuous to the abstract and real. At 20, superior young men will be selected and shall integrate their learning. At 30, those who show greatest ability in studies, military officers, etc., will study dialectic for five years. Then they will be put to test as soldiers, militias and in subordinate civic offices. Starting at the age of fifty, the demonstrably worthy will study philosophy until their turn comes to administer the offices for their country’s sake.
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