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Socrates, Plato & The Sophist
The Sophists
• Protagoras
• Gorgias
• Thrasymachus
• Argued that truth was relative.
• Taught rhetoric, the art of persuasion, regardless of the truth.
Protagoras
• Man is the measure of all things. Of the things that are, that they are, of the things that are not, that they are not.
Relativism
• Protagoras is a relativist about knowledge.
• The question is what type of relativist?
Is knowledge relative to the:
Individual
Culture
Species
Protagoras regarding God
• About the gods, I am not able to know whether they exist or do not exist, nor what they are like in form; for the factors preventing knowledge are many; the obscurity of the subject, and the shortness of human life.
• Agnostic- undecided about god’s existence.
Views on God
• Agnostic- undecided about god’s existence.
• Atheist- God does not exist.
• Theist- God exist
Gorgias
• 1) That nothing exist
• 2) That if anything does exist, it is incomprehensible
• 3) That even if it is comprehensible, it cannot be communicated.
Can’t express knowledge
• If reality is comprehensible, it cannot be accurately communicated.
• He claimed that we communicate with words,
• Words are only symbols or signs, • Symbols can never be the same as the
thing they represent. • For this reason knowledge cannot be
adequately communicated.
Impossible to Express
• 1) People communicate with words
• 2) Words are (symbols, signs, sounds)
• 3) Words are not the same as the thing they represent
• 4) Our ideas are not the same as words.
• 5) For this reason knowledge (our ideas) cannot be adequately communicated with words.
Skepticism
• The idea that we do not have knowledge.
• Gorgias’ skepticism lead him to the study and teaching of rhetoric.
Thrasymachus
• Thra-sym-achus
• Injustice Pays!
• Justice is for the ignorant.
Thrasymachus
• The wise pursue their own interest at the expense of others.
• Might = Right.
• A view echoed by Thomas Hobbes and Nietzsche.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
• Socrates asked probing questions of the intellectual elite in Athens.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
• All sources agree that Socrates was exceedingly ugly, had an unorthodox (lowly) manner of dress, and often wandered around barefooted.
The Oracle of Delphi
• Declared by the Oracle at Delphi to be the Wisest of men- he said he was wise because he admitted his ignorance!
Dialogues or plays
• Socrates taught orally and did not put his doctrines into writing.
• He did not write books. His student, Plato, wrote dialogues that reflect his views.
• These are accounts of debates.
Not a Sophist
• Unlike the Sophists (who were paid for teaching wealthy aristocrats the skills of oration and persuasive argument)
• Socrates charged no fees and taught students (including women) from various walks of life.
Socratic Method
The Socratic Method is used to arrive at truth- The Essential Nature of Things.
Also known as dialectic method, it is where you continue to question something until you arrive at a definition of the thing in question. (If that is possible)
Socrates and his Student Plato
The Trial of Socrates 399 B. C.
• Socrates was accused of Impiety- (refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the State )
• & Corrupting the young.
• Jury of 500 Found Socrates Guilty.
• Sentenced to Death… Could have escaped into exile. Choose to accept death sentence.
Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 500, sentenced to Death!
Plato 428-384 B.C.Plato 428-384 B.C.• Plato, the student of
Socrates, founded the first University in the year 387- called the Academy.
• Science and knowledge were the chief goals of study.
• The mind was trained to cut thru rhetoric.
Plato’s Philosophy
• Theory of Forms– Allegory of the Cave– Divided Line– Platonic Forms– Platonic Realism– Division of the Soul– Philosopher King– Memories of the Soul
Allegory of the Cave
• Plato ask us to imagine…
• …that men believe the shadows are real.
• This is told in class, and it is told well.
• Page 40 in Book.
Plato on knowledge
• Plato thinks that because this world is constantly changing, that truth is this world is impossible.
• Truth for Plato is something, eternal.
• Objects in this world are not eternal, so are beliefs about them cannot always be correct.
Divided Line (p.51)
Intelligible World
FORMS Knowledge Truth/ Knowledge
Intelligible World
Numbers & Sets
Thinking Truth/ Knowledge
Visible World
Physical Objects
Belief Opinion
Visible World
Images, copies of objects
Opinion or Imagining
Opinion
Platonic Forms
• PLATONIC FORMS:• UNIVERSAL IDEAS OR CONCEPTS
• ETERNAL
• CHANGLESS
• TIMELESS
• NON-MATERIAL ESSENCES
Platonic Forms Continued
• All physical objects are copies of these original entities
• They exist in another plain of reality- in an immaterial realm.
Modes of Thought
Knowledge
Thinking
Belief
Imagining
Imagining
• Imagining is the lowest form of knowledge.
• It is the lowest because the mind does not know it is just an image- it thinks the image is real (as in the CAVE)
• An Imagine is an imperfect copy of a physical object. As such it is lower on the scale of knowledge than the physical thing.
Belief
• A belief is held about some physical object.
• Physical objects do not correspond to the “true” or “real” Form that they copy.
• Beliefs about physical objects are not certain, because the objects and world are in a state of changing.
• Physical objects are not eternal.
Thinking
• Thinking is a deeper level of understanding.
• One moves from the visible world, to the intelligible world of thought.
• The objects of mathematics, such as numbers, sets, geometric figures and formula make up this level of knowledge.
Knowledge
• Perfect Intelligence- Knowledge of the Forms.
• At this level of understanding the mind grasp the unity of reality, and the truth that the ideas or Forms are what really exist!
Platonic Forms
• Plato claimed that all physical objects copy the original, unchanging Form.
• Physical objects are imperfect copies.
• Like Heraclitus, he held that this reality is constantly changing and shifting.
• What is true today may be false tomorrow in this world.
• In the realm of the Forms- truth is eternal.
How are Forms related to one another.
• Forms are related to one another.
• For Example: – Form Animal Form Shape– Form Horse Form Circle
Particular Horse Particular circle
How are Forms related to Particulars
• Particulars- or Particular objects, partake of the Form.
• Socrates partakes in the Form Man
• The clock partakes in circle, clock, numbers…
• How specific we need to get is a question.
Platonic Realism
• The notion that Forms or Ideas exist in a separate reality is known as Platonic Realism.
Universals and Particulars.
• This is an issue in metaphysics-
• What is the relationship between ideas and objects.
• Universals is another name for ideas or concepts. (General terms)
• Particulars is another name for objects or individual things that we encounter in the world.
Ontological Status of Ideas
• Platonic Realism
• Exaggerated Realism
• Conceptualism
• Extreme Nominalism
Platonic Realism
• Ideas are real. They have independent existence, apart from our thoughts.
• For Plato Universals have Transcendental existence apart from the particulars that participate. The Form is the cause of the essence of a thing, and the particulars are said to imitate or copy the Forms in an imperfect way.
Exaggerated Realism
• Exaggerated Realism is the notion that Universals exist in the particulars as part of what makes them similar.
• The particulars are a mix or composite of form and matter.
Aristotle’s Exaggerated Realism
• Aristotle did not accept Plato’s claim that there was a separate realm, or heaven of Forms.
• Aristotle claimed that forms were real, but existed in the objects that we perceive and in our minds.
St. Anselm’s Exaggerated Realism
• St. Anselm argued that the doctrine of original sin and of the Trinity required this interpretation of what ideas are.
Conceptualism
• All ideas are real, but the are dependent upon a mind, or thought.
• The function of a universal term is to denote a special relationship between particular objects. Universal are object concepts that we form in our minds by examining particulars.
Extreme Nominalism
• Ideas are not real objects. They do not have real existence.
• Only particulars or individuals exist in nature. A general term, a universal, such as a word does not refer to anything; it is only a word (voces), or a name (nomen), composed of letters and expressed as a vocal emission and is therefore only air.
•
How do we know the Forms
• Why should we accept that there is a separate reality filled with ideas?
• Plato claims that he remembers the Forms.
• According to Plato our Soul is eternal, and once existed in the realm of the Forms.
Memories of the Soul
• According to Plato our soul is eternal. It comes from the realm of the Forms and is infused with the body during pregnancy.
• All of us had complete access to all the Forms
• We all have within our soul, absolute knowledge.
Division of the Soul
• According to Plato the soul is divided into three parts.
• Tripartite conception of the soul.
• Reason
• Spirit
• Appetite
Reason
• Reason guides us rationally towards reasonable goals
Spirit
• Spirit gives us the ability to comply with reason, to be brave and follow thru with our goals
Appetite
• The appetitive side of our soul drives our impulses and desires.
• Reason, according to Plato, must keep the desires in check.
• Allowing our passions to make decision will lead to chaos and ruin.
Plato and ignorance
• Ignorance leads to evil.
• Plato claims that no one knowingly does wrong.
• Akrasia- or weakness of the will, does not exist.
• People simply do not understand the harm they are doing by performing certain actions.
Philosopher King
• Plato argued that society should be ordered like the soul.
• Reason- Philosopher King
• Spirit- Auxiliaries or Soldiers
• Appetites- workers/ artisans
Plato’s Ideal Society
• Plato’s ideal society is an intellectual Aristocracy.
• Smart people deciding for everyone the right and the good.
• Because smart people have a true grasp of the world.
Ranking of Social Structures
• Plato thought an intellectual aristocracy was the best form of government.
• He held that a democracy was the worst.