In other words, like Plato, the body is inferior and its substance is irrelevant for true and certain knowledge. The intellect with its faculties (judgment, imagination, memory, free will, etc.) is most important. The sixth meditation is the crucia Continue Reading...
" (Kundera: 60) at this point, a strong connection between body and soul is forged. Her mother is unwell, and Tereza wants to visit her. However, Tomas opposes this trip so she does not go. Tereza falls in the street hours later and injures herself. Continue Reading...
Education then is necessary to help prevent the failures of government - for Socrates, an aristocracy represents a rule by the "best" citizens whose educations have centered upon training the warrior-guardians to be swift, philosophic, spirited and Continue Reading...
Socrates asked them to come forward with their thoughts if they were "still doubtful about the argument." The two proceed to make a sophisticated argument, contrary to Socrates' points, that were counterexamples to the points about the body and the Continue Reading...
..from sin by keeping the soul unspotted from the world." Meantime, Platonic scholar Paul Elmer More, in his book The Religion of Plato, develops the idea that at the very heart of Plato's philosophy is a "moral dualism" (there is a higher soul, the Continue Reading...
In his model, Plato is therefore unjust. Just as his social and political arrangement of a city is inappropriate for humans, so too is his argument for the humans in that political and social arrangement. Most of his arguments for the individuals i Continue Reading...
It is this activation of the sleeping animal life-force, and its conjugation with the higher human intellect which idealizes aspects of life, which gives passion its unique power and generativity. It is vital to clarify this core essence by compari Continue Reading...
Similarly, the analogy can be made with anyone who continues to live an unhealthy lifestyle or pursue bad relationships. The image of the light is a strong one in Plato's cave story. Light symbolizes knowledge, power, and information. Light symboli Continue Reading...
Plato, the soul is a grounded aspect of human nature; it is innate, and based upon an adequate understanding of human actions. Plato, from observing human tendencies, arrives at the conclusion that there must be three separate portions of the soul. Continue Reading...
The Matrix and the Search for Truth In Descartes’ Meditations, he gives license to the idea that doubt can actually be a way of beginning one’s movement towards truth, just as doubt regarding the flickering of images on the cave wall by t Continue Reading...
Reason vs Passion: Comparing Aristotle and Plato Introduction It must be well known among all students and scholars of philosophy that both Plato and Aristotle have a high regard for reason. But what is their view on passion? It might be surprising t Continue Reading...
Plato's Theory Of The Tripartite Soul The Republic is an influential dialogue by Plato, written in the first half of the 4th century BC. This Socratic dialogue mainly concerns political philosophy and ethics. The political ideas are clarified by pic Continue Reading...
Plato and Death One of the most influential minds in western philosophy describing this search for meaning was Plato. Plato lived from 422-347 B.C, and was born into an aristocratic family in the city of Athens where he became a student of Socrates, Continue Reading...
Plato and Aristotle Metaphysics The idea of metaphysics is a complex idea that focuses on expanding beyond the mere realities of physics within the natural world. In a sense, this goes "beyond physics," in that the study of metaphysics is "devoted Continue Reading...
Finally, Socrates comes to the idea of knowledge as true judgment accompanied by "an account," meaning evidence or reason. In this context, knowledge would mean not only believing something true, but also having a reasonable justification for that b Continue Reading...
Plato's The Republic Throughout the book, the ideas of Plato and his peers center on the social conditions of an ideal republic, which lead each person to the perfect possible life. Socrates, who was Plato's mentor, acts as a moderator during Plato' Continue Reading...
Justice equalled virtuosity. The goal was a rather pragmatic one since what the philosopher had in mind was the ideal functioning of the city (where a happy city would mean happy people). It is important to understand the fact that a city can reach Continue Reading...
Plato and Socrates -- Human Soul There are a number of philosophical tenets that have been the subject of intense scrutiny since humans coalesced into formal societies. Who are we as a species? Where do we fit in with the universe? What is morality? Continue Reading...
His argument is that the two extreme sides are opposed by nature hence they exist in a state of "civil war." The third part of the soul is identified as the "spirited part" which is "far from being [appetitive], for in the civil war in the soul it a Continue Reading...
Plato's Phaedo and STC's "Christabel" In Phaedo 80ff, Socrates outlines Plato's theory of Forms, particularly attempting to prove that the eternal Forms are of divine origin. Through analogy with the living body and the dead body, Socrates in dialog Continue Reading...
Plato Given that Plato's Socrates is an Idealist and a dualist, the highest form of love is not the sexual or erotic kind, or that of family and friends, all of which are materialistic and impermanent. On the contrary, the highest form of love is fo Continue Reading...
The text deals at length and often with a great variety of matters which bear on the human condition, but there are matters which would certainly have no place in a modern treatise on politics" Therefore, it is rather hard to determine the extent t Continue Reading...
Plato & Aristotle The Platonic theory of knowledge is divided into two parts: a quest first to discover whether there are any unchanging objects and to identify and describe them and second to illustrate how they could be known by the use of rea Continue Reading...
Using the ring of Gyges as his 'proof,' he finds the last reason to be the most persuasive. What Socrates definition of justice in the state is as found in Book IV? Compare the parts of the just state to the parts of the just soul. Describe the vir Continue Reading...
Here he is talking about the same ideal of non-violence for the sake of mental purification. Yet he gives a violent example when describing how this tranquility works. He says: "Take, for example, Emperor Shun's execution of the four criminals. They Continue Reading...
This is Aristotle's launching pad for his discussion of politics. To him, ethics and politics are matters of rational judgment, stemming from the natural inclinations of individual humans. This notion is reflected in Aristotle's analysis of the con Continue Reading...
Plato, Thomas Aquinas and Jeremy Bentham have exerted great influence over our ideas of justice and have spawned various schools of thought. This paper compares views on justice by looking at their writings on the ideal state and what constitutes mor Continue Reading...
The rulers correspond with the mind/soul- just as the mind directs the body in the individual, the rulers direct the body of the state (i.e. The guardians and workers.) Part Two: Aristotle on Pride Aristotle claims that pride is not a vice, but a Continue Reading...
Plato and Descartes Plato concept of innate goodness and Descartes descriptions of human reasoning for being good both provide a foundation for man's need to better understand the basic and spiritual goodness found within human nature. In Plato's Re Continue Reading...
However, the most important argument seems to be the happiness of the city. If responding to an inner need of fulfilling your tasks -- which derive from your very way of being- means happiness for each and every person living from the city, then it Continue Reading...
Philosophers are those most endowed to comprehend reality, therefore they ought to be granted state leadership. At the same time, people ought to realize their potential, an action which implied not only virtuosity, but also the achievement of happi Continue Reading...
This aspect of the work also confirmed a clear belief that Socrates held, that nothing bad could happen to a good man. Socrates believed this to be a fundamental truth and he believed that he was a good man. As such he was at peace with whatever was Continue Reading...
Plato's work is idealistic and, as such, some of the rationale behind many of the conclusions he draws on do not necessarily have a logical or practical motivation. Nevertheless, they are logically tied to most of the assumptions he makes in his wo Continue Reading...
Plato's Educational Systems And Divisions Of Classes In The Republic On "Educating Philosopher Kings," the in Republic, trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 250-276. Unlike the democratic society of ancient Athens, Plato's Continue Reading...
Plato on Justice The Greek word which Plato uses to mean "justice" -- dike or dikaios -- is also synonymous with law and can also mean "the just"; as Allan Bloom (1991) notes, Plato uses a more specific term -- dikaiosyne -- in the Republic, which m Continue Reading...
Plato, Epictetus, & Nietzsche When we discuss how Plato presents the most appropriate human attitude toward bodily appetite and/or passion, it is vital to note that Plato's method of discussing philosophy in dialogue -- as though this were a dra Continue Reading...
He performs his search through the use of four tools or steps: accepting as true only what can be proven by facts, division of every question into manageable parts, beginning with simple issues and moving to the more complex and ultimately, the revi Continue Reading...
It is learned and is the outcome of both teaching and practice and the force of habit. Discuss Aristotle's doctrine of the mean The mean is the result of moral virtues being balanced within the individual. Aristotle saw the mean as the middle road Continue Reading...
Plato's (and Socrates') Criticism of Rhetoric in "Gorgias" In Plato's philosophical work entitled "Gorgias," the philosopher's criticism of the method of rhetoric as a form of persuasion is the primary focus of Plato's written work. In the said phil Continue Reading...
