By NyishaHv
6 years ago

Ancient Greek Philosopher: Plato

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I studied philosophy when I was in sixth form college for my a-levels. I really enjoyed it because it seemed to shed light on a lot of areas of life I didn't realise we're there. For instance philosophy is divided into several categories and subcategories and has various doctrines and teachings to subside.

One of my favourite philosophers to write about was Plato. This is because he focused a lot on Objectivity. His school of thought was anti-empiricist. As he believed that as human beings we possess "priori knowledge", that is, knowledge which is rational to make own reasoning in life when making decisions. Plato, being an Objectivist believed in objective moral truths.

Therefore, concepts such as beauty, reality, justice and so forth are true everywhere. By contrast, subjectivity holds that these values are falsified and what is true can be obtained by using our empirical senses, that which is known to us by "sensation which is constantly changing"(Plato, believes empiricism is flawed. This is because our senses are always changing and therefore subject to unreliable knowledge of the world around us.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave indicated his theory that moral subjectivism is flawed. Plato's "theory of forms" holds that the absolute moral truths which are objective and unchanging represent true knowledge. In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire.

Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. Ultimately the prisoners learn the shadows they witness beyond the fire represent subjectivity because the sun outside the word in the Cave represents true reality as the sun is seen as a form...the form of all forms.

The prisoners are representing humanity and the escapee prisoner represents the philosophy Socrates who was persecuted for his objective beliefs.

By NyishaHv
(Plato is to the left pointing up)
6 years
Smokey2017 Wondeful post thks
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NyishaHv Thankyou very much @Smokey2017 How you doing xx
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Mfoss Great, right more. This is very interesting :)
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Smokey2017 All well got to my old posts of 314 days deleted all
My other posts @NyishaHv
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soncee Wonderful artikle dear Thanks!
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Deepizzaguy Thank you for sharing this post about Plato.
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indexer Ah - but do you think that Plato was right? There are plenty of reasons for thinking otherwise!
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