Ancient Philosophical Influences

• Plato was a rationalist and believed that you gain knowledge primarily through the use of reason. He argued that reason was a more reliable way to gain knowledge than empiricism since empiricism is based on our use of the senses, which can be deceived. Ultimately, Plato argues that the empirical world can only provide us with doxa (Greek for opinion) and therefore is not the route to true knowledge. Instead, we gain episteme (Greek for knowledge) through reason.
• Influenced by his contemporaries such as Socrates and Heraclitus, Plato agreed that the world was in a constant state of change or, flux.

  For him, this explains why we gain no knowledge from this world. He holds that in this world we only interact with physical objects which are changing from one day to the next therefore can teach us nothing of permanence but it is the forms, the ideas, that we

  recognise in those objects that are constant & therefore permanent. Because nothing in this world is permanent, these forms must exist outside of this world – we can only know them through reason.
• Plato concludes that the world in which we live is the realm of appearances where we see imperfect imitations of truth and true reality exists outside of this in the realm of the forms.
• Hierarchy of the forms

  Within the realm of the forms, some forms are superior to others. For Plato the forms that are most important are those which communicate ideas about eternal knowledge, those that are least important are those that communicate knowledge of things in the realm of appearances, like inanimate objects such as tables and chairs. These forms are least important because they do not point to any higher knowledge or truth.
• The hierarchy of the forms , from most to least important, is as follows:

  1. The form of the good

  2. Universal qualities (e.g. justice and beauty)

  3. Concepts and ideals

  4. Physical living objects

  5. Physical inanimate objects
• The Ladder of Love analogy:

  The hierarchy of the forms can be likened to Plato’s ladder of love analogy whereby he describes the search for true love as a continual process that requires one to first observe love for a particular body, advancing to love for souls before eventually reaching love for love itself. This process mimics the hierarchy of the forms where physical objects are of the lowest importance since they teach us the least about truth and the form of the good is of the highest importance since this provides us with ultimate truth and allows us to unlock knowledge of all else.
• The Form of the Good:

  Plato states that all forms stem from the form of the good and that this form sustains them all. He believes that the form of the good illuminates all other forms, allowing us to gain knowledge of them just as the sun illuminates things in the realm of appearances

  enabling us to see them. Without the form of the good we would have no knowledge of any other forms, therefore it is the most superior of all.
• Plato uses the analogy of the sun to describe the form of the good. He argues that the form of the good, much like the sun, operates as a light source. As light is cast, it creates a shadow onto the wall. In the same way, when the form of the good shines it’s goodness reflects in a form and we see the example in the world.
• Like Plato, Aristotle observed that the world was constantly changing. Instead of concluding that this cannot be the real world, Aristotle used these changes to explain why the world is the way that it is. He argued that everything in the world is in the process of moving

  from potentiality to actuality. Potentiality is the possibility of doing or becoming something and actuality is when that potential is achieved. This movement provides a basis for which to discuss the beginnings of all things and Aristotle suggested that the cause of a thing could be understood in four different ways.
• Material cause:

  This is the basic substance from which a thing is made or created. All matter has the potential to change. For example: the material cause of a house might be bricks and cement
• 2. Efficient cause:

  The cause which brings something into being – the way in which it was created. The material cause of the house, the bricks and cement only have the potential to be a house, it is the efficient cause which moves the material cause along from potentiality towards actuality. For example: the efficient cause of the house is the builder.
• 3. Formal cause

  The characteristic of an object which makes it what it is – its form. It is the idea or plan that led to the creation of the object. The materials of bricks and cement could be made into something other than a house, e.g. a wall, it is the formal cause that gives those materials their form and therefore moves them closer to achieving their telos. For example: a floorplan/blueprint of a house that the builder uses
• 4. Final cause

  The purpose for which the object was created. It’s telos. For example, the telos of the house is that it can perform the function of being lived in.
• Telos

  The final cause, or telos, is a key concept within Aristotle’s understanding of reality and was later adopted by Aquinas and heavily influenced Christian thought. It is the idea that everything that exists has a purpose, even if we as humans do not know what that

  purpose is. Aristotle argued that all things have a telos, including humans. The telos, or purpose, of human life is to achieve eudemonia (flourishing) which can be achieved by living according to the principles of Aristotle’s theory of virtue ethics.
• The Prime Mover causes change or motion in everything else by attraction. Everything in the universe is drawn towards it’s perfection which is why they are all striving to achieve actuality. Essentially the Prime Mover is like a magnet, attracting all things to itself without

  actively doing anything to cause this attraction. The prime mover attracts all of us towards it – it is the ultimate telos of the universe a bit like the sun and plants. The sun attracts plants towards itself causing them to flourish and grow in the process.
• "there is one form for each set of many things to which we give the same name”
• For Plato, the fool sees the examples, the philosopher sees the essence within the examples.
• "Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is the truth"
• "existence preceeds essence"
• "ad infinitum"
• Existentialism

  "Existence Precedes Essence"

  There is no predetermined or predestined telos of things, Instead Existentialists such as Nietzsche and Sartre argue that things exist and after they exist, they create their own purpose and value of life is made.
• Bertrand Russell

  "The universe is just a brute fact"

  -Posits that "I should say that the universe is just there and that's all"

  -Disagrees with Aristotle's notion of a Prime Mover and the motus of the world. Russell fundamentally critiques Aristotle arguing that the universe has not been caused to exist by a Prime Mover which causes the motus in the world but "the universe is just a brute fact" and that's all
• Leap in Logic - movement from this is not the real worls to, the real world exists in the World of the Forms
• The cave: the physical world of appearances in which we are born, live and die

  The prisoners: normal people who experience the world and take what they experience as reality

  The shadows: things that we sense in the world empirically

  The puppets: the forms which exist in a temporal world of ideas

  The puppeteers: the Athenian government who suppress people’s reason

  The jagged path: the journey of the philosopher from ignorance to knowledge

  The sun: the essential form of the good which is the highest of all forms and is responsible for giving life to all other forms.
• Plato commmits Leaps in Logic

  Through his movement from the logical deduction that this world is not the real world as it is in a constant state of motus and not perfect to the conclusion that the real world exists in the World of the Forms
• Political Bias-

  Philosopher Kings agendaIt could be argued that Plato's theory is unreliable because his motive is biased. Plato uses the analogy of the cave to argue that society should be governed by philosophers since they are the only ones who have true knowledge of the world. Given that Socrates had just been executed for 'extreme' views, this entire, unprovable, theory could be a façade to raise the status of philosophers and philosophical discourse in society.
• Aristotle's Third Man Fallacy argues that Plato has stated a logically flawed argument. Aristotle argues if Plato is correct, all men are part of a series called 'man' so there would be a form of man. Wherever there is a series, there must be a form above it in which the series is reflecting. The form itself is part of a series of men so, there must also now be a form to cover the new group- the third man. This would continue infinitely "ad infinitum". Aristotle is suggesting that the theory of the forms, opens itself up to infinitely long lists of forms, which creates a fallacy on the whole.
• Through the Third Man Fallacy, Aristotle highights the absurd nature of Plato's theory by illustrating that the necessity for an additional form form each individual series of forms would continue ad infinitum
• Expanding on Heraclitus’ assertion that ‘you cannot step into the same river twice’, ancient philosophical thinkers, Plato and his contemporary Aristotle uniquely provide arguments for how, with the constant state of change and flux manifested in the world, individuals can attain episteme. For centuries, contentious debate has arisen over whether rationalism or empiricism ought to be employed in the pursuit of episteme. In this essay, I will be arguing in favour of Plato’s logically deduced view on reality through exploration of the forms and its hierarchies.