Plato

• In the Allegory of the Cave, people are chained up facing a wall with shadows projected onto it from behind them.
• The Allegory of the Cave is an analogy used by Plato to explain his Theory of Forms.
• Plato's theory of Forms is the idea that there are abstract, unchanging entities called forms or ideas which exist independently of physical objects.
• The prisoners mistake these shadows as reality because they have never seen anything else.
• One prisoner escapes his chains and sees that what he thought was real is actually just an illusion.
• This prisoner then tries to convince others that there's more to life than their current existence but they don't believe him.
• Plato believed that there was a world beyond our physical senses called the World of Ideas or the Realm of Truth.
• According to Plato's theory, everything we see around us is just a shadow of reality.
• Plato argued that true knowledge can only be gained through reason and contemplation rather than sensory experience.
• Forms are eternal, immutable, and perfect examples of things like beauty, justice, goodness, etc.
• Forms have no material existence but can be known through reason and contemplation.
• Forms are not subject to change over time or space.
• The escaped prisoner then tries to convince others that what they see on the wall isn't really reality but they refuse to believe him.
• One prisoner escapes their chains and sees the fire and realizes that what he thought was reality is actually just a shadow.
• The escaped prisoner eventually returns to the cave and finds himself unable to communicate effectively with those still trapped inside.
• This allegory represents how people often mistake appearances for reality and fail to recognize the true nature of things.
• The Forms are the ultimate source of truth and knowledge.
• Plato


  Greek philosopher born 428/427 in Athens, student of Socrates, laid the philosophical foundations of Western Culture
• Plato was born

  428/427
• Plato was born in

  Athens
• Plato


  Student of Socrates
• Plato


  Teacher of Aristotle
• Plato wrote 36 books where he wrote his philosophy
• Plato's 4 ideas


  • Think more
  • Let your lover change you
  • Decode the message of beauty
  • Reform society
• Plato's theory of forms

  Humans can only imitate the real world, which cannot be perfect because it is physical and changeable
• Plato's theory of forms


  Plato believed in a systematic, rational treatment of their forms in metaphysics, ethics and moral psychology
• Plato's view of a good life


  Requires not just certain knowledge but healthy emotional responses
• Plato's school fostered a wide range of things, not just philosophy
• Demiurge


  The god in Plato's cosmology who is limited by the physical world and can never create a perfect world
• Plato's theory of forms


  Plato believed in the existence of a separate, unchanging world of forms beyond the physical world we experience
• Plato's analogy of the cave


  Explains the relationship between the world of forms and the physical world we experience, and the role of philosophers in helping people understand truth
• Plato believed in the existence of the soul, which has prior experience of the concepts from before birth
• Plato's theory of forms has been criticised for lacking evidence and being difficult to apply to reality
• Plato's theory of forms has also been praised for its rational, logical approach to understanding reality
• what is episteme?


  knowledge
• Plato concluded that the things around us are always in a state of change and so they can never be the objects of true knowledge.
• Forms can be accessed through reason
• Our world is constantly changing and we rely on our senses to understand what is going on.
• world of the forms-

  • outside of time
  • real and absolute
  • unchanging
• the world of the forms is permanent, beyond senses, immeasurable and perfect