Questions tagged [plato]
Plato (424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Plato is considered to be the founder of Western philosophy.
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How did Kant define knowledge?
A recent question about the Plato's formula K=JTB (knowledge is justified true belief) made me curious as to what Kant thought on the matter. In the prefaces and the Introduction to the first Critique ...
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Are the unexamined lives of others worth examining?
Socrates continually admonished his interlocutors to become more introspective, arguing passionately for self-examination:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
But an examined life is painful, ...
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Why there are so many blunders/fallacies in Plato's Dialogues?
Several recent researchers discuss Plato's fallacies or reasoning flaws in his writings (see list of references). Yet what remains mostly unclear is why there are so many logical errors/fallacies/...
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Why does Plato rank numbers fundamentally below certain other ideas?
As discussed in the analogy of the divided line in The Republic (509d–511e): mathematical knowledge does not achieve the height of knowledge about ideas that are given existence by the Good itself, ...
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Are mathematical suppositions of physical theories determined uniquely according to Aristotle and Plato?
Does mathematics apply to physics in one way or multiple ways? What do Aristotle and Plato think?
It would seem that Aristotle thinks mathematics can be applied to
physics in one way only because, ...
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Was Socrates a fictional character invented by Plato?
I have read a lot of websites that suggest Socrates was a fictional character created by Plato (albeit without the citation of any corroborating evidence), but I have also read the opposite (and by "...
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Was Socrates a monotheist?
I know my question seems weird, but in Plato's books Apology, Crito, and Phaedo (and probably in other books since I've read only these three and I am in the middle of the third one), when Socrates ...
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What basic metaphysics should every philosophy student know?
Put another way, what background knowledge do you suggest that I brush up on to make me more sensitive to the lurking philosophical issues when I read philosophical texts and papers? Particularly ...
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Is mathematical platonism compatible with Platonism?
When calling themselves "Platonists" mathematicians usually mean that they feel they discover ideal facts that eternally exist in some way. My question is if this sentiment is consistent with Plato's ...
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Why is Nietzsche so against Socrates?
Nietzsche recalls the story that Socrates says that 'he has been a long time sick', meaning that life itself is a sickness; Nietszche accuses him of being a sick man, a man against the instincts of ...
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Dynamic concept of "truth"
I've recently read a book in which a certain sentence sparked a question in my mind:
"the Platonic philosophy is a search for truth, the certain truth.
Such truth... is necessarily static" (...
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In greek philosophy, what is the difference between "gnosis" and "episteme"?
In greek philosophy, Plato especially, what is the difference between "gnosis" and "episteme" ?
Both apparently designate different types of knowledge, but I couldn't find any precise description of ...
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What did Socrates mean by " there is no more fitting reward than maintenance in the prytaneum"?
According to wikipedia:
"In general in ancient Greece, each state, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire, representing the unity and vitality of the community. The fire was ...
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Does Plato see tyranny as final?
Plato's Republic famously describes the decay of the regimes, a process by which a society decays from the best regime, that of aristocracy, to the lowest, that of tyranny. However, the purpose of ...
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What were Plato's view on slavery, in particular with respect to his proposed Utopia?
In the Dialogues(specifically The Republic), when he is discussing his Utopia, At one point, he does say that children should not be treated differently based on their parent's status in life. However,...
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Is there a correct or better order to read Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates?
I would like to read the text written by Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and so on. Is there any reference of the best order to read them? Is the chronological order the best or correct one? Or is there a ...
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What were the government ideals for the Socrates and Aristotle?
Winston Churchill famously quipped, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." Plato also seems to have held such a view, where he wrote in The ...
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Did Plato record actual conversations in his dialogues?
For example, Did Socrates really meet Zeno in Parmenides as a young man and the conversation that took place between them was recorded by Plato?
Are ANY of Plato's dialogues recordings of actual ...
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How much is known about Plato's "unwritten doctrines"?
It is often claimed in the historical literature that Plato's teachings were divided into the written documents (his famous books, like The Republic, The Laws etc) and oral teachings (what Aristotle ...
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How does plato distinguish between knowledge and belief?
How does plato distinguish between knowledge and belief? How is it based in his metaphysics?
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What is the purpose of Plato's concept of Form?
Concerning this passage from Phaedo:
I mean, for instance, the number three, and there are many other examples. Take the case of three; do you not think it may always be called by its own name and ...
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What was ancient Philosophy written on/with?
What did ancient philosophers, like Plato, use to write their works on/with, physically? (Tree bark, animal skin, types of writing utensils, etc)
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Is Plato's Callicles an example of Nietzsche's Übermensch? Is the Epicurean hedonist?
Is the hard-headed Callicles from Plato's dialogue Gorgias the type of person who exemplifies Nietzsche's Übermensch (overman)? What about the hedonistic sage of Epicureans? Is he a Übermensch?
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Is there any evidence that Plato had inscribed above his academy 'Let no-one ignorant of geometry enter here'?
I've seen this in quite a few places, I'm just wondering if it's a cultural myth, or whether it actually has a basis in fact.
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What does Marcus Aurelius mean by quoting Plato here?
Keep always before you that “this is no different from an empty field,” and the things in it are the same as on a mountaintop, on the seashore, wherever. Plato gets to the heart of it: “fencing a ...
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What does Plato mean by 'opposite' in Phaedo?
In Phaedo, Plato (and this dialogue certainly seems to be platonic and not socratic) argues for the transmigration of the soul, in part with a cyclical argument:
Let us consider the question ...
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Plato's Ideas and Hegel's Idea
Hegel famously speaks of the idea in the third section of his Doctrine of the Notion, this playing a central role in his system. It seems natural to suppose a close relation to what is traditionally ...
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Plato: Philebus and the Republic's theory of the tripartite soul
I am looking at Plato's Philebus. My straightforward question is whether anybody has ever read Plato's theory of the tripartite soul as an underlying theme of the Philebus too.
Republic Philebus
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Question on learning type in Plato Cave Allegory
My question is based on the Cave of Plato. In this myth I see two types of learning.
The first type of learning is the person that is released from the cave and climbs up to the light. The second ...
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What are some arguments against the third man argument?
I'm working on a paper concerning the third man argument.
I have my own solution in mind, but I need other arguments to refute so that I can then move onto my argument. I found another thread on this ...
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A similarity of Plato with Kant
In Plato’s Republic his view on the mental faculties is summarized by the famous Analogy of the Divided Line (6.509-11). The universe is divided in two parts, a visble domain and an intelligible one. ...
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what was Plato's view on noumenon?
The relation between objects in the world is established by pure concepts existing a-priori:
1) These concepts belong to a world of absolute concepts away from the mind - Plato
2) These concepts ...
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Assuming you agree with Popper, is there anything valuable in Plato's thinking?
I am reading through Karl Popper's Open Society right. It got me wondering, assuming the following:
You agree with Popper's critique of Plato's politics.
You support democracy and egalitarianism in ...
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Platonic love and "sapiosexuality"
I'll admit I have an incredibly limited understanding of the works of Plato, but upon a glossing over of the Symposium, it seems he is saying that love of intelligence is of a higher importance/...
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Plato Cave Allegory
Plato's Cave Myth Allegory has been the foundation for his Theory of Forms,an idea that basically shows our reality to be a shadow of a far more pure and truthful reality. But in the allegory a bunch ...
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Zeno and the denial of plurality [closed]
Zeno is well-known as the storyteller of Achilles and the Tortoise and how the tortoise never catches Achilles; which is against our experience; the question of how to square these two notions ...
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Did Nietzsche cite anywhere in his writings Plato's Gorgias regarding Callicles?
Nietzsche's theory has many similarities with Callicles thought in Plato's Gorgias (Nietzsche and Callicles on Happiness, Pleasure, and Power). However, he did not explicitely mention Callicles in his ...
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What does sensible images being "not material but spatial" mean in Plato's theory?
I'm reading W. T. Jones' "A History of Western Philosophy Vol 1: The Classical Mind". In page 152 there is a passage that says (in explaining Plato's theory of Physics):
It is also ...
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