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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What did Aristotle and Plato think of each other?
Since Plato was a teacher of Aristotle and was living until Aristotle was 36 years old I was wondering of what kind of opinion Aristotle had of Plato's personality and work and vice versa
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According to Plato, can there be forms for a certain class of particulars?
In the beginning of Parmenides, Plato seems to think that most, or possibly all, particulars do not have corresponding forms; but he is not very explicit about why. My question is, does it not make ...
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How does Plato's theory of forms relate to his epistemology and philosophy of language?
In dialogues like Cratylus and Theatatus, it seems to me that Plato paints a very skeptical picture of our capacity to know or articulate knowledge. In Cratylus he doubts the possibility of language ...
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Why Socrates thinks there arent Forms of mud and hair?
In the dialogue Parmenides, when Parmenides asks Socrates whether he accepts the existance of Forms of things like Mud and Hair, he refuses it, but i dont get it, what makes those forms unable to be? ...
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The concept of nature in the Greek philosophy
My question is: Is it possible to point to a development in the concept of "nature" in the period between pre-Socratic philosophers and Aristotle (inclusive)?
Thank you very much.
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Are beautiful things difficult?
As you may already know, the dialogue Hippias Major ends with the following asseveration by Socrates:
So, I think, Hippias, that I have been benefited by conversation with both of you, for I think ...
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Plato's tripartite soul and Chariot Allegory
I liked Plato's tripartite soul theory but am confused with its analogy of the chariot.
Maybe I am missing some good definitions.
I very well understand that logos is related to the charioteer.
But ...
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Plato's method for reaching the truth?
I wonder about Plato and, in particular, about his method of reaching the truth. One can suppose that the method is based on the practice of his dualistic philosophy, which would aim to free the soul ...
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Why most Plato scholars think that Minos is not good enough to have come from Plato?
What exactly is "not good enough"?
Letters to a Law Student: A Guide to Studying Law at University. 2017 4 edn. p 361.
Letter 1. What is law?
Law as a conversation. This section is heavily ...
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Where in the Republic Plato says that disabled people should be put away in some mysterious places?
I'm looking for the quote/quotes in which Plato regards the disabled people as if they were "non-human." And - how did he justify his view?
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The index finger of Socrates and Plato
Why do we see Socrates in Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates, and Plato in Raphael's School of Athens pointing up with their index finger? What does this gesture symbolize?
My initial ...
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A Kantian Platonist view of mathematics
So my question, essentially, is this: is there any reasonable way in which one can say that mathematical Platonism is compatible with Kantian constructivism?
For the sake of context, I was asked to ...
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Sets of Five in Plato
Numbers are abundantly found in Plato's works but it seems (to me at least) that 5 plays a rather important role. The platonic solids are five, of course, even if they come rather later, the Timaeus ...
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Is Heraclitus really a Mobilist?
I learned that Heraclitus stressed the importance of change and the ephemeral nature of things in the cosmos. However, it seems that Heraclitus refers to a "logos":
The opening of Heraclitus' book ...
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What does Plato think of human nature in the Republic?
In his Republic, Socrates describes the basic principle of the ideal society to be the separation, classification, and employment of men according to their natural abilities: a man is born with a ...
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What philosophers believed marriage is man's ultimate perfection?
It seems Plato believed this when he says, through Aristophanes in the Symposium:
After the division [by Zeus,] the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their ...
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Do you know of a book on Greek philosophy with a Corinthian helmet on the cover?
I read it years ago, and it seems I have lost it. The biggest thing I can remember is that it had a Corinthian helmet on the front cover. Also that it was translated by multiple authors and it had ...
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Marriage, age and temperance in Plato's Republic
Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues discussed in Plato's Republic. I understand temperance as restraint from excesses where 'excesses' refer to things that are not necessary or useful ...
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The concept of eudaimonia
The usual definitions of eudaimonia as "happiness" or "flourishing" or the like, don't seem to fit the actual translation of the word. The word means "a good spirit," where "spirit" has semi-mystical ...
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Where might I find the Socratic dialogue on the mythical story of private property/homesteading?
I read a great story awhile back about a group of philosophers who approached Socrates with a question regarding the rights of private property and if a man could rightly own land on a world that ...
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Plato and the knowledge of the forms
Suppose Plato finally has knowledge of the "forms"* he set out to find after some time (remember knowledge). One day his soul departs to for the soul realm. When he reaches, the "forms" welcome his ...
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What if Euthyphro gave the opposite answer?
As part of a course I am taking, I was asked to continue the dialogue Euthyphro as if Euthyphro had given the opposite response to Plato's famous question:
Is the pious loved by the gods because it ...
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Why is Plato's visible world said to be Heraclitean and Plato's intelligible world said to be Parmenidean?
I have been learning about Plato's Theory of Forms, and I have read that Plato's visible world is Heraclitean, and Plato's intelligible world is Parmenidean.
I think I understand the parallel between ...
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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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Parmenides' objections to Plato's theory of the forms?
What is being argued against Plato's theory of the forms in this passage (this is a dialogue):
Well, said Parmenides, and what do you say of another question?
What question?
I imagine that the way ...
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When did the idea of free will begin? Same for determinism
Hey so I'm doing this free will v determinism thing for class and I've tried but I can't seem to find when the separate beliefs came about. I know Socrates and Aristotle had something to do with them ...
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Plato - against teaching philosophy to children
I'm trying to hunt down a half-remembered quote from Plato, possibly from the Republic, where he actually argues AGAINST teaching children philosophy too early, in the fears it will confuse them and ...
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What were Plato's views on substance?
Forms are Plato’s substances, for everything derives its existence
from Forms. In this sense of ‘substance’ any realist philosophical
system acknowledges the existence of substances. Probably the ...
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Does Plato relatively upgrade democracy between the Republic and the Laws?
Does Plato actually lean more towards democracy in the Laws? III.693d ff. suggest an upgrading of democracy's relative position from its low status in the Republic.
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Plato's Phaedo : Why does the soul stay separate from the body?
In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates established that death is the separation of soul and body. But he did not give any clue for this separation. What are the factors that lead to this separation? Physical ...
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From dialogue to monologue : Why (Platonic) Socrates claims to know nothing but manages to give book-length speeches all the time?
This inconsistency is very confusing to me. Socrates takes pride in knowing that he knows nothing. But if that is the case, how is he able to, as he often does, give book-length of "truth" (as opposed ...
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How does Socrates's acting on a dream in Plato's Phaedo square with his rationality?
Socrates is a symbol of rational thinking. He called himself a lover of wisdom. But, on the other hand, he started to make music (poetry/composing) just on the direction of a voice that he heard in ...
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Plato's sunlight and firelight: the philosophical metaphor of light in the allegory of the Cave
Plato refers to two kinds of light: sunlight outside the cave and firelight inside. Does sunlight represent truth ? What of firelight ?
The prisoners only see shadows that are cast by light but are ...
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Plato's cave in reality
Does anyone know the system we live in? Is it something abstract like that described in the movie The Matrix?
It exists. Why does it cost others their lives like Socrates?
Lastly, do philosophers ...
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Plato or Aristotle on trading lives
I am sure I remember either Plato or Aristotle saying that most people, if a god approached them with an offer to trade their life for someone else's, would run away. But I have been wrong before ...
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Help with philosophical interpretation of the movie Cloud Atlas
I feel very sorry to ask for this but I really need help, I have a hard time getting an answer to what I need for my metaphysical essay related to the movie "Cloud Atlas", I have seen it several times ...
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Is there an example of an innate idea?
I don't see any justification to argue a person has an idea or knowledge that is not derived from its environment. How come Plato raised this question at all:
How is it that we have certain ideas ...
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Why is Plato's Idealism and German Idealism so different?
Plato's Idealism seems to imply an objectivity and an anti-pluralism, instead rationalizing forms into main groups yet German Idealism seems to do just the opposite. I was wondering why the use of the ...
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Question about the Argument of Recollection from Plato's Phaedo
Under the argument of recollection, what would the answer to the following scenario?
A young child has not learned a single thing about geometrical shapes. If a person were to draw a triangle and ...
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Are Platonic Forms alive?
Reading Dominic J. O'Meara's Plotinus, I noticed that he seems to be claiming that Plotinus looked at the Soul, Forms and the One as active and in some sense alive.
However, I am trying to get a ...
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In the socratic dialogues, what figure argues in bad faith against Socrates?
If I remember correctly, one of Socrates' interlocutors challenged the Socratic method not directly but indirectly. They did so by not participating in the argument fully. In the literary context of ...
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What is the connection between Schopenhauer’s “steam valve” and Plato’s “cave”?
Schopenhauer speaks of the media as a “steam valve”,
”freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine: every discontent is by means of it ...
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Is the Timaeus philosophically relevant?
The reason I ask is that an overwhelming majority of the book is (understandably) baseless scientific claims about the origin of the universe. Not in the same way that, say, he defines the soul, which ...
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Does Philosophy benefit from parsimony?
It is well established doctrine to apply Occam's razor to scientific theoretical development. The basis for which may range over the demonstrated practical success of the principle, to a vocational/...
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Allegory of the cave and Forms?
In my philosophy class, the professor told us about the allegory of the cave and how it relates to the Forms. From what I understood, regular people only see shadows of the Forms; but by doing ...
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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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Concept Formation
I would like some suggestions about Concept Formation. Especially if there is a reference to Plato's Theory of Forms. I believe the two are linked but cannot find appropriate material. Thank you.
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Did Plato not believe in institution of marriage?
From this link, I've found this
“all these women shall be wives in common to all the men, and not one of them shall live privately with any man; the children too should be held in common so that no ...
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Is Plato contradicting himself in the Republic?
In Book VII of the Republic, Plato claims that geometry and arithmetic will lead to eternal/pure truth. However, as we know the eternal/pure truth are Forms. Knowing the forms is knowing the pure ...
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Why was music such a fascination for philosophers and mathematicians alike?
Why were ancient philosophers and mathematicians so intrigued by music? Why did philosophers like Plato, Arthur Schopenhaur, Neitsche and etc perceive it differently than other forms of art?
P. S it ...
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