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 'internal' or 'divine' sign is Socrates referring to in The Republic when talking about the scarcity of true philosophers?
What does Plato in Book VI of The Republic (496c) refer to when writing the following words of Socrates:
My own case, the divine sign, is hardly worth mentioning—for I
suppose it has happened to ...
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Term for cohesion/unity (in art)
I am trying to remember a term I once heard/read in a document -- I believe -- related to poetry and music. If not mistaken, the term was introduced by Aristotle/Plato, and it defines that: a piece of ...
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Where can I find the untranslated Greek text of Plato's republic?
I can't find the original text anywhere online.
Can someone point me in the right direction?
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Does Aristotle think universals are identical to particulars?
In this passage: (Physics 189a7-9)
For that which is universal is more easily known in the former way, since accounts are of what is universal, and that which is particular in the latter, since ...
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Plato meets Quantum Mechanics
What would Plato have said about the Quantum Mechanics theory development? I mean, we have had to give the reason a second place in order to give to the observations the main motor of the theory and I ...
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Socrates and The Republic
Why does Socrates think that right conduct cannot be defined as "telling the truth and restoring anything we have been trusted with"?
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Is the Phaedo relevant to a materialist?
I've just finished reading the Phaedo, and I'm wondering if one does not buy into the mind/body dualism arguments that Socrates advances in the dialogue, is there still anything to learned from it? Is ...
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Who is Plato and Socrates' God?
I'm reading the Phaedo, as translated by Benjamin Jowett. The characters alternately mention "God" (As a monotheist would spell it with a capital "G"), for example, at one point, Socrates says:
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What does Timaeus mean in this saying?
The proportion perfectly achieves this goal. For, when three numbers, three masses or three forces whatever, the mean is to the last what the first is to the mean and to the first what the last is to ...
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Explain Plato/Shakespeare quotes about overreaching
In the Jowett translation of Plato's Republic, this quote
The moral (good) man would not exceed or overreach or go beyond the just action
- The Republic 349b
is compared with a quote from ...
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What evils does Socrates refer to when discussing his State and the origins of war?
In Book II of The Republic (373e), as part of the discussion between Socrates and Glaucon, Socrates states the following (quote taken from Benjamin Jowett's translation):
Then without determining ...
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Language to describe that which is most fundamentally real
I'm trying to articulate my perception of reality for a blog post. Core to the clarity of this post is that it successfully transmit a certain very deep and abstract notion. I struggle to convey this ...
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Was Plato an idealist or a realist?
I'm a bit confused. As far as I know realism is opposed to idealism.
But we can say that Plato was an idealist when speaking about Plato's forms. We also talk about Plato's realism in the philosophy ...
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Why cannot matter be infinitely divisible according to Plato?
Why cannot matter be infinitely divisible, according to Plato?
Thanks in advance!
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What are some good counter-arguments to the Third Man Argument
So long story short, I have to help a friend with short philosophy paper that is already overdue. I can write ideas and express them well, but I am seriously lost with this topic and I'm a bit short ...
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What is the difference between dialectic and logic?
What is the difference between dialectic and logic? By dialectic, I mean what Plato employs in dialogues.
Thanks in advance!
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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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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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Does Nietzsche's rejection of Socrates mean that he is a relativist about ethics?
In Twilight of Idols (passage 10 in Problem of Socrates section) Nietzsche asserts that Socrates's equating Reason, Virtue and Happiness is a sign of decadence.
Does it follow from this that ...
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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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Where does Plato state the principle of plenitude?
I am wondering if anyone could share a passage from Plato in which he addresses the plenitude of the Forms. I have come across the following statement multiple times but am unable to find a citation.
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Are people inherently good according to Plato?
Are people inherently good according to Plato? Are Gods subject to forms, in the sense that they are good because they are subject to the form of good, or are they independent of the forms? Because I ...
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Plato books for a philosophy newcomer
I watched a funny philosophy crash course on youtube, and I'm very curious about Plato.
As a beginner, where should I start?
Original work? Other author's books about his philosophy?
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Is this an example of Ceteris Paribus?
I just learned about the "All things being equal" tool in philosophy and am trying to see if the following passage from Plato's Republic is an example of it. The snippet from the passage goes like ...
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In the Gorgias, does Plato make a contradiction about perfect people?
1.) The temperate man does what is just and holy.
2.) The temperate man, since he does just and holy things, is necessarily just and holy.
3.) The temperate man is completely a good man.
This ...
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Did Plato believe his Own Writings?
I'm currently writing a paper for a class that's supposed to "weave" together the philosophical system presented in Plato's Allegory and dialogues.
When I spoke with my professor on the assignment, ...
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What does Thrasymachus accuse Socrates of when stating he argues like an informer?
In Benjamin Jowett's translation of The Republic, Thrasymachus accuses Socrates of arguing like an informer (340):
You argue like an informer, Socrates.
And later:
Indeed, Thrasymachus, and do ...
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Is a law of nature a universal?
Newton described his theory of gravity as universal. I take this to mean that this theory was universally valid, that it brought together both terrestrial and celestial phenomena under one rubric. It ...
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Socratic thought on Greek deities as metaphor
"To be a master of metaphor," Aristotle wrote in his Poetics, "is the greatest thing by far." Not, as we know from Plato, to be "used" as a form of rhetoric (which, as far as I know, he and the ...
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Possible Logical Error in Euthyphro?
There is an argument near the beginning of Euthyphro that Socrates tries to make to Euthyphro in which I believe that Socrates makes a logical mistake. It's a pretty basic mistake, so rather than ...
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Plato's Parmenides conclusion
Reading this http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-parmenides/ and at the end it says that Plato rescues the existence of forms and shows "that Purity-F, Uniqueness, and No Causation by Contraries ...
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Is what Plato calls essence here, what is later understood as essence?
In the Phaedrus (Jowetts translation) Plato writes:
There abides the very being with which true knowledge is concerned, the colourless, formless, intangible essence, visible only to the mind, the ...
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What does Plato mean by the negative of the mind?
In the Phaedrus (Jowetts translation), Plato writes:
Attained knowledge of mind and the negative of mind which were favourite themes of Anaxagoras
What is meant here by the 'negative of mind'? Is ...
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Property of inclusion in Greek thought
In Plato's "Parmenides" at one stage inclusion is casually used as a reflexive property to argue that the 'One' (everything that is) must be included in itself. Parmenides in the text even keeps going ...
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Philosophically speaking, is there a time where illusion should / could be desired over reality?
Looking at things like Plato's cave, the people trapped in the Matrix (movie trilogy), and Star Trek the original series episode "The Menagerie" as points of reference/ touchstones for the answer(s), ...
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How do I compose a paper analyzing a philosophical work?
I am thoroughly analyzing Plato's Symposium.I would like advice on how to compose an essay/paper on what I have read. I have written notes from many times I have gone and reread the dialogues. I have ...
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Why is aidios, aionios, and aion translated eternal in Plato's Timaeus?
Plato's Timaeus....
When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal (aidos: imperceptible) gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy ...
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Why is the third man argument seen as so decisive?
Why is the third man argument in Plato's Parmenides seen as a more or less decisive refutation of Platonic realism (Plato's theory of forms)?
The argument rests on the assumption that self-...
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According to Adorno, does the "truth content" of art refer?
Adorno and the Political, By Espen Hammer
In this negation, by truth content, is it a form of referentiality?
Which may be to ask whether truth content is linguistic, in this action of negation.
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Are there modern commentaries on Plato's Gorgias?
I would like some advice on editions of Plato's work.
In particular, which commented edition of Plato's Gorgias is considered more authoritative, or at least most often referred to students by ...
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What are some contemporary debates regarding Plato's & Aristotle's writings?
What are some major contemporary issues in Plato and Aristotle scholarship in recent years?
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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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Why does Nietzsche call Plato a bore?
There is this quote attributed to Nietzsche saying 'Plato was a bore', though I do not seem to be able to find the source for this at this moment. Assuming he did say this, why was this?
A few ...
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What does Marx mean by "value form"?
I've been reading some recent books that refer to money as the "value form" in Marx.
In English translation, Marx does use the term "value form" and also refers to commodities as "values," in the ...
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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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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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Was Plato influenced by Moses?
The 2nd century Christian apologist Justin Martyr is known for defending Christianity to the Platonists of his day. In his First Apology, he claims that Plato's understanding of the creation of the ...
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What are the Greek terms translated by 'lovers of wisdom' (philosophers)?
At the end of Phaedrus (278d4) there is the following exchange (tr. Jowett):
Socrates: go and tell Lysias that to the fountain and the School of the Nymphs we went down, and were bidden by them to ...
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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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Is mathematical Platonism geometric?
A fairly standard approach to mathematical Platonism might start with the observation that any circle actually drawn is not a true circle; and one can imagine or have in mind a perfect circle - a ...