Revision notes on Plato and Aristotle. Includes all of the A01 on the spec, and A02 separated into themes to make essay planning easy. I got A*s with these notes : )
Cave Allegory
Prisoners legs and necks chained so they can only see the cave wall, there is an exit
into light, but they cannot see it – have been there from childhood. The general public
are the prisoners. The wall is our false perception of reality – world of appearances
Above them there's a fire and a walkway where men carry objects which cast shadows
which the prisoners see – they name the objects and when they hear echo's they
believe it is the objects speaking. These are false images of reality and the illusions of
what we think is important
A prisoner is released To the world of the forms
He will look into the light and have a pain, then sees he sees the sun. The sun is the
form of the good. It is hard to see the truth – the struggle of becoming a philosopher.
He pities the prisoners ‘better to be the poor servant of a poor master’. It is not
rewarding to be a philosopher, and you will not have material wealth
He goes back and tries to tell them, but he cannot see the shadows and they think he’s
ridiculous and say if anyone tries to free someone, they will be put to death. Socrates
was put to death – shows the treatment of philosophers
Theory of the forms
World of Appearances - this world
World of senses (empirical)
Constantly changing - we cannot attain true and perfect knowledge here
It is a poor reflection or shadow of the real world of the forms
Material objects exist (particulars), which are subject to change and decay
They identity from the way they conform to their corresponding idea in the world of
the form
World the forms –
Eternal, and unchanging
It is perfect, and outside of time, space and senses
We can only have knowledge of this through reason using philosophy
Our immortal souls originally lived in the world of the forms - that’s how we can
understand the truth with deep thinking
.
, There are perfect forms of everything in the world of the forms - patterns for objects
and concepts for the material world exist (ideal version)
It is the jobs of philosophers to break free from the material world and discover the
world of the forms
Beauty
Believed beautiful things are things that reflect qualities we want
Beauty is beyond our perception, it exists in the world of the forms
We can call a sunset beautiful but recognise it is not perfect beauty – we know perfect
beauty exists because of our knowledge from our soul but we’ve never experienced it
Hierarchy of the forms
1. Form of the good is the most important form – illuminates all other forms and gives
them value
2. Universal qualities - justice, truth and beauty
3. Concepts & ideas – friendship, democracy, leadership
4. Physical living objects – plants
5. Physical inanimate objects – table, chair
Strengths
Weaknesses
PRINCIPLES
Gives us an absolute standard of what goodness is – as opposed to opinion and
unchanging moral rules. Supports universal truths e.g. goodness and beauty. Many
praise these universal truths e.g. Kant who uses absolutism
Rationalism - It is best to use reason instead of senses – our senses are influenced by
world around us e.g. sexism in advertising. This reason comes from our innate
knowledge in our soul. As everybody has reason everybody can access the truth -
Universal
Encourages us to question everything & not take everything at face-value. Don’t be
satisfied with ignorance. E.g., Cave analogy - prisoners only see cave wall and are
ignorant – this is general public. We should be like the freed prisoner – difficult route
to the truth – it is hard being a philosopher but worth it ‘better to be the poor servant
of a poor master’
Concepts e.g. goodness and beauty are relative and subjective – should not be
absolutist. Mackie – world is relativistic. Everything depends on perspective, as
attitudes change over time e.g. attitudes to beauty change drastically over time
Elitist – only philosophers know the truth. Education is the route to understand reality
– not everybody has this. Dawkins argues this
Dawkins – materialist - the soul is an illusion. We do not have one to give us prior
knowledge
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