Saturday, September 9, 2006

Plato: 2 Realms, The Forms and The Myth of the Sun

(Originally written September 9, 2006 in Book 10)

Go ND!

The Two Realms

  • Plato declared that both Heraclitus and Parmenides were right. But, how could a doctrine of eternal flux be compatible with a doctrine of no change?
  • Plato devised two realm, one realm for each doctrine
  • He held that the physical, sensible world was in a constant state of flux
  • But, unlike Heraclitus, Plato held that there was some order to the flu. Yes, it is true that an acorn becomes an oak (flux) but since the acorn grows into an oak tree and then decays into humus, not growing into lions or decaying into brass buttons. Thus while there is flux, the flux conforms to measures.
  • "It may be that we can never step into the same river twice, but the ever flowing river in the main keeps within its banks" (Jones, 123).
  • The physical world was the world of Heraclitus. But what world was that of Parmenides?
  • Plato believed there was another world that was non-physical, non-spatial and non-temporal. He called it the world of "ideai".
  • Plato believed that the world of ideas was ideas that were external to any mind.
  • This is Plato's theory of forms.
  • Plato believed that these two realms were separate, but involved in avery close relationship
The Forms 
  • Every from was non-physical and thus not sensible. How then can we have any knowledge of them?
  • Plato believed that any time we were thinking we were thinking about forms.
  • Forms were universals. What we sensed were particular objects that resembled some form. The relationship between the perfect form and some imperfect form is what Plato called 'participation'.
  • The forms were public and not subjective.
  • Whenever we think we think about the forms. Whenever we daydream, imagine, or perceive we are doing so with physical objects.
  • Ethics is another field in which Plato (and others) maintained that there were forms.
  • Good and Bad become objective facts in the theory of forms and counters the subjectivity of the Sophists.
  • So, if there are Ethics and if there is a science known as mathematics, then there must be forms to be the objects of mathematical and ethical knowledge.
  • Science has to use forms as their objects of knowledge because forms are eternal and unchangeable whereas sensory perceptions change and cannot produce indubitable knowledge. Scientists can use sense percepitons as aids to think about the eternal forms they resemble.
  • Scientists discover the properties of forms. The form "horse" is represented, albeit poorly, by any individual horse.
  • Everything in this physical world is Heraclitean. Everything is constantly becoming and never is. Everything in the world of forms is a Parmenidean one. Plato held that because forms are eternal and unchangeable it is possible for us to known them.
The Divided Line

The Physical World contained the world of opinion. 
-Imagining was like seeing shadows and reflections
-Belief was like seeing things or objects

The World of Forms contained the world of knowledge
-Thinking and logic considered the lower forms, the physical forms.
-Intelligence and intuition considered the higher forms, the ethical forms.
  • The physical world is a shadow of the world of forms. Shadows, reflections and images are shadows of real physical things and objects. The lower forms (the physical forms) are shadows of the higher forms (the ethical forms)
  • A shadow does not tell us much about what it is a shadow of, but it does tell us something
  • Not all shadows are reliable as each other. A shadow in the evening makes anything exaggeratedly elongated; whereas, a shadow at noon looks like a blob.
  • A single shadow gives us very little information, but a collection of shadows gives us more information. If we analyze them we will notice two series that mirror each other.
  • By studying a series of shadows of a man at 6 am, 9 am, 12 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm we can learn about the real man that casts the shadows
  • The shadows are constantly changing and yet we instinctively know that they are representations of the same, real object.
  • The relationship between an object and its shadow is the same as the relationship between any form and the physical objects that represent it.
  • Any physical object is
    • a more or less adequate shadow of the form
    • some physical objects tell us more about their form than others
    • no one physical object will tell us much about its form
  • The shadows illuminate and help people to learn the forms
  • The physical objects were lower and the forms were higher
  • "Recognition" is the ability to recognize things, but that is not knowledge or even opinion
  • "Opinion" is the ability to recognize things and have a basic empirical knowledge of something. But, this Plato wouldn't call knowledge.
  • "Knowledge" is empirical knowledge and a real understanding of the theory behind it.
  • The "Form of the Good" was the summit climb to knowing. Plato admitted that this was a difficult notion, one he could not give a formal analysis of so he gave an analogy.
The Myth of the Sun
  • The sun is the light that illuminates everything. We need the sun to see anything. Without the sun we cannot see the objects.
  • The Goodness is like this. Without it, though we have the ability to think, we are unable to do so. In the illumination of Goodness we can think on the forms. Without it our ability cannot be actualized.
  • The Form of the Good is the top of the pyramid of knowledge. If one could truly have knowledge of that form they would have a complete, unified knowledge of everything.
  • Plato used myths in his work because he believed that the great truths of life could not be expressed in condensed maxims.
  • The Form of the Good is compared to the Sun in three ways:
    • Just as the sun gives the earth light, so the form of the Good shines light on lower levels of knowledge and opinion
    • Just as the sun nourishes living things, so too the Form of the Good is an active and creative entity
    • Just as the sun and the human eye work so we can see, the Form of the Good and our mind combine to give us the ability to think
  • The Form of the Good was the highest reality that exists

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