(Originally written September 24, 2006 in Book 10)
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
Chapter 5: Plato - The Special Science
The Distinction between Pleasure and The Good
Plato held the Sophist's view of pleasure and goodness being synonymous as their major flaw.
Plato argued that goodness and badness are not opposites. He held that opposites cannot exist in the same object at the same time. But pleasure and pain exist in the same object at the same time. Thus, pain cannot be evil and pleasure cannot be good.
Plato distinguished between necessary pleasures and harmless pleasures.
He held pleasure and pain as being a part of human nature, that they are inevitable.
He distinguishes three classes of goods:
1) Things that are good because of their consequences
2) Things that are good for their own sake
3) Things that are good because of their consequences and because they are good for their own sake.
Analysis of the Form "Justice"
Justice is an attunement or a harmony. Every part of an individual (or society) performs its specific task at the correct time so that everything works in a harmonious fashion.
Organism and Function
Man is an organism whose various functions must be brought into a harmony.
Health is the good state of the body. The body is at harmony with itself in health.
Plato distinguishes between the human organism and the human soul.
He held that the good life was achieved by the various parts of the human working in harmony.
Parallel between Individual and State
Plato divided the State as he divided the individual: into three parts:
1) Governors (Guardians)
2) Military/Police
3) Production class
The production class corresponds to the appetite part of the individual. The governing class corresponds to the reason part and the military/police class corresponds to the spirit part.
Each class had to have a virtue:
1) Production - temperance/moderation
2) Military/Police - Courage
3) Guardians - knowledge/wisdom
Each virtue accompanies their function
1) Production - produce/temperance
2) Military - courage/to fight
3) Guardians - wisdom/ to make decisions
I'm going to skip ahead to some criticisms of Plato's theory: skipping sections
-The Life of Reason (pg. 170)
-Estimate of Plato's View (pg. 172)
-Political Theory (pg. 174)
(all this is covered in my notes on The Republic)
Theory of Art
Things are beautiful insofar as they partake in the form "beauty"
He calls artists deceivers because they paint or create representations of the physical world (which is itself a representation).
Religion
As with all of the things Plato thought was most important, he chose to explain religion in myths.
He held that certain truths about what gods could be inferred:
1) Gods are good and nothing good can harm anything; thus, gods cannot be the authors of anything harmful
2) Gods are not the author of all things
3) The gods punish wickedness
4) God is unchangeable
5) The gods do not lie
The Self-Moving Mover
There are 8 Types of motion
1. Circular around a fixed center
2. Locomotion
3. Combination
4. Separation
5. Increase
6. Decrease
7. Becoming
8. Perishing
He argues that:
1) There must be a first cause of movement
2) This first cause is a self-mover
3) Soul is the self-mover
4) Soul is more ancient than natural motions
Plato held that the universe has a purpose
Gods Exist
Gods exist, but they do not all that often meddle in the affairs of men.
They pay attention to men as a part of the whole universe. They receive no special attention.
Creator and Cosmos
God is a creator. What he creates is the cosmos.
The universe is a purposive whole. It is ordered. It has a capability of creating motion.
He held that the universe was ordered for the best.
Plato was more interested in the creation than the creator.
Plato's theory was aimed at two things:
1. To understand similarities between the nature of god and the nature of the world
2. To remind man of his severe limitations of his mind
Plato's religion compared with Christianity
Both Plato's god and God are good
Both are creators
Both create a universe that is ordained and ordered
Plato had a marked influence on Christianity
Plato's god is not an object of worship. Plato's god is not omnipotent.
Criticism of the Forms
Plato's own Criticism: The Parmenides
The problem of spatiotemporal things participating in eternal things is intrinsically confused.
It points out that the particular sense objects and the forms are too far separated and sense objects' participation with forms is not clearly explained.
Plato revised his view to hold that forms and the soul were both reality.
The soul was a bridge between the reality of forms and the sensible world.
Essay #1 For History of Philosophy I
Plato's Theory of Forms
What?
There are two worlds:
1. World of Forms
2. Sensible World
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