Knowledge is Power (8) - Who was Plato?

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Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher born circa 428 B.C.E. His writings contained discussions on various philosophical subjects like justice, equality, aesthetics, beauty, politics, theology, cosmology, and much more.

Plato was the innovator of the dialectic philosophy, which is basically a discussion or a debate between people who have different points of view on various subjects and want to establish the truth. Plato's work consists of several compositions known as Plato's Dialogues. These are Apology, Meno, Georgias, Republic, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Cratylus, Parmenides, Theaethetus, Thymaeus, Sophyst and the Laws.

Plato was a student of Socrates; therefore he was influenced primarily by him. Socrates is basically the main character in many of Plato's writings. Plato wrote that Socrates was "the justest man alive" (Seventh Letter - 324e). Plato's earliest dialog, the Apology, explains philosophically the trial and execution of Socrates, making him a real martyr of reasoning. Socrates' concepts about knowledge and thinking in general, his desire to seek and follow the truth, his open-mindedness to criticism and re-consideration, his actions dictated by his your own beliefs, these are all seen in Plato's own philosophy.

Plato was also influenced by pre-Socratic philosophers, especially by Pythagoras, who believed that mathematics was the base of philosophy. Plato loved mathematics, and he expressed his fascination in some of his philosophical dialogues. A great example is his philosophical argument concerning the essential relationships between the numbers, cosmos and the human being.

Plato believed that mathematics is a way of understanding the reality, and there is a correlation between geometry and the Universe. He founded his Academy in Athens, with the sign above the entrance that read:

“Let no-one ignorant of geometry enter here”.
How cool is that???

Like Pythagoras, he believed that mathematics is a branch of philosophy and his Academy taught it like that, along with science. As a direct result, his Academy produced some of the most famous mathematicians of the ancient world, including Eudoxus, Theaetetus and Archytas.

Plato, the mathematician, is known for his logical and deductive mind in solving mathematical problems, like the Three Classical Problems: “squaring the circle”, “doubling the cube” and “trisecting the angle”, and perhaps the most important one, the identification of the Platonic Solids, which he believed were the basis of the whole Universe.

These 5 three -dimensional shapes are: the tetrahedron, which for Plato represented fire, the octahedron, representing air, the icosahedron, representing water, the cube, representing earth, and the dodecahedron, which represented God, arranging the constellations. This discussion is held in his dialogue, the Thymaeus, which is Plato's account of the creation of the Universe.

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Philosophy is literally defined as “the love of wisdom”, as it comes from the Greek words “Philo”, Love, and “Sophia”, Wisdom.

Metaphysics is the study of existence. Plato's metaphysics is known as the Theory of Forms and it is discussed in Plato's dialogues. His theory of forms states that what is truly real is not the objects we observe, but forms that can be grasped only intellectually. He believed that the world we know through our senses is only an imitation of the pure, eternal, and unchanging world of the Forms. That is Plato's two-realm concept: one realm of things we can sense, and one realm of Forms, which is the source of reality and true knowledge.

Plato explains his dualist philosophy in the Republic, specifically in the Allegory of the Cave. He imagines a cave with prisoners who can see only the reflection of some objects on a wall in front of them. As they can't see the real objects, they believe that the reflections are the reality. As one prisoner escapes, he can see the reality and the difference between the real objects and the shadows. What the escape prisoner sees is the realm of Forms. He is the philosopher, who has seen the true reality, while the prisoners inside the cave are the ordinary people, who believe that the reflection is the real world, so they are condemned to darkness and ignorance. That is a remarkable allegoric interpretation of those times, when philosophers had difficulties to tell others what they thought about the real world. This describes partially Plato's theory of knowledge. Letting one man out of the cave meant gaining true knowledge to ordinary people, a dangerous, yet freeing action.

Plato believed there are four stages of knowledge development: Imagining, Belief, Thinking, and Perfect Intelligence.

Imagining is at the lowest level of this developmental ladder. Plato believed that what we see is not necessarily what we get. He considered shadows, art and poetry, as illusions. If someone believes a shadow is something “real” then, that person is unaware of observation and is drawn to illusion and ignorance. Belief is in Plato's argument the idea that seeing is not always believing. Belief is based more on reality, therefore is more advanced than imagining. Thinking relates to the “intelligible world” which stands for the power of the mind. Plato encourages people to see the things the way they really are, and to realize that everything is connected. Finally, the last stage of developing knowledge, Perfect Intelligence, represents the mind, completely separated from sensible objects.

Plato’s theory of the Body and Soul is based on his Theory of Forms. He held a dualist position, stating that body and soul are fundamentally distinct, and when the material body dies the soul lives on. Plato discussed the immortality of the soul and its ability to survive bodily death in Phaedrus and Phaedo, through ‘The argument from the cycle of opposites’ and ‘The argument from knowledge’.

Plato’s ideas about the soul were extremely advanced for his era, as with most of his philosophies. He believed that our existence on earth was just a shadow of a higher spiritual plane. Plato believed that the soul already lived a life in the world of forms, a world that cannot be destroyed. He also believed that the soul is intelligible and non-tangible, therefore it cannot be destroyed, same like Forms.

Plato believed that everything in the world has an opposite effect. He argued that this theory should also be applied to life and death. So, if one can go from life to death, he must be able to go from death to life, and if this is happens, then the soul must survive this transition, therefore the soul is separate from the body and is immortal.

Plato also believed that the soul is a complex entity, divided into three components; reason, will and appetite. He believed that reason is the highest part of the soul, and we should let reason control the appetite that will help with the will, and that was the proper functioning of the soul.

In conclusion, Plato believed that The Forms are the highest levels of reality; the real world is not what we see but what we feel in a world that is made up of eternal Forms. The Forms explain our existence and life in general. They are changeless, eternal, and non-material. The ways to discover the Forms are recollection (remembering prior experiences), dialectic (discussing) and desire (willingness for knowledge).

Because I am artist, out of all Plato's arguments, my favorite is by far his interpretation of The Form of Beauty.

Beauty is a quality of a thing. Beauty gives us feelings, like pleasure and excitement. Beauty is not something we encounter in the physical world. We encounter objects that might be beautiful, that might hold beauty, or, like Plato said "participate in the Form of Beauty". The objects around us are real. We can see, touch and smell them. However, they are less real than the form, because they can only approximate the form. A beautiful thing is less beautiful than the beauty itself. A beautiful thing owes its degree of beauty to the Form of beauty, because Form is the source of the beautiful characteristics the thing has. Makes sense? It does to me!

Plato said that Forms have important features. They are eternal, un-moving, unchanging and indivisible. I agree with that. We can't determine the age of Beauty, doesn't make sense, beauty is ageless. A beautiful painting will change over the years, but its beauty will stay the same. Plato also said that only the Forms are real. As far as beauty is concerned, a beautiful thing is beautiful only to the extend it participates in the Form beauty.

On a personal level The Theory of Forms taught me that even though I can see something, that does not necessarily mean that I can see all. Or, just because I cannot see something does not necessarily mean it does not exist. I also learned that knowledge is the key to everything.

References
Metaphysics and Epistemology: Existence and Knowledge, reference2, reference3

This post is a part of my series "Knowledge is Power". In case you missed the previous articles, you can read them here:

What is Philosophy?	Philosophy and its branches
Ten Commandments of Philosophy	What is Logic
What is Ethics	Who was Phytagoras?
Who was Socrates?	Who was Plato?

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