1. Some Background on Plato: Plato: 427-347 BCE Athens in 300 BCE: a place of high culture and intellect, in which philosophic dialogue could flourish (this may have been possible only because Athenians held slaves- the legacy is a mixed one!). Plato lived during a time of turmoil in Athens.

2. Reading Plato: Dialogue form: Plato's writings are in the form of dialogues- careful philosophical conversations, in which one character (usually Socrates) propounds Plato's own views. Other characters in the dialogues usually have lots of lines like "Yes Socrates." "Oh of course Socrates" "Why of course, you've made that perfectly clear Socrates, you're so clever and wise..." Others, like Thrasymachus in Republic Book I, are usually passionate and bullying, and are driven to mouth frothing fury by the inexorable reason of Socrates. Sophists: ['sophistry'] Traveling teachers who took money for teaching. Plato looked down on them, and his contempt is usually reflected in the writings of contemporary philosophers, who nevertheless accept their paychecks. [Plato was independently wealthy, and apparently despised those who weren't.] Thrasymachus was a real person– a sophist who taught public speaking and reasoning skills.

3. Reading Plato: Socrates (469-399 BC) -neglected his work and family to wander streets and talk -Oracle at Delphi claimed that he was the wisest man alive. But Socrates believed that he knew nothing. Reasoned that if the Oracle was right, it must be because he at least knew that he was ignorant, while others falsely believed that they had knowledge. Socratic Method- asking questions and offering counterexamples in a manner which ultimately leads the other person to reach the right (or at least a better) conclusion. Philosopher as “gadfly” (to prick at complacently held prejudice, and ill founded opinion) or MIDWIFE (to help others to give birth to truth, by asking the right questions to help them to figure out what the answer might be). Meiutic method: Philosophical dialogue aims to help people to give birth to their own ideas, not simply to persuade others or provide them with information. Socrates condemned for being "an evil doer and a curious person, searching into things under the earth and above the heaven; and making the worse appear the better cause, and teaching all this to others."

4. Some Influences on Plato: Influence of Parmenides: Parmenides argued that reality must be timeless and changeless. Plato: True knowledge is knowledge of the timeless and unchanging. Influence of Heraclitus: Nothing is permanent in the sensible world. Plato: We cannot get knowledge of the timeless and unchanging truths by using our senses alone. Consequence for Plato: Knowledge is not derived from the senses but from the intellect.

5. The Platonic Tradition Judgment of perception: ‘This is a triangle’ Mind is turned toward object perceived But also to the form of a triangle We perceive the thing as a triangle because we apprehend the form

6. Plato’s Philosophy of Mind Form Object This is a triangle

7. Forms explain how we can Think general thoughts Account for regularities Account for change Think the same thought at different times Think the same thought as each other Think veridical thoughts

8. Why think forms exist at all? Necessary for knowledge Without forms, we could –Perceive –Generalize But we couldn’t –Understand why things happen –Know any universal or necessary generalizations, as in science, mathematics, or philosophy There must be something all Fs have in common, by virtue of which they are Fs

9. Plato’s Divided Line “Imagine, now, the other section, of which this is only the resemblance, to include the animals which we see, and everything that grows or is made.”

10. The Divided Line Visible WorldIntellectual World Shadows,ObjectsMathematicalAbstract reflectionsof perception formsforms Perceptions ofOpinionUnderstandingReason shadows, etc. Visible world is like a reflection of the intellectual world |||

11. The Cave Allegory “And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: -- Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.”

14. The Cave Allegory “And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows? Yes, he said.”

15. The Cave Allegory “And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? Very true. And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? No question, he replied. To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.”

16. The Cave Allegory Philosophy tries to turn people away from shadows. It tries to make people see the true nature of the world-- to get beyond appearances to realities The prisoner released from the cave will be able to see reflections, then objects, then the moon and stars, and finally, the sun The progression: the divided line— from reflections to objects to mathematical forms that reflect the most abstract forms; finally to abstract forms themselves

17. Meaning of the Allegory 15 “This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed- whether rightly or wrongly God knows.”

18. The Good “But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.”

19. Objects and Abstract Forms “You are aware that students of geometry, arithmetic, and the kindred sciences assume the odd and the even and the figures and three kinds of angles and the like in their several branches of science; these are their hypotheses, which they and everybody are supposed to know, and therefore they do not deign to give any account of them either to themselves or others; but they begin with them, and go on until they arrive at last, and in a consistent manner, at their conclusion?”

20. Objects and Abstract Forms “And do you not know also that although they make use of the visible forms and reason about them, they are thinking not of these, but of the ideals which they resemble; not of the figures which they draw, but of the absolute square and the absolute diameter, and so on -- the forms which they draw or make, and which have shadows and reflections in water of their own, are converted by them into images, but they are really seeking to behold the things themselves, which can only be seen with the eye of the mind?”

21. Plato’s Philosophy of Mind 35 Form Object This is a triangle Participation Perception ?

22. Platonic Forms: 1) The forms are separate from (prior to) the empirical world, since in order to understand the names of empirical objects, we need to have (implicitly) the concept of the form that gives meaning to these names. 2) The forms are more real than empirical objects, because it is only through participation in the forms that empirical things have the properties they have. 3) The forms can be perceived only by the intellect. The philosopher is in contact with a different reality because of this connection to the heaven in which these abstract entities exist. On the Reality of the Forms, and on Degrees of Reality: Which is more real, ideas, or the things ideas represent?" (What can the second question mean? Can some things be 'more real' than others? Is reality like pregnancy and death, or like wisdom and height?)