Plato began with common sense recognition of the variety of things. To make sense out of these things, he realized that mind must discover reasons for the way these physical things behave. Led him in the world of things which is the world of physical science.
PHILOSOPHY OF MAN
Predecessors
Plato
Milesians-constitution of nature
World of thought and Ideas, the world of science. Lead the mind into science and physics.
Eleatic/Parmenides & Zeno- arguing the reality consists of changeless single reality, the ONE.
Mind must discover the principles and roles that things in their behavior obey.
Heraclitus & Pythagoreans- always changing, full of flux & consisting of vast multitude of different things.
Intellectual grasp in mathematics, for the mathematics is the way of thinking without being tied up to particulars.
Socrates & Sophists- arena of morality
Behavior of things
PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE
“We have knowledge about the true nature of things, of reality, including the true nature of humankind; we have also the basic clue to how humans should behave.”
World of Appearances
World of Ideas
Could only produce opinion only
Timeless ideas could produce true knowledge
The Visible World
The Intelligible World
PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Plato described how human mind achieves knowledge and indicated what knowledge consists by means of (1) the allegory of the Cave, (2) his metaphor of Divided Line, and (3) his doctrine of forms.
TRIPARTITE NOTION OF SOUL
Plato described the soul as having three parts; which he calls reason, spirit and appetites. He derived this tripartite conception of the soul from the common experience of internal confusion and conflict that all humans share. When analyzed the nature of this conflict, he discovered that there are three different kinds of activities going on to in a person. First, there is awareness of a goal or a value and this is act is the reason. Second, there is a drive toward action, the