Plato: The Philosopher

Hundreds of years ago, there lived a man whose ideas and writings started a revolution in Philosophy itself. This man is often known as the author of a famous piece of writing called "The Republic." His name is Plato. Unlike other philosophers, his writings were in the form of dialogs or debates between 2 or more people. Some of his early work was an attempt to communicate the philosophy and dialectical style of Socrates.

Plato's theory of Forms and his theory of knowledge are so interrelated that they must be discussed together. Influenced by Socrates, Plato was convinced that knowledge is attainable. By this he meant, from thinking and questioning, humans can achieve a greater state of knowledge. He was also convinced of two essential characteristics of knowledge. First, knowledge must be certain and perfect. Second, knowledge must have as its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an appearance only. Because that which is fully real must, for Plato, be fixed, permanent, and unchanging, he identified the real with the ideal realm of being as opposed to the physical world of becoming. What this means is that what we see, hear, or touch are merely opinions that people makeup for the true form or idea which exists in the superior realm. A good example of this theory is Plato's myth of the "cave." The myth of the cave describes individuals chained deep within the recesses of a cave. Bound so that vision is restricted, they cannot see one another. The only thing visible is the wall of the cave upon which appear shadows cast by models or statues of animals and objects that are passed before a brightly burning fire. Breaking free, one of the individuals escapes from the cave into the light of day. With the aid of the sun, that person sees for the first time the real

world and returns to the cave with the message that the only things they have seen heretofore are shadows and appearances and that the real world awaits them if they are willing to struggle free of their bonds. The shadowy environment of the cave symbolizes for Plato the physical world of appearances. Escape into the sun-filled setting outside the cave symbolizes the transition to the real world, the world of full and perfect being, the world of Forms, which is the proper object of knowledge. To sum it up, Plato believed in two different worlds. The first world is one that people and objects appear in. Using the five senses we form ideas or images of the perfect object. The second world is one where the "perfect" objects actually exist. We as people can never reach the second world, only our souls can exist in the second world.

The theory of Forms may best be understood in terms of mathematical entities. A circle, for instance, is defined as a plane figure composed of a series of points, all of which are equidistant from a given point. No one has ever actually seen such a figure, however, what we have actually seen are drawings of a circle that similar to that of an ideal circle. Nevertheless, although the Form of a circle has never been seen, mathematicians and others do in fact know what a circle is. That they can define a circle is evidence that they know what it is. For Plato, therefore, the Form "circularity" exists, but not in the physical world of space and time. It exists as a changeless object in the world of Forms or Ideas. Another good example is Justice. People know what justice is, and is used in our society a lot, but we refer to justice as if it were a physical object that exists in the physical world. According to Plato, Justice if a form or idea that exists in the superior realm.

While Plato has very important philosophical contributions to our society, other philosophers