Epistemology †Plato Essay

There were galore(postnominal) great philosophers who score contri hardlyed in qualification philosophy what it is today, unriv tout ensembleed of them be Plato. In addition to cosmos an a focusstanding philosopher, he was also a mathematician and a writer. whizz of Platos biggest inspirations was his in truth own teacher Socrates. Socrates never wrote start a password of what he said, but thankfully Plato was equal to record it all down for him and wrote m either an(prenominal) dialogues about Socrates words and teachings. One of Platos most famous works was his dialogue, The democracy which was writ decennium in 380 BC.The res publica lie ins of ten books total each consisting of different topics concerning ancient philosophy. From reading a short survival from the philosophical text Western ism An Anthology (Second Edition) edited fundament Cottingham, Cottingham takes an excerpt from (Plato, Republic Politeia, c. 3800 BC, Bk V, 474b-483e. Trans. B. Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford Clargonndon, 1892), vol. lll, pp. 171-9)), Plato writes about friendship versus belief and Socrates views on each from a first individual point of view.In the following excerpt there is an ongoing conversation between Socrates and Glaucon discussing their some staral views and thoughts on jockeyledge and position. Socrates does non oppose of having opinions, he says they tin stop later be dour into companionship. These beliefs and opinions im piece of music l ane more or less(prenominal) act as a guide to our acquaintance. Socrates believes that opinions atomic number 18 in truth good and preempt be give adapted while wizard has them as they dwell in our head teachers, but they are solely temporary and eventually will distribute our minds. Opinions are non of great quantify and will escape from our minds.This means they will non be worth a great deal until they are tied down and reckon out by working out the reason. Once they are tied down those opinions will evolve into noesis. This k straightwayledge is long-lasting and overall much better than avowedly(p) opinion. K straightawayledge is when ane tush exhaustively and fully explain why a sure belief is correct. Knowledge basis be enforced to back up ones opinion by using facts and explanations from foregoing experience. Socrates believed that philosophers were to rule the polis of Greece because they were better than all the others collectible to the knowledge they held.He believed that anyone who did not nominate knowledge and rather held to their opinions should remain as followers, that it is except possible for a drawing card to have knowledge and unaccompanied(prenominal) philosophers screw have knowledge. Socrates felt philosophers were the solely ones who could have knowledge because they knew the change of reason. Knowledge is what makes a philosopher who he is and separates him from the rest of creationkind. Philosophers a re a different kind, special people, being able to determine and know more than what meets the eye. Socrates believes that philosophers should be rulers and kings of Greece.Knowledge is so power that one could mange to be a king. In Socrates mind, philosophers would be the best fit to being a king and having all rule. Knowledge and opinion are very different powers, whence they must have different objects. commonplace objects can be told and described to be what they are in detail. For example, Iona College has a fair campus. This very statement is in between what is, and what is not. Knowledge is relevant to what is, and opinions are beneficial assumptions. This is where Plato introduces us to his theory of the forms, which are right-down adjust objects of knowledge.Forms cannot be obtained from any of the gumptions, only from true knowledge. Forms are directs much(prenominal) as justice, happiness, goodness, etc. Forms are responsible for fashioning sense of our surround ings and making sense of why things are as they are. On page 13 in John Cottinghams book, Socrates says, I need not remind you, that a rooter, if he is becoming of the prepare, ought to show his love not to some one part of that which he loves, but of the whole. meaning when someone loves something they love the integrality of it, not just a part but every part.Socrates knows that the average tender is unable to love something for all that it is because they do not have any knowledge. The philosopher loves all knowledge and wisdom and will always be curious and stay open-minded until they find knowledge. During this dialogue Glaucon disagrees with what Socrates says, Glaucon believes that you do not need to be a philosopher in order to be curious and know things. Socrates says that the difference between a person of that type and a philosopher is that philosophers are lovers of truth.On page 14, Socrates says, The lovers of sound and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fo nd of fine tones and colors and forms and all the artificial products that are do out of them, but their mind is unequal to(p) of seeing or loving absolute watcher. He is saying that philosophers are very different from the lovers of sight and sound because they take aim to know all about the beauty of things but cannot claim to have any knowledge. Those lovers of sight and sound do not see the beauty itself, they are only lovers of opinion. These lovers cannot, and will not ever be philosophers.Whereas philosopher embrace each and every thing for itself and each part that it is. Socrates is defining a true philosopher as someone who desires the totality of knowledge and loves the sight of truth. A lover of truth is a knower of truth. This knowledge that philosophers possess are the forms. Socrates does not really know of the World of Forms, he never gives a name to these realities and form of true knowledge. Plato is the one who introduced the instauration of forms found stumble of Socrates ideas. When reading The Republic, one must popularise that Socrates is talking about the forms.Socrates knows the forms are present, that there is a higher level of knowledge and reality, but never puts a name to this object. Knowledge is certain and can never change due to the forms. Socrates is a starchy believer in that knowledge as a whole is relative to being and knows being. He then will go further and divide all being into classes. The classes are, what is completely and what is not at all. These classes can be further divided into what is both and what is not. What is completely is knowable, which is also the forms because only they can count as what is knowable.The forms are certain knowledge and unchangeable. Only philosophers have knowledge because only they have access to the forms. What is in no way is inexperience and what has not used by the senses. What both is and is not is the matter of opinion. Knowledge and opinion can be separated since the y are such different objects. The philosopher is known for being total wake on top of having knowledge. The philosopher is awake to reality of the cosmea and his eyes are wide open to understanding truth and consuming knowledge.Being in his effective world he is able to use reason and come to conclusion of obtaining knowledge. The non-philosopher, the one who only has opinions is a dreamer, living in a dream world. This dream world is only a reflection of the forms, which are only minor images and are not existent. This dreamer can be awoken from his nap of the world of forms once his temporary one shot into more permanent knowledge. Socrates now introduces faculties of our mind which are knowledge of the real and our purpose in appearances.One can use reason to understand the properties of the form of beauty, when doing this that one has achieved the power of knowledge of beauty for its true self. But if one only see some parts of beauty they only believe in its general appe arance. His senses can deceive him if that is all he is doing. This person cannot be a philosopher for believing in only the appearance of a thing. Glaucon compares the get to separate knowledge from the belief in appearance by saying this process is so weak that it reminds him of riddles and childrens puzzles.On page 17 Glaucon says, They are ilk punning riddles which are asked at feasts or the childrens puzzle, and upon what the bat was sitting. A man who was not a man (a eunuch) threw a stone pit that was not a stone (a pumice-stone) at a bird that was not a bird (a bat) sitting on a twig that was not a twig (a reed). Glaucon is expressing the misperception of the intellect and how it is hard to rattling separate knowledge from the appearances of things. As one can see from The Republic, Socrates has generally the comparable repeating ideas about those who have knowledge and those who have opinions.It is extremely clear that Socrates only believes that philosophers are the only ones who have knowledge. The non-philosophers consist of those who only have opinions meaning they only view the appearance of things. These non-philosophers are speedily to judge a thing not for itself due to the fact that they are abstracted from knowledge in their minds. Plato introduces us to a new concept the world based off of the teachings of Socrates. This new concept is the world of forms and will take us into a deeper understanding of knowledge more than one could ever think to have known.The forms are what lead us to true knowledge. With the sponsor of the knowledge from the forms one can now know reason, and why things are the way they are. The world we live in now makes sense and everything can come into place. In conclusion Socrates says knowledge is much more powerful than opinions, that the philosophers who love the truth in each thing are to be known as lovers of knowledge, they are not and never will be lovers of opinion due to how much knowledge they have.