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Plato's impact on human nature
Plato's impact on human nature
Augustine and christianity essay
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Plato lived in 427-347 BC, he was a late classical period philosopher, when most of the people in his time were saying that the archetypes didn't exist and he was fighting against that trying to return to the high classical period of thought.Plato was so dead set on trying to show people the archetypes because he was convinced he was the wisest person that was alive because the Delphic oracle told him he was. What makes Plato so profound and important is that Plato wrestles with topics that to this day society has not found the answers to. Augustine lived from 354-430 he was an early Christian philosopher and theologian. Augustine wanted to share his beliefs on the Christian religion because he felt that since Jesus had saved him from his wrong …show more content…
Plato believes in gods and higher powers but Plato does not believe in Christianity. The reason Augustine believes in Christianity is because in Augustine's young adult years he believes these years in his life are a perfect reflection of how Christ love moves humanity out of sin and moves it into the joy of God's presence. In his years before he found Christ love he was indulging in lust and was in love with the idea of love." I was not yet in love, but I was enamored with the idea of love”(Confessions,12). That emptiness and lack of God and that yearning sensation of wanting happiness comes from us being created with having piety and happiness but losing both of them in the fall “but when we lost happiness, we did not lose the love of it” (City of God,72).Plato doesn't believe in Christianity but believes in in the archetypes to Plato those are his gods and they are his religion. Plato believes that wisdom is one of the greatest archetypes that there is and that he possess it. He believes that wisdom is not really the acquiring of an abundance of knowledge or having a plethora of information but he believes that true wisdom comes from acknowledging that you are “truly worthless where is wisdom is concerned”(apology 23b). From gaining this eye opening wisdom Plato had gained the knowledge that we need not be afraid of death. Fearing
True wisdom for Plato is knowledge of the good and in order to reach that level of enlightenment, all lower levels must first be known. The divided line identifies the states of reality, which work to provide a better understand the good.
Consequently, In Plato's Euthyphro, our acquaintance with Socrates is immensely beneficial to society, as we obtain awareness on such an innovative method of achieving intuition. The Socratic approach is now a fundamental approach implemented in daily conversation in society Furthermore, not only is Socrates is able to verify that the true seekers are the wise; he also validates the notion that the answers to many questions are merely questions. Simply because, life is so debate that certain subjects begin to intertwine. To sum up, Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this Socratic irony, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
One of the main points of Plato’s philosophy was that he believed that people should not so easily trust their senses. In “The Allegory of the Cave”, Plato argues that what we perceive of the world through our sense does not give us the entire picture of what is really there. He states that what we can see is only shadows of what is true, but since we are born believing what we see, we don’t know that there is anything missing at all. Plato believed that in the “knowable realm”, the form of the good, the ultimate truth, is the last thing that we can see, which requires more effort that simply perceiving it. This ultimate truth can only be found through being able to not only perceive, but to be dragged out of the cave, or to be able to think. He likely believed this because through education, he felt that there was an ordering occurring in the mind that allowed for thoughts to become more focused, and clearer. As these thoughts became clearer, s...
Socrates established very early in his defense that he knew he had no wisdom, and he based his investigations of Athenians’ wisdom on finding at least one person wiser than he was. He recalled a story of Chaerephon, an old Athenian friend, who went to the Oracle of Delphi to ask whether anybody had more wisdom than Socrates did, and she “’…answered that there was no man wiser.’” (Plato, 3) Socrates explained that since he knew he had no wisdom, he began a search to find a ...
Plato believes that education is wisdom and through literary mechanisms such as the Allegory of the Cave he shows the importance of education in achieving enlightenment. Believing that only the philosopher-kings should be educated, for reasons unstated, Plato argued that education enables the philosopher-kings to guide the masses and make good decisions on behalf of the Republic. Defining wisdom is a difficult and often contentious undertaking. Throughout history, important thinkers like Plato provide a different understanding of the purpose of life and of the meaning of wisdom itself. Plato saw wisdom as an external force that could only begin to be seen by human
Plato, like Pythagoras, believes that knowledge of pure Forms and of “Being” is the direct path to someone living a life of salvation and of the highest quality. Plato, like Pythagoras, also believed that all of the forms are geometric figures and mathematical in nature. Also, Plato, like Heraclitus, believed that our world is constantly changing, or in a constant flux. Plato, also agreed with Parmenides, who believed that the real world is not the same as the world of our experience.
It is clear that although Plato and Aristotle believe different things about what happens after death and what the highest divinities are they do agree on some topics. They both think that the philosophy is the best way a human can spend their lives in a pursuit of happiness and truth. They both think that there are divinities which move the heavens. They both also believe that this world was created and was not just “always here.” Plato and Aristotle were neither Christians, Jews, nor Muslims but their ideas of divinity come so close to these monotheistic religions that it is difficult to believe their ideas have not had any influence in these religions as they developed many years after their works were conceived. In any case it is interesting to see what the thinkers believed before the onset of modern religious traditions.
In his several dialogues, Plato contends the importance of the four virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. In The Republic, he describes a top-down hierarchy that correlates to the aspects of one’s soul. Wisdom, courage, and temperance preside control over the rational, spirited, and appetitive aspects of the soul. It is when one maintains a balance between these aspects of his soul that he attains peace within himself: “...And when he has bound together the three principles within him...he proceeds to act...always thinking and calling that which preserves and cooperates with this harmonious condition (Plato 443c).” Wisdom and knowledge consistently remain at the top of his view of happiness. During the apology, Plato is asked what punishment is best suited for him. He sarcastically answers, “to be fed...(It is) much more suitable than for any one who has won a v...
Plato vs. Aristotle Plato and Aristotle, two philosophers in the 4th century, hold polar views on politics and philosophy in general. This fact is very cleverly illustrated by Raphael's "School of Athens" (1510-11; Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican), where Plato is portrayed looking up to the higher forms; and Aristotle is pointing down because he supports the natural sciences. In a discussion of politics, the stand point of each philosopher becomes an essential factor. It is not coincidental that Plato states in The Republic that Philosopher Rulers who possess knowledge of the good should be the governors in a city state. His strong interest in metaphysics is demonstrated in The Republic various times: for example, the similes of the cave, the sun, and the line, and his theory of the forms.
Even though Plato and Aristotle lived in the same country during the same time period and Plato was Aristotle’s teacher, they had very different ideas about politics and metaphysics while both maintaining traditional ancient Greek ethics.
Plato’s second argument deals with the metaphysical aspect. The argument goes something like this: consider two things that are alike (two humans). They both have a certain character about them (they are both human). Now, what they have in common cannot be the same as either one (a human is not the same as person A or B). It also isn’t identical with the two of them together (person C is also a human). What they do share then has to be a reality completely different from th...
Plato was born into an aristocratic Greek family between 428–427 BC. At the age of twenty he became a disciple of the philosopher Socrates. Socrates continued to be an enormous influence on Plato throughout his life. Plato was an idealist and believed that everything that we see in this world is a less accurate representation of what its true form should be. He believed in a world of unchanging and unrelated forms that corresponded to universal definitions. This belief led to his theory of forms and became an essential part of his philosophy. Plato demonstrated this idea in one of his most popular works entitled the Republic.
Plato believes there is two types of worlds that are of knowledge and opinion. As he understands, what is an every lasting reality is a true knowledge, which is the heart of what needs to be understood and everything people need to know. As he says for opinion, it will be only successful some times, as knowledge will always be right and successful at all times when implemented. An opinion for him has no base on true knowledge, but pure people’s speculations of their points of views. A true knowledge will never be influenced by any changes and it cannot be affected by anything; it will stand alone without changing. In Plato’s argument of how men will acquire knowledge in life, he says that knowledge resides in men’s immortal soul prior to his birth; this is how men will first encounter what he calls the “Forms” in that
Still innocent and so naïve, the common human consciousness slowly began to raise itself, giving birth thereat to great men, who will forever remain in the hearts of the “consecrated”. One of those great men was Plato.
He wrote many dialogues, and one of them includes his famous dialogue called “Allegory of the Cave.” This dialogue explained how we were born into being very naïve people about our surroundings and taking things for granted, but eventually with the right education we grow to be philosophers that know the Form of Good. Society closes our eyes and whispers things to us in our ears and we believe it, in order to break free we need to educate ourselves into being more knowledgeable about our surroundings. We need to analyze even the smallest things, nothing is to be taken for granted because everything is more complex than what it seems (Plato, p. 26). Plato also states in his idea of self, the soul, that the soul is composed of three parts, our desires, the conscious awareness of reason and the spirited part which gets angry at injustice (Plato, p.40). His allegory and this idea about the parts of the soul connect with each other and might as well lead us to understanding what his idea truly means. Like the first argument, we could say that because our souls is what makes us alive, we are aware of the life we live, therefore we become philosophers only when we do not forget where we came from. This though, sounds contradicting to itself if we take the second argument in hand. If our soul is our life and our body is what carries it, than our ability to become philosophers depends solely on our ability to remove our soul from the body in