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Discuss Plato's theory on knowledge
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Recommended: Discuss Plato's theory on knowledge
In one of Plato’s most famous three analogies, that of the divided line, which was perfectly, rather clarified in the book The Republic. It is one of the most articulate stories. Plato brought out these models of truth, knowledge, and the natural world of truth along his analogy of the divided line. However, Plato’s analogies are over 1900 years old, I believe but they can still play a big role in today’s world. Plato believes that his manner of knowledge produced in his divided line, can be a significant part in creating a healthier culture and community.
Plato’s expression about his analogy of levels of knowledge, and the nature of certainty that he called the divided line. Plato then spread this mode of awareness into four different categories. These four different categories were then separated in two. Then he expresses the objects, which characterize the different modes of knowledge. In addition, the two groups of four were separated again. Nevertheless, these objects of awareness were dividing sandwiched between knowledge and opinion. In everything, Plato confirms that in order to move on to the next level a person must truly be aware of each mode of awareness. I believe this is the center for Plato’s divided line analogy.
Now we can picture it that one of these prisoners was librated. First, the prisoner sees the statues and fire that is causing shadows. However, he then believes and sees the shadows as reality and the statues plus bright fire as illusions. Next, when he fined his way out of the cave then he saw true objects for the time. The true objects signify the ideal forms, which are not visible to us. In order words, this was the juncture of the intelligible world. Moreover, this prisoner had gladly and willing...
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...According to what we read in Book VI of the divided line and idea ruler, this individual has now become the most elite person to govern the society because he can now grasp the forms and only the people that merit this deserve to rule over others. Therefore, we can say education in some way cannot be a vision in a soul; instead, it turns the soul around being able to reflect the in itself. Reality in a way is rather implanted in our minds.
These forms of analysis point to us that even if we can see things it still does not mean that it does not exist. Plato revealed to us that we have three stages of knowledge growth: Thinking, Intelligence, and Belief. The one that would have made it four, Imagining, Plato describes it as the lowest among this growth.
Works Cited
Plato. The Republic of Plato, 2nd edition. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1991.
Plato’s cave had chained prisoners and that was the only life they ever knew. They couldn’t move their heads, and the only objects they could see from the outside world were the casted shadows created by the fire. They saw the truth from the shadows, but they were distorted. What they were seeing was only one side of the truth, not the whole thing. When one of the prisoners was free to go, he was forced to be dragged out of the cave. It
In the second stage, the cave dweller can now see the objects that previously only appeared to him as shadows. “Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer th...
ABSTRACT: Plato’s best-known distinction between knowledge and opinion occurs in the Meno. The distinction rests on an analogy that compares the acquisition and retention of knowledge to the acquisition and retention of valuable material goods. But Plato saw the limitations of the analogy and took pains to warn against learning the wrong lessons from it. In this paper, I will revisit this familiar analogy with a view to seeing how Plato both uses and distances himself from it.
For hundreds of years, Plato has been admired as a writer, a master rhetorician, an artist, and above all, a philosopher; however, Plato's backlashes against sophistry and art have led to much confusion concerning his ideas and beliefs. John Poulakos says of Plato, "[F]or most rhetoricians Plato has always played the same role he assigned to the sophists--the enemy" (Nienkamp 1). Plato will always appear to be the skilled rhetorician or artist who speaks out against rhetoric and art. In Apology and Phaedrus we see the character of Socrates rail against writing because it can quickly get out of control of the author and just as easily be misinterpreted, yet Plato is known for his skillful dialogical writing. In reference to the Divided Line, Plato informs us that art is one of the lowest forms because it is no more than an illusion, yet Plato uses his artistic ability in "Simile of a Cave" to help us understand the journey to knowledge. This ambiguity within the texts leads to, what appears to be, Plato contradicting himself; however, to fully understand these contradictions we must ask ourselves, "Who is the real Plato?" Plato's contradictory nature and overall ambiguity make the lines of distinction between the writer, the rhetorician, the artist, and the philosopher become blurred, so it is difficult for anyone to understand or explain the real Plato.
"Plato." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I. 6th ed. NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1992. 726-746.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Sterling, Richard and Scott, William. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
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.
In The Republic, Plato presents the relationship of the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave in connection to his epistemology and metaphysics. Throughout the Republic he discusses his beliefs on many topics using examples that express his ideas more thoroughly. He is able to convey very complex beliefs through his examples of the Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s epistemology depicts his idea of the Divided Line which is a hierarchy where we discover how one obtains knowledge and the Allegory of the Cave relates to Plato’s metaphysics by representing how one is ignorant/blinded at the lowest level but as they move up in the Divided Line, they are able to reach enlightenment through the knowledge of the truth.
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
The universals in Plato’s sun, line and cave are being, truth, knowledge and intelligible. He uses the sun as the being, or the form of good, the light as the truth, the sight as the knowledge and the visibility as the intelligible. The form of the Good, in terms of Plato’s metaphysics is the most important. Plato is unable to tell us exactly what the Form of The Good is, but he does tell us that it is the foundation of intelligibility and of our capability to know. Also that it is accountable for bringing all of the other Forms into existence. Metaphysics (reality) and epistemology (knowledge) run in tandem to each other. There is only one world but things that are of varying degrees of reality populate it. Plato didn’t look at it as black and white; he looked at it as degrees and
This paper endeavors to uncover what knowledge is and the conditions for its possibility by taking on Plato’s epistemology. I will place Plato’s distinction between knowledge and opinion first. And to further understand his position on knowledge, the Theory of Forms must be explained. Additionally, the Allegory of the Cave is then described since it illustrates how knowledge revolves around this theory.
The concept of the divided line is introduced in the Republic and shows that the line is in proper proportion to the understanding of the good. When I looked at the line, I noticed that it contains two main sections, each divided into two subsections that are proportioned in size that represents to the whole for the understanding of the good. The sections that are given in the line are Imagination (Eikasia), Belief (Pistis), Thought (Dianoia), and finally Understanding (Noesis). Each division within the line holds a level of understanding that is proper to the understanding of the ultimate level understanding. This idea is a person move up the line by increasing the knowledge they have and then moving to the next level of understanding until
The Divided Line visualizes the levels of knowledge in a more systematic way. Plato states there are four stages of knowledge development: Imagining, Belief, ...
According to Plato dialectic as a vehicle for moving from a concern with the material world to a concern with the world of ideas.The dialectic crosses the ‘divided line’ between matter and idea.
Plato believed that knowledge was inherited and was, therefore, a natural component of the human mind. Plato believed that one gained knowledge by reflecting on the contents of one 's mind.