Aristotle and Plato have been two of the most influential philosophers throughout the course of history. From their impact on Ancient Greek society, to early Christianity, their teachings and theories have remained relevant. As with all philosophers, they pondered the true nature of things, and attempted to be enlightened. Theories such as the Theory of the Forms, metaphysics and Plato’s cave allegory were postulated to privilege their view of reality. This essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Aristotle’s view of reality when compared to Plato’s.
Plato’s view of reality was founded in his Theory of the Forms and foregrounded through his Allegory of the Cave. The Allegory of the Cave depicts a group of prisoners who are stuck
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Aristotle found the idea of being able to determine the relationship between two realities preposterous. He studied under Plato for many years, but began to develop his own views more extensively after Plato’s death. Aristotle’s own beliefs about reality stemmed from his disagreement with Plato’s views. As a scientist, he found the idea of Forms that are separate from the physical thing problematic. The Theory of the Forms had no practical use; it did not explain the changing and unchanging nature of things. Plato had no scientific basis for his beliefs in the Forms, only philosophical thinking and rationality. “Again, of the ways in which it is proved that the Forms exist, none is convincing; for from some no inference necessarily follows, and from some arise Forms even of things of which they think there are no Forms.” (Aristotle, 350 BCE). This is a problem for many scientifically oriented thinkers, as Plato had no material evidence to support his …show more content…
He called this purpose, or main goal ‘telos’. Telos explains the changing of a substance; the substance of an object occurs when matter takes on a new form. The main technique Aristotle used when developing his view of reality was syllogistic reasoning. Syllogistic reasoning involves using a major premise, a minor premise and conclusion. This kind of reasoning is used within science, and allows people to discover new things from reasoning and known truths. However, despite sound logic, if the premise is false, the entire conclusion is untrue. This is a disadvantage and flaw in some of Aristotle’s teachings, he used generalisations to craft his philosophical ideas.
His ideas about women, as well as reproduction have been proved wrong. Aristotle, in his book Politics, said “Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.”(Aristotle, 350 BCE). When compared to Plato’s view of reality, this aspect is inferior. Plato’s view was founded upon the premise of the senses being deceptive and not as sound as the mind, and was therefore not hindered by false conclusions developed from false
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” explains his beliefs on education of one’s soul and the core of the way they shape themselves. The rhetorical devices that Plato represents inside of his story explains how much freedom is worth in this world. The deeper meaning inside of what Plato describes can further be found out once a reader realizes the type of rhetorical devices are being used. For example, Plato portrays prisoners being locked inside of a cave without a way out. These prisoners never got to see the outside world, yet he mentions they “see shadows” which explains they are only able to catch a glimpse of reality from the outside. Plato’s use of imagery gives us a mental picture on the tease we may feel to notice reality but not be able to experience it. In reality, we do not value freedom as much as we are supposed to. We seem to not see the world as he sees it. With the help of personification, Plato uses human like characteristics to describe non-living things to give
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.
The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand abstract reality requires the understanding of mathematics and finally the forms or the Ideals of all things (the world outside the cave). But our understanding of the physical world is mirrored in our minds by our ways of thinking. First comes imagination (Socrates thought little of creativity), then our unfounded but real beliefs. Opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning (learned though mathematics). Finally, the realization of the forms is mirrored by the level of Understanding in the Ways of Thinking. The key to the struggle for knowledge is the reasoning skills acquired through mathematics as they are applied to understanding ourselves. The shadows on the cave wall change continually and are of little worth, but the reality out side the cave never changes and that makes it important.
Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and Jean Paul Sartre with " Existentialism". Generally, Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre suggested that human life should be free. They differ in what that freedom is. Plato thinks it is found in the world of intellect, Thoreau thinks freedom is found in nature, and Sartre thinks freedom is found in subjectivity of individual.
What is truly real, and what is not? This question is one which has been pondered deeply throughout human history, and it seemingly has no definitive answer. To understand what is truly a part of reality, and what isn’t, may be an impossible feat. However, two famous works created by humans from two distant time periods attempt to dissect and analyze this philosophical question. The first, The Allegory of the Cave, was written by the great Greek philosopher, Plato, who was born in 428 B.C. in Athens, Greece. The Allegory of the Cave is a piece of a larger work of Plato’s, The Republic, which is a collection of works concerning political philosophy. The Republic is his most famous work and what he is best known for in today’s world. The second
He argues that non-physical forms or ideas represent the most accurate reality. There exists a fundamental opposition between in the world like the object as a concrete, sensible object and the idea or concept of the objects. Forms are typically universal concepts. The world of appearance corresponds to the body. The world of truth corresponds with the soul. According to Plato, for any conceivable thing or property there is a corresponding Form, a perfect example of that or property is a tree, house, mountain, man, woman, Table and Chair, would all be examples of existing abstract perfect Ideas. Plato says that true and reliable knowledge rests only with those who can comprehend the true reality behind the world of everyday experience. In order to perceive the world of the Forms, individuals must undergo a difficult
For Plato, Forms are eternal and changeless, but there is a relationship between these eternal and changeless Forms and particular things we perceive by means of our senses in the world. These particular things change in accordance to the perceiver and the perceiver’s environment and this is why Plato thought that such things do not possess real existence. For Plato, onl...
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. The Allegory of the Cave is that we are chained to a wall. Behind us is another wall with figures walking across it, behind that wall is a pit of fire. The firelight casts shadows upon the wall in front of those chained to the wall. Because we are chained to the wall we believe the figures are what they represent. Plato says there times when one tries to break away from the wall but others encourage him to join back the wall as he experiences what the world truly is. Because we are chained to the wall we are afraid of the unknown. But breaking free could change the perception about the world and feel truly free. Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles but it’s difficult. And when we ( s...
In the essay “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato addresses how humans generally do not pursue knowledge. Most humans are satisfied with what they already know and do not want to expand their knowledge. Plato uses simple examples to help the reader understand his logic on why humans do not expand their knowledge.
For the Greeks philosophy wasn’t restricted to the abstract it was also their natural science. In this way their philosophers were also their scientist. Questions such as what is the nature of reality and how do we know what is real are two of the fundamental questions they sought to answer. Pythagoras and Plato were two of the natural philosophers who sought to explain these universal principles. Pythagoras felt that all things could be explained and represented by mathematical formulae. Plato, Socrate’s most important disciple, believed that the world was divided into two realms, the visible and the intelligible. Part of the world, the visible, we could grasp with the five senses, but the intelligible we could only grasp with our minds. In their own way they both sought to explain the nature of reality and how we could know what is real.
Plato: For today’s class Aristotle and I are going to discuss our ideas on the Theory of Form
Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, located in Book VII of The Republic is one of the most famous allegories in which he has created. This novel addresses what humans have struggled for centuries with comprehending whilst living in a world of senses in which we do not know anything about. This book explores the realm of human existence in which individuals live in a world that is symbolic of a bleak dark cave. In this world humans are trapped in an endless cycle of false narratives where a true form consciousness requires a disembodiment of societal norms. The prisoners in this cave fall victim to their own ignorance, yet those who have gained a sense of enlightenment view the cave as a dangerous place, making the outside world the only source of freedom.
Looking next to ontology, we will further explore the matters of what is real. Plato and Aristotle both had differing views on ontology. "Plato believed in perfect prototypes, or forms, which were ultimate realities from which the world of objects has been patterned... Gradually, Plato expanded his theory of ideal Forms to include everything we see imperfectly represented in the ordinary course of events" (Mitchell 64). Plato 's philosophy has be referred to as idealism, meaning that the "most real entities are ideas" (Mitchell 65). Aristotle 's views about ontology are different from the ideas of Plato. At first, he was accepting of the theories presented by Plato, but later branched into his own philosophy about the world (Mitchell
These topics mostly dealt with issues such as government, opinions toward justice and how people really viewed education. Aristotle also had his own theories towards his belief in the "right government". He wanted his results to show happiness among the people. He'd mainly collect information from studying living creatures and observing their living habits. He would do this so that he could see what brought them happiness.
Although Aristotle grew up under the ideas of Plato, through time he began to develop his own theories and views about philosophical thoughts (Aristotle Biography, 2015). Aristotle believed that in order to understand the natural world to the fullest, one must use each of the five senses, all of which we use to this day. Aristotle also had his own views of the world, especially the astronomy of it. He believed the earth was at the center of the universe and the remaining planets, only 5 known at the time, were circling around it (Worldview of Ancient Greece - Socrates, Plato & Aristotle, n.d.). We know now that his views on this matter are not taught and the planets revolve around the