Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Aristotle vs plato
Part One
Today, I had debate with Plato and Aristotle about what is real and true. This question has crossed my mind before but I have never reached a definitive conclusion. This topic can be explained using metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics studies what is real, while epistemology studies what is true. Although they both have different views on this subject, they each offered good points to support their argument.
Part Two: Argument Analysis:
Plato believed that reality is eternal and the realm of forms. He claimed we gain truth from knowledge and rational intuition. Although he did not know how we reached a truth he knew that we learn from experiences. Plato believed there were two worlds. One was called the “Becoming world”
…show more content…
Plato believed that we the truth from life and therefore we learned about the orange through rational intuition. He defended that we learned how about an orange and how it tastes from an experience. He explained how a tree can only be a tree and nothing else. This explained that everything in life is definite. The issue I see with Plato’s argument is that he lacked any substantial proof with this statement. Plato was only able to give reasons on what he believed in and had no examples to prove his point. Plato did not give reasons on why he thought their were two different worlds. For this reason, I do not believe Plato had a complete argument. Plato should have presented valid facts to strengthen his argument. Plato’s argument does not reach a logical conclusion.
On the other hand, Aristotle argued that reality is in the natural world and the orange therefore is from nature. Aristotle’s argument was valid and sound. Aristotle was able to reach a logical conclusion with his “Four Causes”. After going through the causes the final cause can explain how an orange allows us food to survive. Aristotle uses his causes to help explain how the orange is part of nature and relates this to entelechy. By having nature provide us with food it allows us to live a successful
The first realm is the Physical world that we can observe with our senses. And second, is a world made of eternal “forms” or “ideas.” He believes that there exists another dimension where perfect templates exist. This means forms are mind-independent entities. Forms are independently existent whether we grasp them with our mind but do not depend on being grasped in order to exist. In the Allegory Plato compares the level of becoming to living in a cave and describes the ordeal necessary for the soul’s ascent from shadowy illusions to enlightenment. From just an opinion to an informed opinion to rationally based knowledge to
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...
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.
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
Plato’s view on existence can be understood by discussing his theory of Forms. The theory of Forms or Ideas is about the existence of ideas in higher form of reality, the existence of a reality inhabited by forms of all things and concepts. Plato used example of objects such as table and rock and concepts like Beauty and Justice to illustrate the notion of Forms. Plato further describes Forms as a being possessed by concepts. For example, Virtue has different characters; but they all have a common nature which makes them virtuous.
Plato vs. Aristotle How do we explain the world around us? How can we get to the truth? Plato and Aristotle began the quest to find the answers thousands of years ago. Amazingly, all of philosophy since that time can be described as only a rehashing of the original argument between Plato and Aristotle. Plato and Aristotle's doctrines contrast in the concepts of reality, knowledge at birth, and the mechanism to find the truth.
Thirdly, Plato signals his position on what his epistemology and metaphysics are in relation to his examples of the Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave. Epistemology is the study of knowledge and how it’s acquired and metaphysics is the nature of reality and the universe. Plato paints a clear picture of his metaphysics when he illustrates the idea of someone becoming exposed to knowledge/truth. For example, he states, “Finally I suppose he'd be able to see the sun not images of it in water or some alien place,
The views of Plato and Descartes are in many ways similar and also in many ways different. According to Plato we see shadows and not the real objects. To be a philosopher one must strive to see the object and what makes that object unique. Also one must be able to see the idea of the object. According to Descartes one must also find the uniqueness of the object through reason, but his approach differs. He casts doubt on what he feels isn't certain and rebuilds his foundation of knowledge with himself as the base. Plato is not looking to cast doubts on one's beliefs but instead trying to expand one's knowledge of it. Both Descartes and Platos ends are the same, to try and reach the Good or God, but their means are different.
...nses while Plato only trusted his reason. Plato felt that only with our reason could we understand and obtain true knowledge. We can only have ‘opinions’ about what we experience with our senses. He only trusted his reason because “we cannot always trust the evidence of our senses. The faculty of vision can vary from person to person.”(Gaarder 86) He also did not trust the sense because he felt we couldn’t have “true knowledge of something that is in constant state of change.”(Gaarder 85) He trusted reason because he felt reason was the same for every person. Plato only trusts his reason and does not believe what he experiences with his senses while Aristotle felt that experiencing things with our sense is the highest degree of reality and believed all our knowledge comes from what we experienced with our senses. Plato and Aristotle’s theories on metaphysical topics, of ‘forms’ and what is reality are very different and completely opposite.
...ver changing and so is the world we live in. Plato: What it comes down to is that true knowledge is that of which is truly real. This is because objects that are of the true knowledge are just forms and that is because objects of a person's sense perception are only real to a certain extent and that certain extent is only because they participate in the Forms. Plato: Well class that is all we have for today. Thank you for listening to our theories, and we hope that it gave you something to think about. Class dismissed! The side I believe with most would be based on Plato's Theory of Knowledge. The reason I chose his theory is because I do truly feel knowledge is a true belief of one's own perception. The way I view things is different than how someone else views them. For example; an very old wilted tree would look beautiful to me but someone else may see it as ugly
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
Plato as a philosopher. Plato as an artist. Plato as the birth of concsiousness of its own limitedness. Plato as my own flight from reality.
First, Plato believed that ideas are the realist things in the world. What we see in our daily life is not reality; sense perceptions are only appearances. And appearances are unreliable material copies of the immaterial pure ideas. Thus to him the world of the ideas is reasonable and fixed and holds the truth. While the world of physical appearances is variable and irrational, and it only bears reality to the extent that it succeeds in capturing the idea. To live the best life that you can and to be happy and do good, as a person you have to strive to understand and imitate the ideas as best as you can. So, with this philosophy in mind we can understand why Plato considered art as just a mindless pleasure. He viewed art as just an imitation.
Plato also argues for the reality of ideas as the only way to be sure of ethical standards and of objective scientific knowledge. In the Republic and the Phaedo Plato suggests his theory of forms. Ideas or forms are the established archetypes of all phenomenon, and these ideas are the only thing completely real and true; the physical world holds only relative reality for the time being. The forms are simply ...
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