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Description
Flashcards by Rachael Priestley, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Rachael Priestley
over 6 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| RECAP: Plato | - Plato was a Rationalist - He thought we gain knowledge primarily through our reason - Plato was also a Dualist - He thought reality can be divided into two |
| What did Plato split reality into? | 1. the physical world of phenomena 2. The ideal world of the forms |
| Plato's understanding of reality | The physical world is known through sense experience, but senses can be misleading. The world of the forms is known through reason which gives more certainty. The physical world is always changing, but the world of the forms is unchanging. |
| The Forms | The forms are concepts. They are ideals and universals that we can use to help us understand the world. The forms are superior to physical phenomena because they are unchanging. The forms are known through reason. |
| The Forms | Plato thought that the Form of the Good was the highest of all the forms. We know about the forms from birth and so we must have encountered them before we were born, therefore we must have immortal souls. |
| The Analogy of the Cave (Summary) | Plato compares the physical world with a dark shadowy cave. He asked us to imagine prisoners in the cave who have known nothing but the cave. There sense experience is that the shadows are real. A prisoner escapes and is enlightened by the form of the good. In the cave, their knowledge gained through senses are misleading. |
| Criticisms of Plato's thought | Richard Dawkins argues that it makes no sense to talk of another world beyond this physical one. There is no evidence to support the existence of a world of the forms. The theory of the forms is unclear. Not everyone would agree that we all recognise goodness in the same way. |
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