Socrates Plato The Sophist The Sophists Protagoras Gorgias

Socrates, Plato & The Sophist

The Sophists • • • Protagoras Gorgias Thrasymachus Argued that truth was relative. Taught rhetoric, the art of persuasion, regardless of the truth.

Protagoras • Man is the measure of all things. Of the things that are, that they are, of the things that are not, that they are not.

Relativism • Protagoras is a relativist about knowledge. • The question is what type of relativist? Is knowledge relative to the: Individual Culture Species

Protagoras regarding God • About the gods, I am not able to know whether they exist or do not exist, nor what they are like in form; for the factors preventing knowledge are many; the obscurity of the subject, and the shortness of human life. • Agnostic- undecided about god’s existence.

Views on God • Agnostic- undecided about god’s existence. • Atheist- God does not exist. • Theist- God exist

Gorgias • 1) That nothing exist • 2) That if anything does exist, it is incomprehensible • 3) That even if it is comprehensible, it cannot be communicated.

Can’t express knowledge • If reality is comprehensible, it cannot be accurately communicated. • He claimed that we communicate with words, • Words are only symbols or signs, • Symbols can never be the same as the thing they represent. • For this reason knowledge cannot be adequately communicated.

Impossible to Express • 1) People communicate with words • 2) Words are (symbols, signs, sounds) • 3) Words are not the same as the thing they represent • 4) Our ideas are not the same as words. • 5) For this reason knowledge (our ideas) cannot be adequately communicated with words.

Skepticism • The idea that we do not have knowledge. • Gorgias’ skepticism lead him to the study and teaching of rhetoric.

Thrasymachus • Thra-sym-achus • Injustice Pays! • Justice is for the ignorant.

Thrasymachus • The wise pursue their own interest at the expense of others. • Might = Right. • A view echoed by Thomas Hobbes and Nietzsche.

Socrates (469 -399 BC) • Socrates asked probing questions of the intellectual elite in Athens.

Socrates (469 -399 BC) • All sources agree that Socrates was exceedingly ugly, had an unorthodox (lowly) manner of dress, and often wandered around barefooted.

The Oracle of Delphi • Declared by the Oracle at Delphi to be the Wisest of men- he said he was wise because he admitted his ignorance!

Dialogues or plays • Socrates taught orally and did not put his doctrines into writing. • He did not write books. His student, Plato, wrote dialogues that reflect his views. • These are accounts of debates.

Not a Sophist • Unlike the Sophists (who were paid for teaching wealthy aristocrats the skills of oration and persuasive argument) • Socrates charged no fees and taught students (including women) from various walks of life.

Socratic Method The Socratic Method is used to arrive at truth- The Essential Nature of Things. Also known as dialectic method, it is where you continue to question something until you arrive at a definition of the thing in question. (If that is possible)

Socrates and his Student Plato

The Trial of Socrates 399 B. C. • Socrates was accused of Impiety- (refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the State ) • & Corrupting the young. • Jury of 500 Found Socrates Guilty. • Sentenced to Death… Could have escaped into exile. Choose to accept death sentence.

Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 500, sentenced to Death!

Plato 428 -384 B. C. • Plato, the student of Socrates, founded the first University in the year 387 called the Academy. • Science and knowledge were the chief goals of study. • The mind was trained to cut thru rhetoric.

Plato’s Philosophy • Theory of Forms – Allegory of the Cave – Divided Line – Platonic Forms – Platonic Realism – Division of the Soul – Philosopher King – Memories of the Soul

Allegory of the Cave • Plato ask us to imagine… • …that men believe the shadows are real. • This is told in class, and it is told well. • Page 40 in Book.

Plato on knowledge • Plato thinks that because this world is constantly changing, that truth is this world is impossible. • Truth for Plato is something, eternal. • Objects in this world are not eternal, so are beliefs about them cannot always be correct.

Divided Line (p. 51) Intelligible World FORMS Knowledge Truth/ Knowledge Intelligible World Visible World Numbers & Thinking Sets Physical Belief Objects Truth/ Knowledge Opinion Visible World Images, copies of objects Opinion or Imagining

Platonic Forms • PLATONIC FORMS: • • • UNIVERSAL IDEAS OR CONCEPTS ETERNAL CHANGLESS TIMELESS NON-MATERIAL ESSENCES

Platonic Forms Continued • All physical objects are copies of these original entities • They exist in another plain of realityin an immaterial realm.

Modes of Thought Knowledge Thinking Belief Imagining

Imagining • Imagining is the lowest form of knowledge. • It is the lowest because the mind does not know it is just an image- it thinks the image is real (as in the CAVE) • An Imagine is an imperfect copy of a physical object. As such it is lower on the scale of knowledge than the physical thing.

Belief • A belief is held about some physical object. • Physical objects do not correspond to the “true” or “real” Form that they copy. • Beliefs about physical objects are not certain, because the objects and world are in a state of changing. • Physical objects are not eternal.

Thinking • Thinking is a deeper level of understanding. • One moves from the visible world, to the intelligible world of thought. • The objects of mathematics, such as numbers, sets, geometric figures and formula make up this level of knowledge.

Knowledge • Perfect Intelligence- Knowledge of the Forms. • At this level of understanding the mind grasp the unity of reality, and the truth that the ideas or Forms are what really exist!

Platonic Forms • Plato claimed that all physical objects copy the original, unchanging Form. • Physical objects are imperfect copies. • Like Heraclitus, he held that this reality is constantly changing and shifting. • What is true today may be false tomorrow in this world. • In the realm of the Forms- truth is eternal.

How are Forms related to one another. • Forms are related to one another. • For Example: – Form Animal – Form Horse Particular Horse Form Shape Form Circle Particular circle

How are Forms related to Particulars • Particulars- or Particular objects, partake of the Form. • Socrates partakes in the Form Man • The clock partakes in circle, clock, numbers… • How specific we need to get is a question.

Platonic Realism • The notion that Forms or Ideas exist in a separate reality is known as Platonic Realism.

Universals and Particulars. • This is an issue in metaphysics • What is the relationship between ideas and objects. • Universals is another name for ideas or concepts. (General terms) • Particulars is another name for objects or individual things that we encounter in the world.

Ontological Status of Ideas • • Platonic Realism Exaggerated Realism Conceptualism Extreme Nominalism

Platonic Realism • Ideas are real. They have independent existence, apart from our thoughts. • For Plato Universals have Transcendental existence apart from the particulars that participate. The Form is the cause of the essence of a thing, and the particulars are said to imitate or copy the Forms in an imperfect way.

Exaggerated Realism • Exaggerated Realism is the notion that Universals exist in the particulars as part of what makes them similar. • The particulars are a mix or composite of form and matter.

Aristotle’s Exaggerated Realism • Aristotle did not accept Plato’s claim that there was a separate realm, or heaven of Forms. • Aristotle claimed that forms were real, but existed in the objects that we perceive and in our minds.

St. Anselm’s Exaggerated Realism • St. Anselm argued that the doctrine of original sin and of the Trinity required this interpretation of what ideas are.

Conceptualism • All ideas are real, but the are dependent upon a mind, or thought. • The function of a universal term is to denote a special relationship between particular objects. Universal are object concepts that we form in our minds by examining particulars.

Extreme Nominalism • Ideas are not real objects. They do not have real existence. • Only particulars or individuals exist in nature. A general term, a universal, such as a word does not refer to anything; it is only a word (voces), or a name (nomen), composed of letters and expressed as a vocal emission and is therefore only air. •

How do we know the Forms • Why should we accept that there is a separate reality filled with ideas? • Plato claims that he remembers the Forms. • According to Plato our Soul is eternal, and once existed in the realm of the Forms.

Memories of the Soul • According to Plato our soul is eternal. It comes from the realm of the Forms and is infused with the body during pregnancy. • All of us had complete access to all the Forms • We all have within our soul, absolute knowledge.

Division of the Soul • According to Plato the soul is divided into three parts. • Tripartite conception of the soul. • Reason • Spirit • Appetite

Reason • Reason guides us rationally towards reasonable goals

Spirit • Spirit gives us the ability to comply with reason, to be brave and follow thru with our goals

Appetite • The appetitive side of our soul drives our impulses and desires. • Reason, according to Plato, must keep the desires in check. • Allowing our passions to make decision will lead to chaos and ruin.

Plato and ignorance • Ignorance leads to evil. • Plato claims that no one knowingly does wrong. • Akrasia- or weakness of the will, does not exist. • People simply do not understand the harm they are doing by performing certain actions.

Philosopher King • Plato argued that society should be ordered like the soul. • Reason- Philosopher King • Spirit- Auxiliaries or Soldiers • Appetites- workers/ artisans

Plato’s Ideal Society • Plato’s ideal society is an intellectual Aristocracy. • Smart people deciding for everyone the right and the good. • Because smart people have a true grasp of the world.

Ranking of Social Structures • Plato thought an intellectual aristocracy was the best form of government. • He held that a democracy was the worst.