Plato's Fundamental Philosophical Concepts Explained

Plato's Core Philosophical Concepts

Plato's teacher, Socrates, is often presented as the protagonist through whom Plato conveys his ideas. Cratylus was Plato's first teacher.

The Good: Supreme Reality and Purpose

The Good is the supreme reality, the cause and origin of everything.

The Good as Supreme Reality

In the Myth of the Cave, the Good is compared to the sun, illuminating the origin of everything visible in the tangible world.

Purpose and Attraction

All beings seek perfection; the Good draws all things towards itself.

Supreme Object of Knowledge

Knowledge ascends from the sensible to the intelligible. Thus, the knowledge of the Ideas, especially the Good, is the ultimate object of science, as our intellect seeks the permanent rather than the variable.

Double Causation

Plato describes a double causation: one upward (the Good attracts all) and one downward (the Good causes all).

Plato's Hierarchy of Beings

The universal causality of the Good can be understood by analogy with the Christian God.

The Invisible World (Intelligible Realm)

This realm is accessed through the powers of thinking and intelligence, and its mode of knowledge is science (episteme), representing the display of the Good and participation in it. It comprises:

• Ideas: Eternal models that the Demiurge (the world-builder), when forming visible bodies, imitates.
• Mathematical Objects: Influenced by Pythagoras, these are abstract, perfect entities.
• The Soul: Spiritual and not material, it is indivisible and possesses three functions: vegetative, sensitive, and rational, with the rational part ideally governing. These are eternal, permanent realities.

The Visible World (Sensible Realm)

This realm is accessed through the powers of imagination and belief, and its mode of knowledge is opinion (doxa), representing the imitation of the Good. It comprises temporary entities:

• Human Beings: Composed of soul and body, where the soul is the true self, temporarily residing in a body.
• Bodies: Material configurations in space.
• Matter: Becomes something when formed.

Nature of Good and Evil

For Plato, all that exists is good. This understanding requires considering the hierarchy of beings, where the most complete beings are furthest from the material.

Evil, for Plato, does not exist as a separate entity. We speak of 'evil' inappropriately when we neglect the hierarchy of beings, behaving in a manner improper to our position within that hierarchy.

Truth and Knowledge: The Theory of Reminiscence

Anamnesis: Truth as Remembering

Truth, for Plato, is remembering (anamnesis). This concept relates to Indo-European anthropology, where the human being possesses a spiritual and eternal soul that reincarnates successively. When the soul incarnates, it forgets what it once knew. The process of knowing is thus a remembering of what was known before joining the body.

Modes of Knowledge: Science vs. Opinion

Plato conceives of two main modes of knowledge:

• Science (Episteme): The knowledge of Ideas, accessed through discursive reasoning.
• Opinion (Doxa): Knowledge of the visible world, which consists of 'shadow copies' of true reality.

Ethical Behavior and Virtue

For Plato, virtue is not merely knowing, but especially knowing the nature of the Good. He concluded that if one truly knows what is right, it is unthinkable to act wrongly or to embrace evil.

Plato's Ideal State

Plato criticized democracy, arguing that not everyone is prepared to govern. He believed the task should be entrusted to the most educated, those with natural gifts capable of knowing the Good and the Ideas, and thus able to discern ideal models for guiding the State.

Key Platonic Terms Defined

Dialectic

A network of conceptual implications that govern our experience.

Doxa (Opinion)

Designates the specific mode of knowledge of sensible things, akin to what might be called 'belief' or 'common judgment' today.

Episteme (Science/Knowledge)

The superior form of knowledge. For Plato, it is the knowledge of the intellectual structure that is always presupposed in all true understanding of things and in any dealings with them.

Reminiscence (Anamnesis)

A type of knowledge drawn from the soul itself. Socrates illustrates this with the myth of a previous existence in which the soul knew the truth, which it now remembers.

Justice

'To each his own,' meaning everything is in its rightful place according to the structure that defines each thing in the world precisely as it is.