Plato's Philosophy: Connections to Western Thinkers

Plato's Relationship with Other Authors in Platonic Thought

Undoubtedly, the philosophy of Plato is a crucial point in the history of Western thought. Although Whitehead claimed that the history of philosophy is merely a footnote on Plato's thought, the fact remains that the Western philosophical tradition has either reaffirmed or rejected his ideas in every subsequent thinker.

Hence, attempting to relate Plato's philosophy to other authors can be an endless task. From this perspective, we will link and compare Plato's thought with some of the most representative figures in the Western cultural tradition.

Comparison with Parmenides

First, we consider the philosophy of Parmenides, who, like Plato, relegated the world of the senses to the background. Parmenides distinguished between the Self—which is eternal, imperishable, and immutable—and non-being, the sensitive area that is mere appearance of reality. Plato assumes the same distinction when he speaks of intelligible reality and sensible reality, granting true being only to the former.

Contrast with Sophists and Socrates

Secondly, we examine the Sophist thought and Plato's teacher, Socrates. Plato and Socrates shared an interest with the Sophists in education and youth training. However, they did not accept the relativist and skeptical attitude toward knowledge and the nature of moral standards proposed by the Sophists.

• Faced with the Sophist consideration that there is no absolute truth and that moral and political norms are always partial, finite, and dependent on circumstances and human opinions, Plato defended the universal nature of Good and Justice as the only way to ensure a just state.

Critique by Aristotle

Thirdly, and inevitably, we address the philosophy of Aristotle. Aristotle criticized Plato's onto-epistemological division between the sensible world and the intelligible world. In his view, what Plato had done, far from solving a problem, had actually doubled it. There was no longer a single reality to grasp, but two: one sensible and one intelligible.

Aristotle's Objections to the Theory of Ideas

In addition, Aristotle argued that the Theory of Ideas leaves important issues unresolved:

1. If there are ideas of things (e.g., table, horse), there should also be ideas of the relations between things (e.g., Fire=Hot, Water=Cold, representing cause-effect relationships).
2. If there are ideas of positive entities, there must also be ideas of negative entities.
3. If this is true, the number of ideas must be infinite.