Plato's Philosophy: Ideas, Context, and the Theory of Forms

Plato: Historical and Cultural Context

Plato was born after the death of Pericles. Athens and Sparta were engaged in the Peloponnesian War, marked by inequalities in political administration. Sparta eventually defeated Athens, leading to the establishment of the Government of the Thirty Tyrants, which failed, and democracy was restored. With the rise of King Philip of Macedonia, the city-state was elevated. There was significant social division, with the aristocracy embracing democracy, which in turn led to demagoguery, a political system that Plato did not approve of. An economic crisis occurred, although cultural life was at its peak. Education was highly valued, based on stable knowledge and learning.

Philosophical Context

Pythagoreans: Plato was particularly impressed by their theory of an immortal soul.

Heraclitus and Parmenides: Heraclitus believed in a constantly changing world (the sensible world), while Parmenides argued that the real world is unchanging (the world of ideas). Plato resolved this conflict by positing the existence of two distinct worlds.

Socrates: Plato adopted the idea that knowing good (knowing the truth) would lead the Athenian people to avoid violent periods.

Sophists: Plato considered them the cause of the evils of Athenian democracy and the corruption of youth.

Theory of Ideas

Plato sought to understand the true nature of things. The things of this world are in constant flux. Plato aimed to find solid and immutable principles that would allow us to judge good and evil, and to know what things are beneath their mutable appearance. Because what is in motion cannot provide certain knowledge, Plato needed to delve into the true being of things. These things are many, but they all share a single form (as do virtues). Therefore, there must be a unity that allows for real understanding. This "single form" is what Plato called eidos, ideas that constitute the model or pattern of the world we perceive through our senses. The world is full of good, beautiful, or fair things, but if there were no beauty, kindness, or justice, we would never know what they are. For beauty to give reality to the many beautiful things, it needs to have autonomy and be separate from the things that give it reality, to avoid being diluted in concrete things and losing its universality.

The World of Ideas and the Sensible World

The visible world is constantly changing, but to understand it, we must look to another reality that does not change. Visible things depend on the observer's position, as our senses often deceive us.

The World of Ideas and the Desire to Know

"Myth of the Cave (Republic)": This myth represents the state of ignorance in which people live when they are guided only by their senses and the appearances of things. According to Plato, humans are chained from birth, not only by their material bodies but also by social, cultural, and linguistic structures. Because we are accustomed to them, we do not realize that there is anything else, we do not miss it, and we are happy in our chains, in our original ignorance. It is all we know. However, humans have a tendency towards knowledge, and what has made us human is the continuous struggle to learn more and be better. Outside the cave is the world of real objects, which are the true reality we must learn to see, not the shadows that perpetuate ignorance. These objects are illuminated by the Sun, which makes them visible. The Sun is identified with the idea of good. In the same way that the sun makes things appear and allows us to see the sensible world, good in the world of ideas allows things to be known by our reason.

Relations Between the Intelligible and the Sensible

What the prisoners in the cave see are shadows. They are not inventions of their imagination, and the shadows are not things themselves, but they are something. There is no shadow if there is nothing. Therefore, even if they are different things, there is a relationship between them: one depends on the other (the shadow depends on the thing). Here we have a single idea upon which many concrete beings are based. In fact, all things that belong to the same class have a resemblance to each other because they are involved in the model of the mind. This is where the idea of the demiurge comes in, a sort of "artisan of the world" who makes things, the order of nature, by mimicking the eternal ideas.