Understanding Platonic Dualism and the Nature of Reality

Platonic Dualism: The Platonic Ideas and Reality: The Platonic conception of reality is dualistic. Together with the tangible world of physical objects, which are variable, imperfect, and based on the appearances we know through the senses, there exists another world of universal realities that are permanent and perfect. These are the ideas that we know in the rational real world. A soul, which is beyond the physical world, Plato called the world of Ideas. The ideas are objective, real, and not mere concepts.

• The ideas have a separate existence from sensible things.
• The ideas are the perfect models of the physical world objects.
• The ideas hold the real being of things and their essence.

The world of Ideas is not a messy conglomerate of ideas; rather, they form a system of relations among themselves and an unnecessary hierarchy. In his work "The Republic," the Idea of Good is the highest idea and the unifying principle of the other ideas.
The Knowledge of Reality: Plato's dualism between the sensible and the intelligible, between the material and the spiritual, is also expressed in the human being as a synthesis of these two worlds: the body, which belongs to the sensible world, and the soul, which is the rational principle that orders the life of man. The destiny of man is to "come out of the cave" and live according to reason and ideas.
Plato distinguishes between two kinds of knowledge:

• Doxa: This begins in the senses, in the perfection of images, and allows us to forge a belief about the world in front of us. Our vision is the result of opinion, of what we think it is, but it is only an imperfect knowledge, and variable on the surface.
• Episteme: This is the true knowledge that allows us to know the truth, the essence of things through intellectual understanding, independent of the senses. Thus, episteme enables us to know the ideas and infer relationships among them through dialectic, which is the method to transition from the sensible to the intelligible. Only those who can achieve this and attain the highest idea of Good can live justly in both their private and public lives.

The Man: In Plato's view, man is also a composite of two realities: the soul and the body. The body is the prison of the soul; it is material, mortal, imperfect, and belongs to the world of sense. The soul is the principle that animates the body; it is spiritual and immortal, belonging to the World of Ideas. While the soul is united to the body, it aims to return to the world of ideas, making the link between both elements transient and accidental.
The soul consists of three parts, which perform various functions:

• Rational Soul: Located in the head, it is immortal and divine. Its function is intellectual knowledge and directing the other two parts that are inferior.
• Irascible Soul: Located in the chest, it is mortal and is the origin of the noble and good in man. Its function is courage and will, and its virtue is strength.
• Concupiscible Soul: Located in the belly, it is mortal and is the origin of instincts and human passions. Its virtue is temperance.