1 Life’s Ultimate Questions “Plato” Christopher Ullman, Instructor Christian Life College

2 Student of Socrates ( B.C.)  Socratic Method  A way through persistent questioning to eliminate the worst hypotheses by finding the contradictions  “I know that I know nothing.”  Constantly seeking wisdom in Athens  Philosophy’s most famous martyr

3 Plato (427 – 347 B.C.) Plato and Aristotle seek to answer every major philosophical question “Everything in philosophy after Plato and Aristotle is just commentary” The death of Socrates when Plato was 28 was the turning point in his life Plato’s influence can be detected in the history of Christian theology through the centuries

4 Plato’s Philosophy Touches on all of these areas Metaphysics “What is real?” Epistemology “How do we know what we say we know?” Ethics “What is a good life?” Aesthetics “What is beauty?” Politics “What is justice?”

5 What Plato Opposed  Hedonism  “Pleasure is the highest good”  Empiricism  “Sensed experience is the only sure source of knowledge”  Relativism  Ethical: “The right thing to do depends on ___________.”  Epistemological: “Truth depends on ___________.”  Materialism  “Matter/energy is all that there is”

6 What Plato Opposed  Mechanism  “All events are controlled by machine-like laws without purpose or design”  Atheism  “There are no gods”  Naturalism  “Nature is self-sufficient and self-explanatory”

7 Plato’s Dualism: Metaphysical Existence is of two types: 1. Particular things: always changing, never perfect, time-limited, mere material  The realm of Becoming and  Appearances 2. Forms: unchanging, perfect, eternal, nonmaterial  The realm of Being and  Reality

8 Plato’s Dualism: Epistemological Information comes from two sources: 1. Sensed experience  Unreliable because of  the deceivability of the senses and  the impermanence of physical things  It can never result in anything but Opinion 2. Reason  Reliable because  it focuses on apprehending the Forms  It alone results in Knowledge

9 Plato’s Dualism: Anthropological Humans are comprised of 1. Body 2. Soul

10 Memory Keys to Plato’s Thought The ladder The circle The cave The ring The beast/lion/man The chariot

11 The Ladder Thoughts must pass some tests in order to climb the ladder of knowing Error and sorrow result from letting a thought climb higher on the ladder than it should OPINION KNOWLEDGE

12 The Ladder Opinion Thoughts based only on particular sensed experiences should never be allowed to ascend higher than the lower rungs Examples Images, sounds, tastes, scents The physical objects themselves OPINION

13 The Ladder Thoughts of universals can climb the ladder For example, the concepts “Dog,” “Movement,” and “Hue” transcend the limits of a particular sensed experience The concepts outlast the physical object The concepts never change KNOWLEDGE Knowledge of the Forms is the only real knowledge Therefore, they point to the Forms

14 The Ladder The middle rungs are accessible to thoughts based on reason unaided by the senses, like Geometry Logic The upper rung is accessible to a thought that is based on intuition, or immediate contact with the Forms Justice Balance KNOWLEDGE

15 The Ladder Life viewed from the bottom rungs of the ladder appears Out of focus Unordered Avalanched by trivia And is Not representative of reality ? ? ? ?

16 The Ladder Life viewed from the top rungs of the ladder is In focus Ordered Meaningful And is Representative of reality ! ! ! ! !

17 The Circle  What is a circle?  Definition  Has anyone ever seen a circle?  Is there such a thing as a circle?  The Idea of Circle is totally real, even though there is no physical object that denotes it Forms  Ideas (Forms) are really real in a way that physical objects can never be

18 The Cave  There are prisoners shackled in a cave, being deceived by flickering, fire-lit images on the wall. They think that those images are what is real.

19 The Cave  One person escapes his shackles and cautiously climbs up and out of the cave  Outside, he discovers what is actually real.  All the objects are illuminated by a steady, non-flickering, brilliant light.

20 The Ring What would you do if you knew nobody was watching? Is it better to be moral, or to be immoral?

21 The Beast/Lion/Man Which of these should rule us?

22 The Chariot  In humans, there are three powers at work:  Appetites  Spirit  Reason APPETITES Spirit REASON

23 The Forms Essence precedes existence Essence is a necessary condition of existence Without essence, there are no categories, since there are no attributes that make categorization possible Each thing exists in at least one category The Forms are known a priori, not a posteriori The disembodied soul, in the interims between reincarnations, beholds the Forms in all their glory Certain bodily experiences aid us in recollecting the Forms The Craftsman took formless material and fashioned it into the world, using the Forms as patterns

24 Some of Plato’s Contributions to Theology  Creationism  The world is a handiwork of a mind  This World is Not our Home  The soul should be on a journey  There’s More to this Life  Than living and dying, more than just trying to make it through the day