ancient Greek influences on philosophy

plato
1. allegory of cave
  1. strenghts and weaknesses
    1. strengths
      1. helps us to understand why there are imperfections in the world.
      2. encourages us not accept everything at face value
      3. brian davis argues it uses an example of the forms in the cave analogy (form of the good.
      4. The analogy is explained well
    2. weaknesses
      1. impossible to prove
      2. not everyone will see the form of the good in the same way
      3. doesn't help us about the world we live in
      4. our senses are said to be pointless yet we have survived millions of years because of them.
      5. f there are perfect versions of everything, this means there is the perfect form of unpleasant things.
      6. Theatitis :creates the philosophical idea of justified belief. there is no true opinion can show the world of the senses.
      7. forms and particulars are different things. we have no knowledge to be the forms
  2. validity of the points
  3. what each part means
  4. the caveanalogy was a story Plato came up with to explain the epistemological prossess one would go through
2. theory of the forms
  1. form the good
    1. analogy of the divided line
      1. the analogy of the divided line an analogy presented by plato. the 1st two sections represent what we can see with our own senses (visible) these include the two states of D(illusion and reflection) and C what we can believe to see though our senses are false. The last two sections are the inteligable realm of logic whicher cannot always see. these both form opinion. State B is the state of mathmatical reasoning. this is because plato saw maths as one of the most important contributes because we can see it as perfect. State A is the state of the forms. however,you have to be of higher knowledge
    2. concept of ideals
    3. concepts and phenomena
    4. form of the good and other forms
      1. there is a difference between ideas and ideas expressed in reality. such as how we can recognise a cat as a cat. plato believed this distinction was crucial. plsto suggests that the world we live in is untrue that just appeals to our senses. he believed the real world is of ideas what we call forms
      2. plato believed that the form of the good is the most important form. it helps us to assess things. plato labled the form of the good as the sun in his cave analogy. it helps us to see and is the source of the other forms.
  2. 1trengths and weakness's
    1. strengths
      1. heraclitis river
        Heraclites believed that everything flows. "All entities move and nothing remains still" This means that life is constantly changing. He used the example of how you can never step into the same river or stream. When you step in a river, the water flows around the particular object. The water may follow a similar path but each water molecule would have gone on a different journey to get where it is. The minute you are currently experiencing is has never been experienced or will never be the same.
    2. weakness's
      1. problem of infinite regression
        no point is perfect and can be criticized. if points keep being disproven, it would create an endless cycle over time.
      2. platos own selfcritique paremidies
        paramedies is a book plato wrote. in the 1st half he addressed some of the weakness's in the 1st half of the book. one weakness is it was hard to find the exact relationship between a form and a particular.
        Another problem would have been how many things can be seen as a form. whether its based on nature or if every object is a form
      3. critisims in metaphysics
        in metaphysics book 12, aristotles belief of perfection is based objectivly in each individual not in one place. this means everyone has their own perfection to aim for.
      4. bertrand russell
        Bertrand Russell emphasised the point in that the language we use to associate the forms with objects could be incorret. our language is built up of just names such as cat and dog. where as the true abes for these words could be incorrect.
      5. validity of all points above.
        Paremadies does not explain the forms properly
      6. there should be negative forms, but this would be contradictory
aristotle
1. 4 cause
  1. 1. material
      1. The material Cause is physically what we are made of or mater (Material)
    2. efficient
      1. the efficient cause is how somthing got to where it is. such as a chair for example, it is where it is because it was constructed by a carpenter
    3. formal
      1. the formal cause is what separetes the particular object from somthing else.
    4. final
      1. the finl cause is the telos or purpose the particular thing has. why it was created for.
  2. one of the main problems comes from the view of the final cause....
2. prime mover
  1. weakness's of the prime mover and 4 causes
    1. validity of points.
    2. (prime mover) the relationship between the prime user and the universe is unclear. relating this to the judeao Christian view of god, it cannot be disproven by many claims of seeing God.
3. The Euthyphro dilema
  1. the Euthyphro dilema is a question plato asked whether things are good because they are good or because God said they are.
    1. this creates many problems. if God says things are good, then he could say anything is good. these are thngs which are instinctivly bad such as rape or murder.
    2. however, if this is not true, then god could merely be stating what is good and bad and loses his view as a standard for goodness.

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ancient Greek influences on philosophy

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	Created by Aidan S.G about 8 years ago