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Plato's Theory of ART
- Determined by the theory of Forms.
- Order has positive aesthetic value: mathematical forms, natural objects, pirctures.
- Greater reality means greater affinity
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The Form of Beauty is imperfectly limited nature and in art. Plato
- The artist's cognitive intent (to deliver knownledge) fails.
- Emotionally the artists magic is dangerously powerful and affects behavior so art must be carefully and strictly censored
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Art is between two types of knowledge. Plato
- Experiential knowledge - it is vivid, immediate, concrete.
- Conceptual knowledge - it has perspective, objectivity, generality
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Platos best form of government
Autocracy. The philosopher kings return to the cave. The rational class imposes temperance on the producers for their own good.
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Art of Ruling Concerns. Plato
- Selecting and nurturing the potential rulers
- Controlling the producers via propaganda nd censorship.
- Reason is because each person will find happiness playing the part in the state that their nature suits them for
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Action of Rulers. Plato
- The rulers will act as rationally as they think because knowledge is virtue for them.
- If we really know what is right/good we will go for it. When we don't know it is because we are overcome by pain/pleasure/emotion
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Why Plato doesn't like democracy
- The leaders are chosen on irrelevant grounds.
- Ruling is a must be the art of flattery and appealing to people's passions.
- Rhetoric works are the level of opinion/belief, not knowledge
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Plato's theory of knowledge
Was developed to answer the sophists' skepticism about reason and morality.
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Problems to overcome for Plato
- 1. How can what is one also be many? Isn't that a contradiction?
- 2. If the many are really one thing then how things appear is not reality.
- 3. If the one changes into the many then how can something change/be different and YET remain the same?
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Plato's relations with other philosophers.
Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Socrates
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How Plato's theory of the Forms got formed
- He took what heraclitus said about the sensible realm that everything is changing.
- He took what Parmenides said about the intelligible realm that nothing ever changes
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Plato's The Forms
- Forms are known in thought.
- Geometrician contemplates triangle not just this triangle.
- A form is a set of universal properties
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Science of First Principles. Plato
- Reveals the Form of the GOOD.
- Like the sun illumines visible things the good illumines the various truths.
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How to ascend from the lower to the higher forms. Plato
Dialectic
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Divided Line
Separates the higher form vs the lower form
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4 levels of the Forms by perception
- Starting from bottom:
- Level 1 = Images
- Level 2 = Physical Objects
- Levels 1 and 2 are in lower forms
- Level 3 = Forms of geometry, mathematics, and physical objects
- Level 4 = Forms of Wisdom, Courage, Moderation, Justice
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4 levels of the Forms by thinking
- Starting from the bottom:
- Level 1 = Conjecture - shadows on wall
- Level 2 = Belief - seeing what makes the shadow
- Level 3 = Understanding
- Level 4 = Dialectic
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Dialectic
A sophisticated process of question and answer like offering a hypotheses, considering criticisms, and revising to move nearer to the Truth - unconditioned knowledge
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How do we know about the Forms?
Must have been acquired before birth because we know that they exist without anyone tell us.
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Recollection. Plato
- The soul must be immortal and reborn in cycles.
- So recollection is learning which is recovering knowledge that was forgotten
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