Education is the process of turning the soul around (much as the prisoner in the cave turned around to the light) and asks people to look in the right place for knowledge. The man must be taught to recognize the Form of Goodness. Then he must return to the cave that is to the world of Belief, in order to teach others.…
Are they taught? Do we learn through experience? Plato’s response to this question would be if we don’t already know it, how would we recognize it when we find it? And if we already know it, it makes no sense to say that we learn it. Socrates taught his students, Plato being one of them, that the soul is immortal. Adding to this idea Plato came to the deduction that Knowledge is accumulated throughout the span of ones continuous lives lived, and is not learned but recollected, triggered by experience. That is why a boy with no form of education can ascertain simple truths like 2+2=4 because “the truth about reality is always in our soul,”(85) and is recalled through a process he called…
There is a commanding belief that our experiences of reality are just simply deceptions of the truth. In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, Socrates illustrates his perception about human knowledge. He contends that people are rarely able to escape from personal ignorance and with greater knowledge comes confusion and conflict when their own beliefs are challenged. (Socrates 20)…
Education allows people to learn more about themselves, and therefore, learn more about each other. Really, the only thing that makes sense in life is to strive for greater collective enlightenment. Plato shows how people become content with life’s delusions when they are not constantly seeking the truth and how experiencing new things will expand their mind to new thoughts and ideas that they were previously blind to. Frederick Douglass shows how humans can use the lack of education to keep others in the dark and only through education can those people break free. Thomas Newman presents the idea that once you are educated, you shouldn’t be satisfied and you should continue to seek out new forms of knowledge. These three author’s ideas collectively…
In The Republic, Plato expresses that knowledge is something gained by a learning experience and also that you are required to rationalize and think-through the teachings you come across to truly apprehend something. On page 177 it is written, “… the virtue of reason seems to belong above all to something more divine, which never loses its power but is either useful and beneficial or useful and harmful, depending on the way it is turned.” (518e). Although it is known that knowledge is not easy to obtain, it truly depends on the “way that you are turned,” or rather the way that you are taught equaling the amount of knowledge you possess through a given amount of time. Opposed to that idea is the writing in the Meno, which is where we are told that knowledge is not quite something that is learned, but that it is innate in all of us.…
At first glance, one would see the "Euthyphro," by Plato, to be a near explanation of holiness from one friend to another. Opinions are introduced, positions are presented, and friendly banter ensues. Would this lead to any breakthroughs? One would think so. Perhaps, though, that was not the intent. Plato uses the dialogue between Euthyphro and Socrates to convey to his audiences that holiness cannot be defined in just one way. Instead, it is a quality that changes from person to person. He uses inductive reasoning through rhetorical questions and blatant logic; and even seems to use Euthyphro as a tool to leave the conversation open ended and show this.…
Throughout history, men and women have continued to strive for excellence and to push the boundaries of what is known in the current age. From Asia to the Americas we have people that we study and pursue to be like, thus giving people inspiration to achieve greatness. As we look into the 1500s we see someone who sticks out to us as a pioneer for knowledge and philosophy: Plato. As we look into “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, we compare how Plato and this piece viewed knowledge gained through the senses as merely an opinion; however, we would disagree today and show Plato that knowledge can be obtained through the senses as a credible, concrete fact.…
Affirmative action is a deliberate effort to provide full and equal opportunities in employment, education, and other areas for women, minorities, and individuals belonging to other traditionally disadvantaged groups. As an issue of today's society,…
A lot of people view “knowledge” as how smart you are, or what you know and what you don’t, but there is much more to what “knowledge” really is. According to Charles van Doren, knowledge is the accumulation of information and the understanding of how things work. There are three types of knowledge: knowledge in particulars, general knowledge, and certain knowledge. Particular knowledge is knowing where you are well enough to survive and general knowledge is understanding concepts. Van Doren gives these examples as a pieces of general knowledge, “All living things are born and also die,” and “...winter follows summer, and summer winter” (pg. xx). General knowledge is understanding the cause and effect of things. Finally, certain knowledge is grouped into two types: Self-evident propositions and faith. There are few self-evident propositions. Many math statements are considered certainly true (self-evident propositions), as well as real world statements such as, “A finite whole is greater than any of its parts,” as van Doren explains (pg. xxi). The other part of certain knowledge is faith. The pieces of information that God has given us through His Word. Accepting this knowledge from God as certain truths is difficult for many, and is even said to be impossible without His grace. People desire for knowledge. And the one cure for our desire of knowledge is faith (pg. xxiii). Faith answers so many questions that the other types of knowledge fail to answer.…
Before I started reading Plato's the Republic, I was loathe to admit that reading those philosophy books were gonna really change how I view myself. It was totally a waste of time to read these vague and complicated books. As I went on reading the republic, I saw many similar things that still existed in our society. In the book, Plato prescribes severe dictates concerning the cultural life of the city. He rules out all poverty, with the exception of hymns to the gods and eulogies for the famous, and places restraints on painting and architecture. Does this look like "Cultural Revolution" that happened in China in late 60s in twentieth century? There are differences though, which is how the leaders see the results of the destruction of human civilization. Plato expresses regret at these aesthetic sacrifices, he feels they must be made for the sake of education, which transforms the unhealthy luxurious city into a pure and just city. However, our great leader didn't see any ruinous effects on our society until he reached the end of his life.…
Will Durant, a U.S author and historian, writes, “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” This means that all the knowledge people once had is misleading to what the truth really is. Similarly, in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write” a painful process of gaining knowledge through all the ignorance is described. Plato describes a prisoner going on a journey to gain knowledge that is behind him, after he was stuck staring at a wall of shadows his whole life. He goes back to tell the other prisoners of his discoveries and they want to kill him. Douglass is a slave who learns to read and write, going through stages to achieve each step. As he begins gaining knowledge he finds the truth about slavery which startles him. Socrates’ idea that gaining knowledge is a difficult journey to undertake because by doing so it changes the way people see the world, as proven by Douglass’ experiences.…
The discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro is one of the most famous Socratic discussions because of the meaning set behind the actions. This discussion is focused on what is the piety or the holiness asked by Socrates to Euthyphro. Socrates appoints Euthyphro to help him understand what piety is as he admits he does not know, in order to help with his case against him. They argue about Euthyphro’s answer that piety is what the Gods love and impiety is the opposite. Socrates then questions which is dear because they love or they love because it is dear. Socrates challenges to comprehend an understanding of this indefinable concept and uses logic to understand what holiness is as provided by Euthyphro who is acting religious. This paper will show how the concept of holiness emerges from Euthyphro’s three definitions of piety. In addition this paper will suggest why Socrates goal for this discussion.…
1 Towards the beginning of this passage, Socrates gets Laches to agree to a new definition of courage. What is it? (5 marks)…
What is the nature of justice? Looking from Plato’s perspective justice can be broken down to its simplest forms. Plato starts where we start; with forms. Forms are the building blocks that build complex ideas and tell us the nature of those ideas. In this case Plato reveals his ideas on the nature of justice through forms. The nature of justice can be simplified to basic forms and rebuilt for everyone can understand.…
The story of two sisters, Melissa and Melinda, is one of deep philosophical analysis. The harsh scenario is of the two sisters’ brother, Matthew, who is involved in a horrific accident that essentially leaves him brain dead and only alive through a complex network of life support systems. According to Matthew’s last will and testament, he states specifically that if something of this sort ever happens to him, both sisters must mutually agree upon the ultimate decision of whether or not to proverbially “pull the plug.” This is a massive decision that will take great deliberation upon both parties to inevitably come to common terms with one another. Essentially, both sisters have their own aspect of what they should do regarding this predicament. This leads us into the great question at hand, what does the term “dead” mean to us and does the soul play into our outlook on what constitutes whether or not to pull Matthew off of life support and let him go.…