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Questions tagged [plato]

Plato (424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Plato is considered to be the founder of Western philosophy.

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Is Socrates mocking Ion in Plato's dialogue?

In "Ion", Socrates argues that Ion's poetic talents are a gift of the gods, but not the product of any knowledge/skills. Ion naturally takes that as a compliment, being called "divine", but is Socrates being ironic and just mocking Ion? Socrates'…
YoMrWhite
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What is the motivation for Plato's forms?

I read up on the theory of forms and I understand it like this: When I see a cat I am seeing the particular of the true form a of a cat. All of the cats I see are just imperfect copies of the true form. Why would we want to make this…
Shaurya Bhave
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For Plato, what is a perfect circle?

Of course we can't see a perfect circle through our eyes, but can I imagine a perfect circle in my mind? But Plato said that the ideal forms can't be seen. I don't know whether he meant that even imagining its shape is a sort of seeing. So should I…
nye
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I don't understand how Plato's State is ideal

I am halfway through reading The State from Plato. But I think I am reading it from the wrong perspective. In the book Sokrates has a conversation with some other pals in which they build a state up from the ground. Not just a state, but an ideal…
O'Niel
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My professor claimed that "F = ma" is a Platonic form. I disagreed, but is it?

My professor claimed in a lecture that equations such as "Force = mass x acceleration" are Platonic forms. I disagree for a few reasons: A form is non-spatiotemporal. Force is a vector, which has magnitude and direction. In mathematics, vectors…
Joseph
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Interpretations of Plato's Form of the Good?

If memory serves me right, no copies we have of Plato's writing include a clear statement of what the Form of the Good is supposed to be. We have descriptions like "greater in dignity and might" than even Truth or Knowledge or Existence. This…
Kristian Berry
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Is the Timaeus philosophically relevant?

The reason I ask is that an overwhelming majority of the book is (understandably) baseless scientific claims about the origin of the universe. Not in the same way that, say, he defines the soul, which even modern science has not done much to prove…
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Plato: Philebus and the Republic's theory of the tripartite soul

I am looking at Plato's Philebus. My straightforward question is whether anybody has ever read Plato's theory of the tripartite soul as an underlying theme of the Philebus too. Republic Philebus Reason Wisdom Thymos Measure …
mario
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Why does Plato postulate self-predication of forms in the Third Man Argument? What does it even mean?

I'm reading about the third man argument here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_man_argument One of the properties of forms that's given is "self-predication". I'm having trouble understanding what it is even saying. What does it mean to say that…
Ameet Sharma
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Parmenides' objections to Plato's theory of the forms?

What is being argued against Plato's theory of the forms in this passage (this is a dialogue): Well, said Parmenides, and what do you say of another question? What question? I imagine that the way in which you are led to assume one idea of each kind…
miranda
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Did Plato notice that there could be an arbitrary number of nested caves?

I guess everyone knows Plato's allegory of the cave. He assumes people are in caves and then, he suggests that there is a possibility of "going out of the caves", gaining several nice properties with this. Do we have evidence that he noticed that we…
Red Banana
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Which philosophers best opposed Plato's Theory of Forms?

Which philosophers best opposed Plato's Theory of Forms? I know Aristotle did but what others have also? Is there a consensus on the best/strongest refutation of the Theory of Forms?
Cathexis
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What was Plato's argument that the good is not pleasure?

I need to make a flash card of this but my notes aren't sufficient for information and I can't find anything online. From what I have in my notes he believes the Good is not pleasure and the Bad is not pain, but what else is there?
Typo
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Origin of Proverb: "All Learning is Remembering"

Many people attribute the proverb "All Learning is Remembering" to Plato. Are there any writings of Plato in which this statement can be found? Are there other philosophers that have expanded on this idea?
ftl
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Is what Plato calls essence here, what is later understood as essence?

In the Phaedrus (Jowetts translation) Plato writes: There abides the very being with which true knowledge is concerned, the colourless, formless, intangible essence, visible only to the mind, the pilot of the soul. In the revolution she beholds…
Mozibur Ullah
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