Summary - Summaries of key points in meno, symposium, phaedo and the republic by plato PDF

Preview

Summary

summaries of key points in Meno, Symposium, Phaedo and the Republic by Plato...

Description

Meno By Plato Overview:   

 



One of Plato’s earliest dialogues Dialogue begins with Meno asking Socrates whether virtue can be taught Important recurring platonic themes are introduced in Meno e.g.  the Socratic dialogue itself (when Socrates attempts to dissect an ethical term by questioning someone who claims to know the terms meaning and eventually concluded neither he nor the expert know the true answer  the theme of Recollection/ Anamnesis which is the idea that the soul is eternal, knows everything and only has to recollect in order to learn  Virtue is a kind of wisdom (virtue = knowledge?) Socrates and Meno work through a number of possible definition of virtue each suggested by Meno and dismantled by Socrates e.g. … The question is raised can you seek what you do not know (like trying to seek the definition of virtue) and Socrates uses Meno’s slave to solve a problem via the recollection theory. By the end they come to the conclusion that they do not know what virtue is but at least they know that they do not know.

Section 70-80 



 

Socrates claims that he does not know the definition of virtue and he hasn’t met anyone who does. He believes it is better to know that one does not know than “boldly and grandly” claim you do when you are in fact ignorant. Meno gives an answer – diff for men (managing public affairs, helping friends, harming enemies etc) and for women (managing the home. Being submissive to husband etc) also diff for children slaves etc Socrates points out these a e.gs - he wants the form of virtue (links with Plato’s theory of forms) Meno gives several other examples such as "to desire beautiful things and have the power to acquire them.” But Socrates states they must be acquired justly/piously but if virtue is to acquire good things justly and if justice is a kind of virtue then it is not the definition just an example again. He also points out that some men desire bad things, and further that they do not know these things to be bad (since no one desires what will harm them) – another issue.

Section 80-86  

Meno asks "How will you look for [virtue]," he asks, "when you do not know at all what it is?" Socrates replies saying our souls are immortal thus since the soul "has been born often and has seen all things...there is nothing which it has not learned." So we only need to recollect – uses the example of Meno’s slave with geometry question.

Section 86-96







Socrates claims that if virtue is a kind of knowledge then it can be taught (if it is not, then it can’t). To decide if virtue is a type of knowledge he states- if there are good things that aren’t knowledge then virtue could not be knowledge but if knowledge encompasses everything good then virtue must be a kind of knowledge) He then says that beneficial things are only so when accompanied by wisdom -"all that the soul undertakes and endures, if directed by wisdom, ends in happiness." Therefore since virtue is "something beneficial in the soul," and since what is beneficial is only so in the context of wisdom, it would seem that "virtue...as a whole or in part, is wisdom." Meno therefore concludes that as Virtue is knowledge it can be taught – Socrates is less sure.

Section 96-100 



Socrates and Meno now know that yes virtue is in part knowledge but that even the most beneficent men are not virtuous only out of knowledge (as evidenced by the fact that none of them are capable of teaching it) Socrates explains this might be because virtuous mens’s good ideas could be simple true opinion not knowledge e.g. road to Larissa example. – Knowledge more valuable as has reason behind it.

Symposium By Plato Overview:   

Symposium is a dinner party where several men discuss Love. Socrates’ dialogue follows Agathon’s speech suggesting he has spoken about the object of love not love itself. In order to correct him Socrates relates what a wise women told him – love is not god at all, but is a spirit between people and objects they desire. Love isn’t wise or beautiful but is the desire for wisdom and beauty. The greatest knowledge of all is knowledge of the Form of Beauty.

198a-201c:  



Socrates takeover from Agathon, he questions him – is Love, love of something or of nothing - Agathon says of something. If so Socrates says then if Love desires what he loves that suggests he does not have the object he desires therefore when we desire something we are desiring to continue having it in the future. It is suggested therefore that love is a relational property between things- it itself is no good or beautiful thing but is Socrates/Agathon correct in saying what kind of relationship it is e.g. between lover and object of desire could be between two people or two kinds of behaviour etc.

201d-204c:  

    

Socrates recalls his conversation with Diotima Having been convinced that Love is not beautiful or good, Socrates asks Diotima if that means Love is ugly and bad. Diotima argues that not everything must be either one thing or its opposite. E.g. having unjustified true opinions is neither wisdom nor ignorance. Wisdom consists in justified true opinions, but one would hardly call a true opinion ignorant. She says love is a spirit Love of beauty comes in stages – using the example of a boy who first loves beautiful bodies, then beautiful minds and finally the goal of beauty – the form Beauty itself Beauty is first of all eternal it does not come into existence or leave it Beauty the form – is not beautiful in part and ugly in part because it is not relative like a object of beauty it is the ultimate form She claims the person who pursues this beauty is living the best life – this person would be able to produce true virtue rather than the images of virtue.

Phaedo By Plato Overview: 







Phaedo tells a man of Socrates final days in his cell. Socrates says he should look forward to death and provides 4 arguments as to why; o Argument of Opposition o Theory of Recollection o Argument of Affinity o Theory of Attunement Theory of recollection – look at Meno. When Simmias asked for an explanation, Socrates introduced the theory of Forms again making Simmias agree there is such a thing as Equality itself – something that is independent of any case of equality like equal sticks or equal stones. The reason Equality the form is different is because sticks and stones can be unequal to each other but Equality never can. Because the equal things can bring Equality into our mind there must be some reason – theory of Recollection. Note: for Plato empirical knowledge (gained from experience) doesn’t count as real knowledge e.g. it can’t always be recollected as say “Sparta won the Peloponnesian War” is something Plato could not recollect via questioning as it happened before his birth. True knowledge is only knowledge of the Forms. Once we know these then our knowledge about the sensible world will come. The theory of form – things exist as real entities – Beauty, Goodness Largeness. Something is beautiful as it participates in the Form of beauty not because of its colour, shape etc. (Look at sheet)





The argument is clarified with the example that one man who is taller than another by a head is taller by virtue of his participating in the Form of Tallness. Socrates points out the alternative explanation are wrong for two reasons o the man is simply taller by a head which is weird/wrong as how can someone be taller by something that is so short such as a head o The shorter man would also be shorter by a head and how can opposite phenomena have the same explanation Socrates/Plato uses the theory of Forms to prove that the soul is immortal. He gets Cebes to agree that composite things are likely to break up vs incomposite things which are constant and invariable as the cannot break. He points out Forms must be incomposite as they don’t change and gets Cebes to agree that the body must be mortal as it is imcomposite and breaks down but the soul is immortal as it is composite.

Theory of forms – look at symposium/Phaedo spark notes and for criticisms look at Parmenides and first introduced in Phaedo Problems from Parmenides; -

-

-

As there are several particulars of a perfect Form, the problem lies in figuring out the relationship between the form and the particular- how can particular partake in the form or how does the from incarnate itself in a particular. Socrates uses the example of a day that is present in many things but Parmenides counters this by saying a day is no different to a sail wherein different parts touch different individuals consequently the Form is many. Third man argument – forms cannot independently exist and be participated. If particulars A,B and C are all large then there is form for them L1. Then there is a new set of things that are large = A B C and L1 (as the form of large is itself large) therefore a new form is produced L2 as so it goes on. Socrates’ answer is that particulars are actually just mimes of the Form so we can’t actually see the objects and do not know they are only representations of the Form so we don’t know there are Forms. Socrates then suggest that Forms are patterns in nature which many particulars are copies or likenesses. But in order to be a likeness it must participate in the Form of Likeness making the form like the particular in concrete things – generating another regress.

Republic By Plato Overview: o (Book VIII) In a series of three analogies—the allegories of the sun, the line, and the cave—Plato explains who these individuals are while hammering out his theory of the Forms. Plato explains that the world is divided into two realms, the visible (which we grasp with our senses) and the intelligible

(which we only grasp with our mind). The visible world is the universe we see around us. The intelligible world is comprised of the Forms—abstract, changeless absolutes such as Goodness, Beauty, Redness, and Sweetness that exist in permanent relation to the visible realm and make it possible. (An apple is red and sweet, the theory goes, because it participates in the Forms of Redness and Sweetness.) Only the Forms are objects of knowledge, because only they possess the eternal unchanging truth that the mind—not the senses— must apprehend. o The aim of education is not to put knowledge into the soul, but to put the right desires into the soul—to fill the soul with a lust for truth, so that it desires to move past the visible world, into the intelligible, ultimately to the Form of the Good. o Plato points out three fingers he says an ordinary soul does not ask what a finger is because it is only a finger it isn’t the same as something else. But what about the size of the fingers? He says it is hard for the soul/mind to distinguish if it is large or small or hard or soft as both are true in relation to other fingers. (therefore the Form of Small and Large is needed to distinguish what is Large and Small)...