2. Plato’s Metaphysical System
(The Quest for the Idea of the
Good)
Alfred North Whitehead
-philosopher who said that “the safest characterization
of western philosophy is that of a series of footnotes to
plato.”
Plato – believed that this world is not the basis for the
attainment of true and real knowledge.
- he called this world of Forms and Ideas
3. Plato
Assumed that before we were born, our souls was once
a part of the World Soul.
World Soul- has immediate and direct contact with the
world of Forms and Ideas
5. Idea of the GOOD
-the goal of Plato’s Philosophy
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
-he described prisoners inside a cave, where they are
chained facing a wall. Behind and above the prisoners
are people carrying objects along a road and beyond this
road is a burning fire.
6. Plato’s Divided Line
Distinction between the sensible world or the world of
experience, and the intelligible world or the world of
true knowledge.
Sensible World – known through the use of five senses.
Intelligible World – known through the use of the
intellect paving basis for knowledge
7. Opinion is divided into Two:
1. Belief /pistis – our common sensical views about the
world
2. Illusion/eikasia- the lower type in Plato’s Allegory
Plato – according to him the real objective is the search
for knowledge
Two Levels of Knowledge:
1. reason/noesis – using the intellect
2. Dianoia/understanding – using scientific,
mathematical, or abstract hypothesis.
8. Noesis – claimed by Plato to be higher than dianoia
because it deals with the grasping of complete or perfect
knowledge
Socrates – said that, “The unexamined life is not worth
living”
Before achieving full or complete knowledge, the person
has to go through process of recognizing his own
ignorance or aporia
9. Eye of the mind – refers to soul/intellect
- can be honed through dialectics and
constant questioning and by recognizing one’s ignorance in
order to grasp the universal goodness.
Dianoia – has to do with a lower type of knowledge, which
is associated with mathematical, abstract or scientific
understanding
10. Socratic Method-An exercise in
Dialectics
-embracing and taking on the hypothesis or view of your
opponent as if you agree with it.
Sophists – were known to be the first professional
teachers
Skill/techne- sophists treated wisdom as a skill which
could be taught to anyone interested on becoming wise
11. Protagoras- “Man is the measure of all things”
Gorgias – “Virtue is not one but many”
Thrasymachus – “Justice or Righteousness is the interest
of the stronger party”
12. Systematic Doubt- an Exercise in
Skepticism
Doubting everything that can be doubted until you
arrive at clear and distinct ideas which are non-
sensical to doubt
RENE DESCARTES
-In his book, Meditations on First Philosophy, believed
that knowledge can proceed or start from very few
premises or starting points
13. RENE DESCARTES
- “YOU CAN EVEN DOUBT YOUR OWN DOUBT”
“COGITO, ERGO, SUM”
- “I think, therefore, I am”
