1.
Ancient Greek influences on philosophy of religion
1. Plato: the Analogy of the Cave
(The Republic VII. 514A-521B)
Unit G751: AS Philosophy of Religion
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2.
Plato’s analogy of the cave
In Plato’s Republic , he illustrates his ideas about human knowledge in relation to reality and so explains
the Theory of the Forms.
Plato’s allegory of the Cave tells us to imagine a dark, large cave, connected to the outside world by a
long passage. In the cave, with their backs to the entrance, is a row of prisoners, with their hands tied
down, unable to move.
Behind them is a bright fire. People move to and fro, behind them, all day, so that their shadows are
projected onto the wall of the cave and voices are echoed. Plato says that all the prisoners ever perceive
or experience in their reality are the shadows and their echoes. It would seem reasonable for them to
assume that the shadows and echoes constituted all of reality.
One day, a prisoner is released and he turns round. His movement is painful and the light of the fire
dazzles his eyes. He finds himself confused and would want to turn back to the wall, to the reality that
he understood.
If he was dragged out of the cave altogether, the sun light would blind him and he would be bewildered.
Eventually, he would start to understand this upper world. If he were to return to the cave, he would
again be blinded, this time by the darkness. Anything he said to the prisoners about his experiences
outside the cave would be unintelligible to them, who only know of the shadows and echoes. In fact,
the prisoners who had never seen the upper world would be hostile towards the returning prisoner, not
understanding anything but the shadows.
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3.
Symbolism
• The Cave: The visible world, our universe. The cave creates
a sense of being trapped in a different world, away from
light and away from reality. The cave represents people
who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and
hear in the world – empirical evidence. The cave shows that
our empirical knowledge is flawed.
• 'The shadows on the wall': What we perceive as our whole
reality, i.e. all our empirical knowledge. The shadows are
imperfect copies of the Forms. The prisoners believe that
these shadows are the only reality.
• The Prisoners: The rest of humanity, who are unable to
understand the words of men who are enlightened.
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4.
Symbolism
• People outside the cave: These people represent real life or reality.
Plato understands reality as the eternal and immutable world (true
reality) of Ideas, which contain the perfect Forms.
• The Journey Out: The struggle for knowledge and the battle against
bodily desires. Through philosophical understanding, people are
able to see the real world of concepts or Forms and draw
conclusions from it, which are true.
• The Sun: Enlightenment or the perfect Form of the Good; a
knowledge of true, essential goodness allows the soul to gain real
understanding. The world depends on the sun for existence, the
source of all light, reflections and shadows.
• The Return: When the escapee returns, the other prisoners laugh at
him and threaten to kill him. This symbolises that the prisoners (us)
are afraid of philosophical enlightenment. Also, it could be a
reference to Socrates’ death, Plato’s teacher.
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5.
Arguments FOR the analogy of the Cave
• Shows that empirical knowledge can be
flawed, we live in an imperfect world of
appearances.
• Plato gives us a reason for the imperfections
that we around us.
• We recognise imperfect copies as we have
lived there before.
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6.
Arguments AGAINST the analogy of the Cave
• Unclear link between the material world (world of
appearances) and the world of the Forms.
• Absolutist argument but not everyone accepted
it, Aristotle did not.
• No concrete proof that the world in the cave or
the outside world is real.
• Just because someone is philosophically
enlightened, does that make them perfect for
leadership?
• How does one realise the truth and reality of the
Forms in order to become enlightened?
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7.
2. Plato: the concept of the Forms; the form of the Good
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8.
Meet Plato
• Plato, like Heraclitus, believed that
everything in this world changes.
• This lead Plato to conclude that there must be
a World where things are unchanging.
= World of Forms
Heraclitus:
“Can you step
in the same
river twice?”

9.
Definitions
Noumena: The unseen, metaphysical, truth
Phenomena: Sense experience, empirical
evidence or the perception of an object that we
recognise through our senses.
Plato believed that phenomena are “fragile and
weak forms of reality”. They do not represent an
object’s true essence.
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10.
The concept of ‘Ideals’
• Forms = perfect Ideals, types of things. They
are not created.
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The World of the Forms (The Real World) The Material World (Our World/The Cave)
Each Form is One (there is only one idea of
beauty)
Particulars are many (there are many beautiful
things)
Only known through our intellect/reason Only known through our empirical sense
Eternal Always coming in and out of existence (birth and
death)
Unchanging Always changing into something else
Non-physical Material objects
Perfect Imperfect

11.
The relation between the Form of the Good and the other Forms
• The ultimate Form is the Form of the Good.
• Understanding the FOG, we can understand that any
good act = imitation of the Good.
• The FOG illuminates the other Forms; it enables us to
‘see’ the Forms.
• The aim of everything is goodness.
• FOG was understood later by Christians as explaining
God.
• Hierarchy of the Forms = Physical inanimate objects 
Physical living objects  Concepts and Ideals 
Universal qualities (justice, truth and beauty)  The
Good.
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12.
• Everything we experience in this world is a vague shadow of
what it really is....
Real World perfect and eternal
World of Appearances
1. There are many types of beauty in
this world but they must all
conform or match the idea of what
beauty is. However there must be
an underlying idea of what beauty is
= Form of Beauty. For Plato this is
the true Form of a Beauty which
exists in the World of Forms.
2. Plato says that the particulars (e.g
a particular beautiful person) are
imperfect copies of the Forms.
3. The particulars share in, or
participate in the Form. Some
things participate to a greater or
lesser extent.
True Essence
of Beauty

13.
1. The World of Forms or the Noeton.
2. ‘Form’ = perfect expression of
something that never changes.
3. This world based on senses is the
Horaton (phenomena)
4. Sense Experience creates illusions
5. Humans believe these illusions = are
ignorant (Eikasia.)
Episteme/epistemology - true
knowledge of the Forms.
For Plato, this is via reason (a priori)
NOT sense experience.
Sense experience – empirical
knowledge

14.
Ultimate Form
• Because there are so many Forms there must be a
Form of the Forms.
• Supreme Form = ‘Form of the Good.’
• The Form of the Good is the Form of all other
Forms. This is because everything has goodness in
it.
• Try describing beauty, justice, truth without
mentioning ‘goodness.’ (Plato most interested in
these ideas)
• All perfection flows down from the Form of the
Good.
• Source/ reason for all other Forms.
• Just as the sun in the allegory of the cave gives
light to the real world, so the Form of the Good
illuminates the other Forms.
• It enables our souls to ‘see’ the Forms.
• It is the ultimate end in itself: the aim of
everything is goodness.

15.
• Knowledge of the Good is the highest knowledge a human is capable of.
• A philosopher can escape the world of appearances and with their mind (reason/ a
priori) see the Forms that lie behind the appearances.
= true leaders of society.
• We are born with a dim recollection of the Forms.
• Our immortal soul observes them before being reincarnated (Metempsychosis)
• In the physical body (ruled by senses) the memory is only dim
• Evidence: people know the basics of truth/ justice and beauty without being taught.
• We do not learn new things, instead education is a matter of remembering and recalling
the world of Forms.
• Anamnesis – the soul remembering the Forms back in a physical body.

16.
Evaluation of Plato’s Forms
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Strengths Weaknesses
• It explains why we all recognise the same
essential elements in something.
• You can’t prove the world of the Forms exists.
• Helps us understand why there are
imperfections around us.
• Infinite regression.
• Encourages us to question and not accept
things at face value.
• Not everything can have an ideal form.
• Cannot be applied to the world we live in.
• “Senses are inferior” but we have relied on
them for survival for thousands of years.

17.
3. Aristotle: ideas about cause and purpose in relation to God
(Metaphysics Book 12)
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18.
Definitions
• Potentiality: When something contains the
ingredients to become something else.
• Actuality: When an object fulfils its potential
and becomes something else.
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19.
The Four Causes
• Material Cause - The things out of which an
object is created.
• Efficient Cause - The way in which an object is
created.
• Formal Cause - The plan that led to its
creation, what caused it?
• Final Cause - The aim for which an object is
created.
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20.
Plato vs Aristotle
• Aristotle: Emphasises value of studying the
physical world (empirical study, more of a
scientist)
• Rejects Plato’s theory of the Forms
• Rejects dualism (belief in the separation of the
mind/soul and body, the soul is what lives on)
• Rejects Plato’s understanding of the soul
(materialistic view)
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21.
Aristotle’s Concept of the Prime Mover
• Exists by necessity (could not fail to exist)
• Not capable of change
• Is pure actuality
• Has a good nature as a lack of goodness means
that you can do better (meaning you can change)
• Is the Final Cause (why things exist)
• “The final cause, then, produces motion as being
loved”
• Is the goal of all action
• PM is the cause of all motion
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22.
Problems and Evaluation
• The relationship between the PM and the universe is
unclear.
• Aristotle’s PM is transcendent whilst Judaeo-Christian
God is immanent.
• The idea that the PM causes the universe and events in
it through ‘thinking’ is vague and unclear.
• Aristotle’s God is perfect, so it can only think of itself.
The PM can only know itself and can’t know or have a
part in our lives.
• Is there really a final cause or purpose to the universe?
Does there have to be a cause of the universe, can’t it
just be there? (Bertrand Russell).
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23.
God in Aristotle
• In Metaphysics, Aristotle links the PM with
God and concludes that God is a “living being,
eternal, most good, so that life and duration
continuous and eternal belong to God; for this
is God”
• God as Prime Mover is “complete reality”
• God in Aristotle’s thinking is a necessary being
who is eternal, transcendent and impersonal.
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