GTA Poker;367073 wroteWhat did Plato say that a society requires to have philosophy? Do you agree? Explain in paragraph form. (15/50).
i’ll attempt to answer this even though i’m assuming you are joking (which is fine), and even though i’m not exactly 100% sure what you’re asking.
plato had a lot of requirements for the average person. probably too many to outline all at once, so i will pick some of the big ones to explain here.
first, plato argued that people who use their senses to understand reality weren’t able to truly see reality. he compares the average, non-philosophizing person to someone chained up, in a cave underground who is forced to look at shadows on a wall that are projected from a fire behind them that they can’t turn around to see. as far as this person is concerned, those shadows are reality and that’s all there is to it. a philosopher, on the other hand, was a person who was able to escape from the cave, find their way out into the light and finally see reality for what it truly is. (this is all allegory of the cave stuff.) so, first off, plato required people to go beyond just the senses and to use rationality and thinking to explain reality and not just rely on experience alone.
another big requirement from plato was the belief in the theory of forms (or ideas). he argued that to understand what something truly is, you have to understand the form or the idea of the object first. furthermore, he argued that these ultimate forms do not exist within us. they exist outside of us independently. therefore, the material world is merely a copy of actual reality. his prime example is of a table. when you think of a table, you may picture a specific table in your head. but just think about the idea of a table for a second. even if you didn’t picture a specific table, you can still understand the idea of a table – that is, whatever gives the object its “tableness”. this was another specific knowledge requirement of plato’s for everyone – that is the ideal concept of the theory of forms that exists outside of the material world (this was pretty crazy to suggest at the time obviously).
the third (and last) one i’ll mention is plato’s demands on society as a whole (as he discusses in the republic). he argues for a caste system to be put in place which, he says, directly relates to appetite, spirit, and reason – the main desires of the human (so i.e. three caste levels). he also argues that the best possible leaders of a nation should be philosophers (he refers to them as philosopher kings). the small group of philosopher kings are the decision makers for the entire society as philosophers, according to plato, are the only ones capable of making a objective decision that can benefit all of society.
also, he denied the creation of any and all art, music, and the like unless it was about the gods or the nation.
is that what you were (jokingly) getting at GTA?
btw, i expected a lot more interesting question from you. :p
EDIT: oh wait, do i agree? ummm, yes and no. his republic is a complete mess. he actually suggests at one point that a tyrannical government is better than a mismanaged democracy. however, having a group of philosopher kings in charge? i might be okay with that as long as they're still elected.
the allegory of the cave i definitely agree with. hell, that's kind of the point i started this thread. i am completely baffled at how people go around day to day utterly oblivious to the meaning of things around them, and to the amount of things they take for granted. getting more people to even consider something more than themselves even for a few seconds is a great accomplishment imo. i don't expect everyone to go out and start reading philosophy and trying to become philosophers (don't do that, oh man you'll just make yourself depressed lol), but if the next time a situation occurs and you think outside the box for once, that is friggin' awesome sauce!
and as far as the theory of forms, i get where he's trying to go with that, but it's definitely a stretch. i mean, to argue that before there were even humans or the universe - i mean before time existed - there was an idea of a table? yeah, i don't get that.