Exploring Plato’s Theory of Ideas and Political Philosophy
Fact: According to Plato in his Seventh Letter, a young man believed to be involved in politics. Thus, there are two separate worlds: the world of sense, revealed to the senses, and the world intelligible, accessible only to the nous. But the only real world itself is the world intelligible, for in it lies the essence of sensible things, their essence, Ideas. The Ideas (also called Forms or essences) are models of things in the sensible world; they are the things themselves, in their ideal state of perfection. Each Idea is the unity of something that appears in the sensible world as multiple, but not concepts; they are the subject of the concept, the objective reality that the concept denotes. They are also the subject of the definition and, therefore, of science. Ideas are known with the inner eye. Each of the Ideas has the characteristics of the being of Parmenides: eternity, simplicity, and, therefore, indivisibility, immutability, and limitation. As we have seen, they are the essence of things, that by which a particular thing is what it is, but they are independent of those. They are located in the intelligible world. It presents a hierarchy: at the top would be the Idea of Good, then the Ideas of Wisdom, Self, Beauty, and Justice. Third would be the mathematical Ideas, such as the Idea of Equality, Unity, Duality, Triangle, etc. And lastly, there are Ideas for sensitive bodies. But there is also a partnership relationship among the Ideas: the lower part of the Ideas is above and all of the Idea of Good. The theory of Ideas is complex and raises a number of problems concerning the nature of the Ideas, the relationship of Ideas with things, and the relationship of Ideas among themselves. Plato confronted them in his dialogues called critics, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. The usual way to a multitude of different Ideas subsisting is the multiple participants in a unique subsistent and irreducible diversity of Ideas. Knowledge for Plato is to know the universal. And the Ideas are universal. Furthermore, in line with Parmenides, who distinguished between the path of truth and the path of view, Plato distinguishes between knowledge of the sensible, the apparent, which will only be opinion (doxa), and knowledge intelligible, intellectual knowledge, establishing grades on knowledge. The possibility of knowledge of the Ideas—and, therefore, the theory of knowledge of Plato—is based on three essential aspects of the theory of Ideas: The things they imitate or participate in the Ideas. The soul is an immaterial or spiritual reality that is somewhere between things and Ideas. The Ideas are a hierarchy, so that the lower range is below the upper part and all of the Idea of Good. From these assumptions, Plato will appeal to two types of explanation: a mythical type, the theory of reminiscence, and a scientific explanation, the dialectical theory. According to reminiscence, knowing is remembering: the soul, embodied in the body, forgets its membership to the world of Ideas and meets there, but once incarnated in the body, it has the senses to perceive things in the sensible world, and because those are copies of Ideas, it recalls the original (known as anamnesis. The soul knew the minute it is related to them (known as such). Sense knowledge provides the opportunity to produce the memory, the anamnesis, and, therefore, reduces the multiplicity of sensations to the unity of the Idea. The dialectic is the process by which the philosopher enters the intelligible world and knows how Ideas are interrelated. a) As we saw, Plato believes that knowledge of the sensible is not genuine knowledge. It distinguishes two grades: The conjecture or imagination (eikasía) is the knowledge of the images, shadows, and reflections of sensible things, characters from mythology, the inventions of poets, and fiction in general. This type of knowledge is not provable or the things that are noticeable or intuited. The belief or faith (pistis) is the knowledge of sensible things immediately noticeable, such as the things of nature or art products. These things are imperfect copies of the Ideas and are neither provable nor intuited. b) The intellectual knowledge consists also of two degrees: The discursive reason (dianoia) gives us the knowledge of mathematical objects, which are intermediate bodies between the sensible and intelligible world, then, like the Ideas, are eternal. But, as with sensitive institutions, there are many for each species. Knowledge of these entities is given in intuition, through the nous, as the Ideas, but it is also necessary to use images; that is, there is competition sensitive.
Since Plato believes the mathematical entities are halfway between the sensible and intelligible world, he considers mathematical knowledge as preparation for access to true knowledge: knowledge of the Ideas. Therefore, it is said that in the frontispiece of the Academy, it could be read that no one who does not know geometry. The intuitive reason (noesis) gives us the knowledge of Ideas, which are known directly, through intellectual intuition, without contesting any of the senses. Descending then proceeds: from the supreme Idea chains with her all the others. This sets the communication (koinonia) and interlocking (symploké) between the Ideas and acquires an adequate vision of the intelligible world. And the way down or diáiresis, which should be in reverse, is analysis, division, and allows us to understand the multiple. Love (eros) is also a bottom-up process, an emotional dialectic. In love, things serve as steps (hypothéseis) to the Idea because they participate in the Idea to varying degrees. Platonic love is an ascent to Beauty: the soul, the beauty of the world, remembers and wants to fly to the intelligible world. 4. The Human Being is influenced by Plato and the Pythagoreans’ Orphism: like them, Plato believes that man is a composite of body, material and mortal, and soul, immaterial and immortal. That is, in Plato, we find a dualistic anthropology, which in turn is based on his theory of knowledge and political theory. To develop his theory of the soul, Plato frequently uses the myth: “The rational soul (nous or logos) is immortal, intelligent, divine nature and is located in the brain. The irascible soul (thumos) is a source of noble passions, such as courage, is located in the chest and, being inseparable from the body, is mortal. The appetitive or concupiscible soul (epithymia): a source of vile desires and passions, is located in the abdomen and is fatal. It drags with its passions and prevents the contemplation of Ideas. In the Phaedrus, the union of the body is presented as accidental: it is the punishment for some moral failing, for departing from the eternal values. Wisdom or prudence is the virtue of the rational soul itself and about the world of Ideas. Fortitude is the virtue proper to the irascible soul; the soul can overcome difficulties in its ascent to the world of Ideas. And finally, temperance is the virtue of the concupiscible soul: the soul dominates the bodily appetites. Justice is to be the equilibrium reached when the following three virtues: the reason guides the irascible and, thus, it dominates the concupiscible. 5. Society Plato’s political theory is part of a vast movement critical of democracy. He believes that politics is a science and that its purpose is to make men righteous citizens. To achieve justice, Plato designs the ideal polis, a political utopia of the natural differences among human beings. This utopia is based on two principles: the principle of structural correspondence between the soul and the state and the principle of functional specialization of each sector, as well as parts of the soul. But in addition, each estate is entitled to a function, respectively: the government, defense, and production. We have here the principle of functional specialization parallel to what we saw about parts of the soul. And every part of the soul and the rightful establishment, Plato assigned the same virtue: a philosopher-ruler, as the rational soul, bears the virtue of prudence, wisdom, and to the guardians, as the irascible soul, bears strength, courage, and craftsmen, farmers, and the concupiscible soul, it is for temperance. Justice in the city, as in the individual, is the harmony between the three estates; harmony is based on each party fulfilling its rightful role, as in individuals. For this ideal city, Plato may be necessary to take care of the following: Education: The state has to be responsible for the education of citizens. Eugenics: the best to have children together. Abolition of the family and private property in the two superior estates. Equality of women and men, as Plato believes that the natural gifts are spread equally between the sexes and that women only have less physical strength than men. 6. The Greek word theos God and the Spanish word for God are not equivalent. For a Greek, the word theos is a predicate: a Greek saying love is God. Within the Christian tradition, God has two aspects: static and dynamic. God can be regarded as the ultimate reality, the highest form of being, all. And also the creator of all movement and life, of all existence. In Plato’s view, there are the Ideas or forms. The Good Idea, which identifies with the idea of beauty or the One as the dynamic aspect of the notion of God to which we alluded to above, I must say that in the Timaeus, Plato introduces the figure of the Demiurge (divine craftsman or doer) to explain the origin of the material world, which is perpetual becoming. It is necessary to do so because, as our author states, it needs to accrue for some reason. But Plato says that all this belongs to the plausible explanation. That is, the Demiurge is the divine reason which operates in the universe but has nothing to do with a creator god; it takes existing materials. Nor is it powerful because, as we have seen, it cannot entirely subordinate to the subject.