Plato’s Theory of Ideas and Dialectic Method
Plato’s Theory of Ideas
IDEA (from the Greek verb eidein = to view). For Plato, ideas are realities that exist independently of things. The idea is reality itself. Each idea is unique (beings are plural), eternal (beings are perishable), and unchangeable (beings are changing). Ideas are grasped only by intelligence (unintelligible), not by the senses as material beings (sensitive). They are also the cause of beings, their models, the basis of all judgments, and the goal of all our knowledge.
One can learn through the dialectic of reminiscence. The idea of Good confers upon other ideas the power to exist, to be essences, though it itself is not an essence but something beyond them. It can be known by the rational soul of the wise. On the other hand, it represents the sun, which gives visible things the property to be seen and known. It is the beginning of every source of all life. Whatever is, is something to the extent that it partakes of the Good, that is, to the extent that it is illuminated by Him. It is the most important idea in the world and has its role in the Cosmos, the State, and the individual.
Its Role in the Cosmos
The world is ordered by the Demiurge. Knowing the idea of property, the Demiurge ordered all chaotic matter, imitating what is seen in the world of ideas because this world has a soul and an end, which is the Good.
Its Role in the State
The Idea of Good also determines the structure of government and the way of living of the individual. The Fair State is a state of order, but not just any order, but the order that reflects the Cosmos, that is, for the Good. Only by the order of the Polis.
Its Role in the Individual
As in the state, if the individual knows the Good, they know the reasons for their actions. They then realize that the wishes and needs of the body are good only for the ignorant but not for the educated.
Plato’s Dialectic Method
Dialectic is, first, a bottom-up process, which the rational soul must undertake from the material and sensible world to the intelligible world, to know the true reality: the ideas or essences, especially the idea of Good. This process is divided into two distinct parts:
- The first is the view that one can have of the sensible world, changing and imperfect. Opinion is based on experience or sensitivity, leading to an opinion that may not be necessary or universal. It is not true knowledge but, at best, beliefs (similar to Hume’s ideas). Opinion, in turn, is divided into:
- Imagination (about shadows and images of this world, like ancient myths)
- Belief or faith (about material things, such as the theories of physicists)
- The second part of the dialectic is science (episteme), the rational knowledge of the intelligible world of ideas, essences, or universal forms, as opposed to individuals and material things. It has two steps:
- Discursive reason, which is used in mathematics and deals with forms that have no subject, thus preparing the soul for the fourth step.
- Intuitive reason, which no longer reasons step by step but directly and intuitively knows the ideas or universal essences.
Dialectics is a method used by Plato, which he learned from his teacher Socrates. However, Plato further specified those steps. Through induction from a particular case, one could come to recognize and define the very concept one wanted to discover. For Plato, the dialectic or process of knowledge must always start with the knowledge of the Sensible World, training oneself to go slowly until one gets to real knowledge. This view, in turn, has two grades, the lowest grade being imagination or conjecture.