Plato’s Theory of Ideas: Overcoming Relativism and Achieving True Knowledge
Plato’s Fight Against Relativism
Plato, like his teacher Socrates, fought against the relativism of values advocated by the Sophists. He believed that if there is no absolute truth, language loses its meaning, and human beings cannot be righteous, virtuous, or happy if they ignore the true meaning of those words. Therefore, their life is based on finding a universal definition, valid for all.
The Platonic conception of reality is considered dualistic, both ontologically (defended by the theory of ideas) and epistemologically (defended by the theory of knowledge).
The Theory of Ideas
Plato’s theory defines ideas as intelligible reality, made up of intangible, eternal, and unchanging concepts. They are the epitome of “things” that make up the sensible world; they are the model that the Demiurge, a kind of demigod, uses to shape the subject report. The ideas represent the “essence” of objects and persist regardless of whether or not they are intended. They are also hierarchically ordered: not all are equally important, and the Mother Idea is the Idea of Good.
The Theory of Knowledge
Plato’s theory of knowledge establishes the relationship between levels of reality—the sensible world and the intelligible world—and the levels of knowledge that they cause: sensible and intelligible, respectively. The first is known as “doxa” and the second as “episteme,” which are subdivided into two: conjecture and belief, on the one hand, and discursive thought and intelligence, on the other.
What can be considered true knowledge is given by the episteme; it represents the knowledge of ideas, which are not subject to the influence of sensible reality, so that knowledge can be considered universal. This theory, as well as the myth of the cave, is based on the famous analogy of the line (a line divided into 4 segments, differential pairs). The first division is sensitive knowledge, consisting of conjecture, which corresponds to the images of the sensible world, and belief, which corresponds to the physical things of the world. In the second division, we find discursive thought, which corresponds to the mathematical entities of the intelligible world, and intelligence, which corresponds to the ideas of the same world. The latter is considered the “climax” of knowledge, the highest level that can be achieved.
Plato’s Ethics and Politics
With these theories, Plato overcomes the moral relativism of the Sophists by positing timeless and universal ideas. Platonic ethics is eudaimonistic; morality is directed towards the conquest of happiness. This is a state of mind achieved through the exercise of virtue (prudence, rational soul, located in the brain; strength, irascible soul, located in the chest; and temperance, concupiscible soul, located in the abdomen).
Plato advocates a government led by trained philosophers, corresponding to the character outside the cave and thus the bearer of true knowledge. Other citizens, ignorant to varying degrees, should be encouraged with material incentives until they reach the appropriate intellectual development. In politics, if the ruling was in possession of true knowledge would act fairly and know what it is to the people, because, according to Plato, it is not possible to know the Good and Evil.
The Idea of Good
Exposed to these two theories as Plato, that of Ideas and knowledge, we can relate both as Plato puts the idea of good as the top step and most coveted, that is, the one above the other ideas. This Idea, is the pinnacle of knowledge in which the being is endowed with abilities and items to govern and be a philosopher.