Plato :: essays research papers

Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470- 390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realties. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and that the universe was mathematically understandable. He believed that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not exist in the everyday realm, but merely are existent in the hypothetical realm or reality. Plato believed that truths existed outside the boundaries of our realm, interestingly enough. He was highly influenced by Socrates, and inherited the idea of absolute truths and standards of knowledge. Geometric shapes correspond to the mental world, a universe that exists co-temporarily with the material universe. Material objects are copies of mathematical knowledge and our mind gives us knowledge of ideas. In addition, our sensory gives us knowledge of the material world, what we can feel see or smell. Regarding the sensible world, one that is perceptible by the senses or by the mind, is in direct relation with his doctoral of dualism. Dualism can be seen as the view that the world consists of as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter, physics and nature. In the intelligible world, things fundamentally consist of as being apprehended by the intellect alone. Regarding sensory objects, he believed that they were in constant change and furthermore were a phenomenon of the physical world; hence they cannot be identified with knowledge.