PLATO (427 to 347 BC)

CONTENTS

Plato's Theory about the "Forms" or "Ideas"

The Path of Knowledge of Such Perfection

Plato's Perfect "Republic"

His Legacy

Links to Plato's Writings--and More Information

At the heart of the tremendous intellectual contribution that Plato made to Western thought was his theory about the "Forms" or "Ideas."

To Plato's way of thinking, the "reality" that we see directly around us is merely a shadowy reflection of a "higher reality"--one found well beyond our day-to- day world. This contrast between earthly reality and ultimate or ideal reality was a very important matter to Plato--and to all those who have been influenced by his thought ever since.

The world around us that our senses perceive directly is an ever-changing, coming-and-going array of "particular things": the tree in our front yard, our neighbor next door, the brown cow just now eating clover in the field just outside the village, the beds and chairs in our house, the meal we are just about to sit down to, the yellow-orange sunset this evening, the song that we heard the tenor singing outside our window this morning, etc.

These earthly things, these "particulars," have the sad quality of changing, aging, breaking down. The beauty of the flower, the sound of the beautiful song, the house we have just built, the strength of the athlete, etc. do not last very long in their splendor. And there is nothing on earth that is permanent, lasting or eternal. Not even the mountains-- for they eventually wear down, even though the process may be slow and impossible to see directly.

Being thus ever-changing or "impermanent," these "particulars" are not truly "Real." And what is "Real"?  Nothing on earth.  But there is a realm of such Reality--which exists beyond our earthly domain--in the realm of the gods, in the realm of heaven.  This is the unseen world of the "Forms" or Ideas."

In this "world beyond" exist a multitude of God-created Forms or Ideas or "Universals"-- such as Good, Truth, Beauty. They exist in perfection, just like the idea of a perfect circle, or the perfect relationship between radius of a circle and its circumference, in pure mathematical-like precision. They are real, very real, the most real of all reality. They have transcendant and universal existence--like gods!

Using the language of later Judaism and Christianity (which was heavily inspired by Platonist thought) this reality of the universal Forms or Ideas has its perfect existence only in the realm of God. This body of universals is what forms the very "Word" (Greek: "Logos") of God.

The things on earth are made after the image of such divine perfection--though themselves never perfectly or consistently so. Earthly things, though inspired to take on the shape or character of these universal Forms or Ideas, fall far short of the perfect glory or perfect reality of these transcendent Forms/Ideas.

How could Plato be so certain that such Forms or Ideas truly existed? For one thing, our minds can certainly contemplate what the perfect might be--though we have never actually seen it. Our minds can contemplate perfect beauty or perfect goodness--just as we can contemplate the perfect circle. Surely, the ability to contemplate such things points to the fact that they indeed exist--or our minds could not conceive of them.

But Plato did also offer up some "empirical" (factual) evidence. Look at the movement of the heavens through day and night and season after season. There in the heavens perfection not found on earth certainly can be found. This seemed very compelling evidence (to Plato and the early thinkers) in testimony to the existence of the perfect in the heavenly realm.

For Plato, the challenge facing us is to bring ourselves to the knowledge of such perfection. This was the highest calling of a human--to meditate on such perfection. Being occupied in such contemplation was the mark of true nobility in a person. Plato indeed felt that such noble thinkers (philosophers such as himself) should even be given the role of leading or governing the rest of society!

For Plato, the task of contemplating such perfection lay half-way between mystical thought and rational or mathematical thought (as it had been for most Greek philosophers, especially since the time of Pythagoras). The mind of God, the realm of the Forms or Ideas was not totally passive in this relationship--offering up to the inquirer the gift of inspiration or insight. Without such a gracious gift from the realm of God, no person could ever hope to attain heaven's insights.

Yet we mortals were expected to put our thoughts on such matters: for in this state of readiness the truths of God would yield themselves up.

But the process seemed to be as much an internal focusing as an external focusing. In other words, we didn't look for heaven "out there" as much as we looked for its evidence within our own thoughts, in the make-up of our own "souls".

Plato had a sense of "fallenness" about the human: that we had the potential for perfect knowledge of the divine realm--but had lost it both over time and in the process of being born into this shadowy world.

The recovery of this knowledge (knowledge of the divine Forms/Ideas) amounted to being joined to the mind of God, the immortal and eternal essence of the Forms or Ideas.

Thus the task of the teacher was to help restore us to this original knowledge: to draw it out from us--rather than push it into us as if knowledge were something that existed out there apart from us. Knowledge, "pre-existed" within the soul and was led forth to realization by being touched by the mind. The mind, the memory, was fully loaded with divine knowledge--even of previous existences!

Moreover, to Plato, death--which strikes terror in the human heart--was not an evil outcome of our all-too-brief human existences. Rather, he saw it as a process which separated the soul from the body: mind from matter, the heavenly from the earthly. Death had the effect of opening the person to perfect knowledge--knowledge which had been unavailable to our bodily senses while we were "alive" on earth. Thus death offered us the advantage of finally becoming true being--living in true light. The soul, which had existed somewhere before birth of the individual, now lived on in eternity, free and fully developed.

Plato placed little stock in "empiricism:" the study through direct observation of the ways of the physical world around us. With the important exception of the study of the heavens, he felt that such study of the world "out there" was unlikely to reveal Truth--and in fact would likely only serve to deceive us by giving us the false impression that the shadowy world around us was indeed ultimate truth. To Plato this was a horrible thought--fit only for peasants and the very ignorant.

The fact that his most famous student, Aristotle, took quite a different position on the matter (undertaking to give careful study of the earthly realm around us) was a source of disappointment to Plato.

Plato was highly suspicious of democratic government (such as Athens'), which he saw as susceptible to being guided by popular passions and prejudices--rather than intellectual virtue. Much of this had to do with his being a spectator at the death-bed of his beloved teacher, Socrates, who was forced by the Athenian democracy to take poison for "leading the youth away from reverence for the gods." To Plato the death of such a marvelous philosopher was proof of the dangers of giving real power to the ignorant masses.

In Plato's "Republic," power was organized hierarchically, with most power being given to the "wise" philosopher-rulers--individuals who loved wisdom and knowledge and who were not ruled by the grosser emotions or senses.

The rest of society found their places below such rule according to "rational" principles of authoritarian community organization--something on the Sparta model.

Plato's major works or writings:

Apology (MIT)
Charmides (MIT)
Critias (MIT)
Crito (MIT)
Euthydemus (MIT)
Euthyphro (MIT)
Gorgias (MIT)
Ion (MIT)
Laches (MIT)
Laws (MIT)
Meno (MIT)
Parmenides (MIT)
Phaedo (MIT)
Phaedrus (MIT)
Philebus (MIT)
Protagoras (MIT)
Republic (MIT) Republic (UVa)
Sophist (MIT)
Statesman (MIT)
Symposium (MIT)
Theaetetus (MIT)
Timaeus (MIT)

Links to more information on Plato:

Plato (Perseus Encyclopedia)
Plato  (Glass Bead)

Go to the history section: Ancient Greece (500 to 300 BC)
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Copyright © 2000 by Miles H. Hodges.  All Rights Reserved.