Lecture Literary criticism - Lecture 2: Plato

Lecture Literary criticism - Lecture 2: Plato. The contents of this chapter include all of the following: Plato’s life, peloponessian war, Socrates’s death, Plato’s academy, Sophists, Sophist’s agenda, Sophist’s belifes, Socrates v/s Sophists,...

PLATO

PLATO’S LIFE

• Born in 428 B.C in Athens.

• Belonged to an aristocratic family

• He had fine prospects in the public life and had political aspirations

SOCRATES’S DEATH

• Plato supported Democracy but the system proved to be less than perfect in 399 B.C.Socrates Plato’s mentor stood before a jury of 600 Athenians

• The charges against him were of not recognizing the gods of the city.

• Also the charges included inventing of new deities

• And corrupting the youth of Athens

PLATO’S ACADEMY

• After Socrates‘s death Plato formed an Academy in 387 B.C where students were trained in metaphysics,epistemology,ethics,politics and natural and mathematical sciences

• This Academy continued for 912 years.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR

“REPUBLIC”

• Philosophers initially focused on the questions of natural sciences.

• Poets and not philosophers addressed the in use of ethics and politics

5TH CENTURY B.C

• The war between Athens and Sparta resulted & Athens was defeated which resulted in a major shift

• It thrusted issues of ethics into the hands of philosophers.

• The growth of democracy called for a new civic virtue “The ability to speak persuasively” which became more important than war craft

• Due to the above mentioned reason “sophist” came into existence.

• They were teachers of rhetorics who were willing to teach if the student was walling and able to pay the fee

SOPHIST’S AGENDA

• Persuasiveness over truth.

• Their ideas varied

• Questioned the traditional moral values

• There was no right/wrong but how an action served the interest of the agent

• It did not believe in objective knowledge/objective truth.

SOCRATES V/S SOPHISTS

• Socrates acted like a “dagfly”

• Stinging his fellow citizens into daily examination

• The unreflected life he said was not worth living

• Plato took over his mission when Socrates died

• Plato wanted to further extend the noble work and question Sophist’s belief of no such thing as objective truth and knowledge

PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY

1) Early

2) Middle

3) Late

EARLY PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY

• This period was soon after Socrates’ death so is closest to philosophy.

• Focuses on ethical questions

• He used the method of “elenchus”

• Sometimes these dialogues ended in the state of “aporia”

• This wa not a futile exercise as philosophical dialectical is essential to human well being making them more virtuous and happy

• Plato did not accept everything taught by Socrates.He explores the views critically laying them out but not endorsing them

MIDDLE PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY

• Developed personal views.

• Dialogues in the form of a conversation between student and teacher

• Here they were able to reach a conclusion

• Focused on theory of forms epistemology,Metaphysics

• Explored questions about

(1) How to live?

(2) What is soul?

(3) Nature

(4) The role of love

(5) The nature of physical world

LATE PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY

• Extremely controversial and difficult topics.

• Difficult to decide what themes and treds define this method

• State of helplessness.

• An instability to proceed

• Largest aspect of our soul.

• It contains

- necessary desires (indulged)

- unnecessary desires (limited)

- unlawful desires (suppressed)

• Appetite is money loving.

• It should be strictly controlled by reason and reason’s henchman spirit.

• Second lowest grade of cognitive activity.

• The object of belief is physical realm rather than the intelligible realm

• Socrates’ method of questioning.

• Showing his interlocutors that the beliefs are contradictatory

• And that they don’t have knowledge about something which they thought they had knowledge of

Questions it deals with are :

• Only forms can be object of knowledge.

FORM OF “ THE GOOD ”

• The guardians are responsible for ruling the city.

• They are chosen from among auxillaries

• Also known as philosopher-kings.

• Lowest form of cognitive activity.

• Someone in a state of imagination would form his ideas from products

of art like poets in Plato’s times

INSTRUMENTAL REASON

• Reason used to achieve and end by engaging in mean and analysis,

INTELLIGIBLE REALM

• All existence can be divided into two parts visible and intelligible realm.

• The intelligible realm cannot be sensed but grasped with intellect

• Pertain to original unchanging universal truths.

LOVERS OF SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

• Pseudo intellectuals.

• Appreciate things of beauty but do not realize “the form of beauty”

• They have no knowledge just opinions

• The branch of philosophy concerned with asking what there is in the world?

• A desire to have more.

• A yearning for more power money

• Part of our soul that lusts after truth.

• Source of all our philosophical desire

SENSIBLE PARTICULARS

• Things that we can sense.

• Things that undergo change over a period of time