Midterm Post #2 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Plato or Aristocles (437-347) was Socrates’ prized student.  When he was about 20 he decided to devote himself to philosophy.

"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder."

Shortly after Socrates’ death, Plato was wondering around Greece and the Mediterranean, when he was taken by pirates. When he was released his friends bought him a small property with the ransom money that the pirates did not want. The property was called Academus. He started a school -- the Academy, founded in 386.   

The Academy was for rich young men who studied mathematics, astronomy, law, and, philosophy. Plato also let women attend. Plato and Socrates both believed women and men are equal.
Plato believed in ideals and rationalization. He said there are two parts of reality, the idea part and the ideal part. True reality is permanent, eternal, and spiritual. He believed phenomenon is manifestation of the ideal. Phenomena are things as they seem to us otherwise known as appearances. And appearances are associated with matter, time, and space.
Illusions resulting from phenomenon decay and die. However, Ideals are perfect and unchanging. Phenomena are inferior to Ideals, because ideas are realized through thought, and phenomena through senses. Ideas are basically the idea that there is an order in the universe that we don’t understand. Nature has unseen laws.
It’s interesting that all of his ideas lead or connect to another in order to create more reason. Obviously Plato was a rationalist. People who look for reason usually believe thought is the most effective way to get to the truth. This was definitely so for Plato. Just like Socrates he thought people don’t learn the truth, they realize what they already know (remember).  
Plato’s idea of human beings was there’s the body, which is material, mortal, and “moved”. The body is only what carries our soul therefore material and mortal because it will die. Then there’s the soul, which is ideal, immortal, and “unmoved”.  Our soul creates our reason or rationality from inside. Our soul can grow from developing the understanding of the truth, remembering what we already know. The soul has reasons for believing what it does as well as self-awareness and common sense. Of course, our soul never dies, therefore it is immortal.
 Plato also believed in the same idea of reincarnation that Socrates believed in, which ties into Plato’s beliefs about humans. Possibly the reason we even know about this aspect of Socrates beliefs is because Plato believed it himself.
Additionally, Plato says the soul will always choose to do good deeds, if it recognizes what is good.  Because the soul is drawn to good, it is naturally drawn to God. People grow closer to God throughout their individual lives. Plato thought our ethical goal should be self-realization.
Plato talks about three levels of pleasure. First is sensual or physical pleasure. A second level is sensuous or esthetic pleasure. The highest level is ideal pleasure, the pleasures of the mind. Related to the levels of pleasure are three souls. We have one soul called appetite, which is mortal and comes from the gut. For example, think of how people can feel so comforted through food (appetite) which is obviously a mortal emotion because it is provoked through an impulse and we must control it or it can take control of us.  The second soul is called spirit or courage. It lives in the heart. That’s why we have the ability to let our emotions consume us. Also we have a third soul of reason that is immortal. It resides in the brain, maybe this is why people who think with reason instead of the other souls are usually better off. This soul is immortal because reason never dies, it only changes. Appetite, spirit and courage can always die or become irrational.  

Of course, because Plato was a student of Socrates they had a lot of similar believes and reasons for their beliefs. Their beliefs about reincarnation and the soul were basically the same. Also they both had the same ideas about knowledge, which we remember instead of learn. Ethics is basically self-realization through finding the truth or remembering. Also, they both agreed that we desire things that we believe are good for us. And when we do bad and cause ourselves misery it’s strictly out of ignorance. However, Socrates seemed to place more importance on virtue than Plato.

Source:

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html