Morgan: Plato was an Athenian philosopher and arguably the greatest
philosopher of all time. He was believed to have been born around 428 BC into a
prominent and wealthy family. His work is often confused with the work of Socrates.
Socrates was an older friend, mentor, and teacher. Socrates often appears in
Plato’s works. Plato wrote over 36 books and dialogues throughout his life on a
wide variety of topics including politics, love, justice, and art. He taught
some of these ideas at his school, The Academy, to students like Aristotle.
Plato also had 4 main ideas for
helping fulfill life. The first was to think more. He believed a lot of people
just went along with popular opinions and didn’t formulate their own ideas. His
answer was “know yourself” and he suggested discussing your ideas with others
to help make your own beliefs stronger. His second theory was to let your
significant other help you grow as a person. He believed true love was
admiration. You should help your significant other become a better version of
themselves. If you have everything in common you can’t teach new things. His
next theory was to decode the message of beauty. We see things missing in our
lives through beauty: Gentleness, Harmony, Balance, Peace, and Strength. These
all help educate our souls and add a therapeutic element to our lives. His final
theory was to reform society. He was the world’s first utopian thinker. He
devoted his life to edaimonia or fulfillment. Plato strived for perfection. He
thought the world was perfect and that any imperfections were a result of human
ignorance.
Aimee: For my portion of this project, I chose to describe
what I found interesting about Plato’s Theory of Erôs. I read that the real
goal of erôs is to find real beauty and real beauty can only be found within
the Form of Beauty. The Form of Beauty can be defined as what makes all beautiful
things beautiful. Plato thought that actual physical or sexual contact is
degrading and waste full forms of erotic expressions. I found this interesting
because according to the Oxford Dictionary erôs is defined as “sexual love or
desire.” Love is the great “Divine Madness” in that through love mankind can
achieve all that is possible. Plato’s also had an idea of the different stages
one goes through from loving particular kinds of beauty to beauty itself; he
named this the Ladder of Love. Stage one is when someone is attracted to
beautiful bodies especially one. The next stage is when this person recognizes
that all bodies are similar and how foolish he was love only one. Next, this
person will realize the beauty of the mind and love those who are beautiful in
the mind whether or not they are beautiful in the body. This person will then
realize that all kinds of beauty are similar and love beauty in general. Lastly
this person will become a lover of knowledge and reach the goal of love which
is amazingly beautiful in nature. “By going through these stages, one will
ascend from loving particular kinds of beauty to loving Beauty itself, from
which all beautiful things derive their nature.”
Megan: The late transitional and late dialogues consisted of
Philosophical Methodology, Theory of Forms, The myth of Atlantis, the creations
of the universe, and last the Laws. In the middle ages the form of philosophizing
called dialectic, changed in the later dialogues what Plato calls the
collection and division. By collecting categories with common features and dividing
it until it can no longer be subdivided. The first change in theory appears in Parmenides.
These forms are spoken most of the time through Socrates. Plato believed that
forms are the only true subjects of study that you can receive knowledge from Republic,
Mino, and Timaeus. Atlantis is story about an advanced society that becomes a
lost continent. First recognized in the dialogue Timaeus, it is an unfinished
dialogue. It is the Sequel to Timaeus, and the Critics. Same Dialogue Timaeus
explains how the creation of the universe is not credited to God but to
science. By the 4 elements of Earth, Wind, and Fire. It has details works on
the areas we now call, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, and Biology. Plato's last
work that was unfinished at the time of his death. It is based on an Athenian
and Spartan who ask a basic question of who gets credit for creating the laws. In
this dialogue the men are having a perpetic walk about athenian and spartan law
systems. Clinias admits that he will be in charge of creating laws for a new
Cretan colony, the new city Magnetes. Plato believed that highly credited philosophers
should be the ones that create the laws and be the politicians because they
study life in depth and knew what was best for society through the science of
life.
#12
ReplyDeleteFatima, Loreal, and Davis
We will be doing our report on Pyrrho. We have divided our presentation in three topics: Life, Education, and Ethics.
• Fatima: Pyrrho and his life: Pyrrho is born 360 BC in Elis, Greece. Pyrrho was a Greek philosopher of Classical Antiquity and he is credited as being the first skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism. He is generally accepted as the father of Skepticism. When he was younger he was into the art of painting, but soon he left that all behind to pursue his interest in Philosophy. He studied the writings of Democritus, became a disciple of Bryson, and later a disciple of Anaxarchus. He traveled to India with Alexander the Great and met with philosophers of the Indus region. “Pyrrho was so highly valued by his countrymen that they honored him with the office of chief priest and, out of respect for him, passed a decree by which all philosophers were made immune from taxation” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He was an admirer of poets, particularly Homer. After his death, the Athenians honored his memory with a statue.
• Loreal: Pyrrho and his Education: The first great skeptical philosopher of the ancient world was Pyrrho. He was the founder of the school of skepticism. He established himself as a teacher in Elis, and he argued that equally valid arguments could be made on either side of any question and therefore it was best to draw no conclusion about the nature of things. “He focused his teachings on how one should live according to one's circumstances and desires. He made much money teaching his doctrine of Skepticism, and in his later years he spent much time attacking a philosopher named Arcesilaus” (Greek Skeptics).
• Davis: Pyrrho and his Ethics: “Pyrrho was the starting-point for a philosophical movement known as Pyrrhonism that flourished several centuries after his own time”(Bett 1). He was known for presenting philosophy as a way of life that aims at a calmness of the spirit and happiness of the heart. Pyrrho believed that people should always be quick to question and slow to believe. He seemed to think that we too easily become convinced of things that trouble our minds and disturb our souls. So he practiced, and preached, withholding judgment as much as possible. His works have been very influential and are the best sources for the arguments and positions of classic Greek skepticism (Prryho and Sextus).
Work Cited
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
Bett, Richard. "Pyrrho." Stanford University. Stanford University, 05 Aug. 2002. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
"Examining the Roots of Skepticism: Pyrrho and Sextus." - For Dummies. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
"Greek Skeptics, from Pyrrho to Arcesilaus." Greek Skeptics, from Pyrrho to Arcesilaus. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.