Greek Philosophers: Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle - Assignment Example

Greek philosophers were symbols of the perpetual quest for truth, knowledge and life. Plato's most famous piece of literature "The Republic" includesthe well knows story-metaphor of the "Allegory of the Cave". There, Plato tries to present his thesis that we as human beings are imperfect and our reflections about the world around us are not ultimate. Our knowledge of the things slightly touches the real light and enlightenment. We live in a world full of shadows, because we can not comprehend the complexity of life. The cave symbolizes human imprisoned spirit, chained and destined to search, but never discover the truth about life. What we see is only our dim reflections on the walls, metaphor for our imperfection and ignorance. There are prisoners in the cave who are chained to the floor in the darkness and unable to move their bodies to see what is happening around them. Under the protection of a parapet there are the puppeteers who display shadows on the walls. The prisoners are disillusioned that this is their reality. The story is told not from the perspective of the prisoners, but rather as a conversation between Socrates and Plato's brother - Glaucon. Plato's idea is that people are governed by the supreme forces of nature and Gods and we are unable to control our destiny and life. Everything is decided upon Gods and they are who captivate us and release us. And because people are under the possession of a higher power, we can not understand. Scharffenberger and Jowett (2004) comment that Plato's work "Republic" is identified mainly with the concept of the good. Plato's philosophy is often written as conversations and dialogues which shows that before reaching some conclusion the readers must be presented with all arguments and viewpoints (Scharffenberger and Jowett, 2004). In the "Allegory of the Cave" scene Socrates is the one describing the situation in the cave and he is the one to convey the idea that behind the prisoners puppeteers exist who move objects to resemble the reality. Another important aspect of the story besides our human imperfection and wrong interpretations of reality and goodness is that we often give names to objects to make sense of the world. However, language appears to be the limit of our understanding for the physical objects that surround us, and the invisible remains indecipherable and unreachable for our mind. Our thinking is bound by our imagination and we can think as long as we see and witness existence with our sense. Beyond this, our mind can not grasp other realities. Thus, human knowledge is full of mistakes and too limited. Once the prisoners of the cave are released they face different world - they see the sun, the light, the people around. They realize that these new images are the "truth", the reality. Now prisoners change their perceptions and start to believe that the sun leads their own existence. Scharffenberger and Jowett (2004) remark that this is the climax of the storyline - people regard as good what they are presented with. Then human goodness and knowledge are questionable, since they are not omnipresent and we do not possess them by nature. We have to discover them alone. So goodness and knowledge are controversial, because they depend on individual's reactions and beliefs. And there is no ultimate, supreme notion to unite them for all human beings. Apology is Plato's interpretation of Socrate's speech where they accuse him corrupting the young men of Greece through worshiping gods, which are not recognized by the state. With Apology Socrates defends himself and give reasons for his actions. "The Delphic Quest and the Gadfly are the two poles of Socrates' public self-vindication: the one submissive to the dawning wonder of the complexity of political and moral affair, the other aggressive in the hunt for clarification of this wonder (Newell 98)." Newell (2000) remarks that Socrate's philosophy consists of two dimensions. The holistic - represented by the Delphic Quest in Apology, and the analytical - embodies by the Gadfly. Socrates' public speech to the people namely the abstract from Apology displays philosophy as rather "political" and selfless inclination, than its true virtue to study it with devotion, pleasure and self-perfection (Apology 31b-c). Apology plays the role of an entrance to the Platonic world. What Socrates claims is that the devotion to political community is a virtue and it does not contradict the pursuit of self-perfection, because only when serving the civil society philosophers can reach this virtue (Newell 2000). Socrates was charged for stating that there is no other person wiser than he is. Apology is divided into three parts. The first one includes his recounting of the Oracle of Delphi. The Delphi Oracle quest is about questioning. Socrates tells the story of Chaerephon who visited the Oracle to ask him if there exist someone wiser than Socrates. The god replied that there is no one wiser. Socrates then initiates a journey in order to prove the god wrong. Socrates questions first the politicians who he concluded knew little, then the poets who besides their inspiration were not able to understand what they have written and their readers were more capable to explain it, and finally the craftsmen, who possess the knowledge and skills in their area, but believed that they are competent in any other sphere. Socrates showed that the true wisdom belongs only to the gods and that people have little value of the true knowledge. Aristotle uses the concepts of form and matter to explain what soul is. For him there are three substances that make up the soul - the matter, which he calls dunamis, this is human potentiality, the form, which he calls the entelecheia, which is human actual existence and finally the complex combination of matter and form. In comparison with the modern theories of the soul which separate the soul from the physical body, for Aristotle, they are inseparable. Moreover, he believes that all form whether alive or nor possess a soul. Though, he expresses his interest and fascination in compounds that are alive - humans, plants, animals. In 412 a 14 Aristotle gives two answers to the question what makes something to be perceived as alive. He states that by "life' I mean self-nourishment, growth, and decay" (412, a, 14). And the other formal cause is the soul which transforms things into being alive. These characteristics according to Aristotle identify the presence of life, whereas soul explains how they came into existence. He continues that the form is what makes matter appear and the soul is the substance that assigns life and essence to the thing. "The soul, then, must be substance as the form of a natural body that is potentially alive (412, a, 20)." By form Aristotle means that very actuality of the things we perceive and not merely their shapes. Works Cited: Aristotle, On the Soul, (translated Smith, J.A). Digireads.com. 2006. Newell, Waller, Ruling passion: the erotics of statecraft in platonic political philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2000. Scharffenberger, Elizabeth, and Prof. Jowett, Benjamin, Republic of Plato, Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Read More