Introduction to Philosophy - Essay Example

Plato’s Divided Line An Overview Plato, in his ‘divided line’ model, sees two areas,which are, the intelligible world (knowledge) and the visible world of consciousness (opinion). As said by Plato, the visible world--as a world of simple sensation and outer forms-- comes before the intelligible world. Plato believes that during the course of having knowledge, the mind passes through four levels of progress, as shown in the diagram below: As illustrated in the diagram, at each level, there is a related aspect between the form of object introduced to the mind and the form of idea this object makes. The lowest stage is filled with of ‘imagination’, for it is rooted fully in senses, feelings, or assumptions. A case in point is when a person bases his/her beliefs of everything fully on personal experiences. The next part in Plato’s model is ‘belief’. At that part, reality or ‘truth’ is made based on one’s superstition, views of reality, and actual objects. Belief is an emotional state that becomes a part of an individual because of the powerful influences of culture, religion, or any widely believed aspect of the period. Beliefs that are based on religion are impossible to challenge because knowledge is strongly tied by the influences of religion. A person’s belief in heaven and hell and the presence of saints are some examples of knowledge at this part. The third stage is ‘scientific knowledge’. This stage is shown by mathematical formula, research, and empirical data. Some examples are medicine, law of inertia, gravity, and so on. The top part of knowledge is ‘reasoning’, defined as the rational combination of all forms of knowledge. The vertical line from the lowest stage to the highest one shows that there is a certain extent of knowledge gain at every stage, but as the line moves from the bottom kinds of truth to the top, there is a related movement from the lowest level of reality to the highest. The line is broken up into two very different parts. The higher and bigger part is a symbol for the intelligible area and the lower, smaller part is a symbol for the visible part. This unbalanced separation represents the lower level of truth as located in the visible part in comparison to the higher reality in the intelligible domain. As shown in the earlier diagram, the lowest kind of knowledge is ‘eikasia’ (imagination). Imagination is the shallowest kind of brain work where the mind deals with impression or the least level of truth. Obviously, imagining may refer to the act outside plain appearances of objects to their inner truth. However, Plato defines imagining as the senses view of appearances in which such appearances are understood as the truth. On the other hand, ‘pistis’ (belief) is a mental state created by seeing real things. Plato believes that seeing merely represents believing because seeable things rely on their substance for several of their features. Therefore, there is a certain extent of sureness that seeing offers, but this is an incomplete assurance. If a hill appears to be brown from afar but becomes green due to many grasses when seen closely, one’s sureness about its actual color becomes unsure. Plato argues that although believing depends on seeing it is still in the level of opinion. Plato believes that higher education is a means to break away from the walls of appearances by guiding and educating the mind in moral philosophy and mathematics. Plato also believes that the lower part of the intelligible domain holds the topic of mathematics. The mental state is ‘dianoia’, which means ‘thinking’, meaning an incomplete level of knowledge. This mental state is seen in the scientist, because the scientist examines seeable objects but not only with his/her image or mental picture of them. According to Plato, seeable objects are representations of a reality that can be seen in the mind but is invisible. A mathematician, for example, performs ‘abstraction’, or a process of identifying from the seeable object what that object represents. Science pushes a person to use his/her mind; it pushes a person to forget using his/her senses and depend instead on his/her mental power. In addition, thinking is defined by logic from assumption, namely, it is defined by reality which is regarded as obvious but which relies on some greater reality. Logic from assumptions or thinking does offer understanding of the reality, but it is not without a weakness, that it separates several truths from others. ‘Noesis’ (perfect knowledge) defines the mind as fully freed from visible things. The mind, at this stage, is engaging in The Forms, which are logical or understandable things that have been abstracted from visible things. At this point the mind is engaging in such pure forms with the lack of participation of the symbolic feature of seeable things. The mind does not draw on assumptions anymore because they relate to inadequate and detached realities. Does Plato give a sound account of the difference between ‘opinion’ and ‘knowledge’ with the Divided Line? Yes. Plato clearly relates the concept of ‘knowledge’ to objects that are perfect and absolute. Plato, during the course toward that form of knowledge, specifies four distinct forms of mental states and four equivalent objects. The next stage of mind activity is ‘opinion’. A person could have an opinion of something which may be correct or incorrect, but the opinion would be devoid of any logical foundation. The difference between ‘opinion’ and ‘knowledge’ was essential in the theory of Plato. Apparently, individuals can have assumptions, or opinions, which do not necessarily equate to knowledge. At times such opinions are rather helpful and accurate. As an example, imagine the difference between an individual who knows how to go to San Diego and another who only has an exact opinion about how to go to San Diego. Either individual could reach San Diego or help other individuals reach it. Yet, there is a major distinction between opinion and knowledge. Opinions, as described by Plato, are not ‘specific’, ‘certain’, or ‘absolute’. If an individual had an exact opinion about the correct way to go to San Diego and then another person appeared and disagreed with it, his first opinion would be disturbed. S/he would then have another or no opinion at all. Opinions are unreliable and changeable, while knowledge is unchanging and absolute. Plato clearly explains that what grounds an opinion is having a reason, which gives explanations which proves and clarifies why the opinion is factual. In order to strengthen an opinion or make it truthful, it has to be rational. Plato gives a lower regard for opinion, associating it with fallacy and unawareness. He gives too much value on scientific knowledge because it is observable, ever-present, and free from bias. Plato gives his greatest confidence in reasoning, which he believes is the highest form of knowledge. Although he recognized the importance of science as an empirical medium, he recognized reasoning as the capacity to give explanation for the realities of life. Reasoning can guide or inform scientific research, assess its realistic value, and determine the ‘when’ and ‘where’ of its purpose. Plato strongly sees reasoning as the highest form of knowledge for it allows the educated mind to examine the weaknesses of lower forms of knowledge, such as beliefs or opinions. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave The Allegory of the Cave by Plato is located in a cave where prisoners are positioned facing the cave’s wall. The prisoners are not able to know things outside the cave or things that they do not see. They only know things they see on the wall of the cave. At their back is a fire. There is a wall between the prisoners and the fire. There are people in the wall who imitate events in life. But the prisoners only see the moving shadows on the wall. They think that the shadows they watch everyday are the real life. Because of this the prisoners does not have the ability to understand or know the real life or things. The allegory of the cave is shown below: The prisoners only talk about the movement and appearance of the shadows, but not what the shadows are trying to say. The wall of the cave is a symbol for what people experience. But people are not able to really participate, to imaginatively get involved or strongly affect the condition. The prisoners are put in an isolated situation although they are positioned close together. The people in the wall are the powerful, because they control the prisoners and the situation. They create the experiences or events of life that other people or the ‘prisoners’ should see. In the allegory of the cave, it means that people are ignorant of the basic characteristics of their environment. Being people who live in the cave, they do not know they are really living in a cave because they think the things they see inside are the whole universe. The people’s belief inside the cave is narrow. The cave is dark, and knowing exactly the shape, color, or appearance of things inside it is hard. But because people have lived in the cave for so long, they think that the darkness of the cave and everything inside it are normal. Then one of the prisoners stands and observes his surroundings. Because of this sudden decision to move and look into another direction, the prisoner senses a lot of fear. The person becomes confused because for the first time he sees a light. Everything now looks fake, strange, and scary. The person becomes more fearful when he sees the light of the sun outside the cave. He does not know the sun and everything he sees outside the cave. But later on his eyes and feelings adjust. The person now knows that the cave is not the whole universe. The prisoner knows that what they see in the wall of the cave are not the real things. The prisoner who went outside goes back inside the cave and tells the others about his discovery. He tells them that all their lives they are watching unreal things. But the other prisoners thought he lost his mind. If he forces them to believe what he is saying, they might kill him. Plato, in the allegory of the cave, was able to clearly show the difference between knowledge and opinion. He shows how the person moves from simple opinion to learned opinion to reason or knowledge. In the allegory of the cave, this change from opinion to knowledge is illustrated as follows: the people tied up in the wall of the cave are caught in the dim world of opinion, fantasy, and imagination; the people, who create the shadows and make the prisoners believe that the shadows are the real things, are located in the world of learned opinion; the prisoner who tried very hard to get out of the cave is getting reason or knowledge; and outside of the cave where there is sunlight and real things is the greatest form of truth that perfect knowledge can understand. Plato, in the allegory of the cave, shows how getting knowledge is difficult and a serious challenge. In order for people to get knowledge they have to get out of the cave and into the light, into perfect knowledge. But getting out of the cave, which is filled with opinion, is not that easy. It needs a lot of adjusting and changes, just like what happened to the prisoner who got out. Knowing what is real or what is true needs the power of reason. In order to have reason one should free himself from the world of opinion, fantasy, and imagination. The difference between simple opinion and knowledge is the difference between living in the cave for a very long time and going out of the cave to discover reality. (No references required) Read More