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| নির্বাচিত পোস্ট | লগইন | রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন | রিফ্রেস |
- Sqn Ldr Munim Khan Majlish, psc
(The Independent-24 June 2005 & 01 July 2005)
Introduction
1. “Virtue is knowledge and can be acquired”-the great thinker of all time Plato wanted to influence and teach the ancient Greek society with this motto. He emphasized that a real educated person must always be honest and he must possess wisdom. He mentioned that only those who had under gone the complete educational process can only acquire such wisdom. We may call this class of people the philosopher. In the society only they are capable of understanding the complexity of ruling a nation. Plato categorically explained that the merchants, businessmen or the military personnel are not to rule, but to carry on the different mechanism of the society. They should concentrate on their respective areas of trade, economy, or defending the country. If the right persons are not positioned in the appropriate fields, the country will fall into catastrophe and misery. Plato’s such great assumption is widely evident in every sphere of the present day world. People must prepare and achieve the correct knowledge to display their abilities within the area of their jurisdictions. It is extremely crucial in Air Force where professionalism merits the status of individual. An attempt has been made in this paper to understand Plato’s basic concept in brief by describing his biography and theories.
Biography of Plato
2. Greek philosopher Plato (approximately 428 BC- 347 BC) is considered as one of the most creative and influential thinker and philosopher ever. He was born to an aristocratic family in Athens in 428 BC. His father, Ariston, was known to have descended from the previous kings of Athens and his mother Perictione was distantly related to then lawmaker Solon. Plato lost his father in his childhood, and thereafter his mother married to Pyrilampes, who was an associate of the statesman of Pericles. As such Plato was politically connected to both the Oligarchy and Democracy-two elite ruling class of ancient Greece. However, Plato was extremely strict to his own principle, and did not take the opportunity of his association with the elite community.
3. Plato had shown his keen interest in politics in his young age, which is off-course inherited form his ancestors. After the famous Peloponnesian War, Plato’s maternal uncle tried to persuade him to join in the Oligarchic rules in Athens. However, the corrupt, unkind and conflict esteemed political leadership in Athens extremely disappointed him. He eventually joined his two elder brothers in becoming a devoted student of the greatest scholar of all time Socrates. Plato appreciated Socrates’ basic philosophy and followed his ‘dialectical style’ of debate as a means of academic process. The dialectical style- the unique method of academic discussion adapted by Socrates was the pursuit of truth through questions, answers, and further questions. Such process was adapted to examine people to study their ideas and beliefs critically. Socrates adopted his own motto of the Delphic Oracle, or "Know thyself". While trying to separate himself from the sophists' kind of instruction for hire, Socrates taught his students "It is the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day and those other things about which you hear me conversing and testing myself and others, for the unexamined life is not worth living"
4. Plato was very upset about the death of Socrates at the hands of the Athenian democrat rulers in 399 BC. After Socrates' death, he became disappointed with all the existing political regimes. He realized that only salvation of politics would be able to rescue this society from disaster. Such salvation would require "either true or genuine philosophers attain political power or the rulers of states by some privilege of chance become genuine philosophers." In this point he was so much disappointed about all the prevailing affairs of the state that he left Athens and travelled to Italy, Sicily, and Egypt. He was mostly benefited from this tour and enriched his knowledge from the indigenous notes of those societies. In Egypt he learnt of a ‘Water Clock’ and later introduced it into Greece. In Italy he came to know about the works of Pythagoras and, thereby he appreciated the importance of mathematics. Pythagoras’s mathematical analysis had greatly influenced his process of establishing philosophical views.
5. In 387 BC Plato established a school in Athens, in an orchard sacred to the demigod Academus, called the Academy (which is where we get the word academics today). It was, indeed the first university of higher learning of the world. Plato introduced a comprehensive curriculum, including such subjects as physical science, astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, and philosophy. Another great thinker of ancient Greece Aristotle was among the most prominent students of the Academy.
6. Plato had taken the opportunity to experiment his philosophy with the practical politics in 367 BC. He once again went to Sicily to tutor the new ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius II, following the death of his father Dionysius I. Dion, the brother-in-law of Dionysius I, persuaded Plato to come to Syracuse to tutor the new ruler in the art of philosophical rule. Plato was not very enthusiastic about the plan to succeed, but he agreed to do so in Dion’s repeated appeal. The idea was that if Dionysius II was trained in science and philosophy he would be able to prevent Carthage from invading Sicily. However, on the contrary Dionysius II was jealous of Dion who exiled from Syracuse and the plan, as Plato had expected, did not succeed. As such Plato returned back to Athens. Interestingly Plato made another trip to Syracuse in 361 BC once again hoping to be able to bring the rivals together. However, again his engagement in Sicilian affairs met with little success. He could not achieve a political solution to the rivalry. Plato spent the concluding years of his life in lecturing at the Academy and in writing. He died at the age of 80 in Athens in 348 or 347 BC.
Plato’s Contributions
7. We have already discussed that Plato had adapted the ‘’dialogue form’’ in his writings. Here philosophical ideas were put forward, discussed, and criticized in the context of a conversation or debate involving two or more people. The collection of Plato's work includes 35 dialogues and 13 letters. However, the authenticity of a few of the dialogues and most of the letters has been disputed.
8. Plato’s Dialogues. Plato’s dialogues may be divided into early, middle, and later periods of composition.
a. Dialogues of Early Period. Plato’s earliest style represents the attempt of communicating philosophy in dialectical style of Socrates. Several of these dialogues are in the same form. Here Socrates, encountering someone who claims to know much professes to be ignorant and seeks assistance from the one who knows. As Socrates begins to raise questions, it becomes clear that the one reputed or claims to be wise really does not know what he claims to know, and Socrates emerges as the wiser one because he at least knows that he does not know. Such knowledge, of course, is termed as the beginning of understanding or the wisdom. Dialogues of this group are: Charmides (an attempt to define restraint), Lysis (a discussion of friendship), Laches (a pursuit of the meaning of courage), Protagoras (a defence of the thesis that virtue is knowledge and can be taught), Euthyphro (a consideration of the nature of goodness), and Book I of the Republic (a discussion of justice).
b. Dialogues of Middle and Later Periods. The dialogues of the middle and later periods of Plato's works reflect his own philosophical development. Most scholars had attributed the ideas in these works to Plato himself, although Socrates continues to be the main character in many of the dialogues.
1) Dialogues of Middle Period. The dialogues of the middle period include Gorgias (a consideration of several ethical questions), Meno (a discussion of the nature of knowledge), the Apology (Socrates' defence of himself at his trial against the charges of atheism and corrupting Athenian youth), Crito (Socrates' defence of obedience to the laws of the state), Phaedo (the death scene of Socrates, in which he discusses the theory of Forms, the nature of the soul, and the question of immortality), the Symposium (Plato's outstanding dramatic achievement, which contains several speeches on beauty and love), the Republic (Plato's supreme philosophical achievement, which is a detailed discussion of the nature of justice).
2) Dialogues of Later Period. The works of the later period include the Theaetetus (a denial that knowledge is to be identified with sense perception), Parmenides (a critical evaluation of the theory of Forms), Sophist (further consideration of the theory of Ideas, or Forms), Philebus (a discussion of the relationship between pleasure and the good),, Timaeus (Plato's views on natural science and cosmology), and the Laws (a more practical analysis of political and social issues).
Plato’s Theories and Philosophy
9. Theory of Forms. The ‘Theory of Forms or Ideas’ is at the core of Plato's all philosophical thoughts. It is the basic of his all theories and perceptions. Plato’s view of knowledge, his ethical theory, his psychology, his concept of the state, and his perspective on art must be understood in respect of this theory of Forms.
10. Theory of Knowledge. Plato's theory of Forms and his theory of knowledge are so interrelated that they must be discussed together. Plato was influenced by Socrates and was convinced similarly that knowledge is attainable; it is never only inherited. We have already discussed his experiment regarding this involving Dionysius II- the young ruler of Syracuse. He was also convinced of two essential characteristics of knowledge. First, knowledge must be certain and reliable; and second, knowledge must have its object that which is genuinely real rather than that, which is an appearance only. Plato believes that which is fully real must be fixed, permanent, and unchanging. He identified the real with the ideal realm of being as opposed to the physical world of becoming. Plato rejected the idea that claims that knowledge is derived from sense only. He explained that propositions derived from sense or experiences have, at least, a degree of probability. They can never be certain or definite. The objects of sense or experiences are changeable phenomena of the physical world. Thus objects of sense or experiences are not appropriate objects of knowledge. Plato's own theory of knowledge is explained in details in his masterpiece “the Republic”. This is particularly explained in his discussion of the ‘image of the divided line’ and the ‘myth of the cave’. In the former, Plato distinguishes between two levels of awareness: opinion and knowledge. He explained that claims or statements about the physical or visible world, including both commonsense, observations and the propositions of science are opinions only. Some of these opinions are well founded; some are not; but none of them can be considered as genuine knowledge. He mentioned that the higher level of awareness is actually the knowledge. He argued that here reason, rather than sense or experience, is involved. Reasons, when properly applied reveal the results with intellectual insights that are certain. The objects of these rational insights are universals, the eternal Forms or substances that constitute the real world. The ‘myth of the cave’ describes how individuals are confined deep within the cave. It is bounded so that visions of individuals are restricted. They are unable to realize the reality and even cannot recognize one another. Only the wall of the cave is visible. The shadows created by the models or statues of animals and objects that are passed before fires appear in the form of illusion and create an artificial atmosphere. When one of the individuals is able to escape from the cave, he or she breaks free that restriction into the light of day. With the aid of the sun, that person sees for the first time the real world and returns to the cave with the message that the only things they had been observing so far were shadows and illusions. The real world awaits them if they are willing to struggle free of their bonds. Plato symbolized the shadowy environment of the cave as the physical world of appearances. Escape into the sun-filled setting outside the cave symbolizes the transition to the real world, the world of perfect being, the world of Forms, which is in fact the true knowledge.
11. The theory of Forms may best be understood in terms of mathematical deductions. A circle, for example, is defined as a plane figure composed of a series of points, all of which are equidistant from a fixed point or centre. In reality nobody has ever actually seen such a figure. What people have actually seen are the drawn figures that are more or less close approximations of an ideal circle. When mathematicians define a circle, the points referred to are not real points at all; they are only logical points. They do not occupy any space. Although the Form of a circle has never been seen, and could never be seen nevertheless, mathematicians and we do in fact know what a circle is. Plato, therefore, logically reveals that the Form “circularity” exists, but not in the physical world of space and time. It exists as a constant object in the world of Forms or Ideas, which can be understood only by reason. Forms have greater reality than objects in the physical world; both because of their perfection and stability and because they are idols; resemblance to which can only give ordinary physical objects, not the reality they have. Circularity or the theory of square, and triangles are excellent examples of what Plato meant by Forms. An object, which exists in the physical world, may be termed as a circle or a square or a triangle only to the extent that it resembles the Form “circularity” or “Squareness” or “Triangularity.” Plato extended his theory beyond the area of mathematics. Indeed, he was rather interested in its application in the field of social ethics. The theory of Form was his way of explaining how the same universal term can refer to so many particular things or events. The word justice, for example, can be applied to hundreds of particular acts because these acts have something in common, namely, their resemblance to, or participation in, the Form “justice.” An individual is human to the extent that he or she resembles or participates in the Form “humanness.” If “humanness” is defined in terms of being a rational animal, then an individual is human to the extent that he or she is rational. A particular act is courageous or cowardice to the extent that it participates in its Form. An object is beautiful to the extent that it participates in the Idea or Form of beauty. Plato summarized that everything in the world of space and time is what it is by virtue of its resemblance to, or participation in its universal Form. The ability to define the universal term depends on how much one has grasped the Form to which that universal refers. Plato also imagined that the Forms are arranged hierarchically. The supreme Form is the Form of the Good, which, like the sun in the myth of the cave, illuminates all the other Ideas. The ‘Form of the Good’ represents Plato's movement in the direction of an ultimate principle of explanation. Ultimately, the theory of Forms is intended to explain how one comes to know and also how things have come to be as they are. In philosophical language, Plato's theory of Forms is both an epistemological (theory of knowledge) and an ontological (theory of being) thesis.
Plato’s Political Theory
12. Plato's major political work is composed in his masterpiece the Republic. Here he mainly explains different questions of justice. He particularly explained “what is a just state” and “who is a just individual?” The just state, according to Plato, is composed of three classes: The merchant class maintains the economic structure of the state; the military class meets the security needs of the state; and the philosophers or rulers class provides political leadership. A particular individual’s class is determined by the educational process that begins at birth and proceeds until that person has reached the maximum level of education compatible with interest and ability. Those who complete the entire educational process become philosophers-rulers or leaders. They are the ones whose minds have been so developed that they are able to grasp and understand ‘the Forms’. Therefore, they are able to make the wisest decisions for the nation. The educational system of the nation should be structured in such way that it can produce the true leaders or philosophers. People will be able to choose the desired level of education as per their interest and ability. Indeed, Plato's ideal educational system was also primarily structured so as to produce philosophers-rulers. Plato combines the traditional Greek virtues with the class structure of the ideal state. He stated, “Self-control is the unique virtue of the artisan class; courage is the virtue peculiar to the military class; and wisdom characterizes the rulers. Justice, the fourth virtue, characterizes society as a whole”. The just state is one in which each class performs its own function well without infringing on the activities of the other classes. The atmosphere of BAF must allow people to work without hindrance to achieve its multi-spheres functions of multiple dimensions.
13. Plato also explained in details about the just individual. He divides the human soul into three parts: the rational part, the will, and the appetites. The just person is the one in whom the rational element, supported by the will, controls the appetites. We can easily relate the three qualities of human with three-class structure of the society. Here within the threefold class structure of the state, the enlightened philosophers-rulers or leaders, supported by the soldiers, govern the rest of the society.
Plato’s Ethics
14. Plato's ethical theory is based on the assumption that virtue is knowledge and can be taught. The main idea of this paper is to understand this philosophy and relate this in our life style. This off course must be understood in terms of his theory of Forms. As described before, the ultimate Form according to Plato is the Form of the Good, and knowledge of this Form is the source of guidance in moral decision-making. Plato also argued that to know the good is to do the good. The outcome of this idea is that anyone who behaves immorally does so out of ignorance. This conclusion follows from Plato's conviction that the moral person is truly a happy person, and because individuals always desire their own happiness, they always desire to do that, which is moral. It is extremely important for people in our society to understand this conviction and act accordingly.
Plato’s Views on Art
15. Plato had fundamentally an opposed view regarding art and the artist. However, he approved of some religious and moralistic types of arts. His opinion was based on his theory of Forms. He explained that a beautiful flower, for example, is a copy or imitation of the universal Forms “floweriness” or “beauty.” The physical flower is one step removed from reality, that is, the Forms. A representation of the flower by the artist is, therefore, at least two steps removed from reality. As such, the artists are at least two steps distant from the reality or knowledge. Plato's criticism of the artists is that they lack genuine knowledge of what they are doing. He mentioned, “Artistic creation seems to be rooted in a kind of inspired madness”. However, the soul-searching creation of Picasso or Salvador Dali, or like many other great artist will off course ask us to reconsider such philosophy. Sometimes we do not extract the real truth from the reality than from the abstract form. It must be noted that Plato derived such opinion while explaining the theory of Form, or knowledge.
Influence of Plato’s Philosophy
16. Plato's influence throughout the history of philosophy has been monumental. His Academy continued to survive until the Byzantine emperor Justinian closed it in 529 AD. The emperor objected to its Pagan teachings and concept. Plato's impact on Jewish thought is apparent in the work of the 1st-century Alexandrian philosopher Philo Judaeus. The 3rd-century philosopher Plotinus established the concept of Neoplatonism. The theologians Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Augustine were the early Christian advocates of Platonic perspective. Platonic ideas have had a crucial role in the development of Christian theology and also in medieval Islamic thought. During the European Renaissance, the primary focus of Platonic influence was the Florentine Academy, founded in the 15th century near Florence. They studied Plato in original Greek language under the renowned scholar Marsilio Ficino. In England, the Cambridge Platonists, specially Ralph Cudworth revived Platonism in the 17th century. Plato's influence has been extended into the 20th century by such thinkers as Alfred North Whitehead. He paid tribute to Plato by describing that the history of philosophy as simply “a series of footnotes to Plato.”
Conclusion
17. The history of philosophy is undoubtedly the series of footnotes to Plato. He rightly explained the importance of proper education for the human being. His three class structure of a society is a well thought division of activities in the social order. It is not the birthplace that will decide one’s status; or it is also not inherited, rather only the educational process will allow a person to represent the class he desires, or he possesses the ability to lead. Plato emphasized that to know the good is to do the good. A person generally acts immorally mainly because of his ignorance. We know that everybody mostly look for the happiness. People exercise moral behaviour and enjoy happiness when he is truly knowledgeable. We do otherwise, or act immoral when we do not have the knowledge; and as a result we fall into discontent and extreme unhappiness. That’s why it is said that the knowledge is virtue and can be taught. Plato also explained the form of a state and the position of an individual in the just state. If we need to establish a just state we need to emphasise firstly on the educational process of the state. If the right person is not trained in the right form, we will only fall into anarchy and chaotic situation. He mentioned that it is only those few who are eligible to lead the society who had undergone the entire educational process. They are the ones whose minds have been so developed that they are able to grasp and understand ‘the Forms’. Only they are able to make the delicate decisions for the nation. The just state is one in which each class performs its own function well without infringing on the activities of the other classes. Do we follow such wisdom or only interested for interfere the domain of others instead of looking after our own domain?
Bibliography
1. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N Zalta, Stanford University, USA.
2. Science and Human Values of Plato, Prof. Fred L. Wilson, Rochester Institute of Technology.
3. The Philosophy of Plato, Classic Philosophers, Radical Academy Publications.
4. Dialogues of Plato, tr. by Benjamin Jowett, New York, D. Appleton and company, 1898.
5. Plato, Eric Weisstein, World of Biography, Eric W. Weisstein and Wolfram Research, Inc, USA.
6. A Solution to Plato's Problem: The Latent Semantic Analysis Theory of Acquisition, Induction and Representation of Knowledge, Thomas K. Landauer, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado.
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