Plato

Metaphysics and Epistemology

Plato's metaphysics and epistemology are best summarized by his device of the divided line.

Here we have a hierarchy of Modes of Thought, or types of mental representational states, with the highest being knowledge of the forms and the lowest being imaging (in the literal sense of forming images in the mind). Corresponding to these degrees of knowledge we have degrees of reality. The less real includes the physical world and our representations of it in art. The more real we encounter as we inquire into the universal natures of the various kinds of things and processes we encounter. According to Plato, the most real objects of knowledge are his Forms, his abstract, idealized properties.

In saying that the forms are abstract, we are saying that while they do exist, they do not exist in space and time. They are ideals in the sense that a form, say the form of horse-ness, is the template or paradigm of being a horse. All the physical horses partake of the form of horse-ness, but exemplify it only to partial and varying degrees of perfection. No actual triangular object is perfectly triangular, for instance. But the form of triangularity is free from all of the imperfections of the various actual instances of being triangular. The notion of something being more or less perfectly triangular perhaps has some intuitive substance. Plato also takes moral standards like justice and aesthetic standards like beauty to admit of such degrees of perfection. Beautiful physical things all partake of the form of beauty to some degree or another. But all are imperfect to some degrees in some ways. The form of beauty, however, lacks the imperfections of its space and time bound instances.

Only opinion can be had regarding the physical things events and states of affairs we are acquainted with through our sensory experience. With physical things ever changing, the degree to which we can grasp how things are at any given place and time is of little consequent. Knowledge of the nature of the Forms is understanding of the universal essential natures of things. It is understanding of what various things, like horses or people, have in common that makes them things of a kind. Plato accepts Socrates' view

that to know the good is to do the good. So his notion of epistemic excellence in seeking knowledge of the forms will be a central component of his conception of moral virtue.

There is more than first meets the mind to recommend Plato's epistemology (even if not his ontology). Knowledge of the general, the universal, what Plato would identify as knowledge of the forms does have a special and obvious value to us. In the physical sciences, the value of what we can know about a particular state of affairs lies in what it reveals about the kinds of things, events, processes and causal relations at work. The laws of nature can be seen as just analyses of the basic natural properties. For a Platonist, these are the fundamental universal forms of the world.  The laws of nature tell us how the world works. How to apply that knowledge in the actions of both individuals and states requires knowledge of the nature of the good. Accordingly, Plato places the highest value on ethical knowledge.

Moral philosophy

Plato offers us a tripartite account of the soul.  The soul consists of a rational thinking element, a motivating willful element and a desire generating appetitive element. Plato offers a story of the rational element of the soul falling from a state of grace (knowledge of the forms) and dragged down into a human state by the unruly appetites. This story of the soul's relation to the imperfect body supports Plato's view that the knowledge of the forms is a kind of remembrance. This provides a convenient source of knowledge as an alternative to the merely empirical and imperfect support of our sense experience. Plato draws a helpful analogy between his conception of the soul and a chariot drawn by two horses, one obedient, the other rebellious. The charioteer in this picture represents the rational element of the soul, the good horse the obedient will and the bad horse, of course, represents those nasty earthly appetites.

To each of the elements of the soul, there corresponds a virtue; for the rational element there is wisdom, for the willing element of the soul there is courage, and for the appetitive element there is temperance. Temperance is matter of having your appetites under control. This might sound like chronic self denial and repression. But properly understood, it is not.

Temperance and courage are cultivated through habit. In guiding our appetites by cultivating good habits, so it's held, we can come to desire what is really good for us (you know, good diet, exercise, less cable and lots more philosophy - that kind of stuff).

Wisdom is acquired through teaching, via the dialectic, or through "remembrance". Perhaps, to make the epistemological point a little less metaphysically loaded, we can think of remembrance as insight (whatever that is; but you know it if you've had it).

A more general virtue of justice is conceived as each thing functioning as it should. To get Plato's concept of justice as it applies to a person, think of the charioteer managing and controlling his team; keeping both horses running in the intended direction and at the intended speed. Justice involves the rational element being wise and in charge. For a person to be just is a matter of having the other virtues and having them function together harmoniously.

Political philosophy

Given that we understand Plato's ethical view of virtue as a matter of the three elements of the soul functioning together as they should, Plato's political philosophy is given in the view that the state is the human "writ at large". Project the standards Plato offers for virtue in an individual human onto the aggregate of individuals in a society and you have Plato's vision of the virtuous state. In the virtuous state, the rational element (the philosophers) are in charge. The willing element (the guardians or the military class) is obedient and courageous in carrying out the policies of the rational leadership. And the appetitive element (the profit driven business class) functions within the rules and constraints devised by the rational element (for instance, by honestly adhering to standards of accounting). A temperate business class has the profit motive firmly guided by the interests of the community via regulation devised by the most rational. The virtuous business class refrains from making its comfort and indulgence the over-riding concern of the state.

©W. Russ Payne

Bellevue Community College