Republic, The

plato: denkrahm

Plato’s enduring work in which the philosopher-king is depicted as the best kind of ruler.

Not too many people realize that Plato in his Republic disapproved of democracy (Greek: strength of the people), maintaining that the masses were ill-suited to the task of selecting an adequate ruler.

According to this argument, just as a doctor is specially trained to heal citizens, an enlightened ruler is uniquely endowed to govern subjects.

The Republic groups society into four classes of gold, silver, bronze and iron. Individuals ideally fulfill the duties that nature has allotted to their particular social class.

Plato’s popular ‘cave analogy’ also appears in The Republic. It illustrates his views about the connection between change and eternity. The cave analogy goes as follows:

Prisoners are bound to a chair in a cave that they’ve been imprisoned in since childhood. They face a wall with a fire burning some distance behind them. Their captors come and go, always walking between the fire and the prisoners’ backs. Consequently the captors are always seen by the prisoners as shadows projected on the wall of the cave. The prisoners know of nothing else and assume that the shadows are reality. If a prisoner were to escape up the steep slope leading to the cave entrance, his or her eyes would temporarily be blinded by the bright sunlight. Once their eyes adjusted, however, the free prisoner would realize that a far greater reality exists than the world of shadows. If the prisoner were to reenter the cave, they again would be temporarily blinded, this time by a lack of light. When their eyes readjusted, the shadows would reappear. But the prisoner now knows that they’re just shadows and not reality.

In this analogy, the shadows represent the ever-changing world of daily life. The world above the cave entrance represents an eternal, unchanging reality that Plato calls the realm of the Forms.

For Plato, only the Forms are truly real because the mundane world is in a state of becoming–i.e. subject to change and lacking permanence.

Toward the end of The Republic, “The Myth of Er” outlines Plato’s belief in reincarnation and the immortality of the soul.

The Republic is regarded as a landmark in literature, education, philosophy and political thought. Its influence spread through Europe in the Middles Ages and continues to be felt today.

» Archetype, Archetypal Image, Aristotle, Atlantis, Aurobindo (Sri), Blessed Isles, Boethius, Church Fathers, Dionysius the Areopagite, Gorgias, Meno, Neoplatonism, Plotinus, Proclus, Socrates, Skepticism, Solon, Sophists, Timeus, Universalism

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Representation

Honeybot - A visual representation of port activities (with colormap): adulau / Alexandre Dulaunoy

Representation in both the literary and artistic sense refers to depicting through language, music, visual art or dance some psychological, social, political or spiritual idea or environment.

C. G. Jung believed that representation was essential to the healthy growth of the psyche. He envisioned the conscious ego as a relatively small entity that must, through representation, express and therefore control the immense powers of the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

Postmoderns question to what degree representation actually represents some supposed thing and to what degree the process of representation creates it. Further distinctions are made in anthropology, philosophy and theology between second-order, conceptual realities and first-order sense datum.

In abstract art some believe that the personality and personal message of the artist can be removed from the overall representational message, whereas others say this is impossible–i.e. the artist, artwork and viewer will always exist in some kind of relationship.

In Platonic philosophy and much of the theology of the Middle Ages questions were raised as to the possibility of eternal, unchanging essences or ideas which are imperfectly represented in our world of change and decay.

» Active Imagination, Archetypal Image, Barthes (Roland), Bultmann (Rudolf), Cockburn (Bruce), Durkheim (Emile), Emic-Etic, Icon, Object, Participation Mystique, Surrealism, Wittgenstein, Ludwig (Josef Johann), Yoni

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Reductio ad Absurdum

356/365... Absurd room #3 Balance and serenity: Desirée Delgado

[Latin: "reduce to the absurd"]

A method of philosophical argumentation said to prove a conclusion to be true by demonstrating the contradiction, absurdity and therefore impossibility that would result if it were false.

Consider Descartes‘: “I think, therefore I am.” And its falsification: “I think, therefore I am not.” Here the question arises: If one thinks that one does not exist, then who is doing the thinking?

By falsifying the original statement, the resultant absurdity apparently proves the original statement to be true.

C. G. Jung used a form of reductio ad absurdum to try to refute the Buddhist notion of no-self. Basically, Jung asked: Who experiences the bliss of Nirvana if no self is present to experience it?

Buddhists, however, could reply that the locus of consciousness merely changes from an illusory individualism to an actual totality, a stance which theists, in turn, would question.

» Anatman, Theism

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Reason and Revelation

Listen To Reason: jaredchapman

In philosophy and also in theology a distinction is made between knowledge obtained through reason and knowledge obtained through revelation.

This distinction could be questioned. For instance, it’s conceivable that concepts and their arrangement in a logical argument could be revealed to a person from God.

However, traditional Catholic theologians usually call this “inspiration” as a result of “illumination,” suggesting that it somehow differs from a revelation communicated directly by God.

» Aquinas (St. Thomas), Duns Scotus, Revealed Knowledge

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Realism

realism: dkeyjon / Jones

In arts and culture realism refers to representations appearing to be natural, accurate and perhaps bluntly, poetically or politically so.

Just what constitutes a realist artist, however, is not usually clear-cut. The famous American painter, Norman Rockwell, for instance, is still debated as to whether or not he falls under the realist tag.

To most non-artists, Norman Rockwell is perceived to be a Realist. He isn’t. And he is.¹

Realism is also a philosophical view that external objects exist, even when not perceived by an observer. This view is related to the question – “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” – posed in philosophy.

In theology, realism refers to the belief that universal essences are more real than any individual temporal manifestation. This view was, of course, outlined in Plato’s theory of the eternal, unchanging Forms. Subsequent Medieval European theologians picked up on Plato’s pre-Christian theory and basically Christianized it.

—

¹ See Create and Relate: http://wwwcristinaacosta.blogspot.com/2008/02/norman-rockwell-how-real-is-realism.html.

» Akhenaton, Idealism, Nominalism, Surrealism

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Suffering

Thank you for your suffering: Locace / Lena

Suffering

Life usually involves some degree of suffering but human beings have interpreted the experience in diverse ways.

Some believe that suffering is meaningless and something to be avoided. This view is prevalent in Buddhism, where meditation is said to eradicate suffering.

For many Hindus suffering is a necessary teacher. As we work through our personal karma the unpleasant aspects of life can teach us not to do the ethically bad things that, so Hindus believe, caused the suffering in the first place.

Epicureanism attempts to minimize suffering through a life of prudence and termperance.

John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism minimizes suffering through a cost-benefit analysis of all actions, a position which Mill felt was ethically equivalent to Kant’s categorical imperative.

Freud saw suffering as an inevitable aspect of the human condition. He wrote that “Psychoanalysis can cure neurotic suffering but not normal human unhappiness.” For Freud individuals are, in effect, the walking wounded.

Catholicism recognizes the value of suffering, i.e. unavoidable suffering permitted by God, but doesn’t condone persecution nor advocate the pathological role playing of ‘victim’ or ‘martyr.’ For Catholics suffering may be redemptive and lead to increased purity and wisdom.

This notion of redemptive suffering differs from sheer depair or destitution in that the grace of God enables one to embrace one’s particular ‘cross of suffering’ with dignity and, with some exceptional persons like St. Francis of Assisi, even gladness and joy.

Along these lines, Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer, a prayer accepted by Catholics, asks God for a reasonably happy life here and a supremely happy one in the afterlife.

The idea of redemptive suffering has been further institutionalized by an organization called Knights at the Foot of the Cross (KFC) based on the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died by lethal injection of carbolic acid in a Nazi death camp after willingly accepting the torture of a starvation bunker in place of another prisoner. KFC is an offshoot of The Militia of the Immaculata, an international evangelical movement founded by St. Kolbe in 1917 (http://www.consecration.com/).

Last, we have those positively-minded people who may hold no particular spiritual belief other than the idea that wisdom can come from suffering.

» Alchemy, Book of Job, Buddhism, Candide, Dukkha, Eightfold Path, Eve, Evil, Four Noble Truths, Karma Transfer, Kowalska (Maria Faustina Helena, St.), Magnetizers, Mental Illness, Nirvana, Ramakrishna (Sri), Sacks (Oliver), Skandhas, Teresa of Ávila (St.), Visistadvaita, Voltaire

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Stoicism

... but the sun soon shines: Xerones

Stoicism

A Greek philosophical school founded by Zeno of Citium, c. 300 BCE.

The Stoics believed that mankind is superior to animals by virtue of our reason. The good life is lived in accord with nature and evil is understood as an unpleasant aspect of nature.

It was deemed appropriate to know about the existence of evil and therefore control one’s reaction to it.

For Stoics the Greek gods were seen as cosmic forces, a view resembling a modern approach to mythology.

Life after death was generally not believed in; however, the Stoics did subscribe to an eternal return, an idea mentioned in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche.

The philosopher Epictetus, the Roman statesman Seneca and Emporer Marcus Aurelius are usually regarded as Stoics.

» Heap of Sand Paradox, Hellenistic, Logos, Suicide

essential works of stoicism: CHRIS DRUMM

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Descartes, René

Descartes Coffee, Chicago: Larry Miller

Descartes, René (1596-1650)

French lawyer, philosopher and mathematician often hailed as the father of modern philosophy.

While serving in the Bavarian army he devised an ambitious scheme for unifying truth with a rationalistic model based on mathematics, physics and morality as implicated through medicine.

As a philosopher Descartes questioned so many issues that he’s known for his ‘method of doubt,’ outlined in Discours de la Méthode (1637), the Meditationes de prima Philosophia (1641) and the Principia Philosophiae (1644).

Descartes made a fundamental distinction between mind and matter, the latter to include the body. The philosopher Gilbert Ryle said, somewhat pejoratively, that for Descartes the mind is like a “ghost in the machine,” the machine representing the body.

Descartes is probably best known for arguing that the very act of thinking proves one’s existence: cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am). His next question, not unlike that of solipsism, was: “how do I know that the outside world truly exists?”

He was not the first to look at things this way. Thomas Leahey notes that

St. Augustine [354–430 CE] had said, “If I am deceived, I exist,” and Parmenides [515-445 BCE] had said, “For it is the same thing to think and to be.”¹

Descartes’ answer to the problem of truth seeming to be only inside oneself involved God. For Descartes, God exists by necessity. God must exist in order to be perfect. A perfect God also by necessity is Good. And a God that is Good would not deceive his creatures into believing in an outside world if no such thing existed.

Often lampooned by contemporary hack professors for saying the pineal gland mediates among body, mind and soul, we’d do well to remember that this was an innovative attempt on the part of Descartes to explain the relation between body and spirit and arguably a rational choice given the medical knowledge of his day.

In mathematics Descartes developed algebra and contributed to major innovations in geometry.

—

¹Leahey, Thomas H. A History of Psychology, Prentice Hall, 1980, p. 92.

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Spinoza, Baruch

Photo: Roel Wijnants

Spinoza, Baruch (1632-1677)

Jewish philosopher of Spanish-Portuguese parentage who was barred from his synagogue in 1656 on the charge of expounding “atheism.”

This caused Spinoza to delve even deeper into philosophy, devising a metaphysical system that envisions God as one substance with a kind of dual nature.

The first nature is natura naturata (“nature natured”), this being the whole of reality that necessarily comes from God’s nature.

The second nature is natura naturans (“nature naturing”), an infinite and eternal essence out of which God freely creates.

Spinoza’s popular metaphysic is something of a Western parallel to the Hindu notion of an unmanifest and manifest aspect of Brahman. It also has affinities with the Taoist idea of the unnamed and named aspects of the Tao.

His take on the question of free will is that mankind’s thoughts and actions are determined by myriad causes–we only believe that we’re free to make choices when, in fact, we’re not.

In 1673 Spinoza refused to accept a teaching post for philosophy at Heidelberg. He is often touted as a forerunner to the Enlightenment, and his approach opened the door for several modern disciplines, ranging from deep ecology to biblical criticism. » Pantheism

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Sophists

Ancient Olympia, Greece: cdnbusiness

Sophists

Independent Greek public speakers of the 5th century BCE, teaching for a fee about politics, philosophy and rhetoric.

Protagoras is usually regarded as the first with Gorgias being another prominent sophist. Wikipedia also lists Prodicus, Hippias, Thrasymachus, Lycophron, Callicles, Antiphon, and Cratylus.

Plato portrays them in his dialogues as foils for the sober, sound argumentation of Socrates.

In the most general sense sophists are usually depicted as denying the existence of ultimate reality and morality in favor of worldly pleasures derived from the senses.

Likewise, they’re often said to reject the Greek gods and advocate the perfection of humanity.

In actual fact, there is no single school of Sophist thought. Plato’s response to the leading Sophists is as complex as are their various positions. Although generally slighted by Plato, the sophists were highly intelligent, contributing to knowledge about linguistics, drama and a prototypical form of applied sociology.

On the Web:

• Video touching on some of the topics that the ancient Greeks debated, topics that carried on to the Middles Ages and to today.

» Baudrillard (Jean, A.)

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion