Philosophy and life of Plato. Plato: biography and philosophy. Formation of Plato's worldview

The main part of Plato's philosophy, which gave the name to the whole direction of philosophy, is the doctrine of ideas (eidos), the existence of two worlds: the world of ideas (eidos) and the world of things, or forms. Ideas (eidos) are prototypes of things, their sources. Ideas (eidos) underlie the entire set of things formed from formless matter. Ideas are the source of everything, but matter itself cannot give rise to anything. The world of ideas (eidos) exists outside of time and space. In this world there is a certain hierarchy, at the top of which stands the idea of ​​​​the Good, from which all others flow. Good is identical to absolute Beauty, but at the same time it is the Beginning of all beginnings and the Creator of the Universe. In the myth of the cave, the Good is depicted as the Sun, ideas are symbolized by those creatures and objects that pass in front of the cave, and the cave itself is an image of the material world with its illusions. The idea (eidos) of any thing or being is the deepest, most intimate and essential thing in it. In man, the role of idea is performed by his immortal soul. Ideas (eidos) have the qualities of constancy, unity and purity, and things have the qualities of variability, multiplicity and distortion.

The human soul is represented by Plato in the form of a chariot with a rider and two horses, white and black. The driver symbolizes the rational principle in a person, and the horses: white - the noble, highest qualities of the soul, black - passions, desires and the instinctive principle. When a person is in another world, he (the charioteer) gets the opportunity to contemplate eternal truths together with the gods. When a person is born again into the material world, the knowledge of these truths remains in his soul as a memory. Therefore, according to Plato’s philosophy, the only way for a person to know is to remember, to find “glimmers” of ideas in the things of the sensory world. When a person manages to see traces of ideas - through beauty, love or just deeds - then, according to Plato, the wings of the soul, once lost by it, begin to grow again.

Hence the importance of Plato’s teaching about Beauty, about the need to look for it in nature, people, art or beautifully constructed laws, because when the soul gradually rises from the contemplation of physical beauty to the beauty of the sciences and arts, then to the beauty of morals and customs, it the best way for the soul to climb the “golden ladder” to the world of ideas. The second force, no less transformative of a person and capable of raising him to the world of the gods, is Love. In general, the philosopher himself resembles Eros: he also strives to achieve good, he is neither wise nor ignorant, but is an intermediary between one and the other, he does not possess beauty and good and that is why he strives for them. Both philosophy and love make it possible to give birth to something beautiful: from the creation of beautiful things to beautiful laws and fair ideas.

Plato teaches that we can all come out of the “cave” into the light of ideas, since the ability to see the light of the spiritual Sun (that is, to contemplate truth and think) is in everyone, but, unfortunately, we are looking in the wrong direction. In the Republic, Plato also gives us a teaching about the main parts of the human soul, each of which has its own virtues: the rational part of the soul has wisdom as a virtue, the concupiscible principle (the passionate principle of the soul) has moderation and temperance, and the fierce spirit (which can be ally of both the first and the second) - courage and the ability to obey reason.

Taken together, these virtues constitute justice. Plato draws parallels between parts of the soul and types of people in the state and calls justice in the state when each person is in his place and does what he is most capable of. In the Republic, Plato devotes a special place to guards (warriors) and their education, which should combine two parts: musical and gymnastic. Gymnastic education allows one to subordinate passions to reason and develop the quality of will. And the musical allows you to soften the furious spirit and subordinate it to the laws of rhythm and harmony.

Plato's name is not just famous, significant or great. With thin and strong threads, Plato's philosophy permeates not only world philosophy, but also world culture. In European history after Plato, there has not yet been a single century when they did not argue about Plato, either exorbitantly praising him, or belittling him in every possible way in some respect - historical-religious, historical-literary, historical or sociological.

The world religions that arose after Plato tried to win him over to their side, justifying their creed with his help and often achieving success in this. But this founder of creeds often turned out to be their insidious enemy. After all, Platonism is, at its core, still a pagan teaching. There came moments in history when Platonism suddenly rebelled with a formidable force against the monotheistic doctrine, and under its blows those very theological systems, of which Plato had previously seemed the most faithful ally, began to stagger and fall.

The Greeks of the classical and Hellenistic periods, the ancient Romans, Arab thinkers opposed to Islam, late antique Judaism and medieval bondage, Byzantine Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, the Byzantine mystics of the 14th century, who summed up the thousand-year-old Byzantinism, and the German mystics of the same century, who created a strong bridge from medieval theology to German idealism, and above all to Kant, theists and pantheists of the Italian Renaissance, German humanists, French rationalists and English empiricists, the subjective idealist Fichte, the romantic mythologist Schelling, the creator of the universal dialectic of categories Hegel, Schopenhauer with his doctrine of the world of reasonable ideas (which is usually relegated to the background in comparison with his doctrine of the unreasonable world will), Russian idealist philosophers up to Vladimir Solovyov and Sergei Trubetskoy, the latest German thinkers up to the neo-Kantians, Husserlians and existentialists, Italians up to Rosmini, Gioberti, Croce and Gentile, English -American philosophy up to Royce, Whitehead and Santayana, mathematics and physics up to Heisenberg and Schrödinger, countless poets and prose writers, artists and critics, scientists and amateurs, creators who break tradition, and ordinary people who cowardly defend it - all this is boundless Many minds have been arguing, worrying, getting excited about Plato for the third millennium, singing his praises or reducing him to the level of philistine mediocrity. We can say that Plato turned out to be some kind of eternal problem in the history of human culture, and it is still impossible to imagine when, how, under what circumstances and by whom this problem will be finally resolved.

This unprecedented situation has two consequences. After all, since Plato constantly influenced and, on the other hand, they constantly fought against him, the historian of philosophy receives very interesting, varied and more or less easily covered material at certain moments in history. But due to the fact that so many people thought and dreamed about him, accepted him or even simply studied him, Plato’s personality and work are shrouded in an impenetrable fog of various legends and tales, even a kind of myths and fairy tales. And the question arises: how to get through the impenetrable thickness of this fog to the real Plato, how to unravel, how to formulate the true historical essence of Plato’s philosophy, without falling into any exaggeration and, if possible, adhering only to the facts?

But what are facts? The whole difficulty lies precisely in the fact that it is often completely impossible to establish the facts, that is, to qualify the information that has reached us about Plato as information about facts, and not as fantastic fiction or just gossip. Some foreign researchers (for example, Zeller) acted very simply in these cases: they questioned all the numerous ancient evidence about Plato, only sometimes, very rarely, descending from the heights of their academic greatness to recognizing the reported event as a valid fact.

One of them turned out to be dubious and unreliable, another - contradictory, the third - extremely confusing, the fourth - an unfounded dithyramb, the fifth - a deliberate reduction, the sixth - a historical-religious or historical-philosophical stencil, etc. With such hypercriticism, we are not talking about Plato, We cannot know anything properly about any other ancient thinker, we cannot say anything reliable, and everything in general turns out to be unknowable. This was a huge era of bourgeois historiography, which now seems to have largely been outlived.

Overcoming hypercriticism has long affected Plato. However, we still do not have a sufficiently detailed critical biography of Plato. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, one of his last major biographers, himself admits such an incredible mixture of hypercriticism and fantasy that his talented two-volume biography of Plato cannot at present be considered the final word of science.

A modern researcher of Plato still has to construct his biography at his own peril and risk and fear for his constructions from some critical techniques still unknown to science. However, this applies not only to Plato. The more remarkable a person is, the more overgrown he is in subsequent generations with all sorts of myths and fairy tales, and the more difficult it is to get to the historical truth.

Plato's philosophy

The essence of philosophy according to Plato

According to Plato, philosophy is the highest science, which embodies the pure desire for truth. She is the only path to knowing yourself, God and true happiness. A true sage is drawn to philosophy not by a dry, rational craving for dead, abstract knowledge, but by a loving attraction (Eros) to the highest mental good.

Plato on the dialectical method of philosophical knowledge

Like Socrates, Plato believes that everyday impressions give us a distorted image of reality. Naive-direct knowledge is erroneous. It can only be clarified through intense reflection and application. philosophical dialectics, which teaches to analyze, connect, classify confusing sensory impressions, obtaining a general concept from their disordered mass - and, conversely, from a general concept to derive ideas about genera, species and individual objects.

The world of things and the world of ideas in Plato - briefly

In addition to the perception of sensory, material of things , we have an idea of ​​general, abstract concepts - ideas . According to Plato's philosophy, an idea is something identical that occurs in at least two different things. But no one can cognize what does not exist - therefore, ideas really exist, although we do not feel them like sensory objects.

Moreover, only the world of intelligible ideas true exists, and the sensory world of things is only its pale ghost. Not a single sensory object is capable of being a complete manifestation of at least one idea, of embodying it entirely. In the world of things, true essences are hidden and distorted by the cover of formless, qualityless matter. Things are nothing more than a weak semblance of ideas - and therefore they are not true being.

The structure of the universe according to Plato

IN Plato's philosophical ideas about space and the universe there is a strong influence of mythology - perhaps even the eastern traditions adopted by him during his many years of travel. God, the architect of the universe, when creating it, combined ideas with material matter. The essence of the universe is similar to that of man: it has a rational soul and is a personality. “The Architect of the World” distributed matter into five elements and gave the Universe the shape of that geometric figure into which all the others can be enclosed (inscribed) - a ball. This ball inside consists of concentric spheres along which the planets and celestial bodies move. The natural, and not arbitrary, nature of the movement of these luminaries serves, according to Plato, the best proof that the cosmos is controlled by an intelligent will.

Ideas of beauty and harmony are inseparable from reason. The distances between the orbits of the planets correspond to the first three numbers, their squares and cubes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 27. If we supplement the series of these numbers by inserting proportional numbers between them, we obtain a mathematical sequence corresponding to the relationships between the tones of the lyre. Hence Plato argues that the rotation of the celestial spheres creates musical harmony (“ harmony of spheres»).

But since the ideal and material principles are connected in the universe, it is not governed by one mind, and the second – inert, blind and inert – force: the law of necessity, which Plato figuratively calls rock. The movements of the planets in the direction opposite to the movement of the starry sky prove that forces operating in the universe are opposite to one another. During the creation of the Universe, reason prevailed over the law of material necessity, but in some periods evil fate can achieve dominance over reason. God, having initially put intelligence into the world, then gives the universe freedom and only occasionally takes care of it, restoring a rational structure in the cosmos and preventing it from slipping into complete chaos.

Plato's doctrine of the soul - briefly

Plato's doctrine of the soul set out in dialogues Timaeus and Phaedrus. According to Plato, the human soul is immortal. All souls were created by the Creator at the moment of the creation of the universe. Their number is equal to the number of heavenly bodies, so that for each soul there is one star, which protects the soul in earthly life, after connecting with the body. Before the beginning of earthly existence, souls visit the world of pure ideas, located above the starry sky. Depending on the memories retained by the soul from this, it then chooses a body and a way of earthly life. After death, the soul is judged: the righteous go to heaven, and the sinners go underground. After a thousand years, the soul will again have to choose a material body. Souls who choose the lifestyle of philosophers three times in a row stop further rebirths and plunge into divine peace. All the rest migrate across earthly bodies (sometimes even non-human ones) for ten thousand years.

Plato believes that the human soul consists of three parts. One of them, the intelligent one, fits in the head. The other two parts of the soul are irrational. One of them is noble - this is the will that lives in the chest and is in union with the mind. The other is ignoble - these are sensual passions and lower instincts located in the stomach. In each of the peoples, one part of the soul predominates: reason - among the Greeks, courage - among the northern barbarians, attraction to low self-interest - among the Phoenicians and Egyptians.

Being in the body under the dominion of sensuality, the soul would have no way to return to the world of ideas if the world of phenomena did not have in itself a property that revives memories of the ideal world in the soul. This is beauty that arouses love in the soul. In Plato's philosophy, love is valued the more, the more completely it is freed from gross sensual attractions. Such love has since been called “platonic”.

Plato's doctrine of the state - briefly

Based on the above ideas about the three parts of the soul Plato's state philosophy. Each of these three parts should strive for its own virtue. The virtue of reason is wisdom, the virtue of will is courage, the virtue of feeling is temperance. From the harmony of these three qualities, the highest form of good arises - justice. Like the parts of the human soul and according to them, ideal state should consist of three classes, separated from each other according to the type of closed castes: rulers-sages, warriors subordinate to them and the lower, working class. Each of them has its own special social purpose.

“Justice,” says Plato, “will be established only when philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers.” The upper, ruling class, in his opinion, should receive philosophical education and upbringing from the state from an early age. Poets, artists and, in general, all works of intellectual creativity should be subjected to strict government supervision, so that only noble, useful works, full of good moral examples, are disseminated in society. Not only the political, but also the personal of every citizen must be fully regulated by the state - right up to the establishment of a communist community of property and women. The normal family in Plato's ideal republic is abolished. Relations between the sexes are also regulated by the state. Children immediately after birth are transferred to public foster homes, so they do not know their parents, and adults do not know those to whom they gave birth. Material goods produced by the lower, working class are distributed under state control. In general, Plato's political philosophy advocates the complete enslavement of every individual by society - so that he serves only the collective, and not his own personal interests.

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Test

Plato's philosophy

Work completed:

Gyrdymova S.N.

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correspondence form of study

Course 3 Group No. 399

Teacher: Assoc. Prof. Volkova T.I.

Chelyabinsk 2012

Introduction

Biography of Plato and his contribution to the development of philosophical science

Theory of ideas

Doctrine of the Soul

Doctrine of knowledge

Doctrine of the State

Conclusion

Introduction

Plato had a huge influence on the development of philosophical thought. His theories are fundamental to philosophical science. His ideas can be traced not only in philosophy, but also in world culture.

Plato's discoveries are important, indicating the dualism of the human being. He saw human nature in the duality of soul and body, ideal and material principles.

The significance of Plato's philosophical discoveries is confirmed by his fruitful interpretations throughout subsequent cultural history. At the same time, the image of Plato and his teaching changes depending on the nature of interest in him.

His ancient followers emphasized the religious-mystical component of his teaching and considered him a “divine teacher”; medieval thinkers - called the forerunner of the Christian worldview; Renaissance thinkers - a philosopher of ideal love and a political utopian; classical German philosophers - a rational idealist; thinkers of the 19th - 20th centuries - forerunners of some methods of modern philosophy; 19th century political economist

K. Marx highly appreciated Plato's teaching on the state, calling the depiction of the division of labor ingenious for its time; socialist and leader of the revolutionary movement in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, V. Lenin called the entire idealistic tradition in philosophy “Plato’s line.” Studying the history of the development of philosophy and other sciences gives an idea of ​​​​the relevance of Plato's ideas at the present time.

The purpose of the work is to study Plato's philosophy in the light of the further development of philosophy.

Achieving the goal is possible by solving the following tasks:

) study the biography of Plato;

) consider the main points of Plato's philosophy:

theory of ideas - basic provisions;

the doctrine of the soul - its relationship with the human body, its ability to know;

political doctrine - thoughts about government;

theory of knowledge;

) analyze the significance of Plato’s philosophy for the development of philosophical thought.

The work includes an introduction, a main part consisting of six paragraphs, and a conclusion.

To write the work, the following sources were used: philosophy textbooks, opinion articles, monographs, periodicals.

1. Biography of Plato and his contribution to the development of philosophical science

Plato lived in 427-347 BC. This is the greatest philosopher of Ancient Greece. He was a student of Socrates.

Plato was born in Athens. He belonged to ancient aristocratic families, both on his mother’s side (related to the legislator Solon) and on his father’s side (related to the last Attic king Codrus). This origin implied inevitable political participation in the life of Athens, which was also facilitated by Plato’s education and personal inclinations. However, meeting Socrates changed this perspective. Plato initially studied political science with Socrates. Then I became interested in philosophy. He developed a desire to radically change the existing system. After the execution of Socrates in 399 BC. Plato leaves Athens and finally returns to the city only in 360 BC. During this interval, he travels (with long stops and training with priests and scientists) to Egypt, Cyrene, and Italy. Three times during this time he tries to carry out a political experiment in Sicily, in Syracuse, to establish a political system led by a philosopher ruler. All three attempts are unsuccessful. Upon returning from Syracuse to Athens, Plato founded a philosophical school there (in 387 BC). The school established itself very quickly and began to gather many talented thinkers. The creation of a philosophical school - the Academy - is a huge contribution to the development of philosophical teachings. Plato is considered the founder of the idealistic movement in philosophy. His main ideas:

material things are changeable, impermanent and cease to exist over time;

the surrounding world (“the world of things” is also temporary and changeable and in reality does not exist as an independent substance;

only pure (incorporeal) ideas (eidos) really exist;

pure (incorporeal) ideas are true, eternal and permanent;

any existing thing is just a material reflection of the original idea (eidos) of a given thing;

the whole world is a reflection of pure ideas (eidos).

Plato left a number of fundamental philosophical works: “Apology of Socrates”, “Parmelides”, “Gorgias”, “Phaedo”, “State”, “Laws”. Plato wrote his works in the form of dialogue.

About 70 ancient evidence has been preserved that Plato in the last years of his life expounded some systematic teaching (the “unwritten teaching” as Aristotle calls it). This unwritten doctrine, supposedly called “On the Good as Such,” was expounded by Plato in the last years of teaching at the Academy.

Plato is the founder of the idealistic trend in philosophy. He had a great influence on the development of philosophical thought. He left behind a collection of works on philosophy.

Theory of ideas

According to Plato's theory, there are three types of existence: eternal ideas, concrete things subject to change, and space in which things exist:

“Firstly, there is an identical idea, unborn and undying, not perceiving anything into itself from anywhere and not itself entering into anything, invisible and not otherwise felt, but given over to the care of thought. Secondly, there is something similar to this idea and bearing the same name - tangible, born, ever moving, arising in a certain place and disappearing again from it, and it is perceived by means of opinion combined with sensation. Thirdly, there is another kind, namely space: it eternal, does not accept destruction, gives an abode to the whole race, but itself is perceived outside of sensation, through some kind of illegal conclusion, and it is almost impossible to believe in it.” This theory is discussed in detail by Plato in the dialogue Timaeus. Researchers of Plato's works have ambivalent perceptions of his attitude towards ideas and the status of ideas. By ideas, Plato understands not just the concept of a thing, but the reason and purpose of its existence.

In the dialogue "Parmenides" Plato criticizes the radical opposition between the "world of ideas" and the "world of things." In this dialogue, a character intended to portray the historically existing philosopher Parmenides undertakes to prove the absurdity of the statement that ideas exist separately from things. For Plato, the theme of the existence of an idea is revealed in the question of the existence of a single thing in general. If the one exists, it cannot remain one in the strict sense of the word. Plato researcher Tatyana Vadimovna Vasilyeva says the following about this problem: “the one can remain one, and only one, the one and only one, only as long as it does not exist. As soon as the one becomes an existing one, it ceases to be only one and becomes to many. There is a contradiction here, but it is a contradiction of being itself. Does this conclusion deny the separate existence of ideas? Under a monistic system it does, under a dualistic system it does not."

Idea of ​​Good.

The idea of ​​good is the highest object of knowledge, according to Plato. He developed a whole concept about the idea of ​​good. It is discussed in the dialogue "State". Good, according to Plato's theory, is not only a phenomenon that is assessed positively from an ethical point of view. It is also, in a sense, ontological perfection, for example, the quality of a particular thing, its usefulness and high quality. Good is not pleasure or something that brings benefit. Plato's good is “good in itself.” Good cannot be defined as pleasure, because we have to admit that there are bad pleasures. Something that only benefits us cannot be called good, because the same thing can harm others.

In the works of Plato, the Good is compared to the Sun. In the visible world, the Sun is a necessary condition both for the fact that objects become accessible to vision and for a person to gain the ability to see objects. In exactly the same way, in the sphere of pure knowledge, the idea of ​​good becomes a necessary condition both for the knowability of the ideas themselves and for a person’s ability to know ideas. As Socrates summarizes it in the dialogue “The Republic”: “what gives truth to knowable things, and endows a person with the ability to know, this is what you consider the idea of ​​good - the cause of knowledge and the knowability of truth.”

The doctrine of the triad occupies an important place in Plato's philosophy. According to him, in the tangible world there are three substances: the one, the mind and the soul. The One is the basis for being. It has no characteristics: beginning, ending, integrity, content, form. This is something that is higher than any existence and consciousness. This is the basis for everything - ideas, things, phenomena, properties of objects. Mind comes from the one. Connected with the one. The opposite of "single". Is the essence of all things. The mind summarizes all life on Earth.

The soul is a moving substance. It connects various categories of life, phenomena, things. In Plato's philosophy there is the concept of an individual human soul and the soul of the whole world. The soul of an individual person is part of the world soul. The soul itself is immortal. Only the body can die. At the same time, the soul takes on a new bodily form. All this happens according to the law of the Cosmos.

In the theory of ideas, Plato characterizes the relationship between things, ideas and space. The theory of ideas also includes phenomena that accompany all things: the theory of knowledge, the idea of ​​good.

3. Doctrine of the soul

The doctrine of the soul is expounded in the philosophical work “The State”. Body and soul are contrasted: the body is decomposable and mortal, and the soul is eternal.

Thus, the dualism of soul and body is revealed. Unlike the body, which can be destroyed, nothing can prevent the soul from existing forever.

Three parts of the soul.

In his dialogue "Phaedrus" Plato gives the famous image of the chariot of the soul. The following picture is drawn: “Let us liken the soul to the united power of a winged pair of team and a charioteer. Among the gods, both horses and charioteers are all noble and come from nobles, while for the rest they are of mixed origin. Firstly, it is our ruler who rules the team, and then the horses "He has one beautiful, noble and born from the same horses, and the other horse is his opposite and his ancestors are different. It is inevitable that ruling us is a difficult and tedious task." , and the bad horse is the passionate or emotional part of the soul.

Plato identifies three principles of the soul:

The rational principle is directed towards cognition and completely conscious activity.

Fierce beginning - strives for order and overcoming difficulties. As Plato says, rage and anger are different from simple lusts and even often argue with them: “we notice how a person, overcome by lusts despite the ability to reason, scolds himself and is angry at these rapists who have settled in him. The anger of such a person becomes an ally of his reason in this feud, which seems to be between only two sides."

The passionate principle is expressed in the countless desires of a person. In Plato's dialogue "The Republic" it is said that the beginning, "because of which a person falls in love, experiences hunger and thirst and is overwhelmed by other lusts, we will call the beginning unreasonable and lustful, a close friend of all kinds of satisfaction and pleasure."

Plato developed a theory about the immortality of the soul. In the Phaedo, Plato presents four arguments in favor of this theory.

) Cyclic proof. There is a mutual conditionality of any opposites. Since opposites presuppose the existence of each other, death presupposes the existence of immortality. The living comes from the dead, and only the living can die, then this fact can serve as an argument in favor of the reincarnation of souls. The souls of the dead must remain in an incorruptible state, which distinguishes them from the nature of the body and presupposes the dualism of spirit and body.

) The doctrine of knowledge as recollection. There are universal concepts in the human mind, such as “beauty in itself” or “justice in itself.” These concepts point to absolute entities that exist forever. If the soul knows about them, then the soul of a person existed even before the person himself was born. The soul could not receive knowledge of immortal and eternal entities if it were not itself immortal and eternal. In conjunction with the first argument, the continuation of the existence of the soul even after the death of a person is proven.

) Proof of the heterogeneity of soul and body. There are two types of existence. The first includes everything visible and decomposable, the second - the formless, that is, inaccessible to the senses, and indecomposable. The body is something that is visible and constantly changing. Consequently, the body is complex in nature, and there is nothing simple and indecomposable in it. That is why the body is mortal. But the soul is formless and is drawn to the knowledge of eternal and unchanging things.

) The fourth argument in favor of the immortality of the soul is the more complex doctrine of opposites. Opposites are mutually exclusive. So, if a number is even, then it cannot be odd, and if something is fair, then it cannot be unfair. If we define the soul, then it is the true reason for the existence of the body. Such a cause is called by Plato eidos or idea. Therefore, the soul as the “idea of ​​life” cannot be involved in anything that is opposite to life, that is, death. And this proves the immortality of the soul.

Plato introduces ethical and religious aspects into his doctrine of the immortality of the soul. So, in particular, he mentions the possibility of posthumous punishments and rewards for the soul for its earthly accomplishments. Imperfect human souls fall from the sphere of “pure being” to earth and inhabit human bodies.

In his teaching, Plato considers the fate of the human soul, which is in the sphere of “pure being”. There is no time, no change. But only pure forms and ideas are present. Plato's ethical views also fit into the doctrine of the soul.

Doctrine of knowledge

The world around us, according to Plato, accessible to knowledge, is of two types: comprehended by sensation and cognizable by the mind. Sensations allow us to understand (albeit unreliably) the world of things, reason allows us to see the truth. The tangible is objects and their images. The first is related to faith, and the second is likeness. Faith refers to the ability to have direct experience. Taken together, these abilities constitute an opinion. Opinion cannot be called knowledge in the full sense, because... we are talking about changing objects and changing their images.

The sphere of the intelligible is also divided into two types: these are the ideas of things and their intelligible similarities. Ideas do not require any prerequisites for their knowledge, representing eternal and unchanging entities accessible only to reason. The second type includes mathematical objects. According to Plato's thought, mathematicians only “dream” existence, since they use inferential concepts that require a system of axioms that are accepted without proof. The ability to produce such concepts is understanding. Reason and understanding together constitute thinking, and only it is capable of cognizing the essence. Plato uses the following comparison: as essence is related to becoming, so thinking is related to opinion; and knowledge is related to faith and reasoning is related to assimilation. Plato’s work “The Myth of the Cave” (or “Parable of the Cave”) was of great importance for the development of the theory of knowledge.

Plato's dialectics.

Plato considers dialectics to be the main method of knowledge. Dialectics, in his opinion, is knowledge of the very essences of things. In the ordinary understanding, dialectics is just the art of reasoning in communication, especially during an argument. For Plato, in the ordinary meaning of the word, it was important to emphasize the moment of a comprehensive consideration of a thing.

In his theory of knowledge, Plato characterizes the process of knowledge, what it consists of, and how knowledge occurs. Considers the relationship between knowledge and opinion: bipedal, with flat nails, receptive to knowledge based on reasoning.

Doctrine of the State

Plato defines the state as “a single whole within which individuals unequal by nature perform their various functions.” In addition, Plato believed that the state is like a person. In the state there are the same three principles as in the human soul: reason, rage and lust. The natural (and ideal) state is when the mind leads. Plato considered the Attic city-polis to be an ideal state. The ideal state is located in a specific political time and space. Already in the time of Plato, such a state belonged to the past. The ideal state is the opposite of the individualistic Greek state.

The ideal state for Plato is a closed, self-sufficient entity. The ideal state is a compulsory institution for everyone - and for the aristocracy of reason as well - because they are obliged to rule over "fury" and "lust." For an ideal state, development means damage, destruction, because development is only possible for the best, and this state is already ideal. Therefore, contacts with other city-states are limited. Trade, industry, finance are limited - because this corrupts.

The goal of such a state is the unity and virtue of the entire state as a whole, and the virtue of the individual. Political rule occurs in accordance with the 4 virtues of an ideal state, which are wisdom (philosophers who are guardians of the laws), prudence (unity of views among rulers and subjects), courage (the ability of rulers to constantly maintain the idea of ​​danger instilled in them by education) and justice. In such a state, three different classes (divided according to natural inclinations) do different jobs. Rulers who personify reason ensure the correct implementation of the idea of ​​an ideal state. They come from guardians of the law over 50 years of age. Warriors, personifying rage, protect the state from enemies; they are guardians of the law. Farmers, artisans and merchants personify lust. Their task is to maintain the economic basis of the state. However, they do not have any political rights. Plato considers such a division fair, and complete injustice - the interference of these classes in each other's affairs.

Plato noted that only the guardians of the law have political power, and the problem of maintaining the unity of the state is primarily the problem of maintaining internal unity among the guardian class. Therefore, Plato destroyed their family - otherwise it would have been the beginning of individualism, isolation of interests. In addition, guards should not have any material wealth or engage in trade or agriculture.

In the exercise of power, there is no institutional means to control the rulers; the only thing that binds them is their inner conviction of the need to uphold the law, which is reasonable.

Plato notes that the political elite is the result of proper education. Education is bringing children to a way of thinking that is defined by law as correct and that the oldest and most respectable people have been convinced of its actual correctness by experience. The purpose of law, unwritten custom, and art is to force people to voluntarily perform actions determined by rulers to be fair.

Plato does not deny inequality. He argues that inequality lies in nature itself, therefore it cannot be avoided in an ideal state. In non-ideal states, justice is an agreement between people. The state is the result of a contract between people, concluded in order not to tolerate injustice. In such states there is no natural justice (but it is present in the ideal). Natural justice is that the state is a contract that agrees with the natural basis: social life begins with natural inequality.

Plato recognizes the power of elders over the younger, or “fathers” over “children” (over 20 years old - parents, younger - children). That is why guardians of the law become rulers only after 50 years. In addition, the noble must rule over the ignoble (to justify this, Plato cites a myth that says that the gods put gold in the souls of rulers, silver in the souls of guardians of the law, and iron and copper in the souls of the third estate, and very rarely is born from farmers a child with gold or silver in his soul, but if he is born, he will be transferred to the appropriate class). Besides this, masters rule, slaves obey; the strong subjugate the weak. And - most importantly - the ignorant is under the guidance of the intelligent.

Political decline for Plato means the result of moral decline (and lack of knowledge). Plato believes that decline begins with changes in children's games, morals, habits, and business relationships between citizens. Therefore, it is necessary to prohibit all changes - they will lead to the worst. And the state must also control morality in order to prevent moral changes.

plato philosophical knowledge state

Conclusion

The result of the work done is an understanding of the theoretical foundations of Plato's philosophy and the significance of Plato for the development of philosophical thought.

Plato is the first philosopher who left behind a collection of fundamental works. Many generations of philosophers were raised on the basis of these works. And at present, Plato’s works are used to study the history of philosophy.

He is the founder of idealism. It was Plato who laid the foundation for idealism as a major philosophical trend (the so-called “Plato line” - the opposite of the materialistic “Democrat line”). Idealist philosophy was significantly developed in the works of Plato and was further developed on the basis of his theories by his followers.

Plato is the first philosopher to deeply study the problems of nature, society, state and man. For the first time, he linked all the theories with each other, fully exploring these problems. Plato first proposed the idea of ​​an ideal state - this idea was highly appreciated by Marx. Despite the utopian nature of political theory, the very fact of the emergence of desires for the reorganization of the world is a big step forward in philosophical science.

Plato laid the foundations of definitions and concepts and tried to form conceptual thinking. He identified philosophical categories: being - becoming, eternal - temporary, stationary - moving, indivisible - divisible, etc.

Plato created a serious philosophical school (Academy), which existed for about 1000 years, where many prominent followers of Plato grew up (Aristotle, etc.).

List of used literature

1. Analytical philosophy: Textbook / Ed. M.V. Lebedeva, A.Z. Chernyak. M.: RUDN, 2006. 740 pages.

Boroday T.Yu. The birth of a philosophical concept. God and matter in Plato's dialogues. M.: Publishing house. Savin S.A., 2008. 284 pp.

Boroday T.Yu. Plato. // Ancient philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. M.: Progress-Tradition. 2008. pp. 565-574

Introduction to philosophy: Textbook / I.T. Frolov et al. M.: Republic, 2006. 623 pp.

Gevorkyan A.T. The Mystery of Plato: text of lectures. Yerevan: Chartaraget, 2008. 159 pp.

History of philosophy: Textbook / P.V. Alekseev. M.: TK Welby, Prospekt, 2007. 240 pp.

Kondrashev V.A. The latest philosophical dictionary. M.: Phoenix, 2006. 197 pages.

Mogilevsky B.M. Plato and the Sicilian tyrants: the sage and power. M.: URSS, 2006. 157 pp.

Samoilov S.F., Prosvetov S.Yu. Philosophical genres in Plato’s works: experience of theoretical modeling. Krasnodar, 2006. 126 pages.

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Plato (427 - 347 BC) - the greatest ancient Greek philosopher. Plato's real name is Aristocles, "Plato" being a nickname meaning "broad-shouldered". He was the son of an Athenian citizen. In terms of his social status, he came from the Athenian slave-owning aristocracy. In his youth, he was a student of the circle of a supporter of the teachings of Heraclitus - Cratylus, where he became acquainted with the principles of objective dialectics; he was also influenced by Cratylus's tendency towards absolute relativism. At the age of 20, he was preparing to participate in a competition as the author of a tragedy and accidentally overheard a discussion in which Socrates participated. She captivated him so much that he burned his poems and became a student of Socrates.

Plato, the great student of Socrates, the founder of his own school - the Academy, which existed for almost a thousand years, develops an image of the world worthy of the emerging human personality; sets goals for a person worthy of the harmony of the Cosmos. Being and non-being in his system are not two equal explanatory principles of the world order, indifferent to man, his goals and hopes. The world is “centered” around a person, formless matter swirls at his feet - non-existence, his gaze is turned to the sky - beautiful, good, eternal - existence.

Philosophy for Plato is a kind of contemplation of truth. It is purely intellectual, it is not just wisdom, but the love of wisdom. Everyone who engages in any kind of creative work is in a state of mind when the truth or the beautiful appears in a sudden insight.

Plato is the founder of objective idealism. The central place in Plato's philosophy is occupied by the doctrine of ideas. So, ideas are the essence of things, that which makes each thing exactly “this”, given, and not another. Otherwise, ideas are what makes each thing what it is. Plato uses the term "paradigm", indicating that ideas form a timeless (permanent) model of every thing. Plato understands supersensible reality as a hierarchy of ideas: the lower ideas are subordinate to the upper ones.

At the top of the hierarchy is the idea of ​​the Good in itself - it is not conditioned by anything, therefore, it is absolute. In the dialogue "The Republic", Plato writes about it as generating being itself. The sensory world (cosmos) is structured by ideas. The physical world comes from ideas. Plato's sensory world is a perfect order (cosmos), which is an expression of the triumph of logos over the blind necessity of matter. Matter is the repository of the sensible, in Plato’s definition, it is “chora” (spatiality). She is in the grip of formless and chaotic movement.

The main question of Plato's cosmology: how is the cosmos born from the chaos of matter? Plato answers as follows: there is a Demiurge (God the creator, willful, thinking, personal), who, taking the world of ideas as a model, created the physical cosmos from matter. Moreover, the reason for the creation of the universe lies in the pure desire of the Demiurge. Plato defines the main motive of creation in the dialogue “Timaeus” as follows: “He was good, and he who is good never experiences envy in any matter. Being alien to envy, he wished that all things should become as similar to him as possible.” himself... God took care of all visible things that were not at rest, but in discordant and disorderly movement; he brought them out of disorder into order, believing that the second is certainly better than the first. sophist idealism Aristotle morality

It is impossible now and it was impossible from ancient times for the one who is the highest good to produce something that would not be the most beautiful; Meanwhile, reflection showed him that of all things that are by their nature visible, not a single creation devoid of intelligence can be more beautiful than one that is endowed with intelligence, if we compare both as a whole; and the mind cannot dwell in anyone separately from the soul. Guided by this reasoning, he arranged the mind in the soul, and the soul in the body, and thus built the Universe, intending to create a creation that was most beautiful and best in nature.

In outer space there is a world soul (spirit). The human soul is independent of the body and immortal. The longer the soul stays in the realm of ideas, the more knowledge it will bring to a person. The soul inhabits the body. It consists of 3 parts:

• · Intelligence.
• · Passion.
• · Sensual desires.

The victory of reason over passion and desires is possible through proper education. Man himself cannot improve. Personal efforts are not enough for self-education. The state and laws help a person with this. He wrote the book “State, Politics, Law.”

The state is an organization of political figures who have an apparatus of coercion, territory, and sovereignty, giving their orders a generally binding character. He divided states into positive and negative and identified 4 types of negative states.

• · Timocracy - a state that reflects the interests of owners and creates material values. “Power is based on the dominance of the ambitious. First the features of a perfect state, then luxury (luxury as a way of life).
• · Oligarchy is the rule of the few over the majority; these are the few spendthrifts, the rich and the drones, giving rise to evil, crime and theft.
• · Democracy - it develops from an oligarchy into a worse state form. Democracy is the rule and power of the majority, where contradictions arise between the poor and the rich. They escalate and result in an uprising. The victory of the poor, they expel the old rulers, then divide power, but cannot govern and give power to dictators and tyrants.
• · Tyranny - the power of one over all,

He proposes a new type of state - a perfect one. A perfect state is the best government, where a few gifted, professional people are in charge. The main principle of which is justice.

• · The perfection of the state in its own organization and means of protection.
• · The ability to systematically supply the country with material goods, lead and direct the creativity and spiritual activity of the country.

Plato points out that citizens live in a perfect state. According to the moral inclinations and characteristics of a person and their professions, they are divided into categories:

• · Workers in various industries (potters, peasants, traders, etc.) producing food and products are the lowest class of citizens.
• · Warriors are guards above the first category.
• · Philosopher rulers are morally superior to warriors, and warriors are superior to producers. Rulers must be guided by the principles that form the basis of the state: wisdom, courage, moderation, justice, unanimity.

According to Plato, a perfect state has four virtues:

• wisdom
• · courage,
• · prudence,
• · justice.

By “wisdom” Plato means the highest knowledge. Only philosophers should rule the state and only under their rule the state will prosper.

“Courage” is also the privilege of a few (“A state is courageous only thanks to one of its parts”). “I consider courage to be a kind of preservation ... that preserves a certain opinion about danger - what it is and what it is.”

The third valor - prudence, unlike the previous two, belongs to all members of the state. "Something like order - that's what prudence is."

The presence of “justice” in the state is prepared and conditioned by “prudence.” Thanks to justice itself, each class of society and each individual person receives their own special task to perform. “This doing your own thing is probably justice.”

It is interesting that Plato, who lived during a time of universal slave-owning system, does not pay special attention to slaves. All production concerns are entrusted to artisans and farmers. Here Plato writes that only “barbarians”, non-Hellenes, can be enslaved during war. However, he also says that war is an evil that arises in vicious states for enrichment, and in an ideal state war should be avoided, therefore, there will be no slaves. In his opinion, the highest ranks (castes) should not have private property in order to maintain unity.

However, in the dialogue “Laws,” where problems of government are also discussed, Plato shifts the main economic concerns to slaves and foreigners, but condemns warriors. Philosophers, on the basis of reason, control the other classes, limiting their freedom, and warriors play the role of “dogs” keeping the lower “herd” in obedience. This aggravates the already cruel division into categories. Plato wants to achieve the same result by “socializing” not only human property, but also wives and children.

According to Plato, men and women should not marry on their own whim. It turns out that marriage is secretly controlled by philosophers, pairing the best with the best, and the worst with the worst. After childbirth, children are selected and given to their mothers after some time, and no one knows whose child he got, and all men (within the caste) are considered the fathers of all children, and all women are the common wives of all men.

Plato opened a school in Athens - Academy. Plato's school got its name from the fact that classes took place in the halls of a gymnasium in the vicinity of Athens, called the Academy (named after the Greek hero Academus). Near this gymnasium, Plato acquired a small plot of land where members of his school could gather and live.

Access to the school was open to everyone. While studying at the Academy, Plato combined the teachings of Socrates and the teachings of the Pythagoreans, whom he met during his first trip to Sicily. From Socrates he adopted the dialectical method, irony, and interest in ethical problems; from Pythagoras - inherited the ideal of the common life of philosophers and the idea of ​​education with the help of symbols, based on mathematics, as well as the possibility of applying this science to the knowledge of nature.

Plato died in 348 or 347 BC. at the age of eighty, retaining the fullness of his powerful mind until the end of his life. His body is buried in Ceramics, not far from the Academy.

Plato's works belong to the classical period of ancient philosophy. Their peculiarity lies in the combination of problems and solutions that were previously developed by their predecessors. For this Plato, Democritus and Aristotle are called taxonomists. Plato the philosopher was also an ideological opponent of Democritus and the founder of the objective.

Biography

The boy we know as Plato was born in 427 BC and named Aristocles. The city of Athens became the place of birth, but scientists are still arguing about the year and city of the philosopher’s birth. His father was Ariston, whose roots went back to King Codra. The mother was a very wise woman and bore the name of Periktion; she was a relative of the philosopher Solon. His relatives were prominent ancient Greek politicians, and the young man could have followed their path, but such activities “for the good of society” were abhorrent to him. All he enjoyed by birthright was the opportunity to receive a good education - the best available at that time in Athens.

The youthful period of Plato's life is poorly studied. There is not enough information to understand how its formation took place. The life of the philosopher from the moment he met Socrates has been studied more thoroughly. At that time, Plato was nineteen years old. Being a famous teacher and philosopher, he would hardly have taken up teaching an unremarkable young man similar to his peers, but Plato was already a prominent figure: he took part in the national Pythian and Isthmian sports games, was involved in gymnastics and strength sports, was fond of music and poetry. Plato is the author of epigrams, works related to the heroic epic and dramatic genre.

The biography of the philosopher also contains episodes of his participation in hostilities. He lived during the Peloponnesian War and fought at Corinth and Tanagra, practicing philosophy between battles.

Plato became the most famous and beloved of Socrates' students. The work “Apology” is imbued with respect for the teacher, in which Plato vividly painted a portrait of the teacher. After the death of the latter from voluntarily taking poison, Plato left the city and went to the island of Megara, and then to Cyrene. There he began to take lessons from Theodore, studying the basics of geometry.

After completing his studies there, the philosopher moved to Egypt to study mathematical science and astronomy from the priests. In those days, adopting the experience of the Egyptians was popular among philosophers - Herodotus, Solon, Democritus and Pythagoras resorted to this. In this country, Plato's idea of ​​the division of people into classes was formed. Plato was convinced that a person should fall into one caste or another according to his abilities, and not his origin.

Returning to Athens, at the age of forty, he opened his own school, which was called the Academy. It belonged to the most influential philosophical educational institutions not only in Greece, but throughout antiquity, where the students were Greeks and Romans.

The peculiarity of Plato’s works is that, unlike his teacher, he told his thoughts in the form of dialogues. When teaching, he used the method of questions and answers more often than monologues.

Death overtook the philosopher at the age of eighty. He was buried next to his brainchild - the Academy. Later, the tomb was dismantled and today no one knows where his remains are buried.

Plato's ontology

Being a taxonomist, Plato synthesized the achievements made by philosophers before him into a large, holistic system. He became the founder of idealism, and his philosophy touched on many issues: knowledge, language, education, political system, art. The main concept is idea.

According to Plato, an idea should be understood as the true essence of any object, its ideal state. To comprehend an idea, it is necessary to use not the senses, but the intellect. The idea, being the form of a thing, is inaccessible to sensory knowledge; it is incorporeal.

The concept of idea is the basis of anthropology and Plato. The soul consists of three parts:

1. reasonable (“golden”);
2. strong-willed principle (“silver”);
3. the lustful part (“copper”).

The proportions in which people are endowed with the listed parts may vary. Plato suggested that they should form the basis of the social structure of society. And society itself should ideally have three classes:

1. rulers;
2. guards;
3. breadwinners

The last class was supposed to include traders, artisans and peasants. According to this structure, each person, a member of society, would do only what he has a predisposition to do. The first two classes do not need to create a family or own private property.

Plato's ideas about two types stand out. According to them, the first type is a world that is eternal in its immutability, represented by genuine entities. This world exists regardless of the circumstances of the external, or material world. The second type of being is an average between two levels: ideas and matters. In this world, an idea exists on its own, and real things become shadows of such ideas.

In the described worlds there are masculine and feminine principles. The first is active, and the second is passive. A thing materialized in the world has matter and idea. It owes its unchanging, eternal part to the latter. Sensible things are distorted reflections of their ideas.

Doctrine of the Soul

Discussing the human soul in his teaching, Plato provides four proofs in favor of its immortality:

1. Cyclicality in which opposites exist. They cannot exist without each other. Since the presence of more implies the presence of less, the existence of death speaks to the reality of immortality.
2. Knowledge is actually memories from past lives. Those concepts that people are not taught - about beauty, faith, justice - are eternal, immortal and absolute, known to the soul already at the moment of birth. And since the soul has an idea of ​​such concepts, it is immortal.
3. The duality of things leads to the opposition between the immortality of souls and the mortality of bodies. The body is part of the natural shell, and the soul is part of the divine in man. The soul develops and learns, the body wants to satisfy base feelings and instincts. Since the body cannot live in the absence of the soul, the soul can be separate from the body.
4. Every thing has an immutable nature, that is, white will never become black, and even will never become odd. Therefore, death is always a process of decay that is not inherent in life. Since the body decays, its essence is death. Being the opposite of death, life is immortal.

These ideas are described in detail in such works of the ancient thinker as “Phaedrus” and “The Republic”.

Doctrine of knowledge

The philosopher was convinced that only individual things can be comprehended by the senses, while essences are cognized by reason. Knowledge is neither sensations, nor correct opinions, nor certain meanings. True knowledge is understood as knowledge that has penetrated into the ideological world.

Opinion is the part of things perceived by the senses. Sensory knowledge is impermanent, since the things subject to it are variable.

Part of the doctrine of cognition is the concept of recollection. In accordance with it, human souls remember ideas known to it before the moment of reunification with a given physical body. The truth is revealed to those who know how to close their ears and eyes and remember the divine past.

A person who knows something has no need for knowledge. And those who know nothing will not find what they should look for.

Plato's theory of knowledge comes down to anamnesis - the theory of memory.

Plato's dialectic

Dialectics in the works of the philosopher has a second name - “the science of existence.” Active thought, which is devoid of sensory perception, has two paths:

1. ascending;
2. descending.

The first path involves moving from one idea to another until the discovery of a higher idea. Having touched it, the human mind begins to descend in the opposite direction, moving from general ideas to specific ones.

Dialectics affects being and non-being, one and many, rest and movement, identical and different. The study of the latter sphere led Plato to the derivation of the formula of matter and idea.

Political and legal doctrine of Plato

Understanding the structure of society and the state led to Plato paying a lot of attention to them in his teachings and systematizing them. The real problems of people, rather than natural philosophical ideas about the nature of the state, were placed at the center of political and legal teaching.

Plato calls the ideal type of state that existed in ancient times. Then people did not feel the need for shelter and devoted themselves to philosophical research. Afterwards, they faced a struggle and began to need means for self-preservation. At the moment when cooperative settlements were formed, the state arose as a way to introduce a division of labor to satisfy the diverse needs of people.

Plato calls a negative state a state that has one of four forms:

1. timocracy;
2. oligarchy;
3. tyranny;
4. democracy.

In the first case, power is held in the hands of people who have a passion for luxury and personal enrichment. In the second case, democracy develops, but the difference between the rich and poor classes is colossal. In a democracy, the poor rebel against the power of the rich, and tyranny is a step towards the degeneration of the democratic form of statehood.

Plato's philosophy of politics and law also identified two main problems of all states:

• incompetence of senior officials;
• corruption.

Negative states are based on material interests. For a state to become ideal, the moral principles by which citizens live must be at the forefront. Art must be censored, atheism must be punished by death. State control must be exercised over all spheres of human life in such a utopian society.

Ethical views

The ethical concept of this philosopher is divided into two parts:

1. social ethics;
2. individual or personal ethics.

Individual ethics is inseparable from the improvement of morality and intellect through the harmonization of the soul. The body is opposed to it as related to the world of feelings. Only the soul allows people to touch the world of immortal ideas.

The human soul has several sides, each of which is characterized by a specific virtue, briefly it can be represented as follows:

• the reasonable side - wisdom;
• strong-willed – courage;
• affective – moderation.

The listed virtues are innate and are steps on the path to harmony. Plato sees the meaning of people's lives in the ascent to an ideal world,

Plato's students developed his ideas and passed them on to subsequent philosophers. Touching upon the spheres of public and individual life, Plato formulated many laws of the development of the soul and substantiated the idea of ​​its immortality.