Influential Minds in Western Philosophy

¶ … influential minds in western philosophy is that of Plato. Plato lived from 422-347 B.C, and was born into an aristocratic family in the city of Athens where he became a student of Socrates, and eventually a teacher of Aristotle. Plato followed the basic ideas of Socrates, in which no laws are to be broken despite their relevance. He makes clear why laws should be followed and why disobedience to the law is rarely justified. This theme of law, self-actualization, and justification of responses, resources, and human thought would run through all of Plato's works.

The major argument in the Republic, is the search for Justice, who is an entity rather than a concept. Instead of the argument of rhetoric vs. philosophy, the Republic seeks to establish, through dialog between Socrates and others, the meaning of the concept of justice, political power, and the manner in which society should be organized. In addition, Plato establishes that role of philosophy, the place of poetry, the immortality of the soul, and his famous "theory of forms" (Baird, 2008).

The Embodiment of the Idea, and specifically Part V, the Rule of the Philosophers, concerns the way one recognizes a true philosopher, thus one meant for political power, one who has knowledge and wisdom, to the false despot? Similarly, what philosophical views are ascribed to our Sage, Socrates, in response to questions of the differences between knowledge and opinion?

For Socrates, a distinction between a moral individual who is deserving of power due to their own ability to understand the nature of humans, and mitigate their own desires, are like justice and injustice, two sides of the same coin, alike but different in choosing which side to emphasize (II, 476a).

Since knowledge depended on what is ignorance necessarily on what is not, mustn't we also seek something between ignorance and knowledge that depends on that which is between, if there is in fact, any such thing? (II, 477b).

The key seems "choice," that the individual, through the concept of free will, has the ability to decide whether to pursue the fundamentals of knowledge, proving the requisite underlying 'soul' and character to surmount the difficulties therein. This distinction, combined with the way an individual views the external, is what differentiates the lovers of opinion vs. The lovers of knowledge -- that knowledge being the true pursuit of both the knowable and unknowable (II, 479-80).

For Glaucon, so epitomized in the passage below, humans are sensualists, the everyman who succumbs to his many needs based on the urge and desire -- wine, song, love, sleep, without a thought to the greater good or the long-term consequences:

For all the lovers of sights are, in my opinion, what they are because they enjoy learning; and the lovers of hearing would be some of the strangest to include among philosophers, those who would never be willing to go voluntarily to a discussion and such occupations but who -- just as thought they had hired out their ears for hearing -- run around to every chorus at the Dionysia, missing none in the city or the villages (II, 475d).

Our key clue in this passage is the reference to Dionysia, the festival in honor of Dionysus, God of Wine and Pleasure. Instead of philosophical study, this festival is held in the Spring for 6 days of plays, tragedies, feats, and wine. Dionysus, as the inspirer of madness and ecstasy, is hardly a recommendation for a true philosopher/king' instead, the preoccupation focuses on the sensualist who, in their own type of wisdom, has but two positions -- on and charming, or off and degrading (Dalby, 2005).

Knowledge, on the other hand, is necessary for any action to become more than that action alone. Ignorance turns away from knowledge; opinion is express of knowledge based on cultural truths or undocumented hearsay. Opinion, though, attempts to conceal fact being mere stories or boast, rather than considered introspective thought. The dream state is falsehood, inspired by emotion and the idea of greed and lust, it is easy to pursue, easy to repeat, and easy to proselytize -- it just happens not to be true. Corruption, too, plays a role in this journey, which in a sense, is rather an Ancient version of Maslow's Law of Hierarchical Needs, a more modern version of moving from the basic needs of survival to the more complicated, but just as important, needs of the soul.

For Plato, the defined philosopher is really someone who loves wisdom. A lover of true knowledge and the journey towards that knowledge as opposed to simple sights and education -- the difference between a luscious, complex scent and a harsh one-dimensional one. Certainly, this is an ideal, but nonetheless, this ship of State so needs a bow, mast, and steering -- for "a true pilot must of necessity pay attention to the seasons, the heavens, the starts, the winds, and everything proper to the craft if he is ready to rule a ship" (VII, 488d).