Plato Essay Examples Page 2

Aristotle refutes Plato’s Theory of Ideas on three basic grounds: that the existence of Ideas contradicts itself by denying the possibility of negations; that his illustrations of Ideas are merely empty metaphors; and that they theory uses impermanent abstractions to create examples of perception. Though the theory is meant to establish concrete standards for the…

Aristotle vs. PlatoExcellence is a function which renders excellent the thing of which it is a function is Plato’s definition of virtue. What does this definition really mean though? Plato and Aristotle both had their own unique arguments devoted to the topic at hand, and their own ways of describing what virtue really is. Defining…

Plato believed that most of us have a skewed view of the world. Plato, the most creative and influential of Socrates’ disciples, wrote dialogues, in which he frequently used the figure of Socrates to espouse his own (Plato’s) full-fledged philosophy. In “The Republic,” Plato sums up his views in an image of ignorant humanity, trapped…

if an individual can learn to understand the possibilities outside of the realm of singular understanding, and by exposure to different things, determine new understanding, then Plato would assert that all men have the potential to move from ignorance to knowledge. The basis for the “Allegory of the Cave” is this: a prisoner is held…

The Allegory of the Cave is Plato’s explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must “go back into the cave” or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory…

In the last book, Book X, Plato criticizes poetry and the fine arts. Plato feels that art is merely the imitation of the imitation of reality, and that poetry corrupts the soul. Socrates says that artists merely create things. As an example, if a painter draws a couch on his canvas, he is creating a…

To be told what you know will build up a boundary what you think you know. In both the Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix people were told by “enlightened” ones what the truth is about life. Although the subjects found it hard to believe they one day would find out that the truth…

Nowadays, it is hard to turn on a television program, catch a movie or buy your younger sibling a video game without encountering a warning for extreme violence. Everyday, our lives are exposed to violence on the screen, whether it is in the latest Sopranos episode or even watching the six o’clock news. For quite…