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Chiz Web > Literature of the Western World > BackgroundNotes > Plato  

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Plato & Socrates

And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
 
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What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth, that climb up into the real world which we shall call true philosophy.
 
Some Essential Readings
  • The Republic -- Plato's grand work on the nature of justice and society wherein he creates his own idea of utopia.
  • The Gorgias -- Socrates attacks rhetoric as persuasion and therefore evil.
  • "Allegory of the Cave" -- Plato's idea of truth and morality as they exist in the world.
  • The Apology of Socrates -- Socrates's defense against heresey; a discussion of Law.
  • Phaedo -- Socrates argues on the immortality of the soul.
  • Euthrypho -- Discussion on piety and what Faith exactly is.
  • The Symposium -- Larger book on love and epistemology (how we know what we know)

 Plato Meets Contemporary America

 Socrates Links

  Philosophers' Pages Notes on Plato
  Stanford's Plato Page
  Philosophers' Pages on Socrates
  Stanford's Socrates Page
  Complete Plato Dialogues OnLine
  Famous Greek People: Philosophers
         

 Six Basic Questions of Socrates

 

·        What is virtue?

·        What is moderation?

·        What is justice?

·        What is good?

·        What is courage?

·        What is piety?

 

In Plato's Theory of Forms (or "World of Ideas"), knowledge is justified, true belief.  That is, one could believe in the Truth but not have a justified reason for it, more an accident than anything (or one was persuaded without reason).  Any other combination of belief is therefore wrong. 

We must, therefore, carefully use our reasoning, our minds, to discover evidence that we are perceiving reality correctly. For ideas that do not have an objective or physical reality, our minds can still reason to discover Truth.

Plato's famous example of the ur-Horse reflects the concept that mortal flawed ideas are reflections of the immortal Idea. In other words, we see many flawed mortal world examples of horses and the good, but each of these is evidence to what the ultimate Horse (ur-) and Good actually are.