Introduction to Plato's Philosophy

Plato is crucial in the development of Western Philosophy. His name has entered into everyday use and for most new philosophy students he is their entry point into the world of thoughts and ideas that have continued to dominate Europe and the west for several millennium.

Whilst Plato is the 'final word' or answer to very little, he is often the person who defined the questions which, those who came after, have tried to answer, and it is this which makes him so interesting. When reading Plato we can feel him wrestling with many of the big questions, like 'should I do bad things if I can get away it? Can I ever know something for certain? Who will make the best political leaders?

This lesson concentrates on what is perhaps the most well known and important part of Plato's philosophy, namely his 'Theory of Forms'. This lesson consists of 11 short videos. Each video is shown below with a brief overview. There are also links to copies of Plato's books. Whilst it is not mandatory to read these books in order to understand this introductory lesson, students wishing to study further into Plato's philosophy will have to read these at some stage.

PART ONE: An Introduction (1min 19sec)

This is a short one minute video introduction from myself to quickly overview the whole lesson and introduction the next videos in the lesson.

PART TWO: Biography of Plato (6min 59sec)

This is a seven minute video biography of Plato, from the Encyclopedia channel, which I found on YouTube. It introduces Plato as a historical figure and gives you some context to the man and the events which so greatly influenced his philosophy.

PART THREE: Plato's battle with the Sophists (12min 38sec)

Consisting of two videos this twelve minute part of the lesson will introduce you to Plato's philosophical battle with the Sophists. The sophists were a group of politicians and orators who lived in Ancient Athens and can be characterised as Plato and Socrates' nemesis. We know from separate sources that there was a rich variety of different philosophical strands within Sophism, but when Plato introduces a Sophist into a dialogue he always characterises them quite simplistically as extreme relativists.

This 'straw man' embodies the qualities which Plato dislikes about the world, namely the view that there is no objective good, and hence there is no moral imperative to act/be good if one can get away with it. Plato however wants to say that there is such a concept as 'good' and that acting/being good is worthwhile even if we could get away with being bad. Once one understands Plato's argument against the Sophists it is easier to appreciate why Plato's Theory of Forms (his epistemology) is so important to all the other moral and political questions that he tackles. In this 2 part video I will explain this concept further.

PART FOUR: The Sun, the Line and the Cave

In his book 'The Republic', there exists a famous passage where he tries to explain his epistemology by using an allegory. These 3 videos are different interpretations of this famous passage which is often called 'The Sun, the Line and the Cave'. This passage is the key to unlocking Plato's epistemology and so it is reprinted below. There is also a link to a copy of this passage form the Republic, please read this passage after watching the 3 videos and see how your interpretation differs from those people who made the videos. Which video comes closest to your reading of 'The Sun, the line and the cave'? Why did Plato use this allegory to explain how a human can know something? Does the allegory actually allow Plato to infer more credibility to his argument then there is evidence to support it? (a text of the entire book can be found amongst the websites listed below)

PART FIVE: Plato's Political Philosophy

This 2 part video attempts to explain what this teacher believes Plato’s is trying to say about knowledge, and what influenced him to create this theory of knowledge. Plato’s political philosophy is also placed in the context of his Theory of Forms and I argue that one can only understand Plato’s politics, by understanding why he believed philosophers had access to a special kind of knowledge that other humans simply could not possess. This summation finishes with several key questions which the student is advised to consider and discuss as a follow up to this lesson. A briefer version of these questions are repeated here:

1. Do forms exist? Do numbers and shapes exist outside of their many examples e.g. Pythagoras theorem
2. If it is true that some people are more knowledgeable than others and hence should they be dictators. If not why not?
3. If knowledge was all relative as the sophists said, how would we know who should rule?
4. Represented in matrix, but has taken on different meaning, not the certainty of the theory of forms, but the uncertainty of knowledge held in a cave of certainty
   Here are some more. How would you produce your own Youtube version of cave?

PART SIX: Further interpretations of the Sun, Line and Cave

To end the lesson and give you something to think about, whilst you answer the questions posed above, here are two further interpretations of Plato's Sun, line and Cave.

Links to Plato's Dialogues

• Free audio-book recording of Plato's Republic
• Complete text of Plato’s ‘Republic’.
• Text of Plato’s dialogue entitled the Sophist
• External review of Sophist philosophy.