Plato was a rationalist (he believed we gain knowledge of the world through reason)
Aristotle was an empiricist (he believed we gain knowledge of the world through our
senses)
, The theory of the forms
- Noticed the world is always changing, so wondered how people can gain
knowledge if things are always changing. So decided objects in our world can
never be the objects of true knowledge so there must be a reality with objects
of true knowledge.
- What we see in this world is not perfect, which means we have an idea of an
inner justice as we know it’s not perfect.
- Plato believed everything in the world had a form (perfect ideal).
- Physical things in this world die and rot away, but the forms are perfect and
unchanging.
- These forms are in the world of forms, which is more real than a material realm
which we experience. They are the perfect example of things in our world. They
are concepts rather than things so don’t exist within time and space
- We make judgements about things in our world by comparing them to the
concepts
- Says we have immortal souls which lived in the world of forms before we were
born giving us an idea of these concepts
- All knowledge is uncovering the universal truths
The form of the good
o Forms are in a hierarchy, the form of the good being the most important giving
all the other forms their value
o Goodness is the purest and most abstract form
o
o Plato says true knowledge is knowledge of goodness
o He says a person who knows what is good and bad will do the good thing, it is
ignorance that causes immortality
o If people look for the form of the good, they will make better moral decisions
Plato’s Demiurge
Aristotle was an empiricist (he believed we gain knowledge of the world through our
senses)
, The theory of the forms
- Noticed the world is always changing, so wondered how people can gain
knowledge if things are always changing. So decided objects in our world can
never be the objects of true knowledge so there must be a reality with objects
of true knowledge.
- What we see in this world is not perfect, which means we have an idea of an
inner justice as we know it’s not perfect.
- Plato believed everything in the world had a form (perfect ideal).
- Physical things in this world die and rot away, but the forms are perfect and
unchanging.
- These forms are in the world of forms, which is more real than a material realm
which we experience. They are the perfect example of things in our world. They
are concepts rather than things so don’t exist within time and space
- We make judgements about things in our world by comparing them to the
concepts
- Says we have immortal souls which lived in the world of forms before we were
born giving us an idea of these concepts
- All knowledge is uncovering the universal truths
The form of the good
o Forms are in a hierarchy, the form of the good being the most important giving
all the other forms their value
o Goodness is the purest and most abstract form
o
o Plato says true knowledge is knowledge of goodness
o He says a person who knows what is good and bad will do the good thing, it is
ignorance that causes immortality
o If people look for the form of the good, they will make better moral decisions
Plato’s Demiurge
