Ancient Greek influences on philosophy of religion - AS OCR Philosophy of Religion

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Ancient Greek influences on philosophy of religion

1. Plato: the Analogy of the Cave(The Republic VII. 514A-521B)

Unit G751: AS Philosophy of Religion

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Plato’s analogy of the caveIn Plato’s Republic , he illustrates his ideas about human knowledge in relation to reality and so explains the Theory of the Forms.

Plato’s allegory of the Cave tells us to imagine a dark, large cave, connected to the outside world by a long passage. In the cave, with their backs to the entrance, is a row of prisoners, with their hands tied down, unable to move.

Behind them is a bright fire. People move to and fro, behind them, all day, so that their shadows are projected onto the wall of the cave and voices are echoed. Plato says that all the prisoners ever perceive or experience in their reality are the shadows and their echoes. It would seem reasonable for them to assume that the shadows and echoes constituted all of reality.

One day, a prisoner is released and he turns round. His movement is painful and the light of the fire dazzles his eyes. He finds himself confused and would want to turn back to the wall, to the reality that he understood.

If he was dragged out of the cave altogether, the sun light would blind him and he would be bewildered. Eventually, he would start to understand this upper world. If he were to return to the cave, he would again be blinded, this time by the darkness. Anything he said to the prisoners about his experiences outside the cave would be unintelligible to them, who only know of the shadows and echoes. In fact, the prisoners who had never seen the upper world would be hostile towards the returning prisoner, not understanding anything but the shadows.

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Symbolism• The Cave: The visible world, our universe. The cave creates a

sense of being trapped in a different world, away from light and away from reality. The cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world – empirical evidence. The cave shows that our empirical knowledge is flawed.

• 'The shadows on the wall': What we perceive as our whole reality, i.e. all our empirical knowledge. The shadows are imperfect copies of the Forms. The prisoners believe that these shadows are the only reality.

• The Prisoners: The rest of humanity, who are unable to understand the words of men who are enlightened.

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Symbolism• People outside the cave: These people represent real life or reality. Plato

understands reality as the eternal and immutable world (true reality) of Ideas, which contain the perfect Forms.

• The Journey Out: The struggle for knowledge and the battle against bodily desires. Through philosophical understanding, people are able to see the real world of concepts or Forms and draw conclusions from it, which are true.

• The Sun: Enlightenment or the perfect Form of the Good; a knowledge of true, essential goodness allows the soul to gain real understanding. The world depends on the sun for existence, the source of all light, reflections and shadows.

• The Return: When the escapee returns, the other prisoners laugh at him and threaten to kill him. This symbolises that the prisoners (us) are afraid of philosophical enlightenment. Also, it could be a reference to Socrates’ death, Plato’s teacher.

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Arguments FOR the analogy of the Cave

• Shows that empirical knowledge can be flawed, we live in an imperfect world of appearances.

• Plato gives us a reason for the imperfections that we around us.

• We recognise imperfect copies as we have lived there before.

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Arguments AGAINST the analogy of the Cave

• Unclear link between the material world (world of appearances) and the world of the Forms.

• Absolutist argument but not everyone accepted it, Aristotle did not.

• No concrete proof that the world in the cave or the outside world is real.

• Just because someone is philosophically enlightened, does that make them perfect for leadership?

• How does one realise the truth and reality of the Forms in order to become enlightened?

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2. Plato: the concept of the Forms; the form of the Good

Meet Plato

• Plato, like Heraclitus, believed that everything in this world changes.

• This lead Plato to conclude that there must be a World where things are unchanging.

= World of Forms

Heraclitus: “Can you step in the same river twice?”

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Definitions

Noumena: The unseen, metaphysical, truthPhenomena: Sense experience, empirical evidence or the perception of an object that we recognise through our senses. Plato believed that phenomena are “fragile and weak forms of reality”. They do not represent an object’s true essence.

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The concept of ‘Ideals’

• Forms = perfect Ideals, types of things. They are not created.

The World of the Forms (The Real World) The Material World (Our World/The Cave) Each Form is One (there is only one idea of beauty)

Particulars are many (there are many beautiful things)

Only known through our intellect/reason Only known through our empirical sense Eternal Always coming in and out of existence (birth and

death) Unchanging Always changing into something else Non-physical Material objects Perfect Imperfect

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The relation between the Form of the Good and the other Forms

• The ultimate Form is the Form of the Good.• Understanding the FOG, we can understand that any good

act = imitation of the Good.• The FOG illuminates the other Forms; it enables us to ‘see’

the Forms.• The aim of everything is goodness.• FOG was understood later by Christians as explaining God.• Hierarchy of the Forms = Physical inanimate objects

Physical living objects Concepts and Ideals Universal qualities (justice, truth and beauty) The Good.

• Everything we experience in this world is a vague shadow of what it really is....

Real World perfect and eternal

Our beauty comes and goes. Changes over time/ culture and

personal opinion

World of Appearances

1. There are many types of beauty in this world but they must all conform or match the idea of what beauty is. However there must be an underlying idea of what beauty is = Form of Beauty. For Plato this is the true Form of a Beauty which exists in the World of Forms.

2. Plato says that the particulars (e.g a particular beautiful person) are imperfect copies of the Forms.

3. The particulars share in, or participate in the Form. Some things participate to a greater or lesser extent.

True Essence of Beauty

1. The World of Forms or the Noeton.2. ‘Form’ = perfect expression of

something that never changes.3. This world based on senses is the

Horaton (phenomena) 4. Sense Experience creates illusions5. Humans believe these illusions = are

ignorant (Eikasia.)

Episteme/epistemology - true knowledge of the Forms. For Plato, this is via reason (a priori) NOT sense experience.Sense experience – empirical knowledge

Ultimate Form• Because there are so many Forms there must be a

Form of the Forms.• Supreme Form = ‘Form of the Good.’• The Form of the Good is the Form of all other Forms.

This is because everything has goodness in it.• Try describing beauty, justice, truth without

mentioning ‘goodness.’ (Plato most interested in these ideas)

• All perfection flows down from the Form of the Good.• Source/ reason for all other Forms.• Just as the sun in the allegory of the cave gives light to

the real world, so the Form of the Good illuminates the other Forms.

• It enables our souls to ‘see’ the Forms.• It is the ultimate end in itself: the aim of everything is

goodness.

• Knowledge of the Good is the highest knowledge a human is capable of.

• A philosopher can escape the world of appearances and with their mind (reason/ a priori) see the Forms that lie behind the appearances.

= true leaders of society.

• We are born with a dim recollection of the Forms.• Our immortal soul observes them before being reincarnated (Metempsychosis)

• In the physical body (ruled by senses) the memory is only dim• Evidence: people know the basics of truth/ justice and beauty without being taught.

• We do not learn new things, instead education is a matter of remembering and recalling the world of Forms.

• Anamnesis – the soul remembering the Forms back in a physical body.

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Evaluation of Plato’s Forms

Strengths Weaknesses • It explains why we all recognise the same essential elements in something.

• You can’t prove the world of the Forms exists.

• Helps us understand why there are imperfections around us.

• Infinite regression.

• Encourages us to question and not accept things at face value.

• Not everything can have an ideal form.

• Cannot be applied to the world we live in. • “Senses are inferior” but we have relied on

them for survival for thousands of years.

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3. Aristotle: ideas about cause and purpose in relation to God(Metaphysics Book 12)

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Definitions

• Potentiality: When something contains the ingredients to become something else.

• Actuality: When an object fulfils its potential and becomes something else.

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The Four Causes

• Material Cause - The things out of which an object is created.

• Efficient Cause - The way in which an object is created.

• Formal Cause - The plan that led to its creation, what caused it?

• Final Cause - The aim for which an object is created.

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Plato vs Aristotle

• Aristotle: Emphasises value of studying the physical world (empirical study, more of a scientist)

• Rejects Plato’s theory of the Forms• Rejects dualism (belief in the separation of the

mind/soul and body, the soul is what lives on)• Rejects Plato’s understanding of the soul

(materialistic view)

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Aristotle’s Concept of the Prime Mover

• Exists by necessity (could not fail to exist)• Not capable of change• Is pure actuality• Has a good nature as a lack of goodness means that you

can do better (meaning you can change)• Is the Final Cause (why things exist)• “The final cause, then, produces motion as being loved”• Is the goal of all action• PM is the cause of all motion

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Problems and Evaluation

• The relationship between the PM and the universe is unclear.• Aristotle’s PM is transcendent whilst Judaeo-Christian God is

immanent.• The idea that the PM causes the universe and events in it

through ‘thinking’ is vague and unclear.• Aristotle’s God is perfect, so it can only think of itself. The PM

can only know itself and can’t know or have a part in our lives.• Is there really a final cause or purpose to the universe? Does

there have to be a cause of the universe, can’t it just be there? (Bertrand Russell).

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God in Aristotle

• In Metaphysics, Aristotle links the PM with God and concludes that God is a “living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God”

• God as Prime Mover is “complete reality”• God in Aristotle’s thinking is a necessary being

who is eternal, transcendent and impersonal.