...Name Course Instructor Institution Date of Submission Introduction The Athenian democracy developed in Greece in the 5th Century BC. It is the oldest known democracy in the world, and it was the most developed of all democracies that were prevalent during its time. Athenian democracy was a form of direct democracy. Citizens had the privilege to approve or disprove legislations and executive bills directly through a vote. To vote, one had to meet certain qualifications. They had to be of the age of majority and be of the male gender. Comics and political satire that was played in the theaters influenced the politics of that time. Pericles was the longest serving leader of the Athenian democracy. After his death, the Athenian democracy declined in its prominence after the Macedonians suppressed it in 322 BC. It was revived decades later. Pericles View of the Athenian Democracy The most notable aspect of Pericles contribution to Athenian democracy was his devolution of political power to the people. As the leader of Athens, Pericles gave the citizens the power to participate directly- as opposed to representation through representatives- in all matters of legislation and policy. He also increased the number and salaries of civil servants to ensure their commitment and participation in effective governance. Besides giving the power to the citizens, Pericles established various institutions such as the courts, the assembly, and a council that foresaw the execution of policies...
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...Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were important philosophers in classical Greece (Matthews, Noble, Platt, 2014). Plato was one of Socrates followers. Plato was recognized for his most famous doctrine known as the Doctrine of Forms, even though there was never a clear explanation for its existence; but his student Aristotle did offer various arguments for it. Plato knew that his doctrine never made sense; however, he created an analogy and called it the Allegory of the Cave which supports what he stood for in regard to common sense as well as embodying his doctrine. Socrates was an intelligent man, who loved philosophy and challenging the people who he lived around. His main goal was to achieve understanding. The citizens were not actually fond of Socrates because he made them feel as if they did not know anything. He was happy to prove others wrong, in which made him...
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...February 2015 Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix The Matrix has many similarities as well as many differences with the excerpts from Plato and Descartes. Each of these has different purposes when they were written and therefore have different opinions. One common theme that appears in each of these is the grasp of whether we humans are living in a dream or actual reality. It would not be surprising if the director of The Matrix had read each of these other pieces of writing by Descartes and Plato. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is an intelligent computer hacker that has trouble sleeping at night. He ends up receiving a pill that enables him to understand that what he is living in is just a dream and that everyone is connected through tubes of some sort. This has similarities with the excerpt from Descartes. In Descartes he starts out by explaining that what he has grown up believing to be true out to be not so true. He attempts to clear his mind of all other truths that he believed and start from fresh from what he can determine to be absolutely true for himself. The way that these two are similar is that the main characters, Neo and Descartes, are both seeking truth. Though these two are similar, they are also different. In The Matrix, it is a fictional story that says that everyone is in a dream and that they are just in the matrix. Descartes on the other hand, is written based on a belief. He is trying to determine what is absolutely true. The excerpt from Plato is a conversation...
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...ESSAY Matrix Plato Descartes Essay James Brothers Phil 201 ESSAY In this essay I will look at the similarities and differences between the movie, The Matrix, an excerpt from Plato and an excerpt from Descartes. It will be seen that there are many similarities surrounding the prisoner in the Plato excerpt and the Character of Neo in The Matrix. A bit less similarities follows with the excerpt of Descartes however there are some. Let us begin. The prisoner relates to Neo from matrix as the prisoner and Neo both have only one reality about life. The prisoner and Neo have perceived one reality there whole life and don’t know any different and why would they. They similarly are both taken out of current perceived reality and thrown in to a completely different one. This changes everything for them. As Neo is given a choice of a red or blue pill, the red pill will take him out of his current state and the blue keep him in it. When he is confronted for an opportunity for a completely different reality, to find out the truth you could say. One might say who wouldn’t choose that. If someone says I can show you that your reality if not real and show you the truth who would not want to know. The Prisoner’s reality is as Socrates states, “Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects.” 1 Relating this to neo he lives in a world like ours but he feels or something...
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...Rationalism In Plato’s Meno it begins with a debate between a fictional Socrates and Meno about whether virtue can be taught or if it is acquired in another way. Socrates begins to prove his point when he asks the slaves about the geometry question. When the slave answers the question, Socrates suggests to Meno that they inquire this together. Meno argues with his “Meno’s Paradox” that, “one logically cannot inquire productivity into what one does not already know” (Meno 58). Then Socrates continues to make Meno question his own beliefs when the slave recognizes the answer to geometrical problem. Socrates proceeds to confirm with the concept that the sole is immortal and the slave was “recollecting” knowledge that the soul already had. In Plato’s Meno his argument was with “recollection doctrine” of knowledge was already having the concept to begin with and people were just “recollecting” prior knowledge. Plato continues to argue rationalism through Phaedo with the Socratic Method. Plato uses his arguments in Phaedo using Socrates’ voice and other characters to explore rational arguments. It is only when the philosophers realize the truth, is when they will know the true knowledge, even if they didn’t exactly see it. There are different forms of recollection for example one is mathematics. Unlike rational objects, which Plato describes this is not a legitimate form of knowledge. All knowledge is innate, the concept that knowledge originates in the mind. The soul just has to...
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...WRITINGS Plato wrote extensively and most of his writings survived. His works are in the form of dialogues, where several characters argue a topic by asking questions of each other. Why do you think Plato choose this form of writing (dialogue)? These may be the possible reasons: 1. This form allows Plato to raise various points of view and let the reader decide which is valid. 2. The use of character and conversation allowed Plato to awaken the interest of his readers and therefore to reach a wider audience. 3. The dialogue form allows Plato's evident interest in pedagogical questions (how is it possible to learn? what is the best way to learn? from what sort of person can we learn? what sort of person is in a position to learn?) to be pursued not only in the content of his compositions but also in their form. 4. Plato evidently enjoys creating a sense of puzzlement among his readers, and the dialogue form is uniquely suited to this goal. CHRONOLOGY The exact order in which Plato's dialogues were written is not known, nor is the extent to which some might have been later revised and rewritten. However, there is enough information internal to the dialogues to form a rough chronology. The dialogues are normally grouped into three fairly distinct periods, with a few of them considered transitional works. The generally agreed upon modern ordering is as follows: early, middle, and late dialogues. Early Dialogues In these dialogues, Socrates is the central...
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...contrary to conventional belief, they are not truly courageous if they give in to the urging of their allies and immediately went to war with Athens. Rather, self-control, expressed in the form of prudent decision-making, represents true courage because the exercise of self-control is able to endow its possessor with other Spartan ideals—namely, good judgment, a sense of shame, and moderation. Through tying his conception of courage with other highly esteemed traditional Spartan ideals, Archidamus espouses a vision of the ideal Spartan citizen that shares many similarities with the kind of citizens that Socrates hopes to create for his imaginary city Callipolis. In fact, one can reasonably argue that the citizens produced by Socratic education, as described in Books 2-3 of the Republic, will largely resemble the idealized Spartans described by King Archidamus due to a close alignment of Archidamus’ ideals and those embodied by Socrates’ education system for his guardians. In his attempt to persuade the Spartans not to go to war, Archidamus tries to get his audience to distinguish between a false sense of courage that is commonly associated with rushing into arms and military activities without careful thought, and the more durable and true courage that flows from the exercise of self-control. For instance, at the beginning of his speech, Archidamus first warns the Spartans that rushing head first into a war without adequate preparations would undoubtedly “bring shame and trouble...
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...the history of philosophy. Even though they were written approximately 1900 years apart, they represent two of the most valuable commentaries on political philosophy. They are of course, very different in their discussions of philosophy, yet some similarities are evident. Plato writes about philosophy through the mouth of Socrates, illustrating indirectly through a lengthy dialogue his own ideas and opinions. As a contrast to this method of narration, Machiavelli writes The Prince as a letter of personal advice to Lorenzo Medici. Within his work, Machiavelli makes numerous recommendations that have earned him the label of a heartless and cruel man. Plato, on the other hand, makes much of his discussion about the true nature of philosophy and the just treatment of all citizens. Despite numerous differences, Plato and Machiavelli each desire the rule of philosophers in their states, but while Plato approaches this with direct rule and education of philosopher-kings, Machiavelli appeals to manipulation and deceit in order to secure the rule of philosophers. Plato’s aim in his political state is for the greatest good of all people, through the best balancing of the natural elements on an individual and political scale. According to Plato, the human soul is comprised of the reasoning part, the spirited part and the appetites. The parallel elements within a city are the rulers, warriors and artisans. Only when these are ordered correctly will peace, justice, and long term prosperity...
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...When I first was thinking of questions I had that desperately needed answering. I wondered about how society has continued to evolve despite civil unrest and violence. Justice, I observed has remained constant through all of the changes earth has faced. However, I noticed the moral concept of justice has changed. It was then I developed my overarching question; What is the impact of justice in the evolution of society? To answer my question, I took a philosophical approach. I used The Republic, by Plato, which essentially is a series of conversations between Plato, and his teacher Socrates. To contrast this book I chose Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, which also discusses both justice and the concept of vengeance. In Plato’s The Republic, Plato raises the question; What is Justice? His teacher, Socrates attempts to explain justice to him through a series of nonsensical comments....
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...three readings, I can see some similarity and differences between the readings from the philosophers. Comparing the Matrix and Plato’s, the similarity is they both agree that the life we are experiencing is not as real as what it appears to be. It is simply an illusion and a life that we can question and doubt about. From Matrix’s story this happens when Neo ‘the hacker’ had a dream that made him think about the reality and the thought that there is something more to life. When Morpheus came and told him “that the world is an illusion, an elaborate system of deception perpetrated to keep people contentedly under control” (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999). Neo then choose to eat the pill and see the truth that the human race is only relying on a machine to keep their bodies alive. Human beings are actually unconscious, therefore they are controlled by the machine. Because of this, what we see or do today happens because we are programmed into a computer simulation called Matrix. From Plato’s allegory, we see it when Socrates described men’s nature being as prisoners since childhood; being chained inside a cavern not being able to move their heads, but only looking. When one of the prisoners was released and was given the opportunity to see the light; and guided with what was going on. The human being that has seen the light will think what “he had seen before was all a cheat and an illusion. He will then want to turn toward real things” (Plato). He suggests that life or “reality...
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...Philosophy 101 PAPER # 1 The book The Republic by Plato, was written in Athens around 380 B.C. Around that time Plato wasn’t so happy with the conditions in Athens. This book is focused on the conception of justice and what it is to be just. This theory has been presented differently by each of the characters in the book, which are Cephalus, Polymarchus, Thrasymachus, and Glaucon. However, Socrates is the one who is given a challenge: to prove that justice is good and desirable. The book starts off with Cephalus giving his own conception of justice, which he believes to be “justice is nothing more than honoring legal obligations and being honest”. However, Socrate’s counterexample is “returning a weapon to a madman”. You owe the madman a weapon therefor you are being just and giving him back what he owns, yet this would also be considered an unjust act because you are landing back a weapon to a crazy man that might lead to him taking one’s life away. Polymarchus , Cephalus’ son then takes over with another idea of justice “justice means you owe a friend’s help and your enemies harm”. Polymarchus and his father share a similarity on their suggestions. Socrates, on the other hand reveals another counterexample and points out that sometimes we often are mistaken about who we call friends and who we call enemies because “we are not always friends with the most virtous individuals , nor are our enemies the scum of our society.” This all leads to Thrasymachus getting angry...
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...Book VII Summary: Book VII, 514a- 521d In Book VII, Socrates presents the most beautiful and famous metaphor in Western philosophy: the allegory of the cave. This metaphor is meant to illustrate the effects of education on the human soul. Education moves the philosopher through the stages on the divided line, and ultimately brings him to the Form of the Good. Socrates describes a dark scene. A group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound so that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are manipulated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the partial wall. Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. When they talk to one another about “men,” “women,” “trees,” or “horses,” they are referring to these shadows. These prisoners represent the lowest stage on the line—imagination. A prisoner is freed from his bonds, and is forced to look at the fire and at the statues themselves. After an initial period of pain and confusion because of direct exposure of his eyes to the light of the fire, the prisoner realizes that what he sees now are things...
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...Written by Plato, The Republic strives to answer the question ‘What is Justice?’ Unlike other dialogues starring Socrates, The Republic provides an answer for the question being posed, instead of leaving readers puzzled. Using Socrates as a mouth piece, Plato creates a formula to define justice using an ideal society, the soul of an individual in an ideal society, and the greek social virtues. By using a mathematical argument to link the tasks in society, with the parts of the soul, and matching them to social virtues, Plato is able to provide an acceptable definition of justice that embodies both the ideals of a society and of an individual. In order to locate justice, Plato performs a though experiment where he creates an ideal society. In the ideal society everyone has a merit-based assignment. Plato states that in the perfect society there are three categories of people. There are the rulers, the auxiliaries, and the craftsmen. The rulers are in charge of ruling the ideal society, the auxiliaries are in charge of policing the ideal society, and the craftsmen are in charge of creating the basic tools to fulfill society’s needs. In Greece many accept that in an ideal society there are four standard virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Plato argues that since his society is ideal the standard virtues must be within the society. He also argues that if we are able to locate the standard values in society we will be able to locate justice. Plato uses an elimination...
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...to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand abstract reality requires the understanding of mathematics and finally the forms or the Ideals of all things (the world outside the cave). But our understanding of the physical world is mirrored in our minds by our ways of thinking. First comes imagination (Socrates thought little of creativity), then our unfounded but real beliefs. Opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning (learned...
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...do not have. According to dictionary.com knowledge is facts, information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. In the Meno, Plato says true opinion and “knowledge” are two separate ways of knowledge. In Frank A. Lewis’ book, “Knowledge and the Eyewitness: Plato "Theaetetus” he shows in detail how different true opinion and knowledge are. Lewis states, “He has been correctly persuaded, assuming that he has judged well. But if Knowledge...
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