Plato's Ideas Research Articles

Uniwersalia a przedmioty ogólne

In the paper we treat one of the most hotly debated and still current topics in ontology i.e. the problem of universals. By two formal representations of incomplete and complete objects we argue that only genera and species (as counterparts of Aristotle's Forms and Plato's Ideas) are universals. They only are what is called nature or essence of individuals named by general terms. On the contrary, although the concepts are second kind of objects signified by general terms, they have another status as complete objects. Hence, in that meaning "generality" stick in two different kind of objects – in universals and concepts. But being general is not equal to being universal in Aristotle's and Plato's sense.

El rechazo del Neoplatonismo en Ausiàs March

In the first half of the 16th century the works of Ausias March (1397–1459) were published for the first time with a Spanish translation. March, who wrote in Catalan, was becoming a major influence in the development of a Spanish national poetic language in Castilian. However this influence was soon overshadowed by Petrarch, both in style and content, in such a way that the Spanish poetic language was ultimately based above all on an Italian model instead of a Hispanic model. I intend to explain how the main aspect of content in March's poetry that was not accepted in the Castilian poetic language was his rejection of Neoplatonism. March conveyed a Platonic message but the mode in which he interpreted Plato differed from Neoplatonic ideas. Mainly March rejected the idea that man can access the World of Ideas through the Sensory World by means of will or love, whereas writers like Petrarch or Castiglione believed in this possibility. In fact Ausias March's poetry represented an innovation as far as the manner in which Plato's ideas had been interpreted. Neoplatonism and Petrarchism tended to follow more closely the Neoplatonic tradition that Plotinus (204?–275) had initiated. Both March and Petrarch were influenced by Provencal poetry in a different way. The fact that Petrarch was preferred over March constitutes an important chapter in the history of the Catalan language.

Anti-Realist Interpretations of Plato: Paul Natorp

The paper considers Paul Natorp's Kantian reading of Plato's theory of ideas, as developed in his monumental work, Platos Ideenlehre, eine Einführung in den Idealismus (1903, 1921). Central to Natrop's reading are, I argue, the following two claims: (1) Plato's ideas are laws, not things; and (2) Plato's theory of ideas in the first instance a theory about the possibility and nature of thought - in particular cognitive and indeed scientific or explanatory thought - and only as a consequence is it a theory about the nature of reality. Natrop thus argues that Plato's theory of ideas is at its heart a transcendental theory, and that Plato's metaphysics is built on this basis. The paper considers these claims - and their textual basis in Plato - in some detail, and attempts an initial evaluation of their plausibility as a reading of Plato. I am on the whole sympathetic to Natorp's reading, though a proper assessment goes beyond the present paper. The wider interest of this idealist or anti-realist reading of Plato ought to be obvious, especially in view of the commonly accepted assumption these days that both Plato and Aristotle, and indeed the Greeks in general, took realism entirely for granted (see e.g. M. Burnyeat). Natorp argues that this is true of Aristotle, but quite untrue of Plato. But he is quite clear that the idealism he ascribes to Plato is not Berkeleyan or metaphysical idealism, but a certain kind of transcendental or epistemological idealism. Natorp, however, is no uncritical follower of Kant, and the version of trascendental idealism that he ascribes to Plato is, I argue, very different from Kant's.

A GEOMETRIC PLATONIC APPROACH TO MULTIFRACTALITY AND TURBULENCE

A large family of deterministic measures built as projections off fractal functions has been introduced recently.1,2 These constructed measures, which transform either simple multifractals as defined by deterministic cascades3 or uniform measures via fractal interpolating functions,4,5 range from nontrivial multifractals to absolutely continuous measures, and include as a limiting case the Gaussian distribution.6 In this work, examples of deterministic measures which possess multiscaling properties when analyzed following the multifractal formalism are given. It is shown that suitable measures which not only preserve the singularity spectrum of turbulence but also capture the inherent details present in turbulent data sets may be obtained. These results suggest a plausible deterministic framework for the study of intermittent phenomena via a new geometric approach — one which closely evokes Plato's ideas that all we observe may be "shadows" of simple objects.7

The experience of studying the spiritual development of nations with the help of linguistic means

The appearance of Jesus Christ in his time was inevitable. Plato's ideas were to find a material embodiment on earth. The image of Christ as a balance, the harmony of light-spirit and darkness-matter, is the materialization of the ideal image.

Platonic Causes

AbstractThis paper examines Plato's ideas on cause-effect relations in the Phaedo. It maintains that he sees causes as things (not events, states of affairs or the like), with any information as to how that thing brings about the effect relegated to a strictly secondary status. This is argued to make good sense, so long as we recognise that aition means the "thing responsible" and exploit legal analogies in order to understand what this amounts to. Furthermore, provided that we do not presuppose that we already know what can and what cannot count as a cause, Plato proves to have an attractive case for his principle that all causation is a matter of like causing like. Once we appreciate this, we are a little closer to understanding his more idiosyncratic principle, which although puzzling is ubiquitous in his writings and often invoked as a premise in key arguments, that opposites cannot cause opposites. The last part of the paper turns to formal causes, defending Plato's advocacy of them, and examining their role in the Parmenides' Third Man Argument. The main proposal is that Plato's conception of Forms as causes opens the door to a better version of that argument's "Non-identity" premise than those currently available.

Heavens library and natures pictures: platonic paradigms and trial by genre

Margaret Cavendish's 1656 work Natures Pictures may be read, in the light of the short prose passage, Heavens Library, which is Fames Palace purged from Errors and Vices, as a text wherein Platonic theories about generic ideals and literary structure are manipulated for political ends. Genre provides an expedient literary disguise for Cavendish, the exiled royalist wishing to condemn the Interregnum regime. In her eclectic adaptation of Plato's ideas, she experiments with ostensibly unproblematic generic categories not only in order to critique dominant Puritan discourses, but also in a way symptomatic of her anxieties about her status as a woman writer with, in reality, minimal control over her destiny and her text.

Charismatic leadership: a key factor in organizational communication

Based on Plato's thinking, connects several aspects of communication and leadership theory to focus on charismatic leadership. Speculates on the application of Plato's ideas to managerial communication and makes recommendations.

Subsequent Precedence: Milton's Materialistic Reading of Ficino and Tasso

In departing from Bill Readings' view that Milton's work inaugurated modernist history as lacking an inaugurating event, this essay engages the metaleptic articulation of origin and terminus, meaning and signifier, in some of Milton's prose and explores the rhetorical performance of Plato's idea of the icastic imagination, which convinced Milton that writing poetry is socially productive labor.

Power, Censorship, and Validation

Power, Censorship, and Validation Oscar G. Brockett Several months ago when Jean Korf insisted that I give her a title for this address, I somewhat hastily and, in retrospect, rather foolishly, said that I would speak on "censorship and its perils," the title that has appeared in subsequent information about today's program. While I still intend to talk in part about censorship, I've decided that my remarks can more accurately be titled "Power, Censorship, and Validation." You may well wonder why I chose to speak about censorship—I might say that during the past couple of weeks I've wondered about that myself. But the answer is relatively simple. At the time when I accepted the invitation, I had been reading and thinking about reactions to the large amount of obscene language and explicit sexual reference in last year's Irene Ryan competitions here at the Kennedy Center. While I am not talking today specifically about that matter, what I have to say did begin with that concern. Censorship is something that most of us hope we won't have to confront . Nevertheless, it is something that has been with us since the beginning of time and no doubt always will be. In the arts, we often see it as concerned merely with issues about what should be permitted or prohibited. But the arts are secondary; the primary issue always is one of power, a battle over which group's values and standards shall prevail. Opinion polls indicate that most Americans are opposed to censorship. But this is not as cut and dried as it might sound. Pressed, almost everyone will admit that some things should not be allowed. So-called "snuff" films, in which sexual activity culminates in one or more of the performers actually being mutilated or killed, is an example of what I presume most people would oppose. Whether or not the performers are actually killed, as rumor has it, the inflicting of real bodily harm seems a place where censorship would be an appropriate response. Even those who state an absolute opposition to censorship usually add a qualifier—so long as no one is physically harmed. Physical harm is, nevertheless, a qualifier which indicates that opposition to censorship is not absolute. Similarly, many of those belonging to what is characterized as "the religious right" also declare their opposition to censorship but add their own 2 Oscar G. Brockett qualifier—so long as some group's moral beliefs or religious faith are not attacked. My own conclusion is that, when pressed, almost everyone will draw the line somewhere. The question, then, is not so much whether a line will be drawn but where it is to be drawn and who is to draw it? One place where most people accede to drawing the line comes when children are the intended audience. But when does one reach an age when censored material is no longer to be considered harmful? Our legal definitions usually indicate eighteen or twenty-one as the age of maturity. But many would-be censors do not stop there. They seek to keep everyone in a state of perpetual childhood by forbidding adults access to much of the material denied to children. Few of these would-be censors acknowledge that they, personally, could be harmed by the material they want to forbid others. Their implied, if not always stated, message is that weaker persons, apparently the rest of the population, must be shielded from influences they otherwise would be incapable of resisting. This protectionist attitude has a very long history, going back at least to Plato, who argued that writers should not be allowed to disseminate their work to the public until it had been approved by the Guardians of the state. To win approval for dissemination, writing was to contain nothing contrary to the good of society as conceived by the Guardians, a small group presumably qualified to determine for all citizens what was best for them. (These arguments are set forth most fully in The Republic.) Plato's ideas were passed down through the ages, and in almost every society there have been those who have championed them. Taken to their...

Self-predication and the Third Man

The paper addresses the widely held position that the Third Man regress in theParmenides is caused at least in part by the self-predicational aspect of Plato's Ideas. I offer a critique of the logic behind this type of interpretation, and argue that if the Ideas are construed as genuinely applying to themselves, then the regress is dissolved. Furthermore, such an interpretation can be made technically precise by modeling Platonic Universals as non-wellfounded sets. This provides a solution to the Third Man regress, and allows a consistent reading of both self-predication and the singularity of the respective Forms.

Of Balloons and Bicycles; or, The Relationship between Ethical Theory and Practical Judgment

The relationship between ethical theory and practical judgment is not a happy or a stable one; while the two live together in some fashion, the terms of the cohabitation are not clear to most interested observers. I have to wonder what it is that most of us see as the signs of instability. As I reflect on this I direct your attention to the photo (opposite) of a wire sculpture presented to me by one of my students some years ago. It depicts a hot-air balloon, made from a toilet float, and a small tricycle sitting on the ground beneath the balloon. Let us suppose the tricycle is a proper, cross-country conveyance-a bicycle, in fact-and the image will serve nicely as a simile for the relationship between theory and practical judgment: the bicycle is like practical judgment, the hot-air balloon is like ethical theory. By theory, I mean any collection of meaningful assertions, descriptions, and explanations that attempt to give a big picture" about moral beliefs, attitudes, and behavior, a picture big enough that by looking intently at it, one can answer all the tough questions that seem important to the proponent of the theory. I refer to the grand theories contrived by thinkers from ancient times to today: Plato's Ideas, Aristotle's Telos, Augustine's Two Cities, St. Thomas's Natural Law, Luther's Two Kingdoms, Hobbes's State of Nature, Spinoza's Ethica More Geometrico, Locke's Contract, Kant's Categorical Imperative, Bentham and Mills's Utility, Rawls's Original Position, and so forth and so on. Obviously, each of these is radically different from the others; yet all are attempts to paint a picture with a set of ideas that is big enough and profound enough to make intellectual sense of the moral life, at least to the proponents and because the proponents wrote these ideas in books) to those everywhere and anywhere who read their books. I want this simile of balloon and bicycle to make four points. The first point is that the philosophical problem of the relationship between theory and practice is much older than hot-air balloons and bicycles, one of which was invented in the eighteenth century and the other in the nineteenth. Plato worried about the problem and he elegantly describes it in the sixth book of the Republic, where he depicts those who have "the perfect vision [the word is theoria the 'vision thing' disdained by presidents and delighting philosophers] of the other world that orders the laws about beauty, goodness and justice in this world" (6.484). Aristotle struggled with the problem: the sixth book of the Nichomachean Ethics distinguishes theoretical wisdom sophia) from practical wisdom (phronesis) by noting that the philosophers Anaxagoras and Thales had sophia "of extraordinary, wonderful, difficult and superhuman things, but such knowledge is useless because the good they are seeking is not human. Phronesis, on the other hand, is concerned with human affairs and with matters about which deliberation is possible" (6.11411b). As he was about to embark on his great study of moral behavior, St. Thomas slyly remarked, "Sermones morales universales sunt minus utiles, eo quod actiones sunt in particularibus", (Summa Theologica 2-2ae). His teaching about the relation between moral scientia of principles and the practical judgment of prudence was debated by his followers for several centuries. Thus, the problem is not at all new, not at all simple: who am I to write anything new or simple about it in the next few lines? The second point is this: from the balloon one gets a wide view of the landscape, and the horizons are far and on all sides. From the bicycle, one sees only the bumpy road ahead, the fallen tree limbs, and the dogs in the bushes. Theory, in this view, is a speculative fashioning of the scope of human life or action. It is very loosely tethered to the ground and can float quite free. It knows very little about the trials and dangers, thrills and fun of riding the bicycle, because it sees the details of human life only from a great distance, and often not at all. …

Testing building plans for public safety: Usefulness of the delft checklist

Public safety in research and policy Establishing connections between safety and urban planning goes far back in history. In his pronouncements on the ideal city Plato pointed to the need for wide streets easy to survey to protect the mobility (De Klerk, 1980). The safety of the 'lower orders' was rated rather less highly in those days. Their houses, which tended to be packed together along narrow, dark streets were considered good enough. Not much may be found of Plato's ideas in the early history of Dutch architecture and urban design. Here it was above all the town ramparts and the town gates that were designed to offer the burghers of the Middle Ages protection against thieves, highwaymen and attacks from outside. This is clear from surviving town plans. In many Dutch towns remains of these ramparts may still be found. At the individual level citizens relied on thick walls and small windows to offer a 'protective shell, standing between man and the dangerous world outside' (Prak, 1968). Later still the realization dawned that good public lighting could likewise have a positive effect on public safety. The more systematic study of the relation between the physical environment and public safety is of only relatively recent date. At the beginning of the development of criminology as a discipline emphasis was placed on perpetrator-oriented theories. For many Dutch criminologists around the turn of the century the book L'huomo delinquente by the Italian psychiatrist Lombroso (1876) was an important source of inspiration. It precipitated a number of studies in which the causes of crime were sought above all in the personality of the perpetrator, criminal behaviour being seen as innate and hereditary. In so far as a link had already been established in those days between crime and the environment, the emphasis fell above all on socioeconomic variables (Bonger, 1932). Not until the 1950s and 1960s was the importance of adequate housing and good socio-cultural facilities increasingly recognized, largely as a result of the ideas of the Chicago School (Park et al., 1925; Shaw and McKay, 1942). A well-known Dutch study in this connection is the investigation by Buikhuisen et al. (1969) into the effects of neighbourhood redevelopment on crime. The ideas developed in other countries on crime

The Sophists: Rhetoric, Democracy, and Plato's Idea of Sophistry

The Sophists: Rhetoric, Democracy, and Plato's Idea of Sophistry

Harold Barrett: The Sophists: Rhetoric, Democracy and Plato's Idea of Sophistry. Pp. ix + 85. Novato, California: Chandler & Sharp, 1987. Paper, $6.95.

Harold Barrett: The Sophists: Rhetoric, Democracy and Plato's Idea of Sophistry. Pp. ix + 85. Novato, California: Chandler & Sharp, 1987. Paper, $6.95.

Toward a General Theory of Education

There are two types of theories of education: normative theories and sociological theories. The first-normative theories-are generated by philosophers and educators. They are based on conceptions of what constitutes a good education and focus on how to implement these conceptions in terms of structures, contents, and methods. Sociological theories, on the other hand, analyze concrete situations and assess the changing meaning and role of education in the broader social context. The two types of theories are not mutually exclusive. In reality, normative theories can always be interpreted sociologically. The ideas of a theorist are never independent from space, time, and the environment in which they evolved. The degree to which such ideas are accepted is due to historical context. Plato's educational ideas, for example, envisioned in the Republic and the Laws, never became official state ideology during his lifetime, nor did those of Confucius or Marx. However, in the cases of Confucius and Marx, their educational ideals were successfully translated into school practice and became, albeit after their deaths, official state ideology. Their philosophical norms were accepted by the state because they corresponded to the interests of the class or union of classes that held power. My point here is that normative theories are translated into realities only when they bolster the interests of those who hold power and become instruments

Plato's Idea of Rhetoric for Contemporary Students: Theory and Composition Assignments

'The whole of Western Philosophy, wrote Alfred North Whitehead, consists of nothing but footnotes to Plato. Plato, who is among the most brilliant and artistic writers of antiquity, had a unique theory of rhetoric. From his idea of rhetoric one can derive some of the most intellectually stimulating and most rewarding assignments in the composition or speech instructor's repertoire. Yet the potential of using Platonic theory as a basis of assignments in composition and speech has not been exploited because Plato's idea of rhetoric is either unknown, ignored, or misunderstood. For example, the conventional twentieth-century thought about Plato is that he condemned rhetoric. Why would anyone derive useful assignments from a theory that condemns the very discipline one is teaching and, even if one tried, how could one? But Plato did not condemn rhetoric. What he condemned was the

Controversial questions about mathematics

For a mathematician it is somewhat compromising to publish a paper in which no theorems are proved. Indeed, in my work on mathematical problems I have had, many apparently excellent ideas, but only a small percentage of them turned out to lead to anything close to the desired results. When I now address myself to some problems which belong to the philosophy or sociology of mathematics then I do not have any reason to believe that these problems are easier to solve than mathematical ones nor that a larger percentage of my favorite ideas will be useful for solving them. But here, unfortunately, I do not have the possibility to separate the correct from the incorrect by means of mathematical proof. On the other hand, to stay away from these questions and to leave it mainly to the non-mathematicians to present us with their answers to them does not seem to be entirely satisfactory either. It is therefore my main intention to formulate some of those questions which I consider sufficiently important so that one should seriously think about them (even if it appears that in the time one spends with these questions one could have proved another mathematical theorem). But I should be careful not to assert that I knew the answers. About 2350 years ago, Plato gave his famous public lecture on "The Good" which, to the surprise of his audience, turned out to be virtually a lecture on mathematics. Of course, for a mathematician it is flattering to see a famous philosopher identify mathematics with "the good" and it gives him a great opportunity to demonstrate his own modesty by not insisting that this claim be generally accepted. I do not know whether Plato would agree with my interpretation of his idea of the good as sketched in the diagram of Figure 1, but it seems to me that his idea is still going strong today. For instance, at a recent conference of the Mathematical Programming Society one of the principal speakers stated the following. " I f at the time of the oil crisis in 1974 we had had as good a mathematical model as we have now then we would not have made those completely wrong decisions." This sounds to me like the diagram of Figure 2, which again looks "isomorphic" to Figure 1, and the 20th Century Edition of Plato's idea seems to be quite a best-seller. While the two diagrams of Figure 1 and 2 look similar let me call them P-diagrams it should not be overlooked that the meaning of the arrows is somewhat different due to several revisions Plato's idea had to undergo in 24 centuries. In particular, we do not assert that the equations of the mathematical model (B in Figure 2) govern the economy (A) in the strong

Surpassing Wit: Oliver St John Gogarty, His Poetry and His Prose

This book provides a clear, concise and highly readable introduction to the main themes of Plato's Republic. It covers Plato's social and political thought, his moral philosophy, his epistemology and metaphysics, and his philosophy of art and literature. Plato's theories in all these areas are presented in clear and straightforward terms. They are located in the context of the views of subsequent philosophers and critically assessed in the light of current debates. The contemporary significance of Plato's ideas is emphasized throughout.

To Create the Self

From this I shall evolve a man,' Wallace Stevens wrote of the mind's efforts to integrate the self by controlling a swarm of external phenomena. And in our time there are poets whose work is built on the awareness of disorder, confusion, and change, and for whom those very conditions generate the discovery of an interior life through powers above the level of reason. That self-discovery is attained by revelation that is not ultimate, as is the mystic's or the saint's; it is, however, genuine, in that the poet has broken through the limitations of conventional vision to see and to proclaim the truth of what has been seen. The poetry of Arthur Gregor, John Ashbery, and Jean Garrigue is, each in its own way, based on genuine vision and on revelation through clouds of distress and exile. Each has developed a method of meditation through which the soul may strive toward unity of being. Central to the work of each poet is a vision of the integrated self, as well as the unification of all people and the union of people and things. Each poet dramatizes the belief in the power of art to reveal a continuous present and to cut through the limiting divisions of days, hours, and years. Those notions are related to Plato's idea that the oneness of abso-