6. Introduction to Plato

as I indicated to you today we're going to be introducing Plato he is not only the only source we have for the life of Socrates but he has himself some people would say the most important philosopher in the history of the planet Earth so for example I'm gonna know the name Alfred North Whitehead you ever heard of him he's a famous guy Englishman alright he's a he's a big deal guy alright just take my word for it he says this famous quote Alfred North Whitehead says you don't have to take this down just get the spirit of the statement quote the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato a lot of different ways to try to start dealing with Plato but my favorite is to simply begin by showing you two great works of art from the Western world this is one of them hope you all recognize this one you've seen that Matthew do you recognize that particular painting I know you're kind of bad angle here would you recognize that that would be the Mona Lisa painted of course by who Kaylie DaVinci Leonardo da Vinci so you've got that great piece of art and then there's one other I'm sure you'll all recognize it's and I want you to kind of compare and contrast them this is how we're going to start this one was called the Betty Sue I took that photo in the Uffizi I'm sure you all caught it when you were touring there the Betty Sue page it of course by that world-renowned artist Gor da Vinci Gor now sometimes when I've asked this question I've gotten smart aleck answers so I'm gonna call on somebody who I know will play ball with me she's not going to be where we call in the in the biz cute you know so now Sarah I just want you to I just want you to tell me as you examine these two pieces of very famous art that obviously you've seen both of them many times in your life and I want you to make now a judgment about which one is the more beautiful you you stab me to the core I thought of all people Sara would come through for me what you have to admit at least it's kind of a close call isn't it I mean you have to it's not even a close call well was anyone can argue for the other team any I mean you've gotten a lot of ego at stake here you know is anybody going to take up the cause for the Betty Sue thank you all right I'm thinking I will reconsider question one on your quiz here Jordan please what would go ahead make the case I want you to tell me why the Betty Sue is more beautiful than the Mona Lisa who cares all right thank you thank you so Jordan Jordan is made I think a compelling case one that I find highly persuasive personally does that modify anybody's views and then we're gonna change their vote here Jake all right Matthew Joe I've changed your Jordan changed your view that issue might have personal like personally not impressive it's like actual size right there all right well now here's what I want you to consider you know there's been some degree of controversy in recent years about the National Endowment for the Arts for example in America where tax money goes to sponsor different artists who produce different kinds of art and the question has come up I mean you know I don't know if you're familiar with this one of the more famous illustrations of what was called art was a crucifix in a beaker of urine remember that you know I come across that another one was a picture of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung smeared all over it and of course people and and others and your tax money was going to sponsor that kind of artistic expression and not surprisingly some people in the country were saying whoa what is this this doesn't seem like a legitimate use of tax money for what I don't think constitutes art and that raised the whole question of what is art and what is beauty and you had a lot of people arguing hey you have your view of beauty I have mine and it would be kind of like I mean I don't know how sincere Jordan was I think he's person of rare artistic insight so maybe he was he really didn't realize that here there is greater beauty than here but Jordan as much of a genius as you are you didn't win the day and I hate to say it because of course my own ego is very much injured by this I think most people would say well it's really the Mona Lisa but why why not why can't it be the Betty Sue who's to say in other words that it's one or the other we all kind of have an instinct but the fact of the matter is a lot of people would run around and say well hey if you know if Trevor here thinks the Betty Sue is the more beautiful then hey the Betty Sue is the more beautiful for Trevor and there's no other place to go to settle the case except maybe just counting noses take a vote are you familiar with that y'all kind of feel that that's part of your culture it's the whole controversy about what is good what is true what's beautiful who's to say and there's a very strong kind of attitude and your culture that well if it if it works for you you know then it's okay for you it's your truth it's your beauty so all right well we will now retire of course have to turn these back over to the curator to protect them until I use them again next year so we'll keep them safe here if any of you want to take a closer locket you know play-doh comes along and he is the first great philosopher in history to say there is a difference between the Mona Lisa and the Betty Sue and as a matter of fact not just opinion fact the Mona Lisa is more and more beautiful it is not simply a matter of personal opinion Plato argues for the idea that there is an objective standard of truth and an objective standard of beauty and an objective standard of goodness and even if you don't like it it's not going to change it you didn't put it there and you can't take it away it is objectively true not simply subjectively true so Plato's the great Objectivist in history does what I just said makes sense do you all get the point of that so far mr. cheeley please that my son is exactly where we want to proceed so hold that and the other comment about just the general proposition it's the basic proposition I want you to get there is objective truth beauty goodness where it is how we discover it Avery will have to work our way through that little bit all right to understand Plato we have to go back and remember that there were the Ionians and the Italians so that was the raging debate in the philosophy up until this point and the most important guy representing the Ionians was a character by the name of Nicole the most important Ionian no he's the first not the most important the most important is Sydney Heraclitus and the most important Italian was Stephen Pythagoras was one of them but not the most importance it was Kayla Parmenides thank you now I want you to know that I want you to know that the the Ionians more or less the the heart of the matter was captured by Heraclitus and the heart of the matter was captured in Italy by Parmenides I want you to know those other guys as well but you should realize these are the two that brought the debate to its most acute level per minute e stands for the idea that what would be the little catchphrase that would more or less capture the insights of Parmenides Serra that's right ultimate being whatever is is changes ilusory something is fixed and permanent and eternal it is unchanging it is being if you think about it whatever being is how are you conceived of it you realize that whatever it is it cannot change it is being it doesn't get old in a sense it has no beginning or end it's it's not it's not becoming anything it is as being you know and that's what Parmenides wants to argue is rationally necessary based on just the use of the mind Heraclitus of course stands for just the opposite idea everything's becoming so you might say on the one hand harmonies is the great champion of being Heraclitus is the great champion of becoming our minute e stands for the idea that everything stays permanently as it is there are cleitus stands for the idea that everything is in flux you never step into the same river twice you know tick tick tick tick tick you're getting older time is slipping through your fingers all right two other words that I want to now a tie to these two and and I we will come back to these countless times I mean countless times through this course so this is my first introduction of these terms please try to get it right now it'll help because I won't have to re-explain it ten thousand times as we go along Heraclitus is the great champion of philosophical empiricism Parmenides is the great champion of philosophical white what would be the opposite here of empiricism do you suppose any idea forever you know that yeah the opposite of empiricism would be no ID anybody gonna take a stab at that Josiah rash go ahead set whole word rationalism what is empiricism was that word mean Sydney what is empiricism yes you learn through experience generally or the word we'd use a little more precise you learn through when we say through experience we're really saying you learned through what exactly you know what I'm after anybody you learned through Avery not exactly if you learn through experience okay get this the one I'm after you learn through your senses you learn through sensation not in the sense of something being sensational like a great movie but sensation means your senses you experience it through primarily your five senses the rationalists on the other hand say you learn primarily through the operation of the mind the mind precedes sensation so it's two different emphases Heraclitus looks at the world he sees it's changing and that becomes the way that he understands truth his senses tell him everything's changing right that's his sensory experience I have it every day I walk into this classroom you all look one day older you're aging that's what my senses tell me Parmenides on the other hand would look at you and even though he would see what he calls an illusion of change he knows that fundamentally nothing is changing that's what his mind demands that's what Zeno's paradox has proved and so that's what he accepts must be the truth of the matter got that well here's the big impasse these two guys are locked in this combat nobody can resolve it and for a while what you get in Greece is a period of skepticism and that's who the Sophists are we talked about them the Sophists are skeptical they say we don't know who's right Parmenides sounds right Heraclitus sounds right can't figure it out they both sound right so the Sophists say who cares anyway you know that's just let's just get busy about more important things like making money and a good job getting elected mayor you know stuff like that stuff that really matters and so you have this kind of malaise until along comes a guy named Plato and Plato now becomes the great synthesizer he wants to take the insights of Parmenides and the insights of Heraclitus and sync them up into a new philosophy called platonism and thus is born one of the most important moments in philosophical history all right just a tiny little bit of biographical stuff on Plato it-it's not the life of Plato is not that important but it helps to know a little bit about him so Plato was born in an aristocratic family in Athens his real name was a risk stokeley's AR is toc le s eristic Li's he was a wrestler and he was a big guy and he picked up the nickname as a wrestler Plato placton which means something like broad shouldered or buff so that's what the word actually means he became a disciple of Socrates as a young man was one of his groupies followed him around Athens love to see Socrates giving a bad time to the political leaders in Athens Plato was deeply deeply negatively affected by the condemnation of Socrates that was for him a life-changing event when Socrates was executed Plato fell out of love with Athens and he went on a long tour and he toured all through the ancient world we don't know if he ever made it to the region that we call Israel some people think he might have and actually come in contact with the Jewish religion that's a wide-open question very speculative I think the consensus is he did not but he does seem to have made it to the east he traveled all through Ionia and of course Egypt and so on so about 10 years he does what a lot of people would like to do just go for a big trip you know not two weeks but 10 years you know etchant that I mean two weeks well he had money yeah and he had you know his American Express so it was okay yeah get you anywhere so anyway he he travels around for about ten years comes back to Athens in the year 387 so I remember Socrates was executed in what year been 399 a date you'll never forget he's gone about ten years comes back in 387 and he'd been especially influenced by the pythagoreans he'd been especially influenced by the Ionians and I'm sorry by the Italians I should say by this kind of philosophical outlook but he'd also been touched by these guys and his great quest was how can I put this together how can we take the contribution both of our minute ease and of Heraclitus and the others who have commented and come up with some new grand you know philosophical scheme that will do justice to both of them so that's what Plato's trying to do he founds in Athens little school hangs out a shingle it says you pay me money I will teach you philosophy the name of the school was was the name of the school you know Meghan it's called okay that's right they're just the Academy does anyone know how the Academy got its name where that word came from nobody know well he opened his school originally in a little region that was kind of a grove of trees he taught outside and it was lovely and there was this grove of trees owned by a guy named similarly a commedia sore something like that so we just named his school after the guy that owned the grove of trees where he taught so there you are and we've had the word Academy right down to the present day the word has stuck all right he lived for another you know what 40 years or so died at about 80 years old his most famous student was who who's the most famous student of Plato guy by the name of Jordan Aristotle who we will move to next but that won't be for a week or so all right let me give you in the time that we have left what are called what I had presented to me once is the seven beliefs that Plato opposed so these were kind of commonly floating around the philosophical world at the time and Plato is hostile to all of these ideas he is hostile to atheism atheism is Spencer atheism is one that's right that there is no God that there is no transcendent order there is nothing above this world and have we studied in the atheist so far in our examination of the pre-socratics that there been in the atheists we've looked at the answer is I'm seeing a mixed response here any atheists mr. Culberson if we examine any atheists along the way in our little survey of the pre-socratics all right they probably were we also have the go ahead Matthew that's right remember the four characteristics of the Ionians every one of those would be atheistic in character naturalist materialists right all of that the Ionians were corporeal monists if you're a corporeal bonus you are generally an atheist okay and so in a sense you would say that Plato is most hostile to the what the Ionians because he is hostile to the idea that there is such such a thing as atheism he believes there is a transcendent order a supernatural order and that that is necessary to make sense out of this world so that's the first thing second thing he opposes is empiricism now we've used the word twice so Nicole if I asked you what is empiricism by now you've got it ingrained in your brain and empiricism is exactly so but discipline generally would we associate with empiricism if I said go to the class which is most oriented to empirical investigation you would immediately go to whose classroom every day of the week it would be what class who's the most famous empiricist on the faculty mr. Dijkstra absolutely I give him a bad time about that all the time kind of an inside thing there Plato doesn't believe that that's the true source of you know really reliable content about what is true and reliable he believes that we have to look into the mind more than we look to the senses but he doesn't discount the senses entirely just kind of de-emphasizes them third thing he's hostile to is relativism Alicia what is relativism you don't need to say you think you do or don't think you did you don't think you know oh come on you guys got an order relativism is what is relative so what is relativism what is it it is ever so what does that mean to say everything is relative okay that's the idea relativism would be Sara give me a one sentence definition of relativism okay that's it well you're kind of getting at you know relativism is there's no fixed truth no absolute truth you ever heard the expression there are no absolutes have do you relativism I always like to hear that somebody says to me there are no absolutes how do I respond then what's that is that what you say that's right do you mean that absolutely you know there are absolutely no absolutes or they're just relatively no absolutes which one is it because if you're meaning it absolutely the way you just said it then there's at least one absolute isn't it namely that there are no absolutes and you just defeated your own case didn't it right but you know relativism is self-refuting on its face it is absurd but the gener usually the relatives doesn't care they know they're being absurd they like it that way you know we live in a very relativistic culture I think you probably know that Plato however is hostile to relativism he believes there is fixed and absolute truth and it's true whether you like it or not the Mona Lisa is more beautiful than the Betty Sue whether you like it or not he doesn't care about my ego he doesn't care about who votes for which he doesn't care about you know popularity he says there's something that is true and it's true regardless of our opinions about it sounds a little bit like Paul in Romans chapter 3 let God be true even if every man is a what you know that verse a liar you know so Plato is a hostile to relativist he's hostile to hedonism Cayla do you know the word hedonism never heard that word okay that's fine Spencer hedonism okay something like that but the most important thing in life is simply to seek pleasure that's usually the philosophical outlook of the average male college freshman so off you go to pagan you you're gonna find yourself surrounded by a good working expression of hedonism usually by the time these male freshmen became sophomores they have confronted the hedonistic paradox which is that the more you seek pleasure the more eventually you will feel pain you know but that's a different problem anyway Plato is all about a higher call in your life there are more important things than simply seeking pleasure he's not if he's doesn't dislike pleasure pleasure is fine but there's more important things of the people we've studied so far there was one who I specifically said was a hedonist I kind of threw that out there in passing I didn't know if anyone caught it but I mentioned it and the guy's name is Krista very good Democritus who was an animist the only thing that exists is just material and the only meaning in life before you die and pass into oblivion is to get as much pleasure as you can and so he was a he was consistent to his own philosophy we looked at him alright next thing that Plato is opposed to is materialism mr. true what is materialism that's right that's exactly the only thing that exists is matter Plato believes that as a matter of rational necessity there must be something besides matter there's something else some of the reality besides just the material universe he is opposed to number six naturalism some of these are terms already looked at we look to have them in connection with the Ionians but play go especially singles these out so mr. Bharath what is naturalism once again just to remind ourselves of that what is it that's right okay what do you mean by that by natural causes okay well I as a user word random but you're on the right that that's the idea that everything happens by virtue of material natural causes that is causes that you can measure there's no unseen causes no causes outside the world of what we commonly call nature Plato believes there are unseen causes he believes in a supernatural order he believes there's a level of reality that you cannot put in a test tube centrifuge out way and measure something else that's part of how we understand the world in which we live and the final one that he opposes is mechanism mechanism is pretty similar but it sort of highlights a certain point Steven what do you think mechanism it does yes and so what is a mechanical device we call a mechanical device a machine yes and what is the what are the typical characteristics of a machine well it can be certainly can be of what's the that's right you know I know some of you wonder about this but I'm going to say to you now as a matter of philosophical principle your car does not have free will I mean I grant sometimes I feel like my car has not only free will but a very rebellious will you know but the fact of the matter is a machine doesn't think doesn't have a soul it just operates by strict mechanical cause-and-effect and there were those who said that's what you are you are a machine you are a robot you are an automaton you are just cranking along based on material forces you have no will you have no know anything in you that we would call you distinctly you know personhood and then in the sense that we normally use that word you're just kind of grinding along in a mechanical sort of way kind of like a car or a computer program or some such thing Plato is opposed to all of those and I want you to be able to tell me those seven and tell me their definitions I guarantee you I will ask you that question eventually and it will be kind of a basis upon which we do some other things so make sure you get this yes Silesia well his response to all of these I'm gonna I'm gonna hold off I I've really given you plato's response to any of them yet except to note in a he certainly believed in soul he believed that we have some kind of moral responsibility for our actions let me ask you this from a Christian point of view just assessing now these ideas that Plato opposes this Plato sound like a friend or an enemy of the Christian faith from what you've seen right here Kaleigh he sure does doesn't he I don't think there's any thoughtful Christian who wouldn't concur on every one of these and that's why many people read Plato and they're impressed with how Christian he sounds and in fact there were some you know thinkers in the early years of the church's history that thought Plato must be sort of a proto Christian he couldn't have been a true Christian because Jesus hadn't been born yet he's four hundred years too soon some people thought maybe Plato and his travels made it to Israel maybe he had contact with Jewish rabbis maybe he even had read some of the Old Testament Scriptures I think the arguments for that are pretty thin I personally I believe that's probably not true but I wouldn't discount it out of hand he certainly never says anything like that but you begin to look at his thought and you think to yourself whoa this guy really does sound like one of the good guys in history but there are some risks in Platonism and if you look at the early centuries of the church's history there was a kind of hybrid of the Christian faith and platonism that generated a bunch of heresies what do we call that fundamental hybrid in church history between the Christian faith on the one hand and Platonism on the other it's kind of a sort of a there's a generic word you'd use that represented that little whole unholy alliance between platonism and the Christian faith and we call it but you know the term I'm after it's one you all know and you have studied at least to some degree down through the years here and elsewhere probably and it is the word Sydney it is Gnosticism thank you so although we have a certain temptation a kind of inclination to endorse Plato and say wow he's on our team he's in our corner one of the good guys be careful don't go too far down that road because the church tended to do that in its early centuries and it generated a whole distortion of the Christian faith that to this day is still with us and it's this Gnostic you know flavor that really tends to be kind of hostile to this world it's sort of views in a dualistic way most important things as otherworldly and it discounts the importance of this world so just be careful with that but in the greater scheme of things Plato does come across as a fairly good guy you

Channel: Bruce Gore

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Length: 40min 41sec (2441 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2015