Plato’s Understanding of Reality Chapter Notes | Religion, Philosophy & Ethics for A Level - Year 13 PDF Download

Introduction

Plato’s philosophical outlook was shaped by his aim to address critical debates initiated by pre-Socratic thinkers, focusing on foundational questions about knowledge and reality.

Problems Plato was addressing

• Plato explored whether certain knowledge is possible in a world where everything is constantly changing.
• He addressed the philosophical problem of the "one and the many," questioning whether reality consists of multiple distinct entities or a single underlying essence.
• These abstract questions form the basis for a theory of knowledge that continues to influence philosophical thought.

Knowledge of changing things

• The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus claimed that everything is in constant flux, with no fixed essence to any entity.
• This perspective created significant challenges for establishing reliable knowledge, which Plato sought to resolve.

Challenges of Knowing a Changing World

Can We Truly Know Something That Changes?

• If something known undergoes complete transformation, the claim to know it becomes questionable.
• For example, when a close friend changes significantly, one might say, “I no longer know them,” illustrating the difficulty of knowing something in flux.

Essence & change cannot co-exist

• If everything changes constantly, the concept of an essence—an unchanging core—cannot exist.
• For instance, an egg may be painted, cracked, or cooked, but its essence as an egg persists beneath these changes.
• Without an essence, true knowledge of anything becomes unattainable.

Breaking down the theory

• Consider the following propositions:
  • The interior angles of a triangle always sum to 180 degrees.
  • Egg yolks are typically yellow.
• The first is inherently certain due to the logical nature of triangles and angles.
• The second, based on observation, is less certain, as a future egg might have a yolk of a different color.

Only A Priori Knowledge Is Truly

• Plato argued that knowledge derived from reasoning or logic (a priori) offers greater certainty than knowledge gained through experience (empirical).
• He considered a priori knowledge to be the only form of true knowledge.

Plato's thoughts on opinions

• Plato distinguished opinions from true knowledge, asserting that opinions involve believing we know something when we do not.
• He advocated for epistemological humility, recognizing the limits of our knowledge.
• True knowledge must be possible, as opinions are a mix of truth and falsehood; without the possibility of truth, opinions could not exist.