Phaedrus: The Soul and the Recollection of Virtue Plato states that "a man must have intelligence of universals, and be able to proceed from the many particulars of sense to one conception of reason; -- this is the recollection of those things which our soul once saw while following God -- when regardless of that which we now call being she raised her head up towards the true being" (417-418). For Socrates, God is everything. He is All. He is Existence, Truth, Beauty, Wisdom, Virtue, Life, Reality. God is what Socrates calls "the true being" from which all knowledge and intelligence comes. Souls that have not seen God before do not "pass into the human form" -- for God does not place a "soul which has never seen the truth" into the body of a man (417). Thus, when a man recognizes truth on earth, he is simply recollecting in his soul what it has seen before -- namely that all things (the particulars) have one reason (or cause), which is God. The relationship between recollection and true knowledge of virtue is rooted in the fact that true knowledge of virtue is only acquired when the soul is with God. When the soul is in the body, it must remember this knowledge, or recollect it. This paper will sketch the image of the soul as it is depicted by Socrates and how it acquires knowledge of virtue by seeing the light of God, which it then must recollect when...
This knowledge is gained, moreover, only because our souls "once saw" them "while following God" -- meaning our souls were once companions of God, who is the cause of all things in life, because He is the creator of all and nothing created Him (God is eternal). Therefore, Socrates sketches an image of the soul that is eternal as well. It is the spiritual side of man that lives on after the human form dies. Man in his human form has knowledge of virtue because his soul has lived with God before it came to live in his human form. If man's soul had not been with God prior, man would be an animal, because his soul would have no intelligence -- it would not understand the principle of universals. The sense that Socrates gives is this: when the soul is with God, God teaches it through His light and infuses in the soul through His nearness with the knowledge of the principles of life that God has given to life.
Virtue, instead, becomes something more affiliated with knowledge and experience than instruction, helping to reveal the reason for its elusiveness where applying definition is concerned. To Socrates, virtue pertains to the knowledge accumulated in one's pursuits. Therefore, "the soul, then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, rand having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of
Philosophy: Knowledge Is Virtue Socrates is widely acknowledged as the world's first philosopher, since he was the first to direct the attention of men from merely focusing on the study of nature to the study of human nature. Indeed, Socrates was the pioneer in moral philosophy for though the Sophists spoke of justice, law and temperance, they were still unable to define such values (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Heartlight Web
This recurrent theme is no accident: most cultures have, as a basis for their creation mythos, a utopian view of either the pre-human world or the post-human world. Sociological, this is a functionalist approach that serves to validate what it means to be a good citizen in society and move towards all citizens being good, and therefore a utopian culture arises. The word "utopia" is derived from the combination
Socrates and Knowledge:Dealing with the Existence of Unconscious and Conscious ThoughtsIntroductionSocrates held the view that one must engage in self-examination if one is to thwart ignorance. Ignorance�a lack of knowledge of truth and of one�s self�prevents men from reaching the good and the beautiful. Those who live in ignorance persist in a state of self-deception and false contentment, for within they harbor bitterness, envy, hatred, and all other manner of
Epistemology and Philosophy of Socrates and Plato Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It attempts to answer such questions as: How does one acquire one's knowledge? What is knowledge? What is possible for us to truly know? Epistemological inquiry also deals with skepticism regarding certain claims of the true nature of knowledge. Ontology is the science of being. Ontological inquiry attempts to answer the fundamental questions of existence, and thus is
Platos views on education are seldom accepted today, while Dewys are the philosophical foundation for much of what goes on in schools. Explain why this is the case. Dewey's approach towards education is based on the scientific method that grew out of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. It, in effect, builds on the theory of William of Occam, who denied the existence of universals (Weaver, 1984). Thus, Dewey and
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