political rule” Asses whether Plato has shown his claim to be false. Plato believes that the ideal ruler of the state should be a philosopher. He states that a king concerned with the pursuit of wisdom would undoubtedly be better than a lover of power‚ wealth or status. To have the majority vote for what is best would be irrelevant as they do not understand what is real and Philosophers are the only ones who can do this and fully understand the forms. Plato agrees that Philosophers in Athenian
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In Plato’s Gorgias‚ two different perspectives are argued on how to obtain happiness. The first perspective‚ Callicles‚ who believes an undisciplined life‚ leads to happiness whereas Socrates argues that self-control is needed to be happy. In this essay I will argue that Socrates is correct that self-discipline is essential for true happiness. The ultimate end goal in life is to be happy. Happiness by definition is the state of which one is happy. The term is subjective‚ but most agree “happy” is
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Assess the contribution and achievement of Plato as a critic. Plato was the first philosopher-scholar who gave a formal and systematic shape to criticism. It is believed that he started his career as a poet but soon after his meeting with Socrates‚ he destroyed his poems and dramas and began to take active interest in philosophy and politics. But he was not a professed critic of literature and his critical observations are not embodied in any single work. His chief ideas are contained in the Dialogues
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In order for Plato to create his idea of a perfect society‚ he makes the argument that censorship is essential for the benefit of the society as a whole. Though his idea opposes the fundamental beliefs of his audience‚ Plato creates a rhetorical strategy that disputes the case in which there must be censorship within the Republic. Plato also argues that monitoring what the children are exposed to will ultimately benefit not only the children‚ but the entire Republic. In order for Plato to get his audience
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In the allegory of the cave‚ Plato describes several men who have been chained all their lives with only a wall in front of them in which shadows are displayed and only echoes are heard. These men believe these shadows and echoes to be the totality of real things in the world without any inclination to question the veracity of their perception. Once one of them is released from the chains and comes out of the cave‚ he is welcomed into a new reality‚ one that supersedes the misapprehension of the
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alteration; as a foreign seed sown in an alien soil is wont to be overcome and die out into the native growth‚ so this kind does not preserve its own quality but falls away and degenerates into the alien type. - Plato‚ Republic 497 c I. Introduction In the sixth book of the Republic‚ Plato describes a philosophic soul as an exotic seed planted in strange soil. Because the soil is foreign to the seed‚ its growth is stunted‚ if not overwhelmed‚ by the forces alien to its nature. The context of
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The Lesson Between The Myth Of The Cave In the story of Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” Plato’s analogy portrays a group of people being imprisoned in a cave and being deceived into thinking that shadows on a cave wall are all reality has to offer them. They have lived their entire life this way‚ and never stepped to the outside world. But if they could manage to somehow escape‚ they would exit out of the cave. For the first time‚ the prisoners would see sunlight and dimensions of such‚ and their mind
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democracy. I will then assess this critique based on the contemporary model of democracy experienced by Plato. Furthermore‚ I will argue that the critique is still applicable in a modern context by presenting various problems that modern democratic models pose for the critique and then demonstrating how Plato’s argument can overcome them. In order to clearly understand why Plato finds democracy so objectionable it is necessary to understand how democracy worked in an Ancient Greek
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and you seem to be in the same case‚ although you did once perhaps know before you touched me. However‚ I have no objection to join with you in the enquiry” (Meno 80d). Plato‚ in his book Meno‚ defines whether or not virtue can be taught. He does so by presenting two different characters; Meno is just a mere prop that Plato utilizes so that he could convey his real messages through Socrates. The book is written in the dialectic style and begins with Meno’s question if virtue is teachable. Socrates
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in Plato’s "Gorgias". Explain what these views are; explain how Socrates tries to counter them; and give your own assessment of the dialogue between the two. With reference to Plato’s work entitled Gorgias‚ this essay will provide a short background to the dialogue‚ provide a synopsis of the points put forward by Callicles and how Socrates refutes those claims‚ ending with a final assessment of the dialogue in completion. ‘War and Battle’ are the opening words of the Gorgias. Voegelin believes
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