Plato :: essays research papers

Platos works, perhaps the most consistently popular and influential philosophical writings ever published, consist of a series of colloquys in which the discussions between Socrates and others are presented with infinite charm. Most of our knowledge of Socrates is from these dialogues, and which views are Socrates and which are Platos is anybodys guess. (Plato cautiously neer introduced himself into any of the dialogues.) Like Socrates, Plato was chiefly interested in moral philosophy and despised natural philosophy (that is, science) as an inferior and unworthy sort of knowledge. on that point is a famous story (probably apocryphal and told likewise of Euclid of a student asking Plato the application of the knowledge he was being taught. Plato at once coherent a slave to give the student a small coin that he might not think he had gained knowledge for nothing, then had him laid-off from school. To Plato, knowledge had no operable use, it existed for the abstract replete(p) of the soul. Plato was fond of mathematics because of its idealized abstractions and its separation from the merely material. Nowadays, of course, the purest mathematics manages to be utilise, sooner or later, to practical matters of science. In Platos day this was not so, and the mathematician could well drive himself as dealing only with the loftiest form of pure thought and as having nothing to do with the egregious and imperfect everyday world. And so above the room access to the Academy was written, "Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here." Plato did, however, believe that mathematics in its ideal form could still be applied to the heavens. The heavenly bodies, he believed, exhibited perfect geometric form. This he expresses most clearly in a dialogue called Timaeus in which he presents his scheme of the universe. He describes the flipper (and only five) possible regular solids -- that is, those with equivalent faces and with all lines and angles, formed by those faces, equal.Plato essays research papers Platos works, perhaps the most consistently popular and influential philosophic writings ever published, consist of a series of dialogues in which the discussions between Socrates and others are presented with infinite charm. Most of our knowledge of Socrates is from these dialogues, and which views are Socrates and which are Platos is anybodys guess. (Plato cautiously never introduced himself into any of the dialogues.) Like Socrates, Plato was chiefly interested in moral philosophy and despised natural philosophy (that is, science) as an inferior and unworthy sort of knowledge. There is a famous story (probably apocryphal and told also of Euclid of a student asking Plato the application of the knowledge he was being taught. Plato at once ordered a slave to give the student a small coin that he might not think he had gained knowledge for nothing, then had him dismissed from school. To Plato, knowledge had no practical use, it exist ed for the abstract good of the soul. Plato was fond of mathematics because of its idealized abstractions and its separation from the merely material. Nowadays, of course, the purest mathematics manages to be applied, sooner or later, to practical matters of science. In Platos day this was not so, and the mathematician could well consider himself as dealing only with the loftiest form of pure thought and as having nothing to do with the gross and imperfect everyday world. And so above the doorway to the Academy was written, "Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here." Plato did, however, believe that mathematics in its ideal form could still be applied to the heavens. The heavenly bodies, he believed, exhibited perfect geometric form. This he expresses most clearly in a dialogue called Timaeus in which he presents his scheme of the universe. He describes the five (and only five) possible regular solids -- that is, those with equivalent faces and with all lines and angles , formed by those faces, equal.