According to Plato, he gave his understanding to the world on what how beauty should be viewed and explained that there are more to beauty than just appearances, he stated:
“…the he should realize that the beauty of any one body is brother to the beauty of any other and that if he is to pursue beauty of form he’d be very foolish not the think that the beauty of all bodies is one and the same. When he grasp this, he must become a lover of all beautiful bodies, and he must think that this wild gaping after one body is a small thing and despite it.
After this he must think that the beauty of people’s souls is more valuable than the beauty of their bodies...” (Plato 57-58)
Plato thinks physically people are all the same and to pursue one based
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People should learn to discover it themselves. Human beings are very intelligent creatures and should not only judge people by what we see with our eyes. It is necessary to communicate heart to heart. An individual with a god-like skin might have the soul of a devil and vice versa. With the increase of knowledge people will see less and less of ones appearance, this is what differentiates a man from a boy. Also, people will be attracted by ones appearance for only a short amount of time. Aesthetic fatigue will be an appropriate term to describe this situation. A relationship will not run on just a beautiful face and nothing else, because after 3 weeks or so this beautiful face will no longer seem so beautiful. With time people’s shortcomings will appear and a pretty skin cannot cover that. Another reason to love the inner beauty is that outer beauty can be a faked, a pretended one but inner beauty can not lie. The look of a person can be easily changed through ways like makeup, dressing, or even plastic surgery. Lastly, Inner beauty will help people connect emotionally, this is what something outer beauty will never achieve because it is not possible to be connected emotionally without discovering what the person is like on the inside. Remember, ones face will be conquered by wrinkles as time go by, but their inner beauty will live forever and it will never
THE ANSWER A world where people and things are integrated, purposeful, beautiful is a description of the Aristotelian epoch as written by Richard E. Rubenstein. Though this vision of an ideal society (where economic growth, political expansion, and cultural optimism contribute as characteristics of that epoch) is inspiring, they are not achievable, if not ever, not yet, at least. On the other hand, Platonic epoch was described like the contrary; where humans are still held back from the full potential of humanity, with vices like self-hatred, intolerance and fanaticism. This essay will support and give explanations about why the Platonic epoch seems to be more appropriate to describe the present time in the perspective of the writer.
and for that matter, may not be a character at all. It is crucial then to
People are able to comprehend abstract qualities that aren’t observable in the real world. The knowledge we come and learn in this life must have come from a previous state of existence. Therefore, learning is not a new concept but a process that brings out the past back from us. Socrates stated that in a previous existence, we encounter a platonic form. A platonic form is the things itself, the reality of whatever happens to be. Ideas such as goodness, justice, beauty, truth and equality are acknowledged to be real. For example, two sticks lying on the ground are not equal in length but very close in resemblance. A person is able to recognize this state of equality based upon their knowledge of equality. “Whenever someone recollects something from things that are like it, mustn’t he always have this additional experience, of having in mind whether or not this thing he’s starting from is deficient at all in respect of its likeness to the thing he’s recollected?” (74a) One can never find true equality or perfect justice in anything that is material but encounters and perceives it through their senses and mind. Likewise, beauty is beyond being, where every beautiful thing participates and some participating more than the other, thus immaterial beauty becomes beautiful. Things are beautiful just because they connect in some way to the ideal form and because the idea of being
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart” (Kahlil). People focus more on the outward appearance instead of the inward appearance. One’s inward appearance is comprised of their character, values, morals, and the true nature of their heart. On the other hand, the outward appearance is composed of one’s dress and grooming. The inward and outward appearance determines whether or not a person is ugly or beautiful. The choices that we make also define whether or not one is ugly or beautiful; choices made in the past can sometimes be repeated in the future.
To be just or unjust. To be happy or unhappy? Men fall into these two categories. Why does a man act according to these 2 extremes? Is it because they fear punishment? Are they quivering in fear of divine retribution? Or do men do just things because it is good for them to do so? Is justice, good of its rewards and consequences? Or is it good for itself. What is justice? Are the people who are just, just as happy as the people who are unjust? Plato sheds light on these questions and says yes, I have the definition of justice and yes, just people are happy if not happier than unjust people. Plato show’s that justice is worthwhile in and of itself and that being a just person equates to being a happy person. In my opinion, Plato does a good job and is accurate when explaining what it is to be just and this definition is an adequate solution to repairing an unjust person or an unjust city or anything that has an unjust virtue and using the definition of what justice is accurately explains why just people are happier than unjust people.
Madness is defined as a state of severe mental illness. It is seen as how you think and/or act with another person or thing. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates, while saying his Great Speech, lists two types of madness and four types of “divine madness.” In this speech, he establishes many different thoughts and beliefs. One of the most important statements Socrates claimed is that madness is shown to be of utmost importance in life. We have all experienced different types of madness in our lives. Of course no human being is the same so the affects and reactions vary. I believe that if we do not have madness in our lives then our lives would be boring. There would be no passion and no excitement. It is sometimes nice to have something different
Socrates and Plato were some of the world’s most famous philosophers. Yet, they caused much trouble in the midst of their philosophizing. These philosophers, in the view of the political elites, were threatening the Athenian democracy with their philosophy. But why did they go against the status quo? What was their point in causing all of this turmoil? Plato and Socrates threatened the democracy as a wake-up call. They wanted the citizens to be active thinkers and improve society. This manifested itself in three main ways: Socrates’ life, his student Plato’s life, and their legacy in our modern age.
Starting as a wrestler Plato strived to be in the Olympics. Always falling short, he left his Olympic dream behind. After the attempt of wrestling he wanted to become a tragic poet. Failing to impress the judges at any major competition he changed course and headed over to hear one of Socrates’ speeches. He then made the decision to follow in the same footsteps of Socrates. Becoming one of Socrates’ pupils Plato wrote Socrates’ works and began to develop his own ideas along the way. He also founded the first university called the academy. Plato’s philosophy is based on the idea of everything being a copy of that ideal form. He believes that no one knows what something real looks like.(Strathern) Plato also believes there are three main parts of the soul. Depending on what part of the soul is greatest in a person they can be a leader, a warrior, or a servant.(Kerns) Plato believes the good life is the perfection of Earths imperfect images and distinguishing between the different parts of the soul.
The definition of beauty is varying among different people in the world. Even though almost everyone knows the term beauty, many people are struggling in defining it and persuading others to agree with their opinions. Beauty is defined by a combination of qualities existent in a person or thing that fulfills the aesthetic feels or brings about profound gratification. Many people define beauty as a term to describe a person’s physical appearance; they often think that beauty comes from magazines, video girls, or even models. Although the term beauty can define a person’s physical appearance, true beauty lies in the way one acts and thinks rather than the way one look.
Good physical appearance helps in building up flexible relationships. For example women who take care of their physical appearance manage to have a better relatio...
Plato widely a respected philosopher and is arguably one of the greatest philosophers of all time. I knew nothing about him or what he stood for before taking this course and I found his theory on human nature very exciting. “Plato’s most fundamental contribution to philosophy was the distinction he drew between the changing physical objects we perceive with our senses and the under changing ideals we can know with our minds.” What Plato means is when we see something that we think is good or bad that there is good strong reasoning behind why we think the way we do. I find this very intriguing because, this it pertains to how I feel about everyday things and big Icons. For example, when hanging out at a friend’s house that is considerably richer
There are so many different opinions on what beauty is. The idea of beauty is purely opinionated. Beauty is your own idea, skinny or thick, long hair or short hair, light skin or dark skin. How people define beauty is unique in many different ways everyone has a different opinion. No ones idea of beauty is the same. In society today it has become more materialistic based if you wear the latest designer or you have the newest pair of sneakers out and the true meaning of being beautiful has escaped our souls. Beauty is not just what we see on the outside it is so much deeper then what we see its what we also have to offer on the inside.Your intelligence is beauty your mind, body, and soul. Beauty is not a single image, but the active embodiment
First, Plato believed that ideas are the realist things in the world. What we see in our daily life is not reality; sense perceptions are only appearances. And appearances are unreliable material copies of the immaterial pure ideas. Thus to him the world of the ideas is reasonable and fixed and holds the truth. While the world of physical appearances is variable and irrational, and it only bears reality to the extent that it succeeds in capturing the idea. To live the best life that you can and to be happy and do good, as a person you have to strive to understand and imitate the ideas as best as you can. So, with this philosophy in mind we can understand why Plato considered art as just a mindless pleasure. He viewed art as just an imitation.
This essay attempts to present a critical analysis of the literary works of Plato. Plato's literary work span is wide containing issues pertaining to justice, social life, specific virtues, good ruler's knowledge, value of justice, love and many others. The philosophical tones of Plato resembled very much with that of Socrates addressing the similar issues in his own Platonic version of dialogues. The Republic and the citizen played an important role in his work in addressing to the various social issues and intricate understanding of the human nature of human responsibilities in a republic. Plato's parents were wealthy and influential Athenian who chose Socrates as a teacher of Plato. After the death of Socrates, Plato undertook travel journeys to Egypt and Italy and analyzed the life specific issues alongside the students of Pythagoras spending several years advising the ruling family of Syracuse. Plato was a literary fellow who had established his own philosophy school trying to convey the teachings of Socrates. His works included Scoratic thinking style and mathematical learning.
In the Phaedo, Plato introduced the theory of Ideas which centered on the problem of immortality of the soul, which suggested that true cannot be finding in the sensible world, but in the world of ideas. He talked about the knowledge of equality in the sense world in which it is impossible to have things that are equal. Things in the sense world might seem to be equal, but in reality it is not. Equality can only come from the mind and this equality is Ideas, which has always been in the mind and is unchangeable, universal, and eternal. He lays down that ideas such as beauty itself, goodness itself, and justice itself are itself when they partake in themselves. For example, beautiful object is beautiful because they partake in itself or all beautiful things are beauty by itself. This makes beauty exist forever and not like objects in the sense world which is temporary. He used these Ideas to use as his proof for the immorality of the soul. The body is like objects in the sense world, which is temporary and insignificant. These objects can change from hour to hour and from day to day. They are unreliable and useless. The soul, on the other hand, is in the Ideas world which is unchangeable, perfect and is forever. Just like beautiful thing partake of beauty by itself, the soul partake in the ideas of life which means that the soul li...