Platonic Essays

  • Platonic Paradox

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    To research Plato's paradox in the Meno, we can first consult the definition of what platonism is. Websters defines platonism as "actual things are copies of transcendent ideas and that these ideas are the objects of true knowledge apprehended by reminiscence." For this essay, we will assume that trancendency is- "that which is beyond comprehension", and reminiscence as "past experience". The Meno is a dialogue between Socrates, a scholar and Meno, who eventually became an explorer. For this essay

  • The Truth About Platonic Friendships

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    The researcher's qualitative research consisted of speaking with platonic friends of the opposite sex in casual random settings. The qualitative research was completely random using friends by chance that had no idea of the experiment. In doing so the researcher realizes that it is unethical, but figured it was the only way to find the real answers to his problem. During the conversation the researcher at one point or another came to ask the same four questions to all of the subjects involved in

  • Runaway Statues: Platonic Lessons on the Limits of an Analogy

    3244 Words  | 7 Pages

    Runaway Statues: Platonic Lessons on the Limits of an Analogy ABSTRACT: Plato’s best-known distinction between knowledge and opinion occurs in the Meno. The distinction rests on an analogy that compares the acquisition and retention of knowledge to the acquisition and retention of valuable material goods. But Plato saw the limitations of the analogy and took pains to warn against learning the wrong lessons from it. In this paper, I will revisit this familiar analogy with a view to seeing how

  • Relations Between Women In The 18th And 19th Centuries.

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Psychopathology 2.dichotomy between normal and abnormal C. Viewing within a cultural and social setting D. Based on the diaries of women from 35 families from 1760s to 1880s 1.Represents brood range of women 2.Middle class III.      Sensual and platonic A. Sarah Butler Wister and Jeannie Field Musgrove 1. Met while families vacationed; spent 2 years together at boarding school 2. throughout life wrote to eachother talking of their deep affection and their anguish when apart 3. Marriage brought physical

  • Plato: Patriot Or Dissident

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    cars wrong? If so, what are they missing? To understand Plato’s claim that democracy is nothing but a stopgap on the way to tyranny one must first understand Plato’s viewpoint. Plato is credited with developing a school of thought called Platonic Idealism. Platonic Idealism is based upon the assumption that the essence of the qualities you predicate to things is eternal. Examples of that are ideas such as justice, piety or equality. While we may not be able to readily define them we all know what they

  • Plato’s Unwritten Doctrines from a Hermeneutical Point of View*

    2288 Words  | 5 Pages

    variations. But it must be noticed that both conceptions of Platonic thinking are contradictory and that is reflected in their explanations of Plato’s own philosophical project. To begin with, I will not compare each point of the Hermeneutic and Tubingen School positions. I will explain, so far as I can understand, why the explanation of the Tübingen School is unsatisfactory. (1) These insufficiencies are not related to its deep analysis of the Platonic oral tradition, exactly to its interpretation. (2)

  • Sophistry

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    format, as to show what I am trying to say in a refined technique. I will try and add my questions and answers at the end, and I hope, Dr. Coyle, that this is an all right journal entry for our first journals. A. Sophistry… Or, more correctly, the Platonic likeness of sophistry. At 19d-21a, Socrates claims, in attempting to differentiate himself from the sophists to whom he has become incorporated in the Athenian popular perception, that sophists claim to be experts about human superiority and can

  • Platonic Justice

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Platonic Justice Throughout Platos Republic, the subject of platonic justice and its goodness to its self arise and are discussed amongst Plato and his peers. At the beginning of The Republic, Plato asks the fundamental question of what is justice? Looking to define the ideal state of justice, Plato reasons that he must first define justice in theory before he can use justice practically. Platonic Justice is defined as being a harmony between the tripartite soul in which reasons guide the spirit

  • Sacrifices in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God-- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-- and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end (99). James Gatz was already "about his Father's business" when he carefully

  • Being vs Becoming Plato

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Soul     Interest     Class     Virtue Reason     Knowledge     Philosophers     Wisdom Spirit     Honor     Warriors     Courage Desire     Pleasures     Commoners     Temperance From this desire for wholeness comes the famous Platonic theory of ideas. The world about us is imperfect. It is constantly coming into being and going out of being. It seems impossible that anything, which really is, should be part of such a world. When we look at a beautiful girl, we cannot say that

  • philosophy

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    many things. It could be the freedom to reflect, the ideas behind the force of question such as What is life?, Who is god?, Who am I?, etc. Philosophy could be a persons beliefs. Philosophy dates back a long time. It started with Plato talking about platonic forms, moving onto Socrates who used analogies. Others such as Locke, Rousseau, and Dewey also put our their views of philosophy. To me philosophy is a way of thinking, believing, and understanding. It could begin with learning how to interpret things

  • Elements of Plato in John Donne's The Good Morrow

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elements of Plato in John Donne's The Good Morrow There are clear Platonic elements in Donne's "The Good Morrow." The idea that Donne and his lady are halves that complete each other is traceable to Plato's theory of love. Lines 7 and 8 of the poem refer to the Platonic World of Ideas: the lady is presented as the Idea of Beauty, of which all earthly beauty is but an imperfect reflection. My argument, however, is that Plato's cave allegory and his World of Ideas are integral to a full understanding

  • Plato's Republic

    4423 Words  | 9 Pages

    In reading the Republic, there is no reason to search for arguments which show that Platonic justice ('inner justice' or 'psychic harmony') entails ordinary justice. The relationship between inner justice and ordinary justice is of no importance in Plato's Republic. We note that Plato tries to argue from the very first book that the true source of normativity lies in knowledge attained by philosophical reason. What is crucial, then, is the relationship between inner justice and acts which brings

  • Merchant of Venice Essay: Refuting the Critics

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    the principal "subversions," in The Merchant of Venice that modern and postmodern critics have imposed upon on the play.  Without its’ alleged contradictions, the play has a tight formalist structural unity, it focuses on an essentialist Platonic idea, and, resolving all conflicts, it ends in closure. On the topic of Antonio's sadness, Granville picks up a clue that to my knowledge no modern critic has noticed.  In his "methodizing" process, he moved Antonio's play-opening line--"I

  • Philosophy of love

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    represents the plutonic love that is immortal. Plutonic love is defined as a true friendship, the purest of all relationships. A true plutonic love will never die; it transcends time, space, and even death. Platonic love is in my opinion, the most important and vital aspect of love. Without platonic love people are ...

  • Pride and Prejudice Essay: The Faults of Pride and Prejudice

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jane Austen: Wickham, the modified villain of Pride and Prejudice, has so much charm about him that his sensible and epicurean father-in-law is almost disposed to like him better than his other and more honorable sons.  Miss Austen has a most Platonic inclination to explain any knavishness into folly.  Wickedness in her characters is neither unmixed with goodness, nor is it merely a defect of will; she prefers to exhibit it as a weakness of intelligence, an inability of the commonsense to rule

  • Recollection in Plato's Phaedo and Meno

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    Recollection in Plato's Phaedo and Meno As the earliest philosopher from whom we have written texts, Plato is often misrepresented as merely reproducing Socratic rhetoric. In Meno, one of the first Platonic dialogues, Plato offers his own unique philosophical theory, infused with his mentor's brilliant sophistry. Amidst discussing whether or not virtue can be taught, Meno poses a difficult paradox: How can one be virtuous, or seek virtue, when one cannot know what it is? "How will you aim

  • Drug Debate

    2870 Words  | 6 Pages

    mind-constricting because not only does the user not gain knowledge from the experience, but the user destroys self-control and liberty and triggers desires to act immorally. This division of drugs into categories does seem to be of the nature of platonic perfectionism but the ideology is not entirely based on this ethical theory and some arguments might seem to conflict with its philosophy. Using mind constricting drugs leads to immoral outcomes and therefore, mind constricting drugs must be illegal

  • Catcher In The Rye

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    mortician tells the school to follow his example and pray when things go bad, it is Holden Caulfield who points out that the guy is praying for more people to die. He's depressed by nuns and annoyed by shallow girlfriends, while in love with his platonic friend. Even more interesting is the fact that Caulfield's general pissed off attitude and his hormones are inextricably linked. He practically wants to kill his roommate, Stradlatter, because Stradlatter might have screwed a girl he desires

  • Merchant of Venice Essay: Antonio's Love for Bassanio

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    time / To wind about my love with circumstance" [i, i, 154]; "Commend me to your honourable wife: / Tell her the process of Antonio's end; / Say how I loved you" [iv, i, 273-275]). But whether the love Antonio holds for Bassanio is either sexual or platonic is never overtly answered, which leaves speculation ... ... middle of paper ... ...of Venice." Shakespeare Quarterly 37 1: 20-37. Granville-Barker, Harley. "The Merchant of Venice." Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism, Leonard Dean