Plato's doctrine of ideas: the revelation of true existence

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Plato is rightfully considered one of the most prominent philosophers in the history of mankind. Being the son of an aristocrat and a student of Socrates, he, according to his brother Diogenes Laertius, was able to create a synthesis of the theories of Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Socrates - that is, all those wise men who were proud of ancient Hellas. Plato's original doctrine of ideas is the starting and central point of all the work of the philosopher. During his life he wrote 34 dialogues, and in all of them this theory is described or mentioned in one way or another. It permeates the whole philosophy of Plato. The doctrine of ideas can be divided into three stages of formation.

The first one is the time after the death of Socrates. Then the philosopher tried to explain the theories of his teacher, and in such dialogues as the Symposium and Crito, the concept of the idea of absolute Good and Beauty appears for the first time. The second stage is the life of Plato in Sicily. There he was influenced by the Pythagorean school and clearly articulatedhis "objective idealism". And finally, the third stage is the final one. Then Plato's doctrine of ideas acquired a complete character and a clear structure, became the way we know it now.

In the already mentioned dialogue "Symposion", or "Feast", the philosopher, using the example of Socrates' speeches, describes in detail how the idea (or essence) of beauty can be better and more truthful than its incarnations. It was there that he first expressed the idea that the world of things and sensually perceived phenomena is not real. After all, the objects that we see, feel, taste, are never the same. They are constantly changing, appearing and dying. But they exist due to the fact that in all of them there is something of the higher, true world. This other dimension consists of incorporeal prototypes. Plato's doctrine of ideas calls them eidos.

They never change, never die and are never born. They are eternal, and therefore their existence is true. They do not depend on anything, neither on space nor on time, and are not subject to anything. These prototypes are at the same time the cause, essence and purpose of things that are in our world. In addition, they represent some patterns, according to which objects and phenomena visible to us were created. And all beings that have a soul aspire to this world of true existence, where there is neither evil nor death.

Because Plato's doctrine of ideas calls eidos at the same time goals.

This true world opposes our "bottom" not only as a copythe original or the essence of the phenomenon. It also has a moral division - good and evil. After all, all eidos also have one source, just as our things originate in ideas. Such a prototype that gave rise to other causes and goals is the Absolute. This is the idea of the Good. Only she is the root cause of not only goodness, but also beauty and harmony. She is faceless and stands above everything, including God. It crowns the entire pyramid of ideas. In the Platonic system, the Creator God is a personal, lower beginning, although he is very close to the main eidos of the Good.

This idea itself is an eternal and transcendent unity in relation to our world. It generates (through God the creator) the realm of the eidos, true being. Ideas create the “world of souls”. He is still included in the system of true being, although he occupies its lower level. Even lower is an imaginary existence, the world of things. And the last step is occupied by matter, which in essence is non-existence. All in integrity, this system is a pyramid of existence. Such is the doctrine of Plato's ideas, summarized in this article.