Plato: Key Ideas

The philosophical ideas of Plato, an outstanding thinker of antiquity and a student of Socrates, are summarized in this article.

Plato: Key Ideas Briefly

The philosophy of ancient thinkers was based on the concept of ideas. She even gave the name to the direction of philosophy - the doctrine of eidos, which implies the existence of 2 worlds: the world of forms and things. Eidos (ideas) are considered the sources of things, their prototypes. They form the basis of many things formed from formless matter. According to Plato, ideas are the absolute source of everything, because matter is not capable of generating anything.

The world of eidos exists outside of space and time. It has its own specific hierarchy: at the top of which is the idea of ​​the Good, and all other ideas flow from it. The Good itself is identified with absolute Beauty, being simultaneously the Beginning of everything and the Creator of the Universe.

The idea of ​​a being or any thing is considered the most secret, deepest and most significant in it. The role of an idea in a person is played by his immortal soul. Eidos can be characterized by the following qualities: unity, constancy, purity, and things: multiplicity, distortion and variability.

The main ideas of Plato have another side of research - the idea of ​​the soul. The ancient thinker represents the soul in an interesting way of a chariot with two horses, black and white, and a rider. The chariot is a symbol of the rational in man, the white horse is the nobility, the highest quality of the soul, and the black horse is the instinctive principle and desire. When a person is in another world, he can contemplate eternal truths with the gods. When he is born again in the material world, all knowledge of truths remains in the soul only as memories. According to the philosophy of Plato, the only way to comprehend the truth for a person is to remember, to find sensory reflections of ideas in simple things. If he still manages to see the traces of ideas through love, just deeds or beauty, then the wings of the soul, lost once, begin to grow again.

Another aspect of Plato's philosophy is teaching and Beauty. Its need to seek in people, nature, art, laws. After all, the soul is slowly moving from contemplating physical beauty to the beauty of morals, arts, sciences, and customs. This is the only way to rise to the world of ideas.

The second force that lifted man to the world of the gods is Love. Love with philosophy gives birth to something beautiful: things, laws and fair ideas.

In his work "State" Plato characterizes the main parts of the human soul. The rational part of it has wisdom, the passionate beginning of the soul has restraint and moderation, a furious spirit has the courage and the ability to obey the mind.

We hope that from this article you learned what were the main ideas of the philosophy of Plato.