Plato
First published Sat Mar 20, 2004; substantive revision Tue Aug 1, 2017
Plato (429?–347 B.C.E.) is, by any reckoning, one of the most dazzling writers in the Western literary tradition and one of the most penetrating, wide-ranging, and influential authors in the history of philosophy. An Athenian citizen of high status, he displays in his works his absorption in the political events and intellectual movements of his time, but the questions he raises are so profound and the strategies he uses for tackling them so richly suggestive and provocative that educated readers of nearly every period have in some way been influenced by him, and in practically every age there have been philosophers who count themselves Platonists in some important respects. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied. But he was so self-conscious about how philosophy should be conceived, and what its scope and ambitions properly are, and he so transformed the intellectual currents with which he grappled, that the subject of philosophy, as it is often conceived—a rigorous and systematic examination of ethical, political, metaphysical, and epistemological issues, armed with a distinctive method—can be called his invention. Few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range: perhaps only Aristotle (who studied with him), Aquinas, and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank.
Many people associate Plato with a few central doctrines that are advocated in his writings: The world that appears to our senses is in some way defective and filled with error, but there is a more real and perfect realm, populated by entities (called “forms” or “ideas”) that are eternal, changeless, and in some sense paradigmatic for the structure and character of the world presented to our senses. Among the most important of these abstract objects (as they are now called, because they are not located in space or time) are goodness, beauty, equality, bigness, likeness, unity, being, sameness, difference, change, and changelessness. (These terms—“goodness”, “beauty”, and so on—are often capitalized by those who write about Plato, in order to call attention to their exalted status; similarly for “Forms” and “Ideas.”) The most fundamental distinction in Plato's philosophy is between the many observable objects that appear beautiful (good, just, unified, equal, big) and the one object that is what beauty (goodness, justice, unity) really is, from which those many beautiful (good, just, unified, equal, big) things receive their names and their corresponding characteristics. Nearly every major work of Plato is, in some way, devoted to or dependent on this distinction. Many of them explore the ethical and practical consequences of conceiving of reality in this bifurcated way. We are urged to transform our values by taking to heart the greater reality of the forms and the defectiveness of the corporeal world. We must recognize that the soul is a different sort of object from the body—so much so that it does not depend on the existence of the body for its functioning, and can in fact grasp the nature of the forms far more easily when it is not encumbered by its attachment to anything corporeal. In a few of Plato's works, we are told that the soul always retains the ability to recollect what it once grasped of the forms, when it was disembodied prior to its possessor's birth (see especially Meno), and that the lives we lead are to some extent a punishment or reward for choices we made in a previous existence (see especially the final pages of Republic). But in many of Plato's writings, it is asserted or assumed that true philosophers—those who recognize how important it is to distinguish the one (the one thing that goodness is, or virtue is, or courage is) from the many (the many things that are called good or virtuous or courageous )—are in a position to become ethically superior to unenlightened human beings, because of the greater degree of insight they can acquire. To understand which things are good and why they are good (and if we are not interested in such questions, how can we become good?), we must investigate the form of good.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/
Although these propositions are often identified by Plato's readers as forming a large part of the core of his philosophy, many of his greatest admirers and most careful students point out that few, if any, of his writings can accurately be described as mere advocacy of a cut-and-dried group of propositions. Often Plato's works exhibit a certain degree of dissatisfaction and puzzlement with even those doctrines that are being recommended for our consideration. For example, the forms are sometimes described as hypotheses (see for example Phaedo). The form of good in particular is described as something of a mystery whose real nature is elusive and as yet unknown to anyone at all (Republic). Puzzles are raised—and not overtly answered—about how any of the forms can be known and how we are to talk about them without falling into contradiction (Parmenides), or about what it is to know anything (Theaetetus) or to name anything (Cratylus). When one compares Plato with some of the other philosophers who are often ranked with him—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant, for example—he can be recognized to be far more exploratory, incompletely systematic, elusive, and playful than they. That, along with his gifts as a writer and as a creator of vivid character and dramatic setting, is one of the reasons why he is often thought to be the ideal author from whom one should receive one's introduction to philosophy. His readers are not presented with an elaborate system of doctrines held to be so fully worked out that they are in no need of further exploration or development; instead, what we often receive from Plato is a few key ideas together with a series of suggestions and problems about how those ideas are to be interrogated and deployed. Readers of a Platonic dialogue are drawn into thinking for themselves about the issues raised, if they are to learn what the dialogue itself might be thought to say about them. Many of his works therefore give their readers a strong sense of philosophy as a living and unfinished subject (perhaps one that can never be completed) to which they themselves will have to contribute. All of Plato's works are in some way meant to leave further work for their readers, but among the ones that most conspicuously fall into this category are: Euthyphro, Laches, Charmides, Euthydemus, Theaetetus, and Parmenides.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/
My Reflection
Plato was one of the first philosophers that I was introduced to when studying A level philosophy a few years ago. I think that what I learnt has subconsciously bubbled away at the back of my mind and could possibly have influence on my personal philosophy towards life and the fulfillment that we can gain on our time on Earth.
First, I want to reflect on my personal philosophies and then I will come back to how the ones of Plato may influence my photographic practice.
Being a student, I have the time, space and not many commitments which allows me to explore my personal philosophy. Working this out through personal experiences and expressing much of it through my photograph is building me a path for which I am walking on into the future. I struggle with the big concepts of consumerism, capitalism and the way in which the majority of the western world lives their lives. I think that there is so much more to be lived during our time on Earth than working a 9-5 job just so that you can just about pay off a mortgage and have a new car sitting on the drive. I see all of these things as superficialities that lie within the human constructed system which is used to control the masses so that the few, greedy rich can live in luxury. People believe that they are rewarded economically which allows them to succumb to consumerism, buying material objects that subsequently pump the money back to the top.
I think as a photographer and creator I do not fit into what I loosely call “The militant conformist” and since leaving mainstream education I am working out my philosophy of life. I believe that in order to find true contentment and fulfillment, you need to be connected to the land and space that you place your two feet on. The natural world is a living being that is far more powerful than human comprehension. Yes, scientists can calculate predictions and build an understanding of how it all works. However, I think that the power of human connection to the land is overlooked and not understood by the majority of mankind. Humanity's existence relies on the natural world and I want to lead a life that connects me to it in a way of living that is separated from the superficialities that I see many people falling into.
My reflection on Plato,
Plato was an incredibly forward thinking individual that was living in a period of time that did not always welcome an alternative way of thinking. The complexity of his philosophic career is something that I could also study for a long period of time and might never fully understand or comprehend the full ethos of his thinking. His analogy of the cave is something that I think can still be used today. A line of thinking that we see a cast of shadows that are perhaps not the true truth, a distorted truth that is perceived to us as a truth as we know no difference. I think it is easy to dismiss this thinking as people would not want to believe that what they think is true is actually a distortion of what is actually true.
This relates to my photographic practice as I feel that when I am making work, I am always aiming to capture the truth that is in the moment. My explorations also connect me to the land which does not have a human distortion place upon it, the land is what the land is. Something that I connect to on a philosophical level as well as something that I convey in the landscape photography that I make.
I like how the work of Plato prompts the reader to carry on their own personal investigation of how to reach fulfillment in life. Much of what Plato writes about are agitations of thought for the reader to relate to in their lives and personal experiences. The form of the good is an example of this; it's sometimes described as hypotheses (see for example Phaedo). The form of good in particular is described as something of a mystery whose real nature is elusive and as yet unknown to anyone at all (Republic). This also allows generation after generation to conclude in their way what Plato meant by his words which still keeps his thinking current and respected.