Philosophies & Ethics of Plato
There’s an interesting story that compares life to being chained in a cave. It’s about three prisoners and of course, a cave.
Three prisoners spend their lives in a cave where they can only see in front of them, and behind them, a fire is blazing. Between them and the fire is a low wall behind which men carry different statues above their heads, and the fire casts the shadows of these statues onto the back of the cave. Because the shadows are all they ever see, the prisoners suppose that the shadows are the objects themselves.
Then, one prisoner is unshackled and let outside. In time, he understands what the reality is and he can see the objects themselves, not their reflections. Then, that same prisoner is dragged back inside the cave, and he excitedly tries to explain to the others what he saw. However, the others are so sure of what they know, that they do not believe him.
Now, this is a cool story, but what does it even mean? How does the cave = life?
The story ➡️ Allegory of the Cave
Plato used this famous analogy, the Allegory of the Cave, to explain how humans are so ignorant, and when someone tries to educate them, they turn them away.
This also ties into Plato’s Theory of Forms, that the physical world we know is but a shadow of the real one, so we should analyze and understand what we don’t know and should not be ignorant.
👉 Plato and Socrates are often associated together — Socrates was Plato’s teacher. His philosophies are really interesting, check out the article I wrote on him here!
Virtue Ethics: Plato’s ethics.
“Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”
Virtue ethics says that the reasoning of what is moral is decided by the person instead of by rules or consequences. YOU decide what’s moral and right, not by what will happen.
Plato believed that the human soul is divided into three parts.
- Reason: our thinking ability to judge
- Spirit: our emotional ability to feel empathy
- Appetite: our desires
According to Plato, we should balance these three parts of our souls to make good decisions and moral choices. Letting one take too much control of our minds is not good for us and leads to bad decisions.
Plato’s Dialogues
All of Plato’s writings are in dialogue form, with the character of Socrates appearing in all but one of them. His 36 dialogues are generally ordered into early, middle and late.
- The earliest of his dialogues, go deep into Socrates method of breaking down and analyzing ideas — first principles thinking.
- In the middle dialogues, Plato highlights his individual ideas and beliefs, that emerge from the Socratic form.
- His late dialogues are more explorations of different topics.
→ For example, the “Timeaus” looks at a cosmology- geometry cross, in which 3D shapes like cubes, pyramids are the “Platonic solids” out of which the whole universe is made.
Achieving Eudaimonia
Plato devoted his whole life to one goal: helping people reach a state called Eudaimonia (fulfillment)
To achieve this state, Plato encouraged thinking more. 🧠
👉 That means taking more time to think logically about your lives and how to lead them efficiently. Most of the time we just go along with the popular opinions, and these can lead you on the wrong path. By knowing yourself well, feelings don’t play such a huge role in decision making.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- Plato was a philosopher and was a student of Socrates
- He often stressed the value of knowing yourself and understanding how you make decisions.
- He encouraged the world not to be ignorant, and to know what you don’t know.
- He wrote dialogues, in which the main character was mostly Socrates.
- Plato devoted his whole life to one goal: helping people reach a state called Eudaimonia (fulfillment)
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