Plato's Philosophy - From Socrates to Sartre (1978)

Thelma Z. Lavine delivers a few lectures on Plato as part of a televised lecture series called 'From Socrates to Sartre, A Historical Introduction to Philosophy'. Note, the music has been edited out.

00:00 Shadow & Substance
The Republic; the Socratic Method: the Allegory of the Cave - Plato the synthesizer of the previous conflicting philosophies of the Greek world. The pre-Socratic philosophers: Heraclitus and Parmenides; the Sophists. The dialogue form. The Socratic method. Book I of the Republic as instance of Socratic method applied to question; What is Justice? Confusion and failure of the discussion. Plato's metaphysics and its expression in the Allegory of the Cave and its contemporary relevance.

28:07 Opinion vs Knowledge
Theory of Knowledge - Opinion verses Knowledge. What is true knowledge and how is it reached? Plato's theory of knowledge. The Divided Line: diagram of four states of development of knowledge. Plato's theory of Forms. The idea of the Good. Contemporary significance of Plato's rationalistic theory of knowledge. Implication for art, common sense, religion, empirical science, mathematics. The meaning of "dialectic." The idea of the Good.

56:13 The Three Part Man
Tripartite Soul & Contemporary Psychology - Plato vs the Sophists; Plato's immutable ideas vs contemporary cultural & ethical relativism. Analysis of idea of Justice. The idea or essence of man. Theory of the tripartite soul. Relation to contemporary psychology, especially Freud. The charioteer and two horses. The man, the lion, and the dragon. Plato's ethics; "Justice" in the soul. The highest good is the life of reason. Virtue is knowledge.

1:24:13 The Ideal State
Plato's Politics: The Republic modeled on the tripartitate soul and its justice. The three classes of society, their education for their tasks. The producers, the administrators & warriors, the philosopher-kings. Noble Lies. The status of women. "Getting and spending:" the life of the masses. The disciplined, ascetic communal life of the guardians. The planned breeding of a superior guardian class. Political absolutism. Criticism of absolute truth. Who guards the guardians? The charge of totalitarianism.

#philosophy #plato #socrates #epistemology