Plato was a philosopher born in Athens, Greece in 427 BCE and later died in 347 BCE. He was the founder of the first university, the Academy, where his students would read Socratic dialogues that he wrote. (Palmer, 2001). He was a student of Socrates and became the teacher of Aristotle. He is best known for his idealism in philosophy and the creation of theories such as the theory of forms. The Theory of the forms was his most notable contribution to philosophy because of its unique depiction between reality and knowledge. Plato proposes that the imitation of objects and the idea of said object is called eternal forms. This means that what is being sensed is an imitation of the object’s nature. “Ideas or Forms are the immutable archetypes of all temporal phenomena, and only these Ideas are completely real; the physical world possesses only relative reality.” (Colombia Record Encyclopedia, 2021). He states that the objects people are seeing are solely a representation and are not reality. For example, a bowl is circular, able to hold food, and is meant to be eaten. Every bowl is not “perfect”, Plato would believe the perfect bowl exists in the perfect world.
Plato’s allegory of the cave ties into the theory of the forms, which includes four stages. The stages are imagination, belief, intellect, and reason. These interpret the levels of knowledge in the divided line. The divided line is a visual for the theory of forms which separates the perfect unseen world and the seen imperfect world. The allegory of the cave involves chained prisoners who are unable to see the people beside them and only the wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners and the wall, there is a path where people walk with artifacts like vases and statues on their heads. The only thing the prisoners can see of the individuals walking this path is their shadows on the wall. Since this is all they know, they believe this to be reality. This highlights the bottom level of knowledge, which is imagination. The images are only distortions of objects. One prisoner becomes unchained and is forced to look at the fire that caused all the shadows he had been seeing previously. This explains the level of belief, the prisoner sees the fire and believes it to be real. Above the fire are trees, mountains, and the sunlight which blinds him and forces him to look at the shadow. This allows the prisoner to think and try to interpret the new object he is seeing for the first time. The fire symbolized false reality, while the sun symbolized intellectual truth through the senses. The man is able to view the sun and becomes newly enlightened. The prisoner realizes that the source of everything is the sun. Plato believes that if the enlightened man were to encourage his fellow prisoners to experience the “real world” it would end poorly for the enlightened prisoner. If the enlightened prisoner were to re-enter the cave, his eyes would hurt from the adjustment of the darkness. Thus, his reaction leads to the original prisoners being frightened and causes them to get angry. Ultimately resulting in the killing of the enlightened prisoner by the unenlightened prisoners. This can be explained by the desire the prisoners have of keeping the illusion of their reality untampered with. Their reality would be ruined, so in order to save themselves from disappointment they would kill the enlightened prisoner.
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The allegory of the cave represents the sensory world, and how people perceive information that is being shown to them. Further, it symbolizes the physical world where things are not always what they are perceived to be. There is much more out in the real world, like the forms. What is considered the outside world represents the world of thoughts and ideas that are a more realistic reality. The imagery of the prisoners’ shackles represents ignorance and fear of the unknown or truth. The man being freed of the shackles and enlightened by his freedom from the cave shows how getting rid of old beliefs and gaining new ones is beneficial. People tend to be hesitant when experiencing new things because they want to stay in their comfort zone. Once they overcome their hesitation of leaving their comfort zone, they are likely to share their experiences with others and encourage them to do the same. Plato argues that people believe they fully understand what they are sensing in everyday life. However, people are only perceiving shadows of real forms that create the world they live in.
Criticism
Plato argues that the world that people are living in is only an imitation of the real world. However, there is no “fake “world that exists where everything is perfect. Human knowledge to date is not able to prove whether there is a metaphysical world that exists. Every person views the world differently so there can be no such thing as the perfect ideal. For example, someone may think that a specific car is the best-looking car in the world. They could try to support their claim through the form of beauty. Although doable, there is no guarantee that the person is able to prove their statement is correct. Ideal standards such as goodness, virtue, excellence, truth, and beauty will not be seen as exactly the same for every person.
Plato argued that the form of the good was the highest connection to knowledge. Aristotle disagreed with this idea. This is so because there is no universal meaning to what is considered “good” so without a standard, the term then loses its value. Since Plato did not define what is viewed as good, the idea has no basis to be perceived as being a reality. The problem continues to arise time and time again when thinking about Plato’s theory of forms. For example, the form of a cat. There is no type of cat that is considered to be the ideal cat. Plato did not determine if the perfect cat has blue eyes, brown fur, and is male. Resulting, the form of a cat is no longer universal and has no meaning.
Plato encouraged his followers to remember that beauty is everlasting while beautiful entities eventually die off. However, he viewed beauty to be objective because it is not the experiences of the observer that determines what is beautiful. Plato’s objective view challenged today's subjective standards of beauty and fashion. Beauty can be shown through the work of makeup artists who do art on different types of faces. Makeup artists are able to see a face and help amplify that specific client’s beautiful features. Makeup artists are also able to determine whether a makeup look is pretty or not based on past experiences and judgments. Makeup artists also have different styles so not everyone will see their work as beautiful, but it all depends on who is viewing it. Beauty is subjective because everyone views beauty with their own desired characteristics. The ideal beauty standard also varies from culture to culture, especially in fashion. Unlike Plato’s objective view of beauty, people’s thoughts and experiences define and set a standard for what they perceive to be attractive or beautiful. For example, a traditional Chinese Kimono is seen as beautiful by Chinese people while someone from another culture may disagree. Plato even goes as far as viewing art as an illusion and a depiction of reality. In Plato’s writing of The Republic X, he views art as solely a corruption of people's minds in the “fake” world. (Karelis, 1976). That art will result in people being attached to an imitation generated from their own perception. “All art is essentially an imitation for Plato and Aristotle. But imitation means for them not only the portrayal or description of visible and tangible things.” (Shorey, 1937). However, art is a way to be expressive and a way for people to look at things more abstractly.
Conclusion
Plato concluded that people are deceived by how they process the world around them, the objects they perceive are only imitations in their heads of what the real world looks like. The theory of the forms is a metaphysical system that is dependent on the idea of two worlds that exist. The material world and the world of forms. Plato believed the world of forms is unchanging where everything is perfect. The material world is only a copy of a form in the realm of universals. Nevertheless, the theory of the forms is not able to be proven because there is no evidence that it is trustworthy. The forms are not visible to the human eye and we cannot touch them, therefore, it raises the question of how Plato knows that it exists. Plato’s theory of the forms is inconsistent and unconvincing because there is no clarification that it is true. The same is true for his views of ancient aesthetics like beauty and art where he remains close-minded to the idea of perfection and truthfulness. This causes Plato’s view on philosophy to be untrustworthy to people because of a lack of certainty in his theories.
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