James

Explain Plato’s dualistic theory.

It is important to acknowledge that Plato’s theory is defined as ‘dualistic’ because it incorporates the use of thinking from the perspective of a second dimension, in order to understand the purpose and nature of reality.

     In addition, in order to explore this concept, it is imperative to make reference to the ‘Realm of the Forms’, which Plato argued, consists of an external world created beyond time and space. Plato regarded this ‘second world’ as the source of all knowledge (as our souls exist before and after entering the human body) and therefore superior to the ‘human world’, which is dependent on empirical evidence that may be misinterpreted and give rise to different opinions.      

As a result, Plato believed that qualities had a sort of universal existence - a reality of their own - and therefore when we see examples of justice, we recognise them as such because we see that they reflect the nature of True Justice (or the Form of Justice): when we call something beautiful, it is because we have an innate knowledge of the Form of Beauty.

     A further way of understanding the Realm of the Forms is to consider them in terms of mathematics. For example, a circle is a two-dimensional figure made up of an infinite series of points, all the same distance from the centre. However, Plato argued that no physical being is capable of seeing a perfect circle (only reasonable approximations), due to the fact that the infinite points which make up the circumference exist in logic rather than in a physical form. In view of this, it is important to declare that although Aristotle rejected this approach to morality and logical thinking, further support is provided by Heraclitus, who also considered that because no object in the world is unchanging (reliable), it is impossible to hold anything as a certain, unchanging truth.

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     In order to illustrate and justify his views of reality, Plato provides the Allegory of the Cave - as well as the Sun and the Divided Line in the Republic - whereby the prisoners (who have lived in an underground cave since their childhood) live in ‘ignorance’ as they are content to view the shadows as real objects, when they are in fact artificial replicas: they have an experience of reality that is as far removed as possible from the everyday world, and are therefore (in Plato’s eyes) comparable to people whose lives and minds are empty of ...

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