Philosophers

**PLATO** ** Plato’s Ontology: ** Based on his theory of the Cave, human perception is only able to see the shadows of Ideal Forms The theory of forms is Plato’s theory that the material world is not the real world, but shadows of the real world. The Forms, according to Plato, are model representations of the several types of things we see all around us. ** Knowledge is justified true belief
 * Plato’s epistemology:** Belief is to be distinguished from knowledge in view of justification.
 * What does their reasoning process look like?
 * What is defined as true? What is believable?

** **What role do senses play in knowing? The Theory of Forms is Plato's belief that the material world is not the real world, but only a shadow of the real world

****What can we know/not Know? The level of knowledge is equal to the area from which it was gained, e.g. If someone gains knowledge through experience, due to the instability of the senses, the knowledge gained would be opinions. Plato believed that "opinions are characterised by a lack of necessity and stability". if someone were to gain knowledge through methods that do not use the 5 senses, then because the forms would be unchanging, the knowledge would be stable.

How Do we Acquire Knowledge**
 * To gain knowledge, the mind moves through 4 stages, 1. imaging, 2. belief, 3.Thinking, 4. reason/intuition. As you move along the stages they get more complicated. more time is used to get to the final stage, and so it becomes more reliable. The 1st two stages are personal, so each individuals would be different as they would be opinionated; according to plato, opinions are changeable, therefor they are unstable. However opinions are not used in the final stage, and so you will gain a final answer and true knowledge.

**Skit:

Billy: The tree is tall Bob: how do you know?? Billy: Because I see it Bob: that’s not enough, you need to think before you know Billy: but I can see that its tall, its in front of me Bob: your senses aren’t reliable, you need to read into it Billy: so whatever I see or perceive physically is not real? Bob: exactly, the world we live in is not real, you cant know the tree's tall by just looking at it. There are many trees that are tall, but there is the idea of the tree that allows us know the tree. Truth lies in the form of the tree which exists beyond the tree itself. To know this is to know the truth of the tree. This too goes for all other ideas. Like the good life.


 * The world we live in is a shadow of the real world, to escape this shadow, you have to go beyond perception
 * Knowledge is Justified true belief
 * True knowledge cannot be gained through the 5 senses
 * The mind moves through 4 stages to gain knowledge: 1. Imaging, 2. Belief, 3. Thinking, 4. Reason/Intuition