Metaphysics is the fundamental part of any philosophical system. Baptista mondi in his introduction to the mataphysics of Aquinas buttress this point by contending that a philosopher is original only when his metaphysics is original. The history of traditional metaphysics dates back to Aristotle. Even though the later did not use the term metaphysics, his work set some of the basic themes in the study of metaphysics. As a science of being, its object is pure being or being qua being.
(“Bachelor and Master” n.d.) Sight is not a reliable sense to rely on when one wants to see the truth. It is limited to light. When it is dark in the cave as Plato implies it is not possible to see things as they are
The ultimate goal for Descartes in the meditations is to prove the existence of the external world. Descartes assumes that God exists and is not a deceiver. This being granted can Descartes explain the existence of a world outside of Descartes' mind? Descartes talks about the idea of a triangle being perceived by the mind and how it relates to the outside world even without the knowledge of it. Another point that Descartes makes to further defend the idea of an external world is the concept of a one thousand sided figure.
Compare and contrast Plato and Aristotle’s view on human nature, What is your evaluation of their accounts? Aristotle and Plato where both philosophers living in the same time period, Aristotle was Plato’s student at ‘The academy’ which was his school, so at one point in time Aristotle believed in Plato’s views but as he matures this changed their views became very different. Their contrasting views on human nature is an example of this. Plato believed that forms, most importantly the form of the good exist in the ideal world where the ultimate reality would be found where the essence of everything physical can be found, so the physical things in this world are not the real thing or to be trusted everything is imperfect, He also believed that our souls existed before they entered our bodies he believed they are the true essence of ourselves and are separate from our bodies which change and decay however out soul is eternal, so knowledge was not something that we just gain it is something that comes back to us throughout our lives and our souls knew this before we just have to remember it. Despite having been taught my Plato Aristotle had a very different view on the theory of forms and the soul he completely rejected Plato’s theory of forms.
Plato used this analogy to help his less educated contemporaries at the time understand why the physical world of sense is nothing but an illusion and that the intelligible realm is where the truth can be found. In the analogy Plato presents human beings living in a cave, which represents humans inhabiting the sensible realm. In the cave, prisoners are chained up by their necks and legs and are therefore unable to turn around. Since they have been chained up this way for their entire lives they have no experience of life outside the cave. Behind the prisoners is a low wall, a walkway and a large fire that lights up the cave.
“The allegory of the Cave” plays multiple roles, all depending how we interpret it, either being used as a metaphor for the process of intellectual understandings on the quest for sense and knowledge, or a way to portray parts of his political philosophy, involving the correct the path to “the good” and ‘reality’. Plato’s allegory of the cave is a parable to understand the process of how a person becomes enlightened; including the positives and negatives influences it can have on a person in their natural environment, in other words our responses and reaction to being freed from their chains and being forced to experience life outside the cave. Plato’s allegory of the cave presupposes a group of prisoners who have lived chained and uneducated in a cave “since childhood”. To the back of the prisoners, people cast the shadows on the wall in which the prisoners perceive as reality, questioning “is it reasonable for the prisoners to…In every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of these artifacts” Although if one were “released from their bonds and cured of their ignorance” the prisoner would now be confused
Plato uses the description of “Darkness” to possibly imply there are false realities that we each have and uses “sunlight” to stand for being enlightened by the “new world”, which is what the released prisoner was to experience. The “cave” is referred to as the “little world” that they are living in. I feel as if it is just a small part of the world that they know V/S the Larger world they should explore They are not free because they don’t know what experiences is outside the cave. They have been sheltered and not allowed to see for themselves what life can really be. The “shackles” are like a symbol of how they all have this same way of living and thinking.
The cosmological argument was voiced by Aquinas; however he was influenced by Aristotle. Aristotle is the philosopher where this idea originally came from. Aristotle said “the series must start with something since nothing can come from nothing”. This gives the impression that Aristotle believed that the creation of the universe was built around the idea of a supreme being or the prime mover. This is where he then gave the idea of an unmoved mover.
The Platonic ideal is that beauty has an unchanging “perfect form” in the “Realm of Being”. A common question asked of Plato’s theory is “if our souls come from this other realm of Forms, and know it to exist, then why doesn’t all of humanity recognise Platonic belief as the absolute truth?” Plato’s answer to this was that upon descending from the “Realm of Being” there was confusion and the souls forgot the other realm, he said that ascension to the realm can only be
Plato’s theory of Forms leads to obtaining knowledge comprises turning away from the world which can only yield opinion, concerning Forms and the intellect world which he practice metaphors and analogies to theory of Forms. That said, one aspect of the argument made by Plato is the Allegory of the Cave and the Divided Line. “The Divided Line expresses Plato’s hierarchical view of reality and wisdom. The Simile of the Sun characterizes the act of apprehending highest truth in the form of the Good (Soccio 2013).” In the Cave, the Divided Line enlightens of the similar types of epistemic state which it relates to; the Simile of the cave provides story around transforming up the line from the aspects of illusion to intelligence which are consequences for doing so. When looking at the chained Prisoners in the Cave face to a wall, people are moving objects around the prisoners along the road.