Explain the relationship between The Form of The Good and the other Forms (25 marks) Plato was a dualist and so he believed that there were two worlds: the unreal physical world and the spiritual world of The Forms. This view is portrayed throughout Plato’s theory of The Forms in which he suggests that the truth does not lie in the real world or our empirical knowledge but in fact the truth lies in our a priori knowledge. The Forms are eternal, unchanging and transcendent. The world is merely an imperfect copy of The Forms- The world of Particulars. In the platonic theory of Forms, there is a hierarchy of the Forms.
For example there is a form of beauty, which explains why we can all understand and know what beauty is, without the need to be told every time. However, we have our own opinions on what beauty it. This is because we don’t know forms fully, as only our souls (our only eternal aspect) is part of the Realm of the Forms and the concept gets mixed as we are not perfect. The Form of the good is 100% good, perfect, unchanging, eternal and outside this world. Plato’s definition of good is not the same as the good we define.
Aristotle has a monist approach to the soul, unlike Plato he says that the soul cannot exist without the body. The soul is not a body but something that belongs in a body, comparable to the brain; it is necessary and is within all humans and it gives us reason, intellect and an innate sense of justice. This therefore can make his theory more convincing than Plato’s as the soul isn’t ‘immortal’ and dies along with the body, thereby eliminating the theory of reincarnation which is hard for anyone who isn’t Hindu to believe as it is contradictory to their religious views. Aristotle states that all reason is associated with the pure thought of the Prime Mover and the soul is what gives the body its shape and form; he argued that the soul is not a substance but the reason and shape behind the matter. Best described by using the example of a marble statue, as the marble stature is essentially a block of marble but it has a shape and form and like the body the soul, the shape and form cannot be removed from what the statue is, in the same way the body cannot be separated from the soul.
His first form of the argument runs as follows: (P1) God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived (P2) If God exists in the mind alone (in intellect) then a greater being can be conceived (in re) (P3) God to be the greatest being, has to existing the mind and in reality, otherwise another being would be greater than God. (C) Therefore God must exist both in the mind and in reality. This method of reasoning aims to demonstrate the truth of something by reducing to absurdity the very opposite of what you are trying to prove. In Anselm’s case this would be that God does not exist, which he claims is absurd by means of an argument which he claims is logically necessary. For Anselm, God cannot not exist.
This is not beauty. Beauty can not be limited to such a simplistic and superficial view. Beauty is something much grander and much more abstract. In his poem, “Confession”, Linh Dinh supports the realism that there should not be an archetype for beauty. So what is beauty?
The humanistic approach has been praised for its great emphasis on autonomy, the idea that we have control over everything we do. The approach also emphasises positivity and is immensely positive about human nature. Therefore it is no surprise that one of the main assumptions of humanism is that we are involved in life as opposed to being an abstraction to it. Humanistic psychologists also believe that all people have a strive towards self actualisation, a state in which we are at peace with the world and ourselves. Maslow presented the idea of the hierarchy of needs, a table that describes how one passes through stages in their life to become self actualised.
Moral Relativism&Plato’s Euthyphro The idea that the truth is relative is that what is true for me is true for me and what is true for you is true for you. For instance person one believes in the existence of god. Person two believes there is no god at all. If the truth were relative that would mean Person one’s reality is that god exisitses and person two’s reality is that god does not exist. Both of them would be right because the truth is relative to what they believe.
As a result of a need for positive regard from others the client can modify their behaviour. A client that may have been raised under oppressive conditions of worth would have learnt that their behaviour is only valued when it is agreeable to the expectations of significant others. if the counsellor can deliver unconditional positive regard accurately it can directly diminish such conditions of worth. Counselling is not the same as our daily lives, the challenge to the Person-centred counsellor is
a) Explain the Platonic Concept of ‘Forms’ Plato believed that behind every concept or object in the visible world there is an unseen reality which he calls its ‘Form’. These Forms exist in the world of the Forms separate from the visible world. Within the world of the Forms the pattern or the objects and concepts for the material world exist in a state of unchanging perfection. Plato was more interested in the Forms of concepts such as good, truth and justice, than he was in the Forms of material objects. The meaning of the word beauty would correspond to some external reality (Plato called it the Ideal Form).
Cicely Cooper The term Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has as its topic the subject of love or Eros generally. Of particular importance there are the ideas attributed to the prophetess Diotima, which present love as a means of ascent to contemplation of the divine. For Diotima, and for Plato generally, the most correct use of love of other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of divinity. In short, with genuine platonic love, the beautiful or lovely other person inspires the mind and the soul and directs one's attention to spiritual things.