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The analogy of the line
• Each segment of the line (see p. 222) represents
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A type of cognition (or cognitive state of mind), and
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The type of object that corresponds to that type of cognition
o The two upper segments represent two types of knowledge – knowledge proper
and mathematical thinking
o The two lower segments represent two types of opinion – belief and conjecture
(imagining)
• Lesson 1: Knowledge stands to mere opinion as belief stands to conjecture – i.e., opinion is
about things that are images of what knowledge is about
• Lesson 2: Mathematical thinking is not perfect knowledge
o Though its objects are not visible things, it must rely on visible images of those
objects
o It is “compelled to employ assumptions, and, because it cannot rise above these,
does not travel upwards to a first principle” (p. 225)
• Lesson 3 – True or perfect knowledge is achieved via dialectic – Socratic discussion–
because that kind of discussion challenges assumptions and can provide a basis for
them (pp. 225-26)
Lect 9-1
The allegory of the cave
•
The allegory is not a proof of Plato’s view, but only an illustration of it
•
The key ideas it illustrates are
o If we only pay attention to visible things, we will never realize that they are
images, shadows or reflections of something more perfect
o It requires liberation or great effort to “turn the soul around” so that it begins to
pay attention to the Forms and “see” them clearly
o When you do learn to apprehend the Forms clearly, you will realize that visible
things are images or shadows of something else
o If you try to inform other people of this, they will think you are mad – and
perhaps put you to death!
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If Plato’s view is true, then education does not consist in “put[ting] knowledge into a soul
that does not possess it” (Cornford, p. 233)
o To see the truth, “the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world,
until its eye can contemplate reality”
o The art of teaching will not attempt to “put the power of sight into the soul’s eye,”
but will rather “ensure that instead of looking in the wrong direction, [the soul] is
turned the way it ought to be” – this is what Socratic teaching is all about
Lect 9-2
Marx and Plato
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Shared concerns: making peoples lives better by reforming contemporary social life
o Diagnosing the reasons most men and women do not have rewarding lives
o Prescribing reform on the basis of that diagnosis
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Divergence between their diagnoses and prescriptions
o Plato
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Diagnosis of the cause of human unhappiness: ignorance
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Prescription for a cure
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Knowledge
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Rigid class structure
o Marx
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Diagnosis of the cause of human unhappiness: exploitation
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Prescription for a cure
•
Revolution: end the private ownership of the means of production
•
A classless society
Lect 10-1
What Marxism (communism) is and is not
•
Communism and democracy are not alternatives
o Communism is an economic system, democracy a political system
o The aim of Marxism is a classless society which is radically democratic – in which there is no
government
•
Marxism and the so-called communist countries
o The “dictatorship of the proletariat”
o Lenin on the Soviet Union: state capitalism
o Trotsky: was the revolution betrayed?
•
Communism and private property
o Marxism is not opposed to the private ownership of personal property
o What Marx objects to is the private ownership of the means of production
Lect 10-2
Why Marxism opposes the private ownership of the means of production
•
If any group of individuals controls the technology, raw materials, and instruments of production, they
can dictate the terms on which everybody else works
•
Since human beings live and express themselves in their work, any group that dictates the terms on
which others can work dictates to everyone else how they live
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The result is a lack of autonomy – and a resulting lack of freedom and human dignity– for those who do
not control the means of production.
Lect 10-3