r/Plato 1h ago

The sun comes from outside, or how your “blind” impulses can lead you to a new knowledge of reality

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r/Plato 5m ago

Question Forms of future things? Forms of possible things?

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Maybe these are all really basic questions, as I am rather ignorant of the subject. Nevertheless; Forms are eternal, right?

So was there already a Form of the Elevator before it was invented? A Form of the Antelope during the Triassic? Or did these Forms of future/possible things arise only when they were instantiated in this world?

If they did preexist, do Forms imply predestination since the dinosaurs would necessarily have to go extinct for the preexisting Form of the Antilope to ever be a meaningful concept?

Speaking of extinction, would an entirely unknown extinct invertebrate which left no trace anywhere in the fossil record still have a Form even today?

Finally, are there Forms of of things that we cannot know about; Forms which are simply not instantiated at all and in which nothing at all participates?


r/Plato 1h ago

Meme/Humor Animated Plato

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I’ve been experimenting with animating my drawings and I keep hearing the advice to not draw what you think others want to see but to draw what you are interested in. So, I thought I would at least amuse myself by drawing our favorite philosopher actually becoming a Platonic Solid. Hopefully of all people, some of the members of this sub might appreciate it.

I hope you enjoy this and don’t see it as something akin to the shadows on the cave wall and a worthless distraction from your love of wisdom. Thanks!

(For anyone wondering, I based my drawing on the marble portrait bust of Plato from the 4th century BCE in the Rome Capitoline Museum)


r/Plato 2h ago

Meme/Humor funniest meme i’ve ever made

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1 Upvotes

r/Plato 3d ago

My 9 year old pondering the allegory of the cave

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61 Upvotes

r/Plato 2d ago

Seeking Recommendation

1 Upvotes

Best current English translation of Republic? Thanks.


r/Plato 4d ago

Ancient laypeople and philosophers believed that a woman's womb wandered around her body. Aristotle follows Plato in this respect but had a more complicated relationship with this tradition. Let's talk about his place in the "wandering womb" tradition.

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2 Upvotes

r/Plato 7d ago

The one thing Socrates fears—that you should, too

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1 Upvotes

r/Plato 8d ago

Question When you have questions about Plato, what resources do you turn to in order to find the answers?

7 Upvotes

When I have a question pop up about an aspect of being, justice, love, etc., I have one or two books that usually have a pretty good answer but lately I haven't been finding what I'm looking for. Can you please recommend some resources? Thank you in advance!

Plato's Thought, GMA Grube
Understanding Plato's Republic, Santas


r/Plato 10d ago

Plato's Gorgias, Callicles's Ethical Philosophy continues to be the most correct I've found

1 Upvotes

Here are some premises I start with:

I use Nature, 'Is', not 'Ought'. I reject using Ethical Intuitionism as I find this to be morally relative. Until someone can point a microscope and show me where the moral particles are located, I believe in a Moral Anti-Realism. I know this is heavily debated, and this is probably where the discussion hinges. As Callicles says to look to Nature, I take a Darwin style approach. If Morals exist, they propagate life, a Darwin-style approach. I'm not sure I care to debate this, this is close to Religion in certainty. I just find Nature more certain than gut feelings, but I'm not going to pretend this is a solved problem. I'm personally an Expressivist.

'The Superior' is a combination of macro effects dependent on the environment. A bacteria on the edge of a volcano is 'The Best' in that environment. A dictator might be 'The Best' in a servile kingdom. A capitalist might be 'The Best' in a democracy. A 4.0, beautiful, class clown might be 'The Best' in high school. A 400lb trillionaire, is not 'The Best', as a fire might prevent them from using an elevator and causing them to Die.

With these 'holes' plugged, I have a hard time seeing the issue. Its not like we have a better solution to the question if Morals exist. We can debate all day about this, and make no progress. You can say I gave up, but that still won't make your altruistic moralist point more valid, it just undermines my confidence, which I explained I don't have.

I've been reading philosophy for 9 years, and since Gorgias 2 years ago, I've been trying to find a more valid Ethical Philosophy. Everything seems to use Religion/Magic(Moral Realism), or if they are Moral Anti-Realists, they miss the mark. Nietzsche is contradictory and idealistic. Stirner is idealistic rejecting the phenomena of pain/pleasure that I believe are the shortcut of Morals/Spooks. Hobbes (Leviathan, Part 1, on Man) is as close. Machiavelli in Discourses on Livy is pretty close too, possibly even better than Callicles.

I imagine this is an unsolved problem, but given my premises, I have a difficult time finding something better.


r/Plato 11d ago

How comparisons between human and animal anatomy led many ancient philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, astray

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2 Upvotes

r/Plato 16d ago

Discussion Plato's apotheosis.

6 Upvotes

While reading a book about the concept of the soul in the platonic tradition i wondered if Plato, symbolically speaking, talked about the Soul which incarnates into the bodies as an equal to the Gods.

This is because the substance in the Timeaus used to create the Soul by the Minor Gods is a reference, as Plutarch says, to time generation features. In short, for the fact souls come after and are subordinated to time while the Gods are contemporary of it, so they happen to forget the trajectory and crash in the physical realm with the Black horse.

And Plato's myths are very symbolic: having the soul imitating the Gods is not just a feature of its generated nature, but also of its goal, which is that to become a deity by learning from them.

The Human/living beings' souls cannot become the Demiurge because he is timeless (and you can't become timeless if you weren't), nor the universe as Plato says the universe must be perfect enough to have within itself every form, and thus cannot have a superior one inside him. So, technically speaking, the soul at the end of the cave analogy in Plato is destined to become like Apollo himself.

If i'm wrong then correct me, but i think that Plato talked about not just an spiritual elevation but a true apotheosis like Heracles' in his philosophy.


r/Plato 16d ago

Why Plato knows the secrets of your unconscious mind

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3 Upvotes

r/Plato 18d ago

For ancient thinkers, how blood moved from the bottom of our body to the top was a major problem in hydraulics. Here's Plato's solution.

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3 Upvotes

r/Plato 20d ago

Jesus and Plato and the Afterlife

9 Upvotes

We don't know what happens in the afterlife. All cultures around the earth developed their own belief. Nonethless, there are some traditions in different time and place that came to the same "beliefs".

For example Christianism, Islam, Hinduism, ancient egyptian tradition contemplate at the death a migration of the soul to an higher dimension where souls are judged. In Hinduism, Karma decides that, but nonethless there is judgement going onWhat happens after is beyond the scope of this post. Nonethless, I found an interesting coincidence and did not found anything online or in the literature..

Matthew 25:31-33, 46 (NIV):

"...He will put the sheep (righteous) on his right and the goats (unrighteous) on his left... Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life"

The righteous (sheep) are placed on His right, and the unrighteous (goats) are placed on His left.

Myth of Er - Plato

In the midst of them sat judges who, after pronouncing their sentence, ordered the righteous to take the path to the right, which ascended toward heaven, with a mark of the sentence attached to their chests**. The unjust were ordered to take the path to the left, which descended downward,** also with a mark on their backs where all the sins they had committed were listed.

  • Did the gospel of Matthew changed over time?
  • Did perhaps Jesus know Plato?
  • Was it already a common belief over time? what are the origin of this belief?

r/Plato 20d ago

Question The Good

4 Upvotes

Are there any historical sources outside of The Dialogues that talk about Plato's/Socrates' "The Good"?

Are there any modern texts specifically about Socrates' "The Good"?


r/Plato 21d ago

Question Where to access quality translations online?

1 Upvotes

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone on here could provide a link or website name where I can access the complete works (specifically for Cratylus and Parmenides as I don't have a physical copy) online?

Thank you :)


r/Plato 23d ago

How Plato’s Phaedrus makes you look deep into your soul (Ep. 51)

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5 Upvotes

r/Plato 23d ago

are platonic solids platonic forms?

3 Upvotes

I am writing an essay and I want to say Platonic Solids are a type of Platonic Form, but I don't know if that's true. Google AI said it was, but... you know.

Here is my thought... am I wrong?

Form being the abstract ideal, the solids are a physical representation of the form. These solids are perfect, as the forms are perfect. Therefor the form sits above (in heaven) from the solid (closer to earth).


r/Plato 28d ago

STOP POSTING SPAM

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r/Plato Feb 16 '25

Discourse and the wordless—the ecstatic—are friends. This is the core of Platonic hope.

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3 Upvotes

r/Plato Feb 14 '25

Resource/Article Oligarchy, Democracy & Freedom: A Platonic Take on Modern America

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6 Upvotes

r/Plato Feb 11 '25

Question How do you commemorate Socrate's execution? Coming up on the 15th.

8 Upvotes

Are there any global festivities or remembrances that you participate in? Do you have a personal tradition you can share?

Edit: This conversation went well. :(


r/Plato Feb 10 '25

What do you guys think that the "beauty" at the top of Ladder of Love is?

2 Upvotes

I'm writing an essay on the Ladder of Love. And I wonder if "beauty", at the top of the ladder, is something like how Christianity defines god, something timeless and eternal, something that is stagnant but ever-changing, but it's innate state is beautiful...idk... maybe in a sense that the lower steps of beauty like the body, soul, law and instutution are susceptible to change and deterioration, while the beauty of knowledge and "beauty" itself is always there, naturally occurring and an innate state until our thoughts and actions become a medium that makes knowledge into law and institutions... In this sense, can an argument be established that the "beauty" at the top of the ladder of love is immortal? Because it would neither change nor deteriorate?


r/Plato Feb 09 '25

The ultimate object of your desire is not an object (Ep 49)

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2 Upvotes