Hold the line: Plato on education, virtue, and language

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2017-08

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Abstract

Although many have attempted to explain Plato’s divided line in terms of a one-world or two-world theory, through instantiated forms, resemblance, or bottom-up emerging paradigms, this thesis will explain the first three sections of the line through an examination of the human epistemological faculties associated with the members of the line thought of as objects. Once an understanding of the faculties (ignorance, belief, and knowledge) is reached, it will be seen that that the members of line need be seen as objects, even so loosely defined. The three types of objects associated with the first three sections of the line (images, strict objects, and form) will successively be examined through the lense of their associated faculty paying close attention to the type of language, i.e. the types of utterances, discovered about them through the faculties. Once this examination is complete, the objects themselves will be described through what has been learned through the faculties and the language associated with them. Finally, each type of object and each type of language will be examined from the point-of-view of their usefulness in terms of what seems to be an emerging Platonic theory of education, which, according to Plato, is a theory of the teaching of virtue.

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Keywords

Plato, Metaphysics, Ethics, Education, Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology, Divided Line

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