Plato
Identify + Explain.
“The body fills us with desires, fears, and illusions that prevent us from seeing what truly is.”
Plato
Body as obstacle to knowledge
Soul knows truth better without bodily interference
Identify + Explain.
“A thing is best understood when we know what it is for.”
Final cause
Telos as essential to explanation
Identify + Explain.
“Evil has no positive nature of its own.”
Evil as privation
Not a substance
Identify + Explain.
“I will doubt everything that can possibly be doubted."
Method of Doubt
Search for certainty
Identify + Explain.
“One sees oneself not only as one is, but as one is seen.”
Double-consciousness
Socially imposed self-view
Identify + Explain.
“We recognize equality itself despite never encountering a perfectly equal object in the world.”
Plato
Theory of recollection
Knowledge of Forms comes prior to experience
Identify + Explain.
“The soul is not a separate thing but the form of the living body.”
Hylomorphism
Rejection of Platonic dualism
Identify + Explain.
“The will is good, yet through it we fall into sin.”
Free will
Misuse of the will as source of sin
Identify + Explain.
“Even if all else is false, the act of thinking proves my existence.”
Cogito
Self as thinking thing
Identify + Explain.
“To be forced to measure oneself by a hostile world is a psychic burden.”
Racism as psychological harm
Alienation
Identify + Explain.
“Justice in the city mirrors justice in the soul, each depending on proper order.”
Plato
Tripartite soul
Parallel between psychology and politics
Identify + Explain.
“A human being who lives outside the city is either a beast or a god.”
Humans as political animals
City-state as necessary for flourishing
Identify + Explain.
“All goodness flows from a single, eternal source.”
God as source of goodness
Rejection of worldly goods as ultimate
Identify + Explain.
“The senses have deceived me before, and thus cannot be fully trusted.”
Skepticism about senses
Break from Aristotle
Identify + Explain.
“Woman is not born, but becomes.”
Social construction of gender
Rejection of biological determinism
“Those ruled by reason should govern those ruled by appetite.”
Plato
Rational part of soul
Philosopher-kings & hierarchy of classes
Identify + Explain.
“Some are naturally suited to rule, others to be ruled.”
Natural hierarchy
Natural slavery doctrine
Identify + Explain.
“Two cities are formed by two loves: love of self and love of God.”
City of God vs earthly city
Moral orientation determines society
Identify + Explain.
“Error arises when judgment exceeds what is clearly perceived.”
Will vs understanding
Error as misuse of will
Identify + Explain.
“People often deny their freedom by pretending their roles are fixed.”
Bad faith
Self-deception to avoid responsibility
Identify + Explain.
“Though souls may be equal in their capacity for reason, bodies differ in ways that shape social roles.”
Plato
Soul/body dualism
Tension between equality of souls and inequality of bodies (gender)
Identify + Explain.
“To explain change, one must appeal to matter, form, source, and end.”
Four causes
Comprehensive explanation of nature
Identify + Explain.
“Without God, human beings cannot become truly good.”
Human sinfulness
Necessity of divine grace
Identify + Explain.
“If only my own mind is immediately certain, how can I know others exist?”
Solipsism problem
Consequence of Cartesian dualism
Identify + Explain.
“Justice may require seeing the world through the eyes of the most oppressed.”
Multiple consciousness
Intentional perspective-shifting