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Background on Plato
The Theory on Forms
The Republic
Art & Allegory
Random Facts
100
The century in which Plato was born.
When is 4th century BCE (427)?
100
This is the highest idea of which all other (generally material) things are copies.
What is an eternal form?
100
These are the three classes in Plato's ideal state.
What are the Guardians, Auxiliaries and Workers/Producers?
100
Plato does not approve of art for this reason.
It is an imitation and therefore impractical and lacking meaning/waste. OR It is dangerous because it can contain evil, immoral or otherwise harmful messages that may influence people to do awful things.
100
Plato's brother whom Socrates lightly banters with throughout The Republic through a series of questions.
Who is Glaucon?
200
In part, Plato's disillusionment with society stems from his experience growing up during this war which raged on before his birth into adulthood.
What is the Peloponnesian War?
200
We see these constantly in reality, but they are not perfect.
What are copies (objects/images) of forms?
200
Plato muses that a Guardian must be brave, wise and disciplined. He uses this animal as analogy for the class' traits.
What is a watchdog?
200
This is the eventual fate of those who try to enlighten lesser individuals of the eternals beyond reality.
What is death (revolt of society)?
200
The two Greek factions at war during Plato's youth.
What are Athens and Sparta?
300
This is Plato's surrogate father, mentor and the "protagonist" of The Republic.
Who is Socrates?
300
Which group of Republic denizens is trained to see beyond the copies and images to the "Realm of the Forms"?
Who are the Philosopher-Rulers?
300
For these reasons, the Guardian class must live in a near-communist society without the ability to own property or raise their own individually.
What are greed and conflicting loyalties, respectively?
300
These individuals are those that escape the darkness and step into the light to see beyond the shadows of the cave and gain knowledge of the absolute.
Who are Philosopher-Rulers?
300
This is the name given to Plato's ideas and philosophical thought processes.
What is Platonism?
400
These "contrarians" argue that there are no eternal truths and that concepts such as right, wrong and wisdom are all relative to individuals.
Who are the Sophists?
400
List the basic three tiers of properties with respect to "forms" from highest to lowest.
What are the eternal form, the material object and the image?
400
"Minding one's business" and harmony of the soul as well as the state are key concepts in understanding Plato's notion of this societal goal.
What is justice?
400
This is the rationale for why Plato believes objects and images are meaningless.
What is because objects and images are imperfect and subject to decay/change?
400
Name of the institution that Plato founded which is considered among the first of its kind in the Western world.
What is The Academy (a school)?
500
This is the method employed by the dialogue in which knowledge is gained through a series of inquiry.
What is the Socratic method?
500
The forms reside in the Realm of Being and the copies/images of the forms physically exist in this world which we know as our reality.
What is the Cosmos?
500
This political and moral story was proposed by Plato to be told for generations as a way to explain that all people are born into a particular class of society and have a specific function.
What is the "Allegory of the Metals"?
500
Allegory of the Cave represents which of Plato's theories?
What is Plato's Theory of Forms?
500
The official and unofficial reasons Socrates was imprisoned. DOUBLE-JEOPARDY: How did he die?
Officially, charged with impiety and corrupting the youth. Unofficially, criticizing/questioning the government and challenging the status quo. D-J: Poisoned hemlock. Suicide or nahhhh? Hmmmm.