LOGIKA

Particulars

Particulars: cant have multiple instancesDan Bonevac, Dennis RodmanEmpire State Building, Perry-Castaeda LibraryAustin, TexasNovember 1, 2002The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand

UniversalsUniversals: can have multiple instancesProperties: red, triangular, largeRelations: between, on, love, friendshipKinds: tiger, building, pencil, shortstopBooks: the Bible; Worldly WisdomMusical works: Luckenbach, Texas; Bachs Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

Are Universals Real?Realism: yes, and mind-independentConceptualism: yes, but mind-dependentNominalism: no everything is particular Mind-dependentMind-independentRealConceptualismRealismUnrealNominalism

Platos Divided LineYou have to imagine, then, that there are two ruling powers, and that one of them is set over the intellectual world, the other over the visible. . . . Now take a line which has been cut into two unequal parts, and divide each of them again in the same proportion, and suppose the two main divisions to answer, one to the visible and the other to the intelligible, and then compare the subdivisions in respect of their clearness and want of clearness, and you will find that the first section in the sphere of the visible consists of images. And by images I mean, in the first place, shadows, and in the second place, reflections in water and in solid, smooth and polished bodies and the like. . . .

Platos Divided LineImagine, now, the other section, of which this is only the resemblance, to include the animals which we see, and everything that grows or is made.

The Divided Line10Visible WorldIntellectual World

Shadows,ObjectsMathematicalAbstractreflectionsof perception formsforms

Perceptions ofOpinionUnderstandingReasonshadows, etc.

Visible world is like a reflection of the intellectual world|||

The Cave AllegoryAnd now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: -- Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

The Cave AllegoryAnd do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows? Yes, he said.

The Cave AllegoryAnd if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? Very true. And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? No question, he replied. To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

The Cave AllegoryPhilosophy tries to turn people away from shadows. It tries to make people see the true nature of the world-- to get beyond appearances to realitiesThe prisoner released from the cave will be able to see reflections, then objects, then the moon and stars, and finally, the sunThe progression: the divided line from reflections to objects to mathematical forms that reflect the most abstract forms; finally to abstract forms themselves

Meaning of the Allegory15This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed- whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

Why think forms exist at all?Necessary for knowledgeWithout forms, we could PerceiveGeneralizeBut we couldntUnderstand why things happenKnow any universal or necessary generalizations, as in science, mathematics, or philosophyThere must be something all Fs have in common, by virtue of which they are Fs

Platos BeardHow can we,Limited to the realm of the senses,Have access to a realm beyond the senses?Dilemma:Reject possibility of knowing abstract truths, orPostulate some special faculty of knowledge

Platos BeardOur theory of meaning (semantics) makes us postulate objects (metaphysics) that we cant know anything about (epistemology).How do we bring these together?

Shaving Platos Beard20Semantics: The sentences dont really commit us to the troublesome objectsMetaphysics: The objects are mind-dependentEpistemology: We have a faculty of knowing the objects

The Semantic StrategyNominalism: There are no universalsAbstract terms stand for nothingSocrates has courage > Socrates is courageousCourage is a virtue > Courageous people are virtuous (ceteris paribus)We have something in common > ?Green is closer to blue than to red > ?

The Metaphysical StrategyConceptualism: Universals are mind-dependentPlatos Forms > concepts in the mindThere are universals, but we construct them

The Epistemological StrategyWe have the ability to know universalsPlatonism (Plato, Philo, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes): We know certain universals a prioriAristotle: We know universals by abstracting them from particulars

Platos Philosophy of Mind FormObjectThis is a triangle

Platonisms problem30We dont perceive the formsHow do we know anything about them?Aristotles answer: abstractionPlatos answers:RecollectionThe Form of the Good

Platos Philosophy of Mind FormObjectThis is a triangleParticipationPerception?

Platos Philosophy of Mind FormObjectThis is a triangleParticipationPerceptionRecollectionThe Good

Philo of AlexandriaRealm of Forms: the Intelligible WorldForms are ideas in the mind of GodThey are Gods blueprint for creationGod created Intelligible World, then matter, then world

The Intelligible WorldFor God, being God, assumed that a beautiful copy would never be produced apart from a beautiful pattern, and that no object of perception would be faultless which was not made in the likeness of an original discerned only by the intellect. So when He willed to create this visible world He first fully formed the intelligible world, in order that He might have the use of a pattern wholly God-like and incorporeal in producing the material world, as a later creation, the very image of an earlier, to embrace in itself objects of perception of as many kinds as the other contained objects of intelligence.

The Word of God35The Word of God contains the intelligible worldPsalm 33: By the Word of God were the heavens made.. . . the world discerned only by the intellect is nothing else than the Word of God when He was already engaged in the act of creation.The Word is the pattern of creation, the idea of ideas, the Man of God, the Second God

How do we know the Forms?Forms are ideas in the mind of GodWe are created in Gods image (Gen 1:27)Our minds are images of the mind of GodOur great Moses likened the fashion of the reasonable soul to no created thing, but averred it to be a genuine coinage of that dread Spirit, the Divine and Invisible One, signed and impressed by the seal of God, the stamp of which is the Eternal Word. . . .

Knowledge of the WorldOur minds and the world are both stamped with the Word of God

God to MosesThe powers which thou seekest to know . . . . present to your sight a sort of impress and copy of their active working. You men have for your use seals which when brought into contact with wax or similar material stamp on them any number of impressions while they themselves are not docked in any part thereby but remain as they were. Such you must conceive My powers to be, supplying quality and shape to things which lack either and yet changing or lessening nothing of their eternal nature.

God to Moses40Some among you call them not inaptly 'forms' or 'ideas', since they bring form into everything that is, giving order to the disordered, limit to the unlimited, bounds to the unbounded, shape to the shapeless, and in general changing the worse to something better. Do not, then, hope to be ever able to apprehend Me or any of My powers on Our essence. But I readily and with right goodwill will admit you to a share of what is attainable. That means that I bid you come and contemplate the universe and its contents, a spectacle apprehended not by the eye of the body but by the unsleeping eyes of the mind.

Two DilemmasUniversals: we must eitherReject the possibility of knowledge we seem to have, orPostulate a faculty of knowledge to relate us to universalsUniversality and Necessity: we mustReject our knowledge of universal and necessary truths, orPostulate a priori knowledge

Origen (185-253)I John 1:5: God is light.Forms as ideas in the mind of God (Philo)Good > GodGod illumines the intelligible world for usAugustine (354-430): God illumines our minds with inner light of truth

God is light. . . God is light; as John writes in his Epistle, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." Truly He is that light which illuminates the whole understanding of those who are capable of receiving truth, as is said in the Psalms 36, "In Thy light we shall see light." For what other light of God can be named, "in which any one sees light," save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth?

Jesus as the Word of GodSuch is the meaning of the expression, "In Thy light we shall see light;" i.e., in Thy word and wisdom which is Thy Son, in Himself we shall see Thee the Father. Because He is called light, shall He be supposed to have any resemblance to the light of the sun? Or how should there be the slightest ground for imagining, that from that corporeal light any one could derive the cause of knowledge, and come to the understanding of the truth?

Origens and Augustines Philosophy of Mind FormObjectThis is a triangleParticipationPerceptionIlluminationGod

*Philosopher in meditation