Plato's belief was that art is fundamentally based on imitation. It was this imitation which made art inferior, combined with the unsuitable moral content of some art. Plato's condemnation of art is seen by some as too rationalist and "depriving it of all its charms" (Otto Apelt). Modern obje...

Sacred geometry could be defined as a diagram of all creation. According to sacred geometry there is an inate order throughout the universe, which defines in mathematical terms how the universe works. Sacred geometry is above the religious spectrum although many different religions hav...

Raphael's "School of Athens" is considered by many art historians to be the absolute masterpiece of the Renaissance. It is the perfect pictorial counterpart to the enormous changes in thinking that came about in the 1300s as a result of economic and technological developments. Its rational perspe...

A Deceptive Utopia "A 'utopia' is an imaginary perfect society." In Books II-V of Plato's The Republic, Socrates and his auditors create a society which they believe to be perfect, utopian. The fact is, however, that the society they constructed could be considered &...

Plato attacks poetry on two main fronts, claims to knowledge and as imitations. The poet as Plato knew him was a religious being, who was divinely inspired by the muse. It is therefore futile to attempt an analysis of the modern poet in comparison with ...

In the conversation, Socrates talks about the true forms of things. The idea is that there is such a thing as a true bed, or a true chair, or true virtue, or whatever else. So when an artisan builds a chair, he is building the idea of a chair and not the true chair which exists in the mind of God. G...

Nietzsche "God Is Dead" Out of all the things I could have chosen to write about, for some reason "Twilight of the Idol's' caught my eye It was kind of a catchy title, and it was the last thing that Nietzsche wrote that had any merit before he went ...

For the Greeks, humanity was what mattered, and humans were, in the words of the philosopher Protagoras, "the measure of all things." The humanistic world view led the Greeks to create the concept of democracy (rule by the demos, the people) and to make seminal contributions in the fields of art, ...

Plato's three main objections to poetry are that poetry is not ethical, philosophical or pragmatic. It is not ethical because it promotes undesirable passions, it is not philosophical because it does not provide true knowledge, and it is not pragmatic because it is inferior to the practical arts a...

Aristotle Aristotle was a famous ancient philosopher and scientist that lived from 384 to 322 B.C. He was born in Macedonia to a physician of the royal court. He moved to Athens when he was 17, to study with Plato, another famous philosopher of his time. Aristotle is said to have loved hi...

Plato's Allegory of the Cave Plato uses the Allegory of the Cave to get across his idea that when it comes to teaching, it is not the art of giving children the gift of sight so much as it is turning their eyes in the right direction. I believe that the four levels of Plato's Allegor...

Platonic Justice Throughout Platos Republic, the subject of platonic justice and its goodness to its self arise and are discussed amongst Plato and his peers. At the beginning of The Republic, Plato asks the fundamental question of what is justice? Looking to define the ideal state of justic...

1. Plato's Life In order to better understand Plato's philosophy on life we must first learn about his background. Plato was born in Athens, Greece in 427 B.C. He was the youngest son of Ariston and Perictione, who were both from very well respected and wealthy families. When Plato wa...

Plato on Hobbes' view of justice According to Hobbes, justice must be defined as nothing more than abiding by the law. However, from Plato's point of view, this notion of justice is not adequate. Regards to human nature, Hobbes is very pessimistic, while Plato is less so. Based on differe...

Ancient Greece had many ups and downs in it's very long history. As a growing civilization it earned numerous allies as well as enemies. One of these great enemies were the Persians. Although the Persians were very powerful adversaries, the Greeks defeated them and at that point the era of clas...

A) Moira is an ancient Greek word for a predetermined fate. It's meaning points out that everything does not depend on free will. There are certain things in life that one cannot control. Moira plays a central role in Sophocles' Oedipus because the play's conflict is between fate a...

Almost everyone has heard of the two great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Few people though, know much about their life long achievements. Their own personal beliefs and philosophies. In order to understand them, we must fist examine the background of the two philosophers. Plato was born to...

Socratic philosophy has two divine sources because it questions the meaning of a conventional Athenian god. This questioning makes two opposing sides, the diamonic voice vs. Apollo's oracle. Socrates begins his defense speech justifying the fact that he will tell the truth "by Zeus...