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Part I. GREEK PHILOSOPHY - SECT. 2. THE MORAL PERIOD

Chap. II. SOCRATES
Socrates came forward as the opponent of the Sophists. He discussed the same moral problems as they did, but
while they used their skill to undermine truth and unsettle morality, he sought to re-establish the ideals of right
and goodness. He raised his voice of protest against the scepticism of his age, and contended for the claims of
absolute truth and absolute morality. He admitted that man was supreme, but he denied that truth and virtue
were contingent upon the individual sensations of man. Truth he held to be dependent not on the variable and
particular part of man's nature, but on the invariable and universal part, on that faculty which he has in common
with all intelligence.
There were two ways in which the argument of the Sophists might be met. The one was the way of the orthodox
conservative party in Athens,that of suppressing all inquiry and resting in blind faith upon the old traditional
customs and conventions.
The other way was the way of Socrates. He would not be
a party to quenching investigation. On the contrary, he
cordially welcomed inquiry, and was willing with the
Sophists to subject the institutions of society and the
accepted opinions of men to a rigorous examination. He
agreed with the Sophists in their demand for free inquiry,
but he demanded that the inquiry should not be partial and
superficial, but complete, radical and searching.
There is no more impressive figure in ancient history than that of Socrates, and his trial and death, as a martyr to
truth, have deeply touched the consciousness of the world. Born about 470 B.C., this teacher is identified with
the most illustrious period of Hellenic life. He came forth, at a time when Grecian manhood and patriotism were
beginning to decline, as the champion of virtue and the advocate of all that is highest and best in humanity.
Socrates of Athens (469-399) marks an epoch in the history of philosophy. He was neither savant nor wandering
teacher. He belonged to no school. He was simply a man of the people. He was taught by Prodicus, but he was
uninfluenced by any past philosophy. What he was, was due to himself. With the exception of one or two
solitary expeditions he was never out of Athens. Little is known of his early life. He was the son of
Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. Pie was brought up to his father's calling. His manner of
teaching was conversational and popular, drawing illustrations from common life. Pie frequented the marketplace and the gymnasium, where he discoursed to the young men on the significance and aim of life, seeking to
convince them of their ignorance and to awake within their breasts the yearning for knowledge. Convinced that
the amelioration of the State could only proceed from a sound and thorough instruction of the young, he became
the first moral philosopher.
According to Xenophon, he was the model of every virtue, just and temperate, brave in the field of battle as
well as in the drinking booth. He was the enemy of all frivolity and selfishness, yet he was full of patience and
self-command.

A characteristic feature of his personality was the demonic element (), which he claimed to possess
a fine deep, divining instinct by which he professed to be able to discern the tendencies of life and even to
foretell future events. In circumstances in which there was not sufficient knowledge for certain decision,
Socrates believed that he heard within himself the daimonion, counselling or warning him by its inner voice.
His enemies saw in this personal claim a denial of the national gods and an attempt to set himself up as a
divinity.
Aristophanes, a champion of the ancestral worship, has invested Socrates with ridicule in his poem The Clouds,
and has defamed him as a Sophist.
His striking though unattractive personal appearance, together with his peculiar gait and mean garb, has made
him the butt of Athenian comedy.
In his 70th year Socrates became a martyr to his convictions. He was charged with refusing to recognise the
national gods and perverting the minds of the youth. In a simple but eloquent speech he repelled these charges.
He refused to save himself by flight. After twenty days of intercourse with his friends in prison, he drank the
cup of poison appointed by the State and died in the year 399 B.C.
Socrates has left no writings. To Xenophon and to Plato we are indebted for a knowledge of his life and
teaching. Xenophon is the more historical in his account, Plato the more philosophical; the latter of whom,
chiefly in the Banquet, has invested his name with undying lustre.
The life and philosophy of Socrates are inseparable. Yet he was not simply a good man who sought to influence
others for good. He based conduct on knowledge. "Virtue is knowledge." Without knowledge there can be no
moralityhence the first thing to strive after is wisdom.
The scepticism of the Sophists forms the starting-point of the philosophy of Socrates. All he knows is that he
knows nothing. He turns with impatience from nature. "The trees," he says, "can teach me nothing." He who
studies man has no time to investigate material things. We can never know what is the origin and end of the
world, but we can know what we ourselves ought to be. What is the meaning and aim of life? What is the
highest good of the soul?to know that is the only real and profitable knowledge. 'Man, know thyself.' To
know oneself is the one pursuit worthy of man, the beginning of all morality, the sum of all philosophy. The
philosophy of Socrates is thus of a purely ethical nature, and his main doctrine may be summed up in the
saying, "Virtue is knowledge, vice is ignorance."
For, after all, knowledge is the principal thing. All life and conduct come back to that. Let a man know what he
ought to do, and nothing else is needed. For surely a man will not willingly do what he knows to be against his
true interests. Socrates therefore aims at producing knowledge, not of course for its own sake, but because he
believes that it is the ground and secret of all right conduct. Rightly understand what is implied in these words
"virtue is knowledge," and you will see, says Socrates, that it involves important consequences.
(1) What is done without insight does not deserve the predicate "good": whereas what is done knowingly must
always be good. If it were possible it would be better that one should do wrong knowingly than that one should
do wrong unknowingly; for, in the first case, virtue would only be temporarily injured; in the second, virtue
would be wanting altogether.
(2) From the principle that "virtue is knowledge" may also be deduced the further position that "Happiness or
well-being is the necessary result of virtue." The intelligent man knows and therefore does what is good for
him; he must therefore through his doings become happy also. Virtue, as knowledge of the good, must always
bring in its train its appropriate consequences.

(3) From the same principle a still further deduction may be made, viz., that all virtue is one and the same, the
excellence of each good quality just consisting in the knowing what ought or ought not to be done.
(4) Still again, the same principle implies that everyone can attain to virtue by aspiration and practice.
Goodness can be taught, because it is a matter of knowledge. Were virtue not knowledge, we could not be
instructed in it, nor would we be capable of advancing from one stage to another.
Socrates went about seeking to convince men not so much of sin as of ignorance. Sin is error. He who does a
bad action does it from a mistaken judgment. Everyone believes that he is really doing the good, i.e. the
advantageous. Hence to show men their ignorance is the first step towards right actions.
What is called the "irony" of Socrates is his manner of affecting ignorance in the presence of the seeming wise
in order to bring them to the confession of their want of knowledge. His object was not to lead to scepticism. He
claimed to follow his mother's profession and to help those in labour with new ideas to bring them to the birth.
Hence he adopted the dialectic method, the method of questioning. His philosophy is a philosophy of dialogue.
It develops itself in conversation. Feigning to be as anxious to instruct himself as others, Socrates brings his
companion step by step to unfold into clearer and ever less contradictory statements the thoughts which were
lying latent within him. Aristotle ascribes to Socrates the merit of introducing the inductive method,the
method of searching for general definitions based upon particular instances,the forming of judgments from a
number of analogous cases. This subordination of the particular under the general, which we call the inductive
method, becomes the future law of logic, and the process adopted by the sciences to establish general
conceptions from comparison of facts.
While Socrates confined his philosophy within the bounds of practical life and conceived of it mainly as a
system of ethics, passing over all questions concerning nature and being with seeming indifference, he at the
same time professes a teleological view of nature, recognising wisdom in the arrangement and adaptation of the
world. Where knowledge cannot reach Socrates seems to put forth a faith in Providence, falling back on his
daimonion for inspiration when insight fails.
Xenophon has represented Socrates as employing the argument from design to prove the existence of God: he
cannot, however, decide how far his opinions on the subject differed from those of the popular religion.
But by the testimony of his principal disciples, the whole life of Socrates was permeated by the thought of God.
His ethics everywhere run up into religion. Every moral duty found a religious sanction. Every act of wrong was
an act of impiety. It is not to be understood by this that he had a reasoned theology or that he aimed at any new
doctrinal statement of belief. He had no ambition to start a new sect or any desire to reform the Greek religion.
Sometimes he seems to dwell within the old limits with contentment, but he rejects as incredible the stories of
blood and deceit and lust with which Greek mythology was disfigured. He believes God to be unchangeably
good, and if he seems at times to accept lower divinities who minister to men of their bounty, it is because the
Supreme Being manifests Himself in the world and particularly in men, and may be conceived as dwelling also
in beings wiser and more powerful than men.
Still it is no mere impersonal diffusion. There is a central Divine Life in whom all things live, who upholds all
things and by whom all things subsist. He has been called the father of the design argument, which proceeds
from the order in the world and in the physical and mental organism of man to a supernal reason. The whole
world, in his view, owes its existence and place to mind (Xen. Mem. I. iv. 8 ff.). And in the make of man the
same order is discernible. His body is a system of contrivances, bespeaking utility and delight as ends. The
mind, by its very supremacy in man, is a proof of God's presence in the universe. Man is a sharer of the Divine
nature. Though his essential nature is enshrined in a body which can execute the behests of the mind, he moves
amongst the other creatures as a god (Xen. Mem. I. iv. 14; cp. Plato's Rep. vi. and Phaedrus).

Of Socrates' view of the place of the conscience in life it is

more difficult to speak. We have already seen how in his
own life he acknowledged a 'Divine Something,' which
seemed to take the form of a warning inner voice. But
while he affirms the existence of this 'sign' in his own
case, he seems to regard it as peculiar to himself, and not
in the possession of all men.
Still his whole teaching did imply that not he only but all men had the power of discerning between right and
wrong, and that only he was a virtuous man who followed the dictates of his own insight and knowledge.
With regard to the immortality of the soul it is difficult to know what his views exactly were. Whenever the
subject is touched it is impossible to exclude from the mind the marvellous picture in the Phaedo. But it is
improbable that Socrates held the definite opinions on this question attributed to him by Plato. He conceives of
death as a long sleep, and falls back upon the recognition of the Divine will, assured that no evil can befall the
good man either in life or death. His absolute truthfulness seems to hinder him from asserting more than this,
and he makes no attempt to veil his ignorance in figures of speech. In general it may be said that he did not
profess knowledge with regard to the soul's immortality, but he cherished the belief. He closes his apology with
the sublime words, "But now the time has come and we must go hence: I to die, and you to live. Whether life or
death is better is known to God, and to God only."
The philosophy of Socrates is best judged in the light of the influence which he exerted upon the Platonic and
Aristotelian systems of thought. Regarding his philosophy as a body of doctrine, three things stand out: (1) It
contains a reform in philosophic method; (2) it affords the first inquiry into the conditions of knowledge; and
(3) it lays the foundations of ethical science. But great as were these contributions to philosophy, greater far was
the influence which Socrates exerted by his life. His rectitude of character, his humility and courage, his faith
and piety, and, above all, his calm acceptance of condemnation and death, have encircled the figure of Socrates
with a halo of reverence which history has accorded to few.
The narrative of his trial is one of the most dramatic in all literature, and the closing scenes of Plato's Phaedo is
unequalled for pathos and sublimity by anything that ever Plato wrote. "His last words were: 'Crito, I owe a
cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?' 'The debt shall be paid,' said Crito; 'Is there anything
else?' There was no answer to this question, but in a minute or two a movement was heard, and the attendants
uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth.
Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend: concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time
whom I have known, he was the wisest and greatest and best."
Socrates founded no special school of philosophy, though he gave a starting-point to several lines of thought.
The strong personality and original teaching of the man forced the intellectual activity of the times into new
channels. He gave a fresh impulse to reflection which ultimately prepared the way for these systems in which
Greek philosophy culminates. It is the fate of a great teacher to be inadequately interpreted by his immediate
successors, and the richer and more many-sided his teaching is, the more is it likely to be broken up by those
who come after. Socrates was no exception to this law, and his various followers seized each upon a fragment of
his doctrine and elevated it into a principle. It will not be necessary to dwell at any length upon these imperfect
Socratists, as they have been called. But, in particular, mention must be made of three schoolsthe Cynic, the
Cyrenaic and the Megaricin which the different sides of Socrates' teaching with regard to conduct were
represented. In the Cynic and Cyrenaic schools we have the first expression of two opposing types of ethical
theory which have continued to find supporters even to our own day. What is the highest good? What is the end
of life? asked Socrates. Is it virtue or is it happiness? In the hands of Socrates these were harmonized, for virtue

being knowledge a man will always seek that which is for his ultimate good. But the question arose, which
Socrates did not definitely answerIs virtue an end in itself or is it to be sought merely for the sake of
happiness?
1. The Cynics, of whom Antisthenes is the chief representative, emphasized virtue for its own sake. The virtuous
man is self-sufficient. The supreme object of man, says Antisthenes, is a virtuous life. But the ideal of virtue is
freedom from all desirethe complete withdrawal of the individual within himself. The truly wise man is
independent of everythingof marriage, society and station. He needs neither wealth, honour, nor pleasure.
The later Cynics despised all knowledge and sank to a condition of shameless sloth and beggary. Not till long
after, in the age of the Stoics, did cynicism revive and regain its prestige.
2. The Cyrenaic school, which was the antithesis of the Cynic, sought the essence of life in pleasure. Aristippus,
its founder, set forth as the principle of life, that a man must not be the slave but the master of circumstances, if
he would lead a happy life. Pleasure is indeed the aim, but it must be pleasure in its highest forms. Nothing is
bad or shameful which ensures real enjoyment. To the attainment of happiness, however, discrimination,
moderation and spiritual culture are necessary. It must be admitted that the theory of Aristippus was more in
consonance with the teaching of Socrates than of the Cynics, which it opposed. His idea of self-mastery was not
mutilation, but use. The Cynic sought to starve desire, but in so doing was in danger of reducing life to
barrenness. The Cyrenaic believed in gratifying desire within limits, ruled by a quantitative measure of
happiness. In theory this conception seemed to present the truest ideal of self-realizationthe Socratic idea of
"using the world without abusing it." Yet, in its ultimate analysis, it really made pleasure and not virtue the end
of life, and in practice it led to the most selfish interpretations.
Of the other hedonists, Theodorus declared that the highest thing in life is the joy arising from the ability, in all
the relations of life, to be guided by a rational purpose.
Hegesias regarded the absence of pain as the only worthy goal of the wise man, while Annicerus thought that
withdrawal from society is impossible, and that, therefore, the true aim is to take as much enjoyment out of life
as can be got.
3. The Megaric school, in which an attempt was made to combine the Cynic and Cyrenaic principle, was
founded by Euclid of Megara. The idea of the good is the same thing ethically as that of being is physically.
Only that which is self-existent, self-identical is good; while all change and variety are only appearance.
The true good is not sensuous, but intellectual. Truth and reason are the only real. Man is at his best when he is
faithful to those highest elements within him.
The good is immutable: it is insight, reason, God. It alone exists. Euclid of Megara deserves to be remembered
for his identification of Goodness with life. His system is the connecting-link between Socrates and Plato. The
school of Megara, which Stilpo made famous, continued its activities for some time, but it was ultimately
eclipsed by the schools of Plato and Aristotle. As Cynicism led to Stoicism and Cyrenaic hedonism to
Epicureanism, so the later Megarics prepared the way for Scepticism.
The imperfect Socratics grew up side by side, and there is little continuity of development in their teaching.
They fell largely into the arid discussions of the Sophists, and beyond a few pretentious moral maxims and
some feeble witticisms, little of worth has been preserved. The pride of poverty and contempt of life became
their dominant characteristics, and the typical figure of Cynicism is Diogenes in his tub wandering about
Greece denouncing luxury and preaching independence of life's necessities. It is to Plato that we must look for
the true successor of Socrates. In contrast to these imperfect followers we learn to appreciate the more the one
true disciple, who entered into the spirit of his master's teaching and brought to their richest fruition and fullest
expansion those seeds of thought and life which Socrates had sown.

Part I. GREEK PHILOSOPHY - SECT. 3. THE SYSTEMATIC PERIOD

The third period of Greek philosophy may be said to combine the two former periods, in so far as consideration
was now given to both metaphysical and moral problems. The union was not so much a natural outcome of the
times as the work of the great personalities who have stamped the period with their genius.
The general questions regarding being, with which the
earlier philosophers were concerned, had largely lost their
interest under the influence of the Sophists, and the
natural trend of thought was towards practical matters.
The fact that philosophy returned with renewed vigour to
the great problems of metaphysics and reached its climax
in this direction, was due to the commanding influence of
the two great men who now appeared in historyPlato
and Aristotle.
That which differentiates the philosophy of these eminent teachers is the systematic character of their work.
Each gave to the world a many-sided, all-embracing system of philosophy complete in itself.
Yet while both Plato and Aristotle dealt with the entire circle of scientific subjects, their systems are not
repetitions of each other. Each dealt with the various themes raised from his own standpoint and infused into his
system his own personality.
Plato may be said to present a counterpart to the earlier physical theories of the universe, and his idealism is to
be regarded as the antithesis of the materialism of Democritus and of the sensationalism of the Sophists.
From Plato again there springs the imposing form of Aristotle, the greatest teacher the world has yet produced.
His system, which embraces the entire contents of philosophy, combines the isolated results attained by all
previous philosophers in one harmonious whole, and thus affords the most perfect expression of Greek thought.

Chap. I. PLATO
Plato (427-347) was born at Athens during the early years of the Peloponnesian war, in the same year as
Pericles died. He came of an aristocratic family, his father boasting his descent from Codrus, the last king of
Athens. Legend gathered around his name, and the story was current that he was descended from the gods. His
real name was Aristocles, but he was called Plato, either on account of his broad shoulders or broad forehead.
Plato was an aristocrat not only by birth, but by temperament. Unlike Socrates, who was a man of the people, he
had a contempt for the masses, and withdrew himself from public life. He made no attempt to enter on a
political career, though he had exceptional opportunities of doing so, but devoted himself to study. He would be
about fifteen when the expedition to Sicily was undertaken, and he may have witnessed the great fleet sailing
out in pomp from the harbour of Piraeus; and two years afterwards he must have shared in the general despair
when the news came that the fleet and the flower of the army had perished, and with them the hope of Athena.
There was little indeed to tempt a man of Plato's spirit to mingle with the politics of the day. The great
statesmen, and with them the bloom of the Periclean age, had passed away. The long war had done its work and
had well-nigh exhausted both the revenues and strength of Athens. Revolution followed revolution so rapidly
that public confidence in the Constitution was fast disappearing, and men of talent and honour were beginning
to despair of their country and withdraw themselves from public life. There is a story told that Plato thanked the
gods for four things : that he was born a man, a Greek, an Athenian and a contemporary of Socrates. This last

blessing was probably the most determinative factor in shaping his life. He early came under the influence of
Socrates, whose intercourse he enjoyed for eight years. After the death of his master, he seems to have
undertaken extensive travels, visiting Egypt, Italy and Sicily.
In his 40th year he returned to Athens, where he began to teach in the Academy, a place of exercise in the
western suburb of Athens, planted with a grove and named from the hero Academus. Here he gathered around
him a band of disciples, teaching them after the manner of Socrates, mainly by conversation, and embodying the
results of his teaching in his written dialogues. His philosophic seclusion was twice broken by visits to Sicily, in
order to realize at the court of Dionysius the Younger his ideas with regard to political government. The young
despot welcomed him warmly, but soon grew tired of serious discussion. On his return to Athens Plato resumed
his teaching. He died in his 81st year. He was called the "divine" on account of the depth and originality of his
thoughts as well as the beauty of his expositions.
Plato's writings consist of a collection of thirty-five dialogues and a number of letters. The question as to their
genuineness has received various answers, from the conservativism of Grote, who accepts all the dialogues as
Plato's which bear his name, to the radicalism of Schaarsmidt, who accepts nine only as genuine. It is
noteworthy that Aristotle directly alludes to nine,The Republic, The Laws, Timaeus, Phaedo, Symposium,
Phaedrus, Gorgias, Theaetetus and Philebus; and to these we may add as beyond doubt the so-called youthful
writings, The Apology, Crito, Euthydemus, Laches, Lysis and Protagoras. Others like the Parmenides, Sophist,
Politics, if not by Plato, are the works of his immediate pupils.
The question as to the order of composition is one of the vexed problems of Platonic criticism. As there is a
Homeric problem, so there is a Platonic problem which has been widely discussed and has produced an
inexhaustible literature. Schleiermacher, who was the first in modern times to investigate the subject, regards
the works of Plato as the development of a philosophical plan. Hermann, on the other hand, sees in Plato's
writings the disclosure of the various phases of his own mental history. Monk unites these views and sees,
especially in the successive dialogues of Plato, an idealistic unfolding of the ideas of Socrates. More recently
the attempt has been made to determine the order of the works by linguistic considerations and particular
historical circumstances, irrespective of the doctrines taught. Various reasons may have actuated Plato to adopt
the style of dialogue. For one thing, it was the only way in which he could give a just idea of the Socratic
method. Moreover, it permitted the truth to develop of itself without the appearance of dogmatism, and helped
to stimulate the independent thought of the readers. But, above all, it was a form particularly adapted to an
artistic nature. Philosophy with Plato was not merely a doctrine, but a lifea power embodied in the
personality of the thinker. After the barren abstractions of the earlier philosophers the dialogues of Plato must
have been hailed by the Athenian world as a refreshing literary entertainment.
Plato is not only thinker, but artist as well. The dialogues are works of art which set before us in vivid dramatic
colouring his thoughts of things and men. They are descriptive, dramatic, historical, by turns: pathos, humour,
seriousness, follow each other like the light and shadow of a spring morning. The variety, the sparkle and
vivacity, the charming descriptions and subtle sketches of character, the sarcasm and play of humour, above all
the purity and grace of diction of his writing, have rendered the name of Plato immortal as one of the greatest
masters of literary composition and dramatic style the world has produced.
The speakers in the dialogues are not more historical than the characters of Shakespeare. In nearly every
dialogue Socrates is the central figure. Never once does the author speak in his own person. Yet he appears in all
his characters. He is, as Grote has said, "Sceptic, dogmatist, religious mystic, mathematical philosopher, artist,
poetall in one, or at least all in succession, during the fifty years of his philosophical life."
There is one peculiarity in Plato's dialogues which, while it adds to their charm, increases the difficulty of exact
interpretation. It is the frequent use of myths or poetic pictures in which Plato often enshrines his truths. We
must remember that he had to contend with the difficulties of language in order to express the novelty of his
thought, and, in order to make himself intelligible to ordinary minds, he resorted to the forms of mythology. It

may be also that he sought in this way to conceal his religious opinions and escape the criticism of the shallow.
Many of the myths are mere allegories. We must not therefore be deceived by the symbolism of Plato or mistake
the figure of speech for the literal truth.
It will be impossible to give a detailed account of Plato's dialogues. It may be said that they declare in some
measure the phases of his inner development, and they may be arranged roughly, for convenience, into three
groupsthe Socratic or early, the Megaric or mature, the Pythagorean or later dialogues.
1. The Socratic or youthful writings, in which Plato argues in Socratic style against the superficiality and the
inconsequence of the Sophists.
Charmedes discusses temperance; Lysis, friendship; Laches, fortitude; Hippias Minor, voluntary wrongdoing;
First Alcibiades, qualities of statesmanship; Protagoras, the method and influence of the Sophists, together with
the Socratic idea of virtue; Gorgias, the sophistical identification of virtue and pleasure, affirming the
absoluteness of the good and its superiority to the merely useful and pleasurable.
2. The Megaric dialogues, which are poetic in form and somewhat obscure in language. These deal with the
formation of the ideal theory and the ultimate grounds of knowledge.
The Theaetetus stands at the head of this group. It seeks to prove that ideas are objectively real and independent
of sensuous perception. They are the sources of all thoughtthe universal notions from which all knowledge
and action are derived.
The Sophist deals with the reciprocal relations of ideas; Parmenides with the relation of ideas to the world of
appearances.
3. The Pythagorean group, in which Plato applies the doctrine of ideas to psychology, ethics and natural
science. Plato returned from his travels with his mind enriched with facts and ideals which he had gathered.
This group is specially characterized by the idealizing of the personality of Socrates, who became the
mouthpiece of his views, and by the influence of the Pythagorean philosophy, which gave to the writings of this
period a mystical tendency.
The prominent thought of this group is that ideas are objective realities, the ground of all truth, while the
phenomena of the senses are but copies of them.
Phaedrus and the Banquet seek to show that the (devotion to the idea) alone affords the stability of a
scientific principle and secures us from arbitrariness and prejudice in thinking.
Phaedo bases the immortality of the soul on the ideal theory. Philebus applies the highest principles to the
notions of pleasure and the supreme good. Timaeus treats of nature and the physical world. Finally, the
Republic, begun early and completed in successive strata, extending into the last years of the philosopher's life,
determines the true character of the State and in general affords the grandest impression of his system as a
whole.
Plato himself has given us no systematic exposition of his philosophy, and if we follow Aristotle in classifying
his thoughts under the three headslogic, physics and ethicsit must be remembered that Plato does not
himself so divide his philosophy.
1. Dialectic or logic. The conversations of Socrates gave to Plato his method of philosophy. Dialectic means
originally discussion, conversation. It is therefore the art of developing knowledge by conversation (Republic),
or in so far as speech and thought are indistinguishable, the science of properly uniting and separating ideas.

But in a more general sense it is the science of ideas, of the absolute truth of things.
We have seen that the inductive method was ascribed to Socrates, by which he proceeded from the particular to
the general. When people spoke of persons or acts being just or beautiful, Socrates asked, What is justice? What
is beauty? and tested every definition by a number of particular instances. This in general is the procedure of
Plato, but in the Theaetetus he asks at once the deeper questionWhat is knowledge? He proves that it is not
sensation, as Protagoras suggests, for that alone gives no objective certainty true for everyone. Nor is it opinion,
which may be true, but has no certainty. A man can only be said to know when he has got at the reason or causes
of things; when he sees facts not in their isolation, but in their relation and unity. The question, therefore, which
Plato asks is, What is the permanent and universal which underlies all that is variable and particular?
The answer to this question Plato develops in his Theory of Ideas. This is the very kernel of the philosophy of
Plato on which, indeed, his whole system is based. Hence it is desirable that we should form a clear conception
of what Plato means by ideas. By this theory Plato reconciles the opposing views of Heraclitus and the Eleatics.
According to Plato both the one and the many, the permanent and the variable, have their place in the universe :
the former in the world of ideas, the latter in the world of sense.
There is a threefold inquiry with regard to Plato's ideas which may be considered: Concerning (1) their origin,
(2) their nature and (3) their relation and unity.
(1) The origin of Ideas. Perhaps we shall more clearly understand how Plato was led to the formation of his
theory if we start from the passage in which Aristotle describes the genesis of Plato's doctrine. According to
Aristotle, Plato's theory arose out of a union of the Socratic concept and the Heraclitean notion of flux. Plato
agreed with Heraclitus in holding that all things are ceaselessly flowing, and are therefore incapable of being
known. At the same time, he agreed with Socrates as to the importance he attached to universal notions with
which definitions are concerned. But he asked, What is this universal or constant element which the general
term seeks to express? It cannot be something perceptible, for perceptibles are never constant. But just because
it is something permanent and universal, it must be something separable from sensible things. It must have a
reality of its own. In this way Plato arrived at the doctrine of ideas, which are simply the objective correlates of
our general notions. In the view of Aristotle, Plato accepts Heraclitus' doctrine of flux as far as the visible world
is concerned, while at the same time he does justice to the Eleatic principle by elevating the Socratic general
concepts into certain incorporeal and unchanging realities, which he calls ideas. The first point which Aristotle
makes clear is that Plato hypostatized the Socratic universals, giving to them not merely a conceptual but a
substantial existence on their own account: and, in the second place, he shows that, according to Plato, the ideas
are at once transcendent and immanent, at once separate from and yet present in particulars. The idea is, as Plato
says, present in the phenomena which bear its name, but at the same time it exists as a separate entity for and by
itself.
(2) The nature of the ideas. Such being the origin of Plato's theory, we are now in a position to look a little more
closely at its nature. The ideas are not simply general names or thoughts of the mind, as Socrates had conceived
them. They represent realities. They are to our notions what natural objects are to our sense-perceptions. They
are alone pure being, the essence of things with the search of which all knowledge begins. The object of all true
knowledge is the ideas. They are the only permanent and universalthat indeed from which all particulars are
derived. They exist wherever a general notion exists. For example, when you see a chair or a bed there must
exist a general idea of chair or bed which is separate from that which you see, and lies behind the particular
instance you are looking at. Every object we behold is simply an instancean instance of something. That
something is the idea. The instance is the particular, the idea is the universal, but it is just because the universal
is real that the particular has any significance. The general ideas, expressed by our concepts,'Good,' 'Being,'
'Identity,' 'Man,'are therefore realities. The ordinary man considers general ideas as but abstractions of the
mind, or mental copies of sensible things. The reverse is true. It is the ideas which are the models or originals,
and the particular things are but the copies. All we can say of the sensible object is that it has something of what
the idea is. Every beautiful object, be it man or statue, or deed, is doomed to destruction. But beauty itself is

imperishable, and is more real than all the things which common opinion calls beautiful. In the conceptions of
mathematics, which, as Plato says, is the first preliminary training in passing from the life of the senses to a
higher intellectual knowledge, we have a clue to the understanding of Plato's theory of ideas. The
mathematician looks at a triangle, but he speaks not of this or that triangle, but of the trianglethe idea of the
triangle the prototype of all particular triangles. In short, we can only know a thing in so far as we have
grasped, as a reality, the idea of itthe universal element which manifests itself in the particular.
While it will thus be seen that Plato separates the intelligible from the sensible world, it must not be imagined
that the world of ideas is a mere negative of the sensible world. The ideal world is, on the contrary, more real
than the phenomenal worldsince things are but copies of ideas and obtain what reality they possess from
participation in them.
There are three attributes which Plato assigns to ideas, the examination of which may make their nature clearer.
In the first place, each idea is one and not many. There cannot, for example, be two ideas of the beautiful,
otherwise we should have to postulate a still higher idea to account for the common element in these two, which
would be the really existent beautiful. Again, ideas are changeless and eternal. On this characteristic of the ideal
world Plato never wearies of insisting. The idea always is. It never becomes. Although particulars come into
being and pass away it is uncreated, ever-existent and imperishable. It is in this kingdom that cannot be shaken
alone that we can find rest amid the change and decay of terrestrial things. The third attribute of the ideas is
their perfection. The idea is thus the absolute standard for the particular group of things which partake of its
nature. There is even a perfect bed, a perfect table at which the carpenter looks when manufacturing the
particular beds and tables which we use. The manufactured object is always imperfectit never fully is what it
would fain be. So everywhere in nature, and in art, and in all the efforts of man, the ideal type is there, but it is
never wholly realized. As Tennyson has expressed it:
"That type of Perfect in his mind
In Nature can he nowhere find."
It is this vision of a transcendent standard of beauty which has fired the imagination of artists, and was, in
particular, the inspiring motive of the art of Michael Angelo, in whose lifetime the famous academy at Florence
made Platonism live again.
(3) Their relation and unity. These three attributes of the ideastheir unity, unchangeableness and perfection
may enable us to understand the motive which led Plato to separate his ideas from the region of sense and
assign to them a transcendent existence of their own. In the world of space and time there is nothing but
multiplicity, nothing that abides, or that is perfect of its kind. Yet earthly things are always pointing to their
ideals and suggesting by their very fragmentariness and imperfections their purer archetypes, of which they are
but manifestations. The ideas abide in the heavenly sphere, where the gods and the souls of the pure
contemplate them. Not only then are the ideas eternal, but they constitute a world apart from the world of
earthly existence. They form a hierarchy among themselves, as Aristotle tells us. Just as in our visible world
there is a gradation of beings, from the most imperfect creature to the most perfect, so in the world of ideas
there is a progressive advance from lower to higher until the highest is reachedwhich is the Good. This idea is
the unifying principle of all the ideas and the cope-stone of Plato's entire philosophy. The ideas therefore are at
once individual and members of a higher unity. They form an organism and live a common life. It is true Plato
sometimes speaks of the heavens as their abode. But this heaven is not a part of the physical universe. The home
of the ideas is a place suitable to the nature of the ideas. The idea of the Good is king of the intelligible world,
as the sun is of the visible. Just as in the material world the sun gives light and life to every part of it, so in the
world of ideas, the idea of the Good is the life of all the other ideas, causing them at once to be and to be known.
The Good is therefore the ultimate cause of knowledge; it is the light by which all ideas are seen and known. It
is also the ultimate cause of Being, for just as the sun gives generative increase and nourishment to all objects of
sense, so the Good furnishes the objects of knowledge, not merely with the power of being known, but with
existence itself. In short, the idea of the Good is the source of all subordinate ideas, each of which is but a

special adumbration of itself. But if the idea of the Good is absolute, what is God, to whom Plato so often
refers? The Good is nothing else than God Himself. If we deny the identity, as is sometimes done, we must
maintain that there are two separate principles in the universe: or that one of these is subordinate to the other.
But in view of the many passages in the dialogues, notably in the Timaeus and the Republic, which imply the
identity, this is hardly possible. Of the Good we read that "it is the best among things that are." It is "the
beginning or source of the universe," the creator or parent of the visible sun, and through it of the world we live
in. In like manner God is spoken of as "the Maker and Father of all"as the creator and sole cause of whatever
is good and beautiful and right in the world. Nor must it be assumed that this highest Being is a mere abstract,
impersonal principle, as the conception of the Good would seem to imply. In the dialogues the idea is frequently
personified. It is spoken of as Father and King. Though it would not be admissible to attribute to Plato all the
clear and definite notions of personality and conscious life which later ages associate with the idea of God; still,
as the Good is regarded as the supreme creative principle, alike in the world of sense and the world of thought,
it is not going too far to say that Plato conceived of it as possessing intelligent life,that nous or reason which
communicates being and movement to all that lives.
But now the question arises, How do we human beings know the ideas ? What is their relation to our minds ?
They are not due to experience. They are not attained by perception or sensation. Yet in all our thinking ideas
are involvedwe cannot pass from a particular object to a general without having recourse to ideas. It is
sometimes maintained that the Platonic ideas exist only in the mind of man, but this is a notion which cannot be
legitimately held, in view of Plato's frequent insistence on their separate and independent existence. All that
comes into our minds, or rather that is developed in our minds, is simply our concepts, which, like sensible
things, are but shadowy copies of the eternal ideas. At the same time there is a sense in which it may be said that
human beings share in these ideas. Plato was evidently convinced that while the infinite was above and beyond
the finite, it was at the same time present in the finiteimmanent in the souls of men. In proof of this we have
but to recall the famous passage in the Phaedo, in which Socrates describes his intellectual development. After
describing how he had found no satisfaction in the study of mere secondary causes, he proceeds : "Let me now
try to show you what kind of cause interests me... I begin with the ideas, postulating a self-existent Beautiful,
Good, Great, and so on. If you grant me these, I hope to make you understand what I mean by causation... I hold
that if a thing is beautiful, it is so for no other reason than because it partakes in the Ideal Beauty... I cleave fast
in my own mind that nothing makes an object beautiful except the presence of Ideal Beauty, or their
communion with each other, or the advent of the idea in whatsoever way. Upon the mode of connection I do not
insist: but only that it is the idea of beauty by which beautifuls are made beautiful." In the same way elsewhere
Plato represents the rational faculty, the Soul, as the divine element in man. So that there is a sense in which it
may be said that the ideas are not only entities beyond but also within man.
The absolute idea, and with it all other ideas, may be regarded as original endowments of the mind. But they are
at first latent, and we are not conscious of them. The aim and art of all true education lie in drawing forth from
the pupil's own mind its own native treasures and awaking those seeds of knowledge which have pre-existed in
the soul awaiting full growth and development.
To account for the origin of those germs of truth in the mind Plato falls back on the mythical tradition that the
soul in a previous state beheld these ideas, and that knowledge of them is possible because the mind by an act of
memory or recollection recovers what is its own. According to Plato true philosophic knowledge is nothing
more than recollection. Reasoning is the only road to truth. The art of dialectic,the intellectual midwifery of
Socrates is necessary to help the soul to bring forth genuine thoughts. The slave-boy in the Meno, who
manages to prove a simple geometrical proposition, is helped step by step by the questions of Socrates, who
only brings out what was already in the lad's mind and enables him to recover the missing whole, of which at
first he sees only fragments. Sensations provoke ideas: they do not create them. Their function is to recall to our
minds our latent possessions. The perception of corporeal things calls the remembrance back to these forgotten
forms and awakens the philosophic impulsethe love of ideas, by which the soul is raised again to the
knowledge of the true reality. The homesick soul, living in exile in the world of sense, longs to be reunited with
the absolute, and to see again those truths which it once knew. In the seventh book of the Republic Plato gives

us his celebrated similitude, by which he allegorizes the conversion of the mind from the world of sense to the
world of ideas. The majority of men are pictured by him as prisoners in a subterranean cavern, which opens to
the day by a long, wide passage; they are chained with their backs to a fire looking at the shadows, thrown by it
on the wall, of men and other figures which pass behind them. These captives represent the condition of men
who see nothing but the shadows of realities. If one of these prisoners should be loosed from his bonds and
made to turn round and walk towards the light, at first he would be dazzled by the glare and unable to see
clearly, but by and by he would realize that what he previously took for realities were nonentities; and, if he
were brought up out of the cavern into the light of day, he would soon be aware of the real objects and know
that what he had previously beheld in the cave were only shadows, illusions. Remembering his previous state in
the cavern, he would pity those who were still within it. All thisthe turning round, the toilsome ascent out of
the cave, the gradual accustoming of his eyes to the light, the ultimate realization of the objects as they are in
themselvesrepresents the education of the philosopher. Education, in other words, is "the turning round of the
eyes of the soul."
2. The physics of Plato is chiefly confined to the Timaeus. He gives a rough draft or sketch of the philosophy of
nature for which he does not claim certainty. He seeks to explain occurrences and phenomena of nature from the
point of view of the world's purpose or end.
The neo-Platonists regarded the Timaeus as the most important of Plato's works. In Raphael's "School of
Athens" Plato is represented with the Timaeus in his hand, and, as has been said, no writing of Plato exercised
so powerful an influence on subsequent Greek thought. It must be remembered, however, that Plato himself did
not attach supreme importance to this book, and the elaboration of a theory of the physical universe he regarded
as but a recreation from severer meditation. In his astronomical views Plato was a child of his age, and though
he anticipates many ideas of later times with regard to the movement of the stars and the structure of animal
bodies, he had not Aristotle's eager interest in physical matters. As the details of Plato's cosmology belong rather
to the history of natural science than philosophy, it will not be necessary to dwell at any length upon them.
While his teleological view of nature is given in mythical
form only, he takes up a position sharply opposed to the
mechanical explanation of the world suggested by
Democritus. In opposition to the theory that this world is
the result of the accidental or undesigned meeting of
lawless particles, coming into existence just to perish
again, he sets forth his theory that there is only this one
world, a most perfect and most beautiful cosmos, unitary
in nature and unique in kind, and that its origin can be
traced only to a reason acting according to ends.
It may be said that he had no doubt as to the ultimate unity of the universe "which is one and only begotten."
The whole of nature is a revelation of the good. The world is a divine child, "the image of its makermost
mighty and good, most beautiful and perfect." "Let me tell you why the Creator made this world of generation.
He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being without jealousy, he desired
that all things should be as like unto Himself as possible... For God desiring that all things should be good, and
that, so far as might be, there should be nothing evil, having received all that is visible, not at rest but moving in
a disorderly and irregular fashion, brought it from disorder into order... As intelligence could not be present in
anything that was devoid of soul, when he was forming the universe he put intelligence in soul, and soul in
body, that he might be the maker of a work that was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of
probability, we may say that the universe became a living creature, in very truth possessing soul and reason by
the providence of God."

The world is an emanation of the world-forming God (). The actual cosmos is the image of God
which was originally shaped out of the idea, or ideas, and the formless chaotic massan indefinite plasticity,
which takes up all corporeal forms into itself. It is significant that Plato, like the earlier philosophers, gets no
further back than this formless void or non-being, which he assumes as existing before all else. This primitive
material contains the element of evil or imperfection; hence the world, though an emanation of God, cannot be
perfect. The main interest of Plato's cosmogony lies in the conception that the world is the product and image of
reasonan organism of harmony and order.
3. Plato's Ethics is based on his doctrine of the soul, which is the first attempt in philosophy to understand the
psychical life from within, and is central to the whole system.
The soul springs from the ideal world and discloses its origin in its yearning for the beautiful and its effort to
gain the mastery over the physical part of man's nature.
Plato describes the soul of man as a threefold being a man, a lion and a many-headed hydra: or as a charioteer
driving two horses, one of a noble and the other of an ignoble nature. The noble element is striving continually
to mount to the region of the heavens, where it may behold the images of divine beauty and wisdom which are
proper to its nature; but the baser element, which is the body, is ever dragging the soul down to the earth.
In itself the soul is indestructible and divine, but through its union with the body it participates in the
fluctuations of the sensuous nature and is subject to the influence of the physical. Hence it may be said to
belong to two worlds, of both of which it bears the traits. In its essence, there \s that which corresponds to the
world of ideas, and that which corresponds to the world of perception. The former is the rational nature (),
the seat of knowledge and of virtue. The latter, the irrational nature, Plato further divides into two elements
the nobler, which inclines towards reason, and the lower, which resists it. The nobler is the will or spirit
(); the lower, the sensuous desire (). Hence, Reason, Spirit, and Appetite, are the three
activities of the soul. The rational element alone, which is the soul in its true being, apart from its mixture with
the body, is that which is immortal. It possesses a vitality which survives all change. The proof of the
immortality of the soul Plato sets forth chiefly in the Phaedo, though he refers to the subject also in other
dialogues.
Various arguments are adduced by Plato which have been elaborated by philosophers in later times. He argues
the soul's immortality (1) from its simplicity, which renders all decomposition impossible; (2) from the
goodness of the creator; and (3) from the fact that it is the very principle of life, and therefore that a transition
from being to non-being is impossible; and (4) from the longing of the wise man to be freed from the fetters of
the body and come into direct communion with the world of ideas. It has been urged by some modern critics
that Plato's arguments do not prove the immortality of the soul at all in the sense of continued personal
existence. All that he shows is, it is alleged, that the soul or mind belongs to the eternal world, and not to the
world of appearance merely. Yet the doctrine of "Recollection," when stripped of its poetic form, does imply a
kind of unity of self, and a continuance of personal existence, at least before this life. And, moreover, it must be
noticed that, whatever we may think of his attempted proofs, the conclusion which he seeks to draw from them
all, in the Phaedo and elsewhere, has reference to the individual soul. "According to Plato," says the late Mr.
Adam, "the true and essential 'ego' is the rational and spiritual part of our nature, which he calls Nous: and he
would consequently hold that we do not lose, but rather gain, our perfect individuality by union with the allembracing, all-sustaining mind or spirit in which even now we live and move and have our being."
Upon this conception of the soul, Plato bases the moral destiny of the individual. The fettering of the soul to the
body is at once a consequence and punishment of the sensuous appetite. The soul exists before the earthly life as
well as after, and the sin in which the soul is ensnared in the world of sense has been committed in a preexistent state, and its destiny hereafter will depend upon how far it has freed itself from appetite, and turned to
the knowledge of ideas.

Plato teaches the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration after death. The souls of men go to the place of reward
or punishment, and after one thousand years they are permitted to choose a new lot of life. He who has thrice
chosen the higher life gains, after three thousand years, the home of the gods in the kingdom of thought. Others
wander for thousands of years in various bodies, and many are destined to pursue their earthly life in lower and
ever lower animal forms.
The supreme aim of the soul is to break the power of evil and attain to freedom and wisdom and goodness. Plato
seems to waver in his teaching as to the way in which the higher life is to be reached. Sometimes he would
seem to teach a negative ascetic morality of suppression of all appetite, and flight from the world of sense. But
in other places he implies that the life of wisdom and goodness can be realized even in this world of sense. This
world is full of joy and beauty, and by a life of well-ordered harmony it is to be used and not abused. The
passions and appetites, in so far as they are elements of the soul, have their justification, and are, therefore, not
to be wholly quenched, but transmuted and transformed into channels of the higher life.
In accordance with this idea, in the Republic he shows that each part of the soul has a definite task to fulfil, and
a perfection of its own to reach. All virtue is indeed one, but it may be divided into four cardinal virtues
wisdom, courage, temperance, justice. The virtue of reason is wisdom (): the virtue of the spirit or heart
is courage (): the virtue of sensuous appetite is moderation, self-control ().
But in addition to all these, the virtue of the soul as a whole, which binds all the other virtues together and
preserves them in a perfect relationship, is justice, integrity ().
Righteousness as the unity of the virtues consists in each part in the individual and in society, doing its proper
work, and not interfering with the work of others.
Pleasures are distinguished in kind and degree of excellence according to the part of the soul which they
accompany, and the pleasures of the highest part must be preferred to those of lower parts, because the higher
part, the reason, is the only part capable of judging. Pleasure cannot be the chief good, as the Cyrenaics hold,
for it partakes of the nature of the indefinite: but neither is knowledge alone the chief good. The best life must
contain both. "Plato's more important ethical dialogues, beginning with the Protagoras and ending with the
Philebus, make a steady advance from the ethics of Socrates,"and prepare the way for the more complete
"codification" of Aristotle.
Plato's doctrine of the soul leads, naturally, to his theory of the State, to a consideration of which the Republic is
devoted. The tendency of the doctrine of ideas, directed as it is to the general and universal, attains its
completion, not in the individual, but in the species. The ethical ideal becomes for Plato the political. At a time
when there were everywhere visible the signs of the dissolution of Greek political life, in opposition to the
individual theories of happiness which were in vogue, Plato exalts the conception of the State as the ideal of
humanity.
The State is indeed the enlarged man. Just as there are three elements in the soul, so there must be
corresponding orders in the StateRulers, Warriors, Workers. Wisdom is the virtue of the rulers and teaching
class : courage that of the warriors and guardians (), while the virtue of the workers, artisans and the
great mass of the people is self-control, obedience. Finally, justice is the virtue and harmony of the whole State.
The main idea of Plato's Republic is the sacrifice of the individual to the whole,the subordination of separate
interests to the general good. Private property and family life, education, choice of occupation and employment
of special gifts, must all be subordinated to the order of the State and dedicated to the advancement of the
common weal. All things are to be in common; even the breeding and rearing of citizens are to be entirely under
the control of the rulers. The State is to be a single family, a large educational establishment in which the

individual only exists for the good of the whole. By means of a constantly repeated process of selection,
continued from birth to maturity, the two upper classes are to be continually preserved and reinforced.
Some of the features of Plato's ideal State were doubtless suggested to him by the Pythagorean brotherhood. But
though his general conception is, theoretically, very beautiful and most complete, it is as impracticable as the
communistic attempts of modern times. Both tend to suppress individuality and fetter freedom. Plato failed to
recognise the worth of man as man, and did not rise above the notion of slavery prevailing in his time. All
physical defects were to be banished from the State. Poetry, even, was only to be practised under the
supervision of judges; and all dramatic works which misrepresented the human and divine life were to be
excluded. Gymnastics and music, mathematics and philosophy, are the means by which the young are to be
educated and made strong and fit in body, will and mind.
Plato, as we have seen, is not always quite consistent, for while he sometimes identifies the good and the
beautiful and justifies the enjoyment of the good things of life, at other times his teaching is tinged with
asceticism, and he preaches abnegation as the path to virtue. But, generally, it may be said that he rises above
the cynic contempt for the beauty of the human form and the graces of social intercourse. The body must be
carefully disciplined that it may become the fit servant of the soul; and the young are to be brought up amid fair
scenes and noble surroundings that they may be prepared for fulfilling the highest ends of service.
Before leaving Plato, it may be well to attempt to sum up the merits and defects of his position. For Plato is one
of the immortal teachers of mankind whom we can never get past, and whose errors are more suggestive and
instructive than many another's truths.
The first great truth for which we are indebted to him is that, in order to direct human knowledge to its proper
goal in the interpretation of the nature of things, we must start with knowledge itselffrom the peculiar gift of
reason which has been allotted to man. The "know thyself" of Socrates became for his great disciple the masterkey which was to unlock the mystery of being. It is Plato's merit to have been the first to attempt a theory of
knowledge. In reaction against the materialism of the Sophists he followed Socrates in emphasizing human
reason as the source of all truthas the one durable and persistent element amid all that was changeable and
evanescent. "We could not take for granted even the possibility of knowledge," says Socrates in Cratylos, "if
everything were changing and had no permanence." The rational principle in man is characterized by the
possession of the universal ideasthe good, the beautiful, the true. These ideas are recognisable everywhere as
the peculiar property of reason.
The second great truth for which we are indebted to Plato is, that all our thinking is accomplished by means of
universal conceptions, which are contrasted with both material things and sensible perceptions. These general
ideas are the true object of rational thought, and in them the reason discerns the permanent and essential amid
the changing stream of phenomena. This great truth, the doctrine of abstract or universal ideas, has powerfully
influenced the after history of philosophy. It was the truth of which even Locke had some dim intuition, and
which, since Kant's time, has come to be so important a factor in every system of knowledge.
But while the Platonic doctrine of ideas has been the fruitful source of all that is valuable in the philosophy of
the mind, in Plato's treatment, the theory is entangled with ontological assumptions, which split his whole
conception of the world into a dualism. On the one side he conceives of the soul as an immaterial substance to
which alone pure thought belongs. On the other side he places the material world with its perpetual flux and
change. Only what the reason apprehends, viz., the universal ideas, are real and true. All else, particular and
individual things, are seeming and evanescent. The ideas are the eternal prototypes of things which, by reason
of the phenomenal world in which we live, we can only dimly perceive. The true way, therefore, to attain to
knowledge is to disentangle the ideas from their material relations, and to rise by abstraction and self-denial
above the world of sense into the purer region of thought. The imprisoned soul must be emancipated from the
body. In a former state of existence the spirit dwelt with the gods in the realm of ideas. The soul comes into this
world with a reminiscence of its former glory, which, however, earthly things tend to obscure and obliterate. All

true knowledge is really recollection. To bring that recollection to clearness and to purify the vision of the soul
by the crucifixion of earthly desires is the aim and ideal of the wise man's life.
It will thus be seen that the natural tendency of Plato's philosophy is to disparage the world of sense and to
regard the earthly life as a clog to the aspirations of the soul.
This dualism of Plato between the world of ideas and the world of phenomena, between the life of knowledge
and the life of sense, has become the crux of modern philosophy. How are we to reconcile these two sides?
Plato's plan is to allow the phenomena to become absorbed in the ideas while the material world is banished into
the realm of the non-existent, and the life of purity is attained by denying the legitimacy of the senses. But this
is an avoidance of the difficulty, not a solution of it. It is the attainment of unity only by suppression of one of
the terms of opposition. It might be asked, as indeed Plato himself sometimes sees, why were the desires and
passions bestowed upon us if they are only hindrances to the spirit and have no legitimate function to serve?
What can be the rationale of a world of phenomena if it is only there to be got rid of?
It must not be supposed that Plato did not see these difficulties, and in his later dialogues, particularly in the
Timaeus and the Laws, there are those who hold that he sought to recast his theory and eliminate the dualism of
his earlier position. But if the introduction of the Demiurge or second principle who forms the world be the
work of his later life, it does not remove but increases the duality. The Laws, on the other hand, but repeat much
of the social philosophy of the Republic, but in a more prosaic manner." He who," says Jowett, "was the last of
the poets, in his book of Laws wrote prose only: he has himself fallen under the rhetorical influences which in
his earlier dialogues he was combating."
When all is said, we must recognise the theory of ideas as Plato's distinctive glory. Not only is it the basis on
which the whole superstructure of his philosophy rests, but it is the foundation on which all subsequent idealists
have reared their interpretation of the world. Whatever we may think of his system as a whole and however we
may criticise its details, no adverse judgment can detract from the preeminence of Plato among the masters of
thought in all ages. All that is fruitful in later speculation has its seeds in his philosophy. It was his to exalt the
power of the mind, and he has shown that its influence embraces not ethics and dialectics alone, but elucidates
politics, art, and religion. He has based physical science on a knowledge of mathematics and established a
method of research which has continued ever since. He has sketched the outlines of a new religiona religion
of monotheism, of humanity, of purity and immortal life, substituting the intelligent imitation of God for the
blind and superstitious observance of his will. Not only do his dialogues disclose a charm of manner and style
of literary composition which has never been surpassed, but they breathe a spirit which raises us above the
world of sense into a region of exalted types and noble ideals. Raphael in his immortal picture represents Plato
as pointing towards heaven. It was the aim of his life and thought to show that all reality and knowledge are to
be sought not in this world of change and decay, but in that realm of purity beyond the skies, where God in his
unchangeable perfection dwells.
The genius of Plato is always reaching forth to eternal thingsas Goethe says"every utterance of Plato points
to 'ein ewig Ganzes'an eternal principle of Goodness, Truth and Beauty, which he strives to quicken in every
bosom." In his description in the Phaedus of the scene in the prison-house of Athensone of the most touching
in historythere occur these fine words: "Nay, Socrates, I think the sun is still upon the mountains, and has not
yet set."
In Plato, then, philosophy is placed in an idealistic antithesis to actuality, and it therefore requires for its
completion a more realistic conception of things. This, as we shall see, was supplied by Aristotle, the greatest of
Plato's disciples.