Plato's theory of knowledge

Plato's Theory of Knowledge, It is not expressed in a systematic way, but is reflected in several of his dialogues, interspersed with other discussions, less in the Theaetetus, which only raises the issue of knowledge. At first, Plato affirms that knowing is nothing more than remembering, what is known by the name of Reminiscence Theory. This is so, because the soul, habit the world of Ideas before falling into the physical world, and therefore, knows them.

But later, he defends a dialectical conception of knowledge, which would be accessed from the lowest degree, which would be that of ignorance and culminate in the knowledge of the truth or the idea of Well. In a PROFESSOR, we explain the Plato's theory of knowledge.

Before the Theory of Ideas, Plato asserts that the knowledge It is only I remember. His Reminiscence Theory, he affirms the existence of an immortal soul in the intelligible world, an existence prior to his fall in the sensible world. Because of this, now, she lives locked in a body, from which she will only free herself, once there is death. In this way, he will leave the visible world, and will return to the world of Ideas. Since the soul has already been in contact with ideas, it knows them, only the fall has made it forget it.

The perception of the physical world, made in the image of Ideas and the use of reason, would bring back that memory. And this is what knowledge consists of. After exposing this theory in the Meno, he will only use it again in the Phaedo, to explain the immortality of the soul. He will never lay hold of her again.

In the Book VI of the Republic, the philosopher offers a new version of his Theory of Knowledge, in which he will understand this process as gradual. He is going to give a dialectical explanation of knowledge. In this part of Plato's best-known work, they establish different degrees of reality, as well as different levels of knowledge. Thus, the Greek will distinguish two modes of knowledge: opinion or "doxa ”, which consists of the knowledge of sensible things, and the true knowledge or "episteme"which deals with universal and necessary things, that is, Ideas. Each type of knowledge corresponds to a dimension of reality, namely: sensitive and intelligibleAlthough authentic knowledge is that which deals with being, and like the scientist, it is a type of infallible knowledge.

The ascension of knowledge From the doxa to the episteme, it passes through a dialectical process, by means of which the human being, part of the lowest level of knowledge, which is the ignorance, and comes, through a strict training in the different disciplines, to the knowledge of the truth, of the universal and necessary ideas, of the essences. This will be explained, Plato, through the Simile of the Line. In this text, the philosopher imagines a straight line divided in two, one of the parts represents the world of objects sensitive and the other, to the world of ideas or intelligible, one of the parts is more extensive than the other.

In turn, the line that symbolizes the sensible world is again divided into two: the first part corresponds to the images of physical objects, such as shadows, reflections in water and the other is that of material objects really. The same happens in the line that symbolizes the intelligible world. This is divided into two again: one part corresponds to the images logical and mathematical objects, and the second to the real objects themselves, that is, the ideas.

1. Like opinion or doxa, belongs to the sensible world and science or episteme to the intelligible world, we can assume that opinion is like the image of science, which would be the original model. Opinion, therefore, would be nothing more than a representation of reality, and consists in imagining eikasia.
2. When it comes to physical objects, the representation adheres to the subject who perceives them, and this is only belief or pistis.
3. If we speak of knowledge of mathematical objects, we will say that the type of knowledge is discursive or dianoia.
4. And if the Ideas produce an intellectual knowledge or noesis, then we refer to the pure knowledge of Ideas.

The dialectic consists of the process by which one ascends from the lowest degree of knowledge to the most high, that is, to the knowledge of being, of the real, of universal and necessary things, of essences.

Plato. The Republic. Ed. Gredos

Giovanni Reale, Darío Antiseri. History of Philosophy, Vol. I. Editorial Herder