The 12 most important CHARACTERISTICS of PLATONIC idealism

Platonic Idealism is a current of thought that defends the primacy of ideas, which exist independently of objects. In order to PlatoAs for the rest of the idealists, reality is nothing more than a mental construction and that things only exist if there is a mind that can think them. Idealism is opposed to materialism and physicalism and affirms that it is not possible to know anything independently of the mind.

According to Platonic idealism, to know reality it is necessary to previously doubt perception, the senses, which according to the Greek philosopher, They cheat us. This current had a decisive influence on the entire history of philosophical thought, therefore, in a Professor we are going to discover the most important characteristics of Platonic idealism.

So that you know well this philosophical current defended by Plato, then we are going to leave you a review of the main characteristics of platonic idealism.

1. For Plato the ideasconstitute a super-sensible and extra-mental reality.
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2. Plato makes a duplication of reality: on the one hand there would be the sensible world, the world of physical objects and on the other, there would be the intelligible world, the world of ideas.
3. Ideas are eternal, immutable, incorruptible, universal and necessary, unlike beings, which are limited, finite, contingent, particular and subject to processes of generation and corruption.
4. The world of ideas is static, permanent, there are the essences or forms, models of everything there is.
5. The physical world is a copy of the world of ideas and the reality of the first is due to his participation in the second. As long as it participates in ideas, the sensible world is real.
6. Another characteristic of Platonic idealism is that the Athenian establishes a hierarchy of ideas, being the idea of ​​Good, the highest of all.
7. Structure of the world of ideas: in the first place there are the principles, namely, the One and the dyad. Below are the more general ideas: Being, Stillness, Movement, Identity, Diversity, Inequality, Similarity, Dissimilarity, etc. In the lowest step are the numbers and geometric figures.
8. Happiness for Plato consists of contemplation of ideas, something to which every human being aspires, led by his own nature.
9. The human being is a compound of body and soul. The first belongs to the physical world and the second to the world of ideas.
10. Tripartite conception of the human soul: rational, irascible and concupiscible soul. The noblest part of the soul, the rational, will return to the world of ideas once, after the death of the body, it is liberated.
11. Plato's theory of ideas it tries to give an answer to the problem of the one and the multiple, of being and not being. An idea is one thing, but it is not many others.
12. The human soul knows the ideas (a priori), because before falling into a physical body, he inhabited the world of ideas, and he will return to it after death (reminiscence theory)

Now that we know the characteristics of Platonic idealism, it is important to know the theory of Ideas, since it constitutes the core of Platonic philosophy. According to some studies, he would have taken it from his teacher, Socrates, although others deny it. The theory of Ideas is the axis through which all his thought is articulated.

Ontological dualism

Plato makes a duplication of reality (ontological dualism), and thus speaks of the existence of two worlds:

1. Sensitive world: to this world belongs the human being, the particular, the contingent, the changing, the corruptible. It is the world of appearance. It is the physical world, in which we live.
2. Intelligible world: it is the world of eternal and universal ideas, necessary and permanent. It is the world of truth.

Anthropological dualism

From this distinction, Plato speaks of two parts that make up the human being: the body and the soul (anthropological dualism).

1. Body: it is the corruptible part of the human being, the prison of the soul, it is mortal, unlike the soul, or at least, the rational part of the soul, which according to Plato, survives the death of the body. It belongs to the sensible world.
2. Soul: it is the noblest part of the human being. The soul belongs to the world of ideas, but accidentally fell to earth, chaining itself to the body, which he will only get rid of when he dies, finally returning to the intelligible world where he lived. It is the noblest part of the human being and Plato affirms that there are three parts in it, one of which predominates in each individual: rational, irascible and concupiscible.

Epistemological dualism

This brings us to dualism epistemological:

1. Doxa opinion: belongs to the sensible world
2. Knowledge, science, episteme: it belongs to the sensible world.