Knowledge and opinion ppt

“All praise be to Allah, Sustainer
and Nourisher, of the heavens; and
Sustainer and Nourisher of the
earth; Sustainer and Nourisher of
all (other) Worlds”. 45(36)

opinion and knowledge
Presented to:
Prof. Dr. Mahr Muhammad Saeed Akthar
Presented by:
Iqra Naseer
MP/2013-40

Plato life:
• Plato(428-348)BC. born in Athens,
Greece.
• He was ancient Greek philosopher,
student of Socrates, was influenced by
the teachings of Socrates.
• Plato wrote twenty books or dialogues.
• He founded his school called “Academy
of Athens” probably first University.
• Aristotle joined his academy in 367 BC.
• His works also contain discussions
in aesthetics, political, philosophy,
theology, cosmology, epistemology, and
the philosophy of language.
• Plato died at the age of 80 years.

opinion and knowledge
 Plato was the first philosopher to propose a detailed
theory of knowledge (Stumpf. & Abel 2002)
 Plato describes how human mind achieves
knowledge by means of:
1) His allegory of the cave
2) His concept of divided line
3) His theory of forms
 The theory of the divided line and allegory of the
cave is used by Plato to distinguish between
opinion, and knowledge and how the
enlightenment occurs as one progress in thought.

Allegory of the cave
Plato's conceptions about knowledge and opinion or
forms vs. shadows is the allegory of the cave.(Thorpe.
2010).Plato asks us to imagine some men living in a
large cave from childhood they have been chained so
that they cannot even turn their heads. They can only
see what is in front of them. Behind them is a track on
which people walk back and forth, carrying artificial
objects models-trees, persons, horses, etc. A blazing
fire behind these people casts the shadows of objects
on the wall in front of prisoners. They hear the
person’s voice echo from the wall, they assume this
sound is coming from shadows.

Release of a prisoner
one of the prisoner is released and
force to stand up and walk
towards out side of the cave. He
experience the intense light, and
tried to go back in cave. But when
his eyes get adjusted to light he
sees real objects for the first time
and becoming aware of the big
differences between them and the
shadow images he had always
taken for reality(Moore &
Bruder2002)

 Return to the cave
If he went back to the cave on his former seat, he
will feel difficulty to adjust in darkness of cave. He
tried to inform his fellows about true knowledge
and reality which he observed outside the cave.
But his fellows taunt him and said he was alright
before going outside. Now his good sight is ruined.
 Education is the matter of conversion;
This tale of cave reflects that education is a
complete turning around from the world of
appearance(cave) to the world of reality(real
world).

Knowledge, Education and understanding
 Plato’s tale of the cave is an allegory about knowledge
and education(Moore. & Bruder. 2002). Plato’s famous
cave allegory represents human knowledge, showing
the intellectual journey to truth and knowledge as a
gradual process ( Henderson et al, 2008)
 Henderson(2008) described four stages of
enlightenment are revealed in Plato's allegory to
become educated, and moving from opinion to
knowledge;
1) Shadows
At this stage we form opinion based on
appearance, By Plato, appearances of objects shadows in
the cave are taken as reality.

2) Objects
This stage of intellectual development involves a
realization or recognition between the appearance of
the object and the true object. This stage is yet not a
true reality for Plato. Plato’s distinction between the
puppeteers, their models and ﬁrelight, on the one
hand (opinion), and those things outside the cave, on
the other hand (knowledge).
3) The initial glimpse of truth
Out side of the cave, the prisoner when first encounters
with intense light his eyes experience pain. After period
of adjustment he enables to see clearly true forms and
light of truth that reveals reality to the mind.

4) The ideal reality
For the Plato the intellectual light is the Good. Just
as the physical sun’s light enables us to view the
visible world, the Good illuminates the concepts that
eventually lead us to understand truth.

The divided line
 The analogy of the divided line:

The divided line
 According to Plato vertical line from x to y passes from
lowest form of reality to the highest is divided by a
horizontal line into two unequal parts, upper and
larger part represents the intelligible world and the
smaller and lower part the visible world. Modes of
thought are progressing from imagining, belief,
thinking and to true knowledge.

Theory of form
 Plato held that there is more reality than the
things we can experience through our senses.
 The forms are those intelligible objects, which
have been abstracted from the actual objects.like
Man, Triangle.
 A Form is a nonmaterial essence, an entity, that
is unchangeable, eternal and grasped only by the
mind. For instance, the Form of tree (treeness,
absolute tree, tree itself) is what makes a tree a
tree and causes it to exist.

Theory of form
If one seeks knowledge experientially
or by observation, he will find only
opinions rather than true knowledge

Theory of form
 True knowledge is found by examining perfect forms.
Perfect forms are eternal and unchanging, so the
knowledge gained from looking up to them will also be
stable and true.

Modes of thought
 Imaging
The most superficial form of mental activity is
imaging,appearences are taken as true reality. It
found at the lowest level of line.
 Belief
Belief is to describe the state of mind induced by
seeing actual objects considered as true reality.
 Thinking
To progress from belief to thinking is to move
from the opinion to the knowledge.
Thinking is especially characteristic of scientists
and precedes from assumption.(Thorpe. 2010)

Modes of thought
 Intelligence
Intelligence is the ability of the mind to grasp
the forms directly (Stumpf.& Abel. 2002).True
knowledge is found by examining perfect forms.
Perfect forms are eternal and unchanging, so the
knowledge gained from looking up to them will
also be stable and true (Thorpe.2010).
Because according to Plato the true knowledge is
obtained through the use of reason and perfect
beauty or absolute goodness.(Moore. & Bruder.
2002)

Conclusion
 In order to approach the truth, we must first be
freed of our bonds, turned from the shadows,
face the artificial light and artificial objects, and
make our way past these to emerge into the
stronger light of reality and truth.
 To become educated mean to pass from opinion
to knowledge-to advance from what seems real
to what actually is real reality.

References'
Moore.B.N & Bruder.K (2002). Philosophy: the power of ideas(5th
edition) McGraw-hill publisher, Newyork city
Henderson.M.C, Oakes.M.G, & Smith.M, (2008).What Plato knew
about Enron. Journal of Business Ethics (2009) 86:463–471
Stumpf. S.E & Abel.D.C (2002). The elements of philosophy(4rd
edition)McGraw-hill publisher, newyork city

Knowledge and opinion ppt

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