Book VI
Philosopher Kings and Plato’s Theory of Knowledge
Structure of Book VI
• 1. The nature of a true philosopher
• 2. Defense of true philosophy from common
criticism.
• 3. Criticism of imposter philosophers
• 4. Plato’s theory of knowledge.
1. Philosopher Kings
• Philosophers always love true learning which
gives real knowledge—not just belief (485b).
• They will always be truthful and not tolerate any
falsehood (485c).
• Philosophers are also temperate, and do not love
money (485e)
Philosopher Kings
• Philosophers also do not fear death because they
understand that they are only a small part of the
universe and they do not cling to material things
(486a10-b).
• Philosophers need to be trained from childhood
and only fast learners can become philosophers
(486b10-d).
Philosopher Kings
• 1. Love of learning, knowledge and necessary
truths.
• 2. truthful, honest
• 3. temperate and not materialistic
• 4. fast learners
2. Defending true philosophy
• Adeimantus interrupts saying that most people
would think philosopher kings is a terrible idea
(487d)
• Most people believe that people who take up
philosophy “the majority become cranks, not to
say completely bad, while the ones who seem
best are rendered useless to the city because of
the pursuit” (487d).
The ship analogy
• Socrates tells Adeimantus that the best way to
respond to this argument is with a thought
experiment.
• The ship analogy (488b-489a).
• Moral of the story: when ignorant people gain
control, they do not recognize good advice or
skill and therefore reject it.
Analogy cont’d
• Socrates says that it is not philosophers who are
useless. Rather, it is that the people do not make
use of them (489b5).
• The philosopher, then, is like a good captain, and
the masses are like the ship filled with fools.
They simply do not know what is good for them.
3. Imposter philosophers
• Socrates argues that it is actually imposter
philosophers who do the most damage to
philosophy (489d).
• He argues that the majority of philosophers are
actually imposters (490d5).
• He then sets out to explain how philosophical
natures get corrupted.
Corrupting influence
• Socrates explains that philosophical natures are
rare, and it can be easily corrupted by material
concerns and family connections (491c).
• He says that exceptional souls can become
exceptionally bad when corrupted (491e).
• Philosophic natures tend to be ruined early on by
societal pressures (492b5)
Abandoned Philosophy
• When the philosophic natures do not become
philosophers, it leaves the discipline “desolate
and unwed” (495c).
• Because philosophy is “unwed” unscrupulous
people take up the discipline and “shame her”
(495c5).
• These unscrupulous people are the ones who give
philosophy a bad name.
Sophists
• Sophists are one example of imposter
philosophers (493a5-b).
• They claim to have knowledge and wisdom, but
in actuality they just teach ‘the convictions the
masses hold when they are assembled together”
(493a5).
• Socrates compares a sophist to an animal trainer
and the masses to a huge beast (493b).
Who is worthy?
• this means that there is a very limited amount of
people who can actually practice philosophy
properly (496b).
• Socrates discusses possibly paths that lead to
philosophy including his own: saying it was his
“daimonic sign” that led him to philosophy
(496c5).
Summary
• “Then don’t you also agree that the harshness of the
masses toward philosophy is caused by those
outsiders who do not belong and who have burst in
like a band of revelers, abusing one another,
indulging their love of quarreling, and always
arguing about human beings—something that is least
appropriate in philosophy?” (500b).
• In short, Socrates thinks bad philosophers, like
sophists, give the public a bad idea of what a
philosopher is, but the public, in general is incapable
of grasping philosophy.
4. Theory of Knowledge
• After having explained what the virtues are and
who should rule the best city, Socrates says that
there is more to discover, most importantly what
“the Good” itself is (504a-505a).
• Socrates adds that the guardians, the true
philosophers, must attempt to understand the
“form of the good” because it is the greatest thing
to learn about (505a5).
Basic Theory of Forms
• Plato argued that abstract “Forms” (Form=eidos in
the Ancient Greek) are true reality. They have no
material presence, but physical things are connected
to the forms.
• Material objects like cows, chairs and trees
participate in the form but are just a reflection of
shadow of the form.
• Forms themselves do not change—they are
permanent.
The Forms
 Socrates uses beauty as an example of a form. He
says that there are many beautiful things, or particular
beautiful things, but “We also say there is a beautiful
itself and a good itself” (507b).
 He also says that “we say that the one class of things
is visible but not intelligible, while the forms are
intelligible but not visible” (507a).
 Example: a beautiful horse is a particular thing that
also shares in the universal form of the beautiful.
There is some “Beauty” that exists over and above all
the individual things that are beautiful.
Individual horses in
the material world
Beauty
The Form of the Beautiful
Individuals horses in the
material world
The Forms and Knowledge
• Forms are intelligible, but not visible.
• Individual things in the world (think of the
different horses) are visible but not intelligible
(507b5.
• The only way to have true knowledge is to
understand the unchanging form.
3 Ways to Explain Forms and
Knowledge
• (a) The Sun and the Good
• (b) The Divided Line
• *The Allegory of the Cave (found in
Book VII)
(a) The Sun and the Good
• Socrates compares knowledge to sight. He says
we need the light of the sun in order to see
objects.
• He argues that the form of the good is like the
sun. It illuminates things so that the we can know
them for certain (508e).
• The good illuminates the truth so that our souls
can grasp it (508d5).
Visible vs. Intelligible
 Socrates concludes that the form of the Good is
what “gives truth to the things known and the
power to know to the knower” (508e).
 The sun produces light that makes it possible for
our eyes to see things in the visible world.
 The form of the Good illuminates the truth so that
our soul can grasp it. The good illuminates the
intelligible realm.
(b) The Divided Line
• The divided line is a visual aid Socrates uses to
help us understand the difference between the
visible world and the intelligible world.
• Visible—the physical world. It is understood
through the senses.
• Intelligible—the realm of the forms and
unchanging truth. It is understood through the
mind and soul (i.e., reason).
The Divided Line
A
B
Images,
shadows,
refelections
Visible Things:
animals, trees,
tables, etc.
Imagining
Belief
States of
knowledge
C
D
Thought
images:
shapes, math
Forms
Thinking
THE GOOD
Intelligence
or
Knowledge
Summary
• Understanding/knowledge—clear perception of the
forms. This can only happen through reason (not
sense experience).
• Thought—abstract knowledge of principles, such as
the laws of physics. Not full knowledge of the
forms.
• Belief—knowledge of the visible realm.
• Imagination—least abstract type of thinking.
Awareness of shadows of things.