Home is the philosopher Kim Phil of the Ddukddak philosophy. In Western philosophy, there are two pillars, Plato and Aristotle. The person pointing to the sky with his finger is Platonic, and the person pointing to the ground with his palm is Aristotle. Aristotle criticized Plato's ideas but was still influenced by Plato. Therefore, the British philosopher Whitehead said that Aristotelian philosophy is nothing but footnotes to Plato. If we fully accept Whitehead's words, we can see that Aristotle was under the shadow of Plato. So, the development started with Plato and progressed by critiquing and improving upon his ideas.

In the end, it can be said that philosophy was conducted within the frame created by Plato. What is that frame? It means that Plato dissected the real and the fake. The two worlds are the real world and the world of reality is fake. He presented two examples that well demonstrate this dual theory: one is the allegory of the cave, and the other is the allegory of the line. Since the allegory of the cave was briefly mentioned before, I will simply summarize it. I will now delve a bit deeper into the allegory of the line and also discuss the meaning of Plato's theory of forms while summarizing. Let's start. The prisoners are confined in a cave. The prisoners are bound, unable even to turn their heads. Behind the prisoners, there is a fire, and in front of them, there is a high wall.

Next week, some people brought models of objects and animals back and forth. Therefore, the prisoners tied up can only see the shadows of the models created by the fire. These people have been tied inside the cave since birth, so they don't even realize that what they see are just shadows. One day, one of them is freed from the chains by the sun and goes outside. At first, the prisoner couldn't see anything because the light was blinding, so he could only see the shadows of the objects. However, as he gradually becomes accustomed to the light, he can see the objects directly. Eventually, he can even see the sun. Then he realizes that everything he had seen inside the cave were not real objects. He returns to the cave to inform the others.

People say to each other, Hey, what you are looking at now is all shadows. It's not real. If you come out of the country, I will show you. Even so, people do not believe. They do not believe the person's words, saying, How can something that looks so vivid be just shadows? In the allegory of the cave, we can see five types of beings: first, the shadows seen by the round prisoners; second, the models of animals and objects; third, the shadows of objects outside the cave; fourth, the real objects outside the cave; and fifth, the sun. Here, the shadow models inside the cave are fake, and the shadows outside the cave, excluding animals, are 3, while the sun is real. Plato says that even with these existing things, there is a crisis. Moving to the right, things are more real, and to the left, they are more fake. For example, let's look at the shadow models inside the cave.

If there is no model, shadows cannot exist. However, a model can exist without shadows. It means that shadows are a dependent existence of a model. Therefore, a model is closer to reality than shadows. The same goes for water outside. Shadows can only exist if there are objects. Therefore, objects are more real. However, if there is no sun, we cannot see objects or shadows. Everything depends on the sun. Therefore, the sun is the most real existence. Let's relate this to the world we live in. First, images like pictures or movies we see are like shadows prisoners see. These are fake. We think that the images and rumors created by society are real. However, they are the fakest of the fake. And even in this world we perceive with our senses, there are illusions in animals.

It's just a model. It's closer to reality than a shadow, but still, it's just a fake after all. In the end, these three things that we perceive with our senses are fake. The real thing is outside the cave. The concept of things other than animals is real. For example, a horse is a person, and Trump is also a person. They look different, but they are both people. The reason we can call these individuals humans is that there is a concept of a human. Here we have an apple and a bag, both are red. The reason we can say these individuals are red is that there is a concept of red. Kim Tae-hee is prettier, and Tang Hae is also pretty. The reason we can say these individuals are pretty is that there is a concept of beauty. These concepts actually exist. These concepts truly exist. But how can these concepts exist?

It is because this conversation exists, that the concept of a person exists. Because there is the concept of red, the concept of red can exist. And because there are two aspects of beauty, the concept of beauty can exist. It's not just these two aspects that exist; there are also things like the conversation of justice and love. This is how things other than animals have characteristics. Things other than animals have these two aspects. So, among these two aspects, is there a superior one? Yes, there is. In this conversation, there are two aspects. That is the aspect of the sun and the aspect of the good. Because the idea of the good exists, there can be other various aspects. This is where the term goodness comes in. Goodness is one of the two aspects among the ideas. Just as objects need the sun to be visible, there must be the aspect of the good in order for other aspects to exist. Plato's existence is directly connected to epistemology.

We call it guessing what we know from just looking at the image. It's a state of confusing reality and virtuality. Believing what we know from looking at objects in the real world is called belief. Belief is not yet knowledge. To claim to know something, one must be able to provide evidence of how that belief was justified. Plato says that knowing x requires three conditions to be met: first, believing x is true, second, x is true, and third, one can justify x. In other words, knowledge is justified true belief, called trues. This issue is precisely the JTB problem. Forget Plato; the person who has recently sparked debate on the issue of knowledge is Gettier. Refer to this video for more on this. Anyway, such guessing and belief are not about knowing something.

This is just one of the concepts tomorrow. It's not about knowledge, it's about understanding things without going through the concept. However, we need to understand the concept of a human so that each individual knows they are all human, understand the concept of red so that these developers know they are all red, understand the concept of beauty so that each individual knows they are all beautiful. But what exactly is the concept? It means attributing individual things to general things. Conceptualizing seems to be very similar to understanding scientific knowledge. We know why an apple falls; we understand that it is due to the law of gravity. We know why tides occur; we understand that it is due to the gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon. We lump together these two phenomena that seem completely different at first glance.

It is said that this is the concept of concept. What is a concept? It is grouping individual things into universal things. It was said that to group several individual phenomena into one concept is to understand the concept. Therefore, it is possible to say that what we understand is scientific reasoning. This kind of reasoning knowledge is what determines geometry. That's why Plato said not to let those who do not know the principles of his academy in. So, how can we have this conversation? We can only have this conversation through pure reason. It is not something that can be felt through senses but something that can only be known through pure thought. This kind of understanding and pure reason is indeed true knowledge. Guesses and beliefs are just for tomorrow, but understanding and pure reason are called knowledge. Therefore, the fake world is comfortable, but the real world that we see with our eyes is the true world.

Non-love is what can be seen with the eyes. This is said to be an analogy of Plato's line. Why is this called an analogy of a line? Some speculate that it's because Plato explained this by drawing lines all over the floor. So far, we have talked about Plato's allegory of the cave and the analogy of the line. The explanations may be a bit different overall, and the terminology may vary slightly. Well, that's inevitable. Plato's explanations are a bit, you know, ambiguous. He didn't explain things with absolute precision conceptually. But that's okay. Let's just rethink things in a broad sense. In my opinion, I think we can summarize what Plato wanted to say like this: First, this world is fake. The real world is beyond this.

This frame fits intricately with Christian thought. This frame is exactly like the Christian theme that God's kingdom is real and the kingdom of this world is fake. Therefore, some people jokingly refer to it as Plato's good and bad, saying that, except for one in Christianity, they are the same. So, what influence did Plato's idea of the Forms have on Western philosophy as a whole? In my view, rather than that, it seems more accurate to say, as Levi-Strauss said, that the structure of human thought is inherently dualistic. Levi-Strauss observed the way of life of Brazilian indigenous people and stated that humans have a dualistic framework that divides good and evil, real and fake, original and copy, into four categories. In this dualistic framework, what emerges is the teleological argument.

The purpose of philosophy is to become real, and reality should aim for the ideal. What is also revealed here is dialectics. The fake becomes real through a dialectical process, and reality should become ideal through an editing process. This teleological and dialectical approach is a recurring theme in the history of philosophy. Earlier, we mentioned that Whitehead said that philosophy is just footnotes to Plato. This means that philosophy operates within a dualistic framework that distinguishes between real and fake, reality and ideal. If we were to use a metaphor of philosophy as a game of baduk (Go), Plato would be like someone who created the rules of the game entirely. By distinguishing between the ship and reality, Plato created a territory for the struggle between black and white. Therefore, post-Platonic philosophy has been fighting with black and white, with real and ideal.

Did you understand what was done? Who is the person who shook this board greatly? It is Nietzsche. Nietzsche just covers the board. Anyway, due to this dualistic frame, two tendencies can be seen in social thought. One tendency is to deny reality, and the other is to think that there is something unchanging beyond phenomena. In my opinion, the first tendency influenced Christian thought, and the second tendency can also be seen to have been influenced by the emergence of modern science. In this light, both Christianity and science can be seen to have been influenced by Plato. In this regard, it seems that Mr. White, who said that Western thought is nothing but Plato's gang, was right. Today, let's finish here and go.

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