Document Type : Research Paper
Author
M.A. in Philosophy, Azad Islamic University
Abstract
The present article is a short report of the most important philosophical issues of Plato concerning theory and politics. The main point concerns realization of an Ideal State which is discussed under political philosophy. At first, Plato's ideas concerning knowledge, permanence of the soul, doctrine of Ideas which is one of the most fundamental principles of Plato's philosophy, are discussed; then, issues such as justice, education, moral virtue, and the way a country should be administrated are studied. Concerning his Ideal State, Plato says: the State should be controlled by the wise people since they enjoy virtues and have succeeded to find the truth. Also, through a dialectical methodology, he tries to elevate knowledge from the level of sensible things to intelligible ones. For the same reason, he introduces an analogy which is well-known as "cave imprison". In this analogy, man makes rational limits of his knowledge, and, by education and purification of the soul, finds the absolute truth which is the same as the world of Ideas. Plato proceeds with Ideas step by step and says that philosophers have been freed from the prison of ignorance and have seen the unseen world, and since they have found the true knowledge, then they are more competent to rule.
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