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Single Idea 17085

[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation ]

Full Idea

For Plato, an acceptable explanation is one such that there is no possibility of there being the opposite explanation at all, and he thought that only explanations in terms of the Forms, but never physical explanations, could meet this requirement.

Gist of Idea

A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required)

Source

report of Plato (works [c.375 BCE]) by David-Hillel Ruben - Explaining Explanation Ch 2

Book Ref

Ruben,David-Hillel: 'Explaining Explanation' [Routledge 1990], p.58

A Reaction

[Republic 436c is cited]

The 30 ideas from 'works'

23890 For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil]
3060 Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
23891 Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil]
3039 When Diogenes said he could only see objects but not their forms, Plato said it was because he had eyes but no intellect [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
565 The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato]
14502 Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki]
557 A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato]
17948 Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas]
556 If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato]
20906 Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle]
563 If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato]
9607 The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato]
17085 A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben]
13263 We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki]
13261 Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki]
13265 Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki]
593 Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle]
13260 Plato says wholes are either containers, or they're atomic, or they don't exist [Plato, by Koslicki]
11237 Only universals have essence [Plato, by Politis]
11238 Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis]
9274 Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray]
94 Pleasure is better with the addition of intelligence, so pleasure is not the good [Plato, by Aristotle]
1651 Plato wanted to somehow control and purify the passions [Vlastos on Plato]
3324 Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato]
7503 Plato never refers to examining the conscience [Plato, by Foucault]
2173 As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato]
17947 Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
6015 Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut]
2912 Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato]
1526 Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle]