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Single Idea 165

[filed under theme 14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 5. Anomalies ]

Full Idea

There are some occasions when both prosecution and defence should positively suppress the facts in favour of probability, if the facts are improbable.

Gist of Idea

If the apparent facts strongly conflict with probability, it is in everyone's interests to suppress the facts

Source

Plato (Phaedrus [c.366 BCE], 272e)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII', ed/tr. Hamilton,Walter [Penguin 1973], p.93

Related Idea

Idea 17073 I simply reject evidence, if it is totally contrary to my web of belief [Smart]

The 463 ideas from Plato

1655 If goodness needs true opinion but not knowledge, you can skip the 'examined life' [Vlastos on Plato]
1590 The just man does not harm his enemies, but benefits everyone [Plato]
13776 Truths say of what is that it is, falsehoods say of what is that it is not [Plato]
13772 Is the being or essence of each thing private to each person? [Plato]
13774 Things don't have every attribute, and essence isn't private, so each thing has an essence [Plato]
13775 We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato]
13777 A name is a sort of tool [Plato]
13778 A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato]
13779 The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato]
13780 Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato]
13781 Soul causes the body to live, and gives it power to breathe and to be revitalized [Plato]
13783 Even the gods love play [Plato]
13785 'Arete' signifies lack of complexity and a free-flowing soul [Plato]
13786 Wisdom is called 'beautiful', because it performs fine works [Plato]
13787 Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato]
13788 If we made a perfect duplicate of Cratylus, there would be two Cratyluses [Plato]
13789 Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato]
13790 A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it [Plato]
13791 Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge [Plato]
2063 How can beauty have identity if it changes? [Plato]
13792 There can't be any knowledge if things are constantly changing [Plato]
16120 Knowing how to achieve immortality is pointless without the knowledge how to use immortality [Plato]
301 Only knowledge of some sort is good [Plato]
302 What knowledge is required to live well? [Plato]
303 Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims [Plato]
304 Beautiful things must be different from beauty itself, but beauty itself must be present in each of them [Plato]
305 Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them [Plato]
335 Do the gods also hold different opinions about what is right and honourable? [Plato]
336 Is what is pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it? (the 'Euthyphro Question') [Plato]
337 It seems that the gods love things because they are pious, rather than making them pious by loving them [Plato]
1654 In "Gorgias" Socrates is confident that his 'elenchus' will decide moral truth [Vlastos on Plato]
4320 The popular view is that health is first, good looks second, and honest wealth third [Plato]
114 Rhetoric can produce conviction, but not educate people about right and wrong [Plato]
4321 We should test one another, by asking and answering questions [Plato]
116 Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends [Plato]
118 I would rather be a victim of crime than a criminal [Plato]
119 A criminal is worse off if he avoids punishment [Plato]
120 Should we avoid evil because it will bring us bad consequences? [Plato]
122 Moral rules are made by the weak members of humanity [Plato]
123 Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato]
124 Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato]
125 Is a gifted philosopher unmanly if he avoids the strife of the communal world? [Plato]
128 Is it natural to simply indulge our selfish desires? [Plato]
129 Do most people praise self-discipline and justice because they are too timid to gain their own pleasure? [Plato]
130 Is the happiest state one of sensual, self-indulgent freedom? [Plato]
131 If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse [Plato]
4319 In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better [Plato]
132 If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]
4322 In slaking our thirst the goodness of the action and the pleasure are clearly separate [Plato]
134 Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain [Plato]
135 All activity aims at the good [Plato]
136 Good should be the aim of pleasant activity, not the other way round [Plato]
137 As with other things, a good state is organised and orderly [Plato]
139 A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato]
140 Self-indulgent desire makes friendship impossible, because it makes a person incapable of co-operation [Plato]
141 A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato]
297 What is fine is the parent of goodness [Plato]
298 While sex is very pleasant, it should be in secret, as it looks contemptible [Plato]
299 What is fine is always difficult [Plato]
291 Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato]
293 Being unafraid (perhaps through ignorance) and being brave are two different things [Plato]
8004 In 'The Laws', to obey the law is to be obey god [Plato, by MacIntyre]
235 Virtue is the aim of all laws [Plato]
236 Sound laws achieve the happiness of those who observe them [Plato]
238 Children's games should channel their pleasures into adult activity [Plato]
239 Education in virtue produces citizens who are active but obedient [Plato]
4331 Education is channelling a child's feelings into the right course before it understands why [Plato]
4332 Virtue is a concord of reason and emotion, with pleasure and pain trained to correct ends [Plato]
240 It would be strange if the gods rewarded those who experienced the most pleasure in life [Plato]
241 We ought to follow where the argument leads us [Plato]
15447 We shouldn't always follow where the argument leads! [Lewis on Plato]
242 The best people are produced where there is no excess of wealth or poverty [Plato]
243 It is foolish to quarrel with the mind's own reasoning processes [Plato]
245 Totalitarian states destroy friendships and community spirit [Plato]
248 A serious desire for moral excellence is very rare indeed [Plato]
249 People who value beauty above virtue insult the soul by placing the body above it [Plato]
250 The best way to educate the young is not to rebuke them, but to set a good example [Plato]
251 Truth has the supreme value, for both gods and men [Plato]
253 Every crime is the result of excessive self-love [Plato]
254 Excessive laughter and tears must be avoided [Plato]
256 Virtue and great wealth are incompatible [Plato]
257 Mathematics has the widest application of any subject on the curriculum [Plato]
1402 Friendship is impossible between master and slave, even if they are made equal [Plato]
259 Justice is granting the equality which unequals deserve [Plato]
260 Control of education is the key office of state, and should go to the best citizen [Plato]
262 Men and women should qualify equally for honours on merit [Plato]
263 The only worthwhile life is one devoted to physical and moral perfection [Plato]
264 The conquest of pleasure is the noblest victory of all [Plato]
265 An action is only just if it is performed by someone with a just character and outlook [Plato]
266 Injustice is the mastery of the soul by bad feelings, even if they do not lead to harm [Plato]
269 Attempted murder is like real murder, but we should respect the luck which avoided total ruin [Plato]
21257 Self-generating motion is clearly superior to all other kinds of motion [Plato]
21258 The only possible beginning for the endless motions of reality is something self-generated [Plato]
273 Movement is transmitted through everything, and it must have started with self-generated motion [Plato]
21259 To grasp a thing we need its name, its definition, and what it really is [Plato]
21260 Soul is what is defined by 'self-generating motion' [Plato]
21261 Self-moving soul has to be the oldest thing there is [Plato]
274 Soul must be the cause of all the opposites, such as good and evil or beauty and ugliness [Plato]
21262 There must be at least two souls controlling the cosmos, one doing good, the other the opposite [Plato]
21263 If all the motions of nature reflect calculations of reason, then the best kind of soul must direct it [Plato]
21264 Mortals are incapable of being fully rational [Plato]
21265 The heavens must be full of gods, controlling nature either externally or from within [Plato]
275 Creation is not for you; you exist for the sake of creation [Plato]
276 My individuality is my soul, which carries my body around [Plato]
277 The Guardians must aim to discover the common element in the four cardinal virtues [Plato]
278 If astronomical movements are seen as necessary instead of by divine will, this leads to atheism [Plato]
168 To understand morality requires a soul [Plato]
294 People say that friendship exists only between good men [Plato]
295 The good is beautiful [Plato]
1913 Is virtue taught, or achieved by practice, or a natural aptitude, or what? [Plato]
1916 Even if virtues are many and various, they must have something in common to make them virtues [Plato]
1918 How can you know part of virtue without knowing the whole? [Plato]
11259 How can you seek knowledge of something if you don't know it? [Plato]
1919 You don't need to learn what you know, and how do you seek for what you don't know? [Plato]
5985 Seeking and learning are just recollection [Plato]
5986 The slave boy learns geometry from questioning, not teaching, so it is recollection [Plato]
1921 If virtue is a type of knowledge then it ought to be taught [Plato]
1922 Spiritual qualities only become advantageous with the growth of wisdom [Plato]
1923 As a guide to action, true opinion is as good as knowledge [Plato]
20219 True opinions only become really valuable when they are tied down by reasons [Plato]
1927 It seems that virtue is neither natural nor taught, but is a divine gift [Plato]
15846 In Parmenides, if composition is identity, a whole is nothing more than its parts [Plato, by Harte,V]
13986 Plato found antinomies in ideas, Kant in space and time, and Bradley in relations [Plato, by Ryle]
14150 Plato's 'Parmenides' is perhaps the best collection of antinomies ever made [Russell on Plato]
8937 Plato's 'Parmenides' is the greatest artistic achievement of the ancient dialectic [Hegel on Plato]
16151 Plato moves from Forms to a theory of genera and principles in his later work [Plato, by Frede,M]
21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
211 If admirable things have Forms, maybe everything else does as well [Plato]
210 It would be absurd to think there were abstract Forms for vile things like hair, mud and dirt [Plato]
212 The whole idea of each Form must be found in each thing which participates in it [Plato]
213 Each idea is in all its participants at once, just as daytime is a unity but in many separate places at once [Plato]
214 If absolute greatness and great things are seen as the same, another thing appears which makes them seem great [Plato]
215 If things partake of ideas, this implies either that everything thinks, or that everything actually is thought [Plato]
216 If things are made alike by participating in something, that thing will be the absolute idea [Plato]
218 Participation is not by means of similarity, so we are looking for some other method of participation [Plato]
217 Nothing can be like an absolute idea, because a third idea intervenes to make them alike (leading to a regress) [Plato]
219 If absolute ideas existed in us, they would cease to be absolute [Plato]
220 The concept of a master includes the concept of a slave [Plato]
221 Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
222 Only a great person can understand the essence of things, and an even greater person can teach it [Plato]
223 If you deny that each thing always stays the same, you destroy the possibility of discussion [Plato]
224 When questions are doubtful we should concentrate not on objects but on ideas of the intellect [Plato]
13259 It seems that the One must be composed of parts, which contradicts its being one [Plato]
225 The unlimited has no shape and is endless [Plato]
2062 The only movement possible for the One is in space or in alteration [Plato]
16150 One is, so numbers exist, so endless numbers exist, and each one must partake of being [Plato]
15847 Two things relate either as same or different, or part of a whole, or the whole of the part [Plato]
227 You must always mean the same thing when you utter the same name [Plato]
228 Greatness and smallness must exist, to be opposed to one another, and come into being in things [Plato]
229 The one was and is and will be and was becoming and is becoming and will become [Plato]
15849 Plato says only a one has parts, and a many does not [Plato, by Harte,V]
15850 Anything which has parts must be one thing, and parts are of a one, not of a many [Plato]
231 Everything partakes of the One in some way [Plato]
15851 Parts must belong to a created thing with a distinct form [Plato]
232 Opposites are as unlike as possible [Plato]
233 Some things do not partake of the One [Plato]
234 We couldn't discuss the non-existence of the One without knowledge of it [Plato]
16516 The ship which Theseus took to Crete is now sent to Delos crowned with flowers [Plato]
350 In investigation the body leads us astray, but the soul gets a clear view of the facts [Plato]
9343 To achieve pure knowledge, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things with the soul [Plato]
351 War aims at the acquisition of wealth, because we are enslaved to the body [Plato]
354 Wisdom makes virtue and true goodness possible [Plato]
357 People are obviously recollecting when they react to a geometrical diagram [Plato]
359 If we feel the inadequacy of a resemblance, we must recollect the original [Plato]
360 We must have a prior knowledge of equality, if we see 'equal' things and realise they fall short of it [Plato]
361 It is a mistake to think that the most violent pleasure or pain is therefore the truest reality [Plato]
362 The greatest misfortune for a person is to develop a dislike for argument [Plato]
363 Whether the soul pre-exists our body depends on whether it contains the ultimate standard of reality [Plato]
364 One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another [Plato]
13154 Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain? [Plato]
15859 To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them [Plato]
13155 If you add one to one, which one becomes two, or do they both become two? [Plato]
13156 Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions! [Plato]
1 There is only one source for all beauty [Plato]
368 Other things are named after the Forms because they participate in them [Plato]
21347 If Simmias is taller than Socrates, that isn't a feature that is just in Simmias [Plato]
369 If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force [Plato]
370 Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato]
23997 Plato saw emotions and appetites as wild horses, in need of taming [Plato, by Goldie]
143 The two ruling human principles are the natural desire for pleasure, and an acquired love of virtue [Plato]
144 Reason impels us towards excellence, which teaches us self-control [Plato]
146 Soul is always in motion, so it must be self-moving and immortal [Plato]
148 If the prime origin is destroyed, it will not come into being again out of anything [Plato]
9296 The soul is self-motion [Plato]
150 We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves [Plato]
149 There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings [Plato]
151 True knowledge is of the reality behind sense experience [Plato]
152 The mind of God is fully satisfied and happy with a vision of reality and truth [Plato]
153 It takes a person to understand, by using universals, and by using reason to create a unity out of sense-impressions [Plato]
154 We would have an overpowering love of knowledge if we had a pure idea of it - as with the other Forms [Plato]
155 Beauty is the clearest and most lovely of the Forms [Plato]
156 Bad people are never really friends with one another [Plato]
157 Most pleasure is release from pain, and is therefore not worthwhile [Plato]
158 An excellent speech seems to imply a knowledge of the truth in the mind of the speaker [Plato]
159 Only a good philosopher can be a good speaker [Plato]
7953 Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato]
16121 I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things [Plato]
160 The highest ability in man is the ability to discuss unity and plurality in the nature of things [Plato]
162 Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general? [Plato]
165 If the apparent facts strongly conflict with probability, it is in everyone's interests to suppress the facts [Plato]
166 A speaker should be able to divide a subject, right down to the limits of divisibility [Plato]
5946 'Phaedrus' pioneers the notion of philosophical rhetoric [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
371 Reason, memory, truth and wisdom are far better than pleasure, for those who can attain them [Plato]
373 Pleasure is certainly very pleasant, but it doesn't follow that all pleasures are good [Plato]
374 If one object is divided into its parts, someone can then say that one are many and many is one [Plato]
15845 It seems absurd that seeing a person's limbs, the one is many, and yet the many are one [Plato]
4447 If the good is one, is it unchanged when it is in particulars, and is it then separated from itself? [Plato]
15856 A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it [Plato]
376 Would you prefer a life of pleasure without reason, or one of reason without pleasure? [Plato]
377 If you lived a life of maximum pleasure, would you still be lacking anything? [Plato]
378 A life of pure pleasure with no intellect is the life of a jellyfish [Plato]
379 The good must be sufficient and perfect, and neither intellect nor pleasure are that [Plato]
381 We feel pleasure when we approach our natural state of harmony [Plato]
382 It is unlikely that the gods feel either pleasure or pain [Plato]
385 Some of the pleasures and pains we feel are false [Plato]
386 Intense pleasure and pain are not felt in a good body, but in a worthless one [Plato]
387 A small pure pleasure is much finer than a large one contaminated with pain [Plato]
388 Hedonists must say that someone in pain is bad, even if they are virtuous [Plato]
9865 Daily arithmetic counts unequal things, but pure arithmetic equalises them [Plato]
389 How can you be certain about aspects of the world if they aren't constant? [Plato]
9867 It is absurd to define a circle, but not be able to recognise a real one [Plato]
14503 If a mixture does not contain measure and proportion, it is corrupted and destroyed [Plato]
15857 Any mixture which lacks measure and proportion doesn't even count as a mixture at all [Plato]
390 If goodness involves moderation and proportion, then it seems to be found in beauty [Plato]
391 The good involves beauty, proportion and truth [Plato]
392 Neither intellect nor pleasure are the good, because they are not perfect and self-sufficient [Plato]
393 Good first, then beauty, then reason, then knowledge, then pleasure [Plato, by PG]
188 Socrates did not believe that virtue could be taught [Plato]
189 If we punish wrong-doers, it shows that we believe virtue can be taught [Plato]
190 If asked whether justice itself is just or unjust, you would have to say that it is just [Plato]
191 Everything resembles everything else up to a point [Plato]
192 Only one thing can be contrary to something [Plato]
193 Some things are good even though they are not beneficial to men [Plato]
20184 The only real evil is loss of knowledge [Plato]
197 Some pleasures are not good, and some pains are not evil [Plato]
20185 The most important things in life are wisdom and knowledge [Plato]
200 People tend only to disapprove of pleasure if it leads to pain, or prevents future pleasure [Plato]
202 No one willingly and knowingly embraces evil [Plato]
203 Courage is knowing what should or shouldn't be feared [Plato]
204 Socrates is contradicting himself in claiming virtue can't be taught, but that it is knowledge [Plato]
12043 Forms are not universals, as they don't cover every general term [Plato, by Annas]
12122 Plato mistakenly thought forms were totally abstracted away from matter [Bacon on Plato]
5574 Plato's Forms not only do not come from the senses, but they are beyond possibility of sensing [Plato, by Kant]
5094 Plato's Forms are said to have no location in space [Plato, by Aristotle]
2630 If Plato's God is immaterial, he will lack consciousness, wisdom, pleasure and movement, which are essential to him [Cicero on Plato]
6562 Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux [Plato, by Fogelin]
4115 Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
1869 The good cannot be expressed in words, but imprints itself upon the soul [Plato, by Celsus]
5945 The 'Republic' is a great work of rhetorical theory [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
7 Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend? [Plato]
2092 Simonides said morality is helping one's friends and harming one's enemies [Plato]
5 Justice is merely the interests of the stronger party [Plato]
8 Is right just the interests of the powerful? [Plato]
6009 Psychic conflict is clear if appetite is close to the body and reason fairly separate [Plato, by Modrak]
2093 You must never go against what you actually believe [Plato]
2094 A thing's function is what it alone can do, or what it does better than other things [Plato]
2095 If something has a function then it has a state of being good [Plato]
2096 Is the function of the mind management, authority and planning - or is it one's whole way of life? [Plato]
19946 Morality is a compromise, showing restraint, to avoid suffering wrong without compensation [Plato]
10 After a taste of mutual harm, men make a legal contract to avoid it [Plato]
12 If we were invisible, would the just man become like the unjust? [Plato]
13 Is the supreme reward for virtue to be drunk for eternity? [Plato]
2097 Isn't it better to have a reputation for goodness than to actually be good? [Plato]
14 If the gods are non-existent or indifferent, why bother to deceive them? [Plato]
15 Sin first, then sacrifice to the gods from the proceeds [Plato]
16 We avoid evil either through a natural aversion, or because we have acquired knowledge [Plato]
19889 People need society because the individual has too many needs [Plato]
19890 All exchanges in a community are for mutual benefit [Plato]
2120 God is responsible for the good things, but we must look elsewhere for the cause of the bad things [Plato]
2061 The best things (gods, healthy bodies, good souls) are least liable to change [Plato]
23767 The winds of the discussion should decide its destination [Plato]
2123 Excessive pleasure deranges people, making the other virtues impossible [Plato]
2126 A good community necessarily has wisdom, courage, self-discipline and morality [Plato]
23561 People doing their jobs properly is the fourth cardinal virtue for a city [Plato]
2127 The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts [Plato]
1737 The soul seems to have an infinity of parts [Aristotle on Plato]
6041 There is a third element to the mind - spirit - lying between reason and appetite [Plato]
23562 If the parts of our soul do their correct work, we will be just people, and will act justly [Plato]
2129 Goodness is mental health, badness is mental sickness [Plato]
2130 People often merely practice eristic instead of dialectic, because they don't analyse the subject-matter [Plato]
2131 Is there anything better for a community than to produce excellent people? [Plato]
2132 Only rule by philosophers of integrity can keep a community healthy [Plato]
2133 Knowledge must be of the permanent unchanging nature of things [Plato]
2134 Philosophers are concerned with totally non-physical pleasures [Plato]
2135 Truth is closely related to proportion [Plato]
2136 Philosophers become as divine and orderly as possible, by studying divinity and order [Plato]
23682 It would be absurd to be precise about the small things, but only vague about the big things [Plato]
2137 The main aim is to understand goodness, which gives everything its value and advantage [Plato]
2138 Pleasure is commonly thought to be the good, though the more ingenious prefer knowledge [Plato]
2070 Even people who think pleasure is the good admit that there are bad pleasures [Plato]
4007 For Plato we abandon honour and pleasure once we see the Good [Plato, by Taylor,C]
2139 Every person, and every activity, aims at the good [Plato]
2140 True belief without knowledge is like blind people on the right road [Plato]
2141 I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato]
2142 The plurality of beautiful things must belong to a single class, because they have a single particular character [Plato]
2143 Good has the same role in the world of knowledge as the sun has in the physical world [Plato]
2144 Goodness makes truth and knowledge possible [Plato]
21818 Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato]
2145 In mathematics certain things have to be accepted without further explanation [Plato]
2147 The sight of goodness leads to all that is fine and true and right [Plato]
2148 To gain knowledge, turn away from the world of change, and focus on true goodness [Plato]
4547 Plato measured the degree of reality by the degree of value [Nietzsche on Plato]
2149 Reluctant rulers make a better and more unified administration [Plato]
9861 The same thing is both one and an unlimited number at the same time [Plato]
9862 To become rational, philosophers must rise from becoming into being [Plato]
9863 We aim for elevated discussion of pure numbers, not attaching them to physical objects [Plato]
9864 In pure numbers, all ones are equal, with no internal parts [Plato]
8727 Geometry is not an activity, but the study of unchanging knowledge [Plato]
8726 Geometry can lead the mind upwards to truth and philosophy [Plato]
2151 Dialectic is the only method of inquiry which uproots the things which it takes for granted [Plato]
2152 Dialectic is the highest and most important part of the curriculum [Plato]
2153 Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind [Plato]
2154 The ability to take an overview is the distinguishing mark of a dialectician [Plato]
4011 For Plato, rationality is a vision of and love of a cosmic rational order [Plato, by Taylor,C]
2155 True goodness requires mental unity and harmony [Plato]
23316 For Plato and Aristotle there is no will; there is only rational desire for what is seen as good [Plato, by Frede,M]
2156 There are three types of pleasure, for reason, for spirit and for appetite [Plato]
2157 Nice smells are intensive, have no preceding pain, and no bad after-effect [Plato]
2158 Pleasure-seekers desperately seek illusory satisfaction, like filling a leaky vessel [Plato]
17 A Form applies to a set of particular things with the same name [Plato]
2159 Craftsmen making furniture refer to the form, but no one manufactures the form of furniture [Plato]
16565 Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato]
2160 Representation is two steps removed from the truth [Plato]
2162 If theory and practice conflict, the best part of the mind accepts theory, so the other part is of lower grade [Plato]
2163 Artists should be excluded from a law-abiding community, because they destroy the rational mind [Plato]
2164 Bad is always destructive, where good preserves and benefits [Plato]
2165 Something is unlikely to be immortal if it is imperfectly made from diverse parts [Plato]
2166 We should behave well even if invisible, for the health of the mind [Plato]
2168 Clever criminals do well at first, but not in the long run [Plato]
5944 For Plato, virtue is its own reward [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
1636 Wickedness is an illness of the soul [Plato]
1637 A soul without understanding is ugly [Plato]
1638 Didactic education is hard work and achieves little [Plato]
20478 In discussion a person's opinions are shown to be in conflict, leading to calm self-criticism [Plato]
11278 What does 'that which is not' refer to? [Plato]
1641 Some alarming thinkers think that only things which you can touch exist [Plato]
7022 To be is to have a capacity, to act on other things, or to receive actions [Plato]
1642 We must fight fiercely for knowledge, understanding and intelligence [Plato]
1643 If statements about non-existence are logically puzzling, so are statements about existence [Plato]
16122 Good thinkers spot forms spread through things, or included within some larger form [Plato]
287 Good analysis involves dividing things into appropriate forms without confusion [Plato]
1644 Dialectic should only be taught to those who already philosophise well [Plato]
10422 The not-beautiful is part of the beautiful, though opposed to it, and is just as real [Plato]
1645 The desire to split everything into its parts is unpleasant and unphilosophical [Plato]
15855 If we see everything as separate, we can then give no account of it [Plato]
10784 Whenever there's speech it has to be about something [Plato]
16125 To reveal a nature, divide down, and strip away what it has in common with other things [Plato]
279 Only divine things can always stay the same, and bodies are not like that [Plato]
5961 The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence. [Plato]
281 The arts produce good and beautiful things by preserving the mean [Plato]
16123 Whenever you perceive a community of things, you should also hunt out differences in the group [Plato]
16124 No one wants to define 'weaving' just for the sake of weaving [Plato]
282 Non-physical beauty can only be shown clearly by speech [Plato]
22559 Democracy is the worst of good constitutions, but the best of bad constitutions [Plato, by Aristotle]
283 The question of whether or not to persuade comes before the science of persuasion [Plato]
14177 Love assists men in achieving merit and happiness [Plato]
170 The only slavery which is not dishonourable is slavery to excellence [Plato]
171 Music is a knowledge of love in the realm of harmony and rhythm [Plato]
172 Love of ugliness is impossible [Plato]
173 Beauty and goodness are the same [Plato]
174 True opinion without reason is midway between wisdom and ignorance [Plato]
14178 Happiness is secure enjoyment of what is good and beautiful [Plato]
175 Gods are not lovers of wisdom, because they are already wise [Plato]
176 Love follows beauty, wisdom is exceptionally beautiful, so love follows wisdom [Plato]
177 If a person is good they will automatically become happy [Plato]
179 Love is desire for perpetual possession of the good [Plato]
4026 Beauty is harmony with what is divine, and ugliness is lack of such harmony [Plato]
180 We call a person the same throughout life, but all their attributes change [Plato]
181 Only the gods stay unchanged; we replace our losses with similar acquisitions [Plato]
14179 The finest branch of wisdom is justice and moderation in ordering states and families [Plato]
182 The first step on the right path is the contemplation of physical beauty when young [Plato]
1607 Diotima said the Forms are the objects of desire in philosophical discourse [Plato, by Roochnik]
183 Stage two is the realisation that beauty of soul is of more value than beauty of body [Plato]
184 Progress goes from physical beauty, to moral beauty, to the beauty of knowledge, and reaches absolute beauty [Plato]
2045 Perception is infallible, suggesting that it is knowledge [Plato]
2047 What evidence can be brought to show whether we are dreaming or not? [Plato]
2050 It is impossible to believe something which is held to be false [Plato]
2052 Eristic discussion is aggressive, but dialectic aims to help one's companions in discussion [Plato]
2053 If you claim that all beliefs are true, that includes beliefs opposed to your own [Plato]
2054 Clearly some people are superior to others when it comes to medicine [Plato]
2056 Philosophers are always switching direction to something more interesting [Plato]
2057 There must always be some force of evil ranged against good [Plato]
2058 God must be the epitome of goodness, and we can only approach a divine state by being as good as possible [Plato]
2059 How can a relativist form opinions about what will happen in the future? [Plato]
2060 There seem to be two sorts of change: alteration and motion [Plato]
2067 Our senses could have been separate, but they converge on one mind [Plato]
2068 With what physical faculty do we perceive pairs of opposed abstract qualities? [Plato]
2069 Thought must grasp being itself before truth becomes possible [Plato]
2076 How can a belief exist if its object doesn't exist? [Plato]
2078 You might mistake eleven for twelve in your senses, but not in your mind [Plato]
10216 We master arithmetic by knowing all the numbers in our soul [Plato]
2080 Things are only knowable if a rational account (logos) is possible [Plato]
2081 Maybe primary elements can be named, but not receive a rational account [Plato]
2082 A rational account is essentially a weaving together of things with names [Plato]
15854 A primary element has only a name, and no logos, but complexes have an account, by weaving the names [Plato]
15843 The whole can't be the parts, because it would be all of the parts, which is the whole [Plato]
15844 A sum is that from which nothing is lacking, which is a whole [Plato]
2083 Either a syllable is its letters (making parts as knowable as whole) or it isn't (meaning it has no parts) [Plato]
2084 If a word has no parts and has a single identity, it turns out to be the same kind of thing as a letter [Plato]
2085 Parts and wholes are either equally knowable or equally unknowable [Plato]
2086 Understanding mainly involves knowing the elements, not their combinations [Plato]
2087 A rational account might be seeing an image of one's belief, like a reflection in a mirror [Plato]
2088 A rational account of a wagon would mean knowledge of its hundred parts [Plato]
16126 Expertise is knowledge of the whole by means of the parts [Plato]
2089 An inadequate rational account would still not justify knowledge [Plato]
2090 A rational account involves giving an image, or analysis, or giving a differentiating mark [Plato]
2091 Without distinguishing marks, how do I know what my beliefs are about? [Plato]
5962 Plato says the soul is ordered by number [Plato, by Plutarch]
12042 Plato's Forms were seen as part of physics, rather than of metaphysics [Plato, by Annas]
20364 The apprehensions of reason remain unchanging, but reasonless sensation shows mere becoming [Plato]
306 Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato]
307 Something will always be well-made if the maker keeps in mind the eternal underlying pattern [Plato]
308 If the cosmos is an object of perception then it must be continually changing [Plato]
309 Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato]
310 The creator of the cosmos had no envy, and so wanted things to be as like himself as possible [Plato]
311 The cosmos must be unique, because it resembles the creator, who is unique [Plato]
312 Time came into existence with the heavens, so that there will be a time when they can be dissolved [Plato]
314 Heavenly movements gave us the idea of time, and caused us to inquire about the heavens [Plato]
315 Philosophy is the supreme gift of the gods to mortals [Plato]
316 Music has harmony like the soul, and serves to reorder disharmony within us [Plato]
317 The universe is basically an intelligible and unchanging model, and a visible and changing copy of it [Plato]
318 In addition to the underlying unchanging model and a changing copy of it, there must also be a foundation of all change [Plato]
321 For knowledge and true opinion to be different there must be Forms; otherwise we are just stuck with sensations [Plato]
322 Intelligence is the result of rational teaching; true opinion can result from irrational persuasion [Plato]
324 Before the existence of the world there must have been being, space and becoming [Plato]
325 We must consider the four basic shapes as too small to see, only becoming visible in large numbers [Plato]
326 For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato]
327 There are two types of cause, the necessary and the divine [Plato]
328 Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato]
330 No one wants to be bad, but bad men result from physical and educational failures, which they do not want or choose [Plato]
331 Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato]
332 One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato]
334 Only bird-brained people think astronomy is entirely a matter of evidence [Plato]
17085 A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben]
11238 Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis]
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]
556 If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato]
13263 We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki]
9607 The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato]
557 A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato]
565 The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato]
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]
3060 Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
23890 For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil]
23891 Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil]
563 If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato]
14502 Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki]
20906 Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle]
17948 Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas]
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]
17947 Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
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]
2173 As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato]
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]
1526 Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle]
2912 Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato]
6015 Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut]