Lecture on Introduction to Plato and Western Philosophy

okay good afternoon so let us start with today's philosopher PL before we talk about Plato let us understand what exactly initiated Plato every philosopher or every person comes due to some circumstances in life due to some circumstances socially and around it himself or herself that is the that is what we are so Plato must have been a cre ation of his times so in Western philosophy we start with Greek philosophy generally Greek philosophy is synonymous or considered to be the Western philosophy in philosophy earlier there were some mythological opinions about how this world is formed how this world is like earlier we were Stone people Stone people means Stone Age so when we were Stone Age people suddenly there was rain and we felt when we entered the caves said what has caused this rain ma'am some of the people are unable to join the class why huh why ask ask ask ask ask D to handle it so when we saw that there is some rain going on we did not understand as people why is there rain what happened why so someone said oh I stepped on a log it must have angered some God therefore it might have rained such similar explanations that it rained because that man did did something wrong therefore it angered the god of rign therefore it rained such simplistic mythological inferences or interpretations we created what is this world made up of this world is made up of God or you know generic any any type of mythological without any reason without any proper science and explanation different cultures different people start Ed to make different inferences and interpretations about world someone more philosophy of religion topic but this simplistic explanation myological explanations were not sufficient because they were not logical enough someone said it is lightening happens because of anger someone said Lightening happens because someone is Happy someone one said when we make sacrifices lightening happens so no proper explanation was there why lightning happens and how this world is made up of what is the fundamental element of this world fundamental element what is this world made up of so if if we see this table if we see your body let's break it break it break it break it we come to the level of cell then we further break it some smaller smaller smaller now we haven't reached science hasn't reached the fun fundamental element of this univers science doesn't know what is the fundamental element of this world what is this world made up of you go you go to 10 scientists the shallow ones the shallow ones means who are less deep in science they will say atom atom you go a little deeper scientist a little greater scientist they will say electrons protons then quarks and someone will say leptons but there are various types of leptons this means there is something yet smaller even though we haven't discovered but there is yet something smaller which is the fundamental element of this world and Einstein has once said what is e energy is equal to mass means matter speed of light this means somewhere mass is related to energy maybe the fundamental element is energy we don't know because if there is only energy then what is M matter or mass can you just say matter is Just Energy so all these things even still the science is struggling with and these questions also originated in ancient world in Greek times so the first philosopher who comes to the four first logical philosopher was Tales tales started to wonder what this world is made up of and he reached the conclusion that the world is made up of water because everything comes from water and ends in water according to T he saw that whatever we do things dissolve in water this means the fundamental element must be water but of course water is not alone there are many things which are whoever is not able to join may give a call to DJ they will give him a call okay official number so tail said water is the fundamental element of this world but next G in aimer background because when when you are studying philosophy if somebody will start talking to you on Western philosophy they will say Tales tales and then you cannot say I don't know just for your understanding and basic general knowledge question has never been asked on Tales an exander or any such person or Socrates question has been on Plato because that is our cabus but Plato comes with the background of these philosophers halil and then came an aimer an aimer was the student of tales he said no no no not just water world is made up of one abstract infinite substance which can take up any shape this is neutral the world is made up of one abstract substance abstract means no particular feature of its own it's abstract it can take up any form so this this matter itself changes into fire and this matter itself changes into water this matter this this substance changes into matter according to the requirement shap but again how do you know about about such matter about such substance how do you know about this neutral substance again it was not it was a problem then came a very important person who might have known him earlier also Pythagoras how do you know him Pythagoras theorem of course he worked extensively in maths he gave mathematical equations and calculations metries Etc at the same time he was a great philosopher and he he said that the fundamental element of the world is numbers he said numbers are fundamental everything when you go down at the basic level everything is reduced to numbers numbers means abstract 1 + 1 2 2 + 1 3 so basically everything adds up only because of maths only because of numbers so he said the fundamental is numbers the matter then came two major philosophers hercus and paries heraclitus said change alone is true change alone is true in essay you generally found a term or a or a uh quote you can never bath in the same river twice who said itus is said can never step in a same river twice what does it mean yes River keeps moving you stepped it's moving the water you entered has already flown now when you come out is it the same water you are coming out from the water has changed is it the same person neither water is the same neither the person is the same when you entered the class and now are you same something has changed some new idea in your mind some new names some new interaction is say CH come to biology cells how many cells El change during 1 minute anyone who has watched the movie Ship of thesis homework homework for this weekend watch the movie Ship of thesis interesting homework so what is the philosophy behind ship of thesis if if each cell of your body is changed if I change one part of this ship every day after some time the whole ship has been changed is it the same ship ship or the new ship uh is it The Old Ship or the new ship is it new or is it the old one only okay your blood cells has the lifespan of RBC is lifespan 120 days RBC lifespan is 120 days this means within a span of few months your complete blood has changed completely new blood within few months your whole body rather it is said in s years all cells of your body are completely new or changed this means from your today so today Shan is this after 7even years tan will not have a single cell he is having today not a single cell all cells have changed is it a new shazan or an old is on yes yes so heraclitus according to heraclitus everything is changing and the only truth in this world is change he says everything is continuously continuously changing nothing is permanent and because everything is changes changing therefore everything is in a state of flux continuous change on the other hand came the person Peres he said what change everything is permanent change is only illus the change you are seeing is it the real change Shan he is only rising up and become becoming older but the person remains it takes he has the memory of old shazan name identity Soul everything shazan so what is changing Only The Superficial change perones will say it's fine cows come cows go but cow as a concept as a universal as a idea always the same has it been always there it's it has been there right cow is it now after 20 years 100 years still cow tree there is things that are Universal they never change never ever therefore he said the reality is permanent he talked about permanence and this herar us and pones what some people supported heres and some people supported pades and Hans and pones disciple were always against each other originate between a new thought originated which is known as ma'am is it necessary to write all things that you are tting teaching in the notebook no no what like if you want to H this is only the background which is uh okay there are two or three things you have to understand two or three ways of attending any class number one is that some of the people like only listening and taking this sheet home and thinking that once they will get one day they will get time they will read it and they will learn it if you are disciplined enough evaluate yourself if you are disciplined enough that you will definitely go back you will read it you will learn it that's fine but many times when a teacher is speaking there are words there are sentences which are not in the notes but they are very effective in your answer writing as well as understanding the concept because what is the what is the benefit of a teacher or a lecture notes are there there I have given you this notes in a day or two they will be in the photo shops this is the this is the reality fine so this means that is it is it something which will which is important what is important important is that audio visual memory that you get audio visual memory what when I am speaking there is an audio as well as visual two sensory art of memorization anyone who knows art of memorization very good find Palace very he good how many students in the class and online also okay we will devote 5 minutes to this very quick but this is not the class what this class is for okay to memorize anything or rather to learn anything one mode is text that is to read okay how to read text that is a different way of learning then there is another here but again it has a different mode some of you might be watching how many of you hear podcasts you hear podcasts like so some people like to hear it 1X some 1.5x and some at 2x now different abilities of perceiving the content but whenever you hear you like it at that point of time but after some time you you forget generally only only 10% remains after some time if you do not revise it you do not write it or if you do not note it somewhere then next comes the audio visual mode audio visual mode is YouTube video lecture and and audio video audio video in the sense if this is a person standing in front front of you and speaking that is a little more impactful so offline is a little more impactful than online because in online there is a disconnect whereas if in offline you cannot eat hair only you cannot do lot of things because you have been restricted I'm watching you big brother is watching you you cannot do much this has given you a forced Focus but this is not available in online online person has to keep their own discipline to be focused so this means online is less effective than offline but offline again apart from this any other mode only pies come under this only any other mode yourself writing so when you combine all these four you get the best result best result in the sense to watch the lecture when you are watching you are hearing at the same time you are writing whatever has stuck to your mind mind whatever you feel it's good you keep writing and then when you go back you read the text with this memory that has been generated so when you hear it creates only immediate memory immediate memory means exam before just writing an exam you people revise like maniacs and whenever sometimes it happens that you have revised and immediately the the question is there so you just read and duck say you write this is immediate memory but after some time if somebody asks you can you write it again no because immediate memory has a very short-term effect it is the it's it's the system or rather it's the Machinery of your mind this is how it is designed and go on internet if you have time and try to understand how your brain learns you're you are in the business of learning and if you don't know how your brain learns this means you will always be struggling with the learning thing so immediate memory but if you revise revise it again immediately after watching a lecture it creates a shortterm memory short-term memory means which remains there for some 6 seven days within 6 seven days if you immediately keep revising or you know if you revise it once or twice it will remain for one week for some people 10 days depending on the uh Focus that you has you have given but if you create a revision schedule and all the four modes then it goes into ABD yes I subconscious did you even think no it has gone to a subconscious because it has developed itself into a long-term memory similarly constitutions now all the all the schedules of constitution tell me not there not there you have to think because some of you have it in your short memory and some of you you have it in your immediate memory have just listened to the class fine but if it goes into your long-term memory 1 2 3 4 5 this is the difference fine so try whenever we are uh so this whole story was because that whenever you are hearing something if you find something useful write in your notes how many notes howsoever good notes somebody has given it to you always write something because that is important for your own memory because when you read what you have written from your own hand while listening to the lecture it creates another another what do you say layer so in your neurons this is the shape of neuron fine how does a neuron remember it's just a cell how does it remember it triggers electric signals through the use of acety choline okay fine basically each each neuron learns through the connections it has made connections it has made means the more connections a neuron makes the better your memory is a strong connection till the time that connection is strong you have something in your mind if that connection get loose you vaguely remember something you know I I know but I'm not sure I'm not getting it when the connection is lost you forget so that connection there are various ways to maintain that connection and one of the ways to reinforce that connection is to have um multiple modes of learning simultaneous L you are hearing you are seeing you are writing simultaneously and when you memory you have created through this when you read it again at home it immediately takes you with that to that same connection okay okay fine coming back so if you want to write you should write then come heraclitus ma'am we didn't get Plato notes you will get it on your LMS a watch your see your LMS and telegram so heraclitus heraclitus talks about change and pones talks about permanence and both of them appear and seem to be right then comes Socrates Socrates or rather first sophist during this time sophists were also very popular who are sists Google people in the age of Google okay so sists these were the people who said that man is the measure of all things man is the measure of all man is the most important thing on the world in the world most most important thing and man should decide for himself in this sense that they talked about relativism [Music] relativism is it a plain surface no or rather okay is it a complete page for whole filled with words no yes but I was looking at something which was completely filled and you said it's not why perspective point of view I am looking at this thing from my side and you are looking at this thing from your side neither I am wrong neither you are wrong but we are contradictory so according to sophists all the truths in the world are mere relative truths M relative truths a person has his own truth there is no universal truth there is only there is no one truth which everyone should know rather each person everyone knows their own truth now if everyone knows their own truth this means is there anything which which can be said as truth now sist were very popular at that time like currently also you started getting impressed by sist right you felt say according to perties there must be something which must be permanent which must be a universal truth but according to sist there is no universal truth but sists sophists are a very different uh philosophy Al together you might have heard about epicurian you might have heard about orelus Marcus orelus meditations he has written a meditation he was a s many many sophists were are very popular have you heard about the uh uh self-help grow books and Etc they talk about motivation be your own light you are what you are what you think and your thoughts make you of course materialistic fine sist and after so fists there is Socrates Socrates what do you know about Socrates knowledge is virtue he was the Greek teacher so born in a very uh Noble family Socrates basically uh developed the very interesting method of discussion which is known as dialectic method what is dialectic method it is basically talking one way of me telling you that you will get selected only when you do hard work is directly and second way is I ask you the right questions example what do you think is required for upsc preparation what do you think is required for upsc Preparation how again consistent now what should you do if you want to get selected did I tell you no isn't it I did not tell you but you reached to the conclusion just by me asking the right questions this is dialectic method so so Socrates was the person who used to roam around taking the youngsters and he used to catch hold of people who wanted to argue and then he would rather than arguing with them directly he would ask them questions and inconsistencies will come up and the other person will himself understand oh I am wrong let go this is not uh factual questions now these are subjective questions and the moment you ask people used to realize and that is why Socrates became really popular from far away people used to come and talk to Socrates this and that and then the government of that time became really afraid that Socrates has become really uh popular and one day he was catch hold of on false charges he was given death sentence the person who was the Jailer was the disciple of Socrates he said teacher you run out I will completely support you you just run out Socrates denied he said I will not run away and rather he knew he's going to die and therefore he happily drank the hemlock Hemlock is the poison he drank the poison and died but his disciple Plato he loved his teacher too much and he was very much impressed by all these philosophers plus Socrates therefore Plato wrote lot of books which are known as dialogues and these dialogues are books pedo Etc different different books are there these different books are basically just the different dialogues and in these dialogues Plato has kept the philosopher as Socrates and different people are there so there is just the question and answer question and answer and at the end there is a conclusion what he or Plato wanted to talk about fine and in this only after Socrates Plato gave his theory and the theory name of Plato is PL theory of idea now these philosophers Plato Socrates Aristotle they have talked about everything on Under the Sun you talk about anything art you talk about family there must be something said by Plato you talk about Society you talk about governance you talk about democracy you talk about anything under the sun something must have been said by PL but do we have to study all of it no we just have to study what Plato has told about physics and simple no no no at that time uh there was not much connection 427 BC okay now he was very impressed with Plato was very impressed with Pythagoras pacus pades and and Socrates four people he was very impressed with he said heraclitus Is Right change is there I see change on daily basis I see the child was so young after 10 years grown up change is real definitely there is some change going on but the person Remains the Same even if the trees are there there are so many trees but the tree or treeness Remains the Same it's not changing this means pades is also right but how can both of them be right after thinking Plato comes to the conclusion that there is dichotomy of existence dichotomy of existence what is dichotomy of there is there are two worlds one world is the empirical World empirical world of sensation this is the empirical World which is sp is in space and time this world this world is empirical world a world of space and time a world of Sensations whatever knowledge you get in this world you get it through Sensations how do you know something because you touch it or see it or hear it only way to know something is Sensations in this world can you know anything else apart from Sensations in this world therefore he said that and this world change is real this world is completely changing always changing everything is changing changing changing changing but there is another world which is known as transcend ental worldend transcendental world of ideas transcendental world of ideas according to Plato there is another world perfect world and this perfect world has all the ideas idea what is this idea one cow two cow three cow four cow different cows but what makes them huh anybody who doesn't know cess two people three three two and a half is half consider space and time sha it is space and time SNT so okay fine so one cow two cow three cow four cow what makes them cow some essential common essence or features must be there these essential common features are what cess and this cess is the mere idea according to Plato idea or Universal so when we say idea oblique Universal oblique Essence oblique form oblique Perman feature all of this means the same different way of saying the same thing cup Tumbl glass glass but same thing similarly the concept of cess now this means you are so many men out there when what will be the idea of your your existence manness there are so many tables what is the concept or Universal about them tabless this means that tabless makes a table table because if you take out the tabless what is is it nothing which Hy because the essential feature what makes a cat a cat is catness this means that while there are many cows there are many cats but the cess or catness is one and Universal when whenever you see a cow so Indian cows are different in shape color Western cows South American cows Australian cow different different but the moment you see them even if you have not seen them earlier the moment you see them you immediately recognize this is a cow what made you recognize this the idea of cess in your mind you understand so the C makes you recognize every cow as a cow the moment you have never seen a person of Australia or Africa but the moment you see them you immediately recognize them as human being or man why because you immediately see that they they they have the idea of manness in them or humanness in them immediately you recognize so this means that even though man is changing but the idea of manness is there are different trees and trees are changing but the idea of treeness is not changing different tables drawing table dining table study table this table that table but the idea of tabless is not changing this means according to PL PL that this found as idea or Universal or Essence or form or a permanent feature understood so according to Plato all the ideas in their perfect form live in this transcendental world of ideas ideas all ideas this means idea of a perfect table is where in the transcendental world over and above above this world of Sensations and empir empirical uh perceptions there is another world according to Plato high above which is the transcendental world of ideas and in that transcendental world of ideas everything Perfect Like Heaven is there India May Con in India also you find such concept have you heard about kamu kamu what is a perfect cow a perfect cow and in normal cow is just the copy or reflection of that cow we will see what is copy and reflection such ideas of perfect human beings exist in heaven perfect body Indra Indra what is the body of Indra perfect Absa perfect Beauty people here M imperfect copies something like this the transcendental world of ideas of Plato is such thing perfect triangle transcendental Perfect Tree transcendental Word Perfect treeness is found in transcendental World while all the trees here in this world are M copies or reflection or Shadows of that perfect and to explain this he gave this copy Theory now the perfect cow is there the perfect cow lives where cess perfect cess lives where transcendental World understand it like mold mold so when you make cookies anyone who loves making cookies you know cookies huh so to make cookies you have a mold in which you pour and then you bake and cookies come out so the perfect mold is there but when you pour and when you bake the cookies come out are they perfect no something or the other will be something will break from the it will chip from the corner or some bubble will remain so the perfect cess resides in the transcendental world and from this cess copies are being made which are the particular cows all these cows they are imperfect so all cows found in this world are copy M copies imperfect copies imperfect copies not perfect copies imperfect copies but the real the real cus perfect cus is found in Transcendent similarly all things all perfectness is found in transcendental world all things in this world are m in imperfect copies this means all humans are M imperfect copies of humanness humanness is the perfect the jacket you are wearing perfect jackness is found in transcendental world all of you are wearing M the copy of that imperfect copies of that perfect jacket this is what plate think H just I I I'll tell you I'll tell you so there are certain rules to run a class okay most effectively because uh you will be able to understand better if you keep your uh gray and white matter open open open mean means uh flexible yes philosophy will make it don't worry to understand it like this there are there are numerous ideas that are going to come in your mind each time a new idea comes initially your mind will resist resist like your mind mind will say this yeah I told you know there is this whole chain of making and breaking of ideas and after some time you will be very flexible but initially when you start to exercise it pains and know that initial pain will be there but after some time it will become normal like these people initially they were so you you tell me so this is one secondly all your queries will get answered don't worry I never leave any query but you must give me the time because everything has a flow flow means there is only a stepbystep way in which I can make you understand but if you break the Flow by asking irrelevant questions at middle then something or the other will get missed you will not be able to understand the flow first let the concept complete and if after completion of that concept you feel there is something which needs to be addressed there is some doubt there is some query then you ask because if you are continuously uh what do you say keeping your interjections open then the ideas are not going inside did I ever say that whatever Plato said is the truth had it been the truth had it been correct Aristotle Aristotle is there this means there is something wrong with Plato but when we are understanding Plato will you be able to understand Plato if you are criticizing him no you will understand Plato the best when you are on the side of Plato you understand that you have to start thinking like Plato only then you will be able to understand Plato and of course the moment you understand Plato you will also understand the problems in his philosophy immediately you yourself will identify and the moment we will criticize then we will criticize heavily understood and know all of these philosophers give their peace of mind give their Peace of Mind means that they tell you what according to them is the world VI how this world was made and after you know four five World Views your mind will start entertaining the concept one world view is not enough currently you don't know about other views that is why understand it like this currently you people are like some tribal in the Phil in the domain of philosophy some tribal person living in andman or nicobar and I have first time given you a mobile phone and there is one app WhatsApp but currently according to you WhatsApp is the only app but what moment you start downloading you get the concept of social media now the concept of social media is very different from WhatsApp so first let us gather more and then it will become Absolut Ely more okay okay fine so how to know what is how to know that is perfect in transcendental world is not perfect in empirical World ah say this is the criticism of course when Aristotle will criticize he will give this argument but currently are we criticizing Plato we are trying to learn Plato you have to be on the side of Plato fine we will criticize him don't worry your complete satisfaction and criticism will be given to you don't worry nindar Ras how many you know about naras yes a kind of satisfaction that you get from from doing criticism so this is also a kind of uh Russ and and uh this is how people take pleasure criticizing government criticizing everyone around know everything in empirical no no no in this this is a world of Sensations sensation means that we can know humans can know about this world only through Sensations but there are other things also there is table there is share everything is there so stableness is found in transcendental World whereas numerous tables are found in this world humanness is found in transcendental World humans are found in this world this table humans Etc can be known only through this table humans are found in space and time but the stableness and humanness they are beyond space and Beyond time they are Timeless example there is a concept of dinosaur now there are no dinosaurs but still the dinosaur is there you can understand when I see something thing is dinosaur you understand now how do you understand because there is an idea still existing in the transcendental World dinosaur so according to Plato there are two worlds transcendental world of ideas empirical world of Sensations or change in transcendental world everything is permanent perfect permanent does it change no permanent Eternal Eternal means s No Beginning No End it has never start it has never started and it will never end transcendental world of ideas has always been there this is the world where you find universals it is a world of ideas this is the transcendental world just opposite to it is the world of Sensations or this world of experience where we find experience or perception how it will be will it be perfect imperfect will will be permanent no changing will it be Eternal no non Eternal or temporary is it a world of universal no it is a world of particulars particulars means one particular this is one particular pen many pen each one is particular but Universal means peness understood one cup particular Cup this this cup but when we say cup that is a universal H this is a world of ideas this is a world of objects understood ma'am how to write answers on these top ma'am it's same like sank okay done now according to Plato ideas are present here and copies are present here perfectness is present here imperfectness is present here this means to explain now Plato was a poet mystical person at heart he used to be he he's a romantic person very highly romantic person to understand The Plato you have to understand there are people who talk in metaphorical terms metaphorical terms what is your metaphor so so have I given you the example no have I given you okay so supposedly a boy says to a girl you are beautiful like a moon H Moon but if you try to make literal sense out of it literally moon is a dead object highly rough surface gray Dusty with lot of craters and it has not even light of its own isn't it no no that's a different thing you understand but when I when we say Moon intellectual immediately she will be like is it appreciation or depreciation because comparing yourself to Moon is really but for cies for people who are poets you understand so so when Plato talks about the relation between this world of ideas and this world of experience to explain it he used the poetic expressions your eyes are like dear every time the potis if you put into literal sense it is hilarious it's hilarious so but yes poets have their own way of putting things up similarly Plato had his own way of putting things up so he says when people asked okay there is a transcendental world and there is this empirical world but how are they related tell me how are they related now he talks in poetic terms he starts saying the real perfect things universals are found in transcendental world and objects are M copies M copies of these perfect things so perfect tabless is found in transcendental world all table found in this world are M copies imperfect copies of that tabless this is known as copy Theory original copy transcendal fine another way is participation the participation Theory means that there is this perfect whiteness circl redness tabless humanness perfect which is complete in itself but different humans tables colors basically participate in this perfectness perfect whiteness supposedly this is a perfect table all the tables in this world participate a little in this tabless therefore all the tables have certain features of table but all the tables are different this table is very different from this table and the table in front of you very different but all of them are tables because all of them in different degrees different Quantum overlap with the idea of tabless so some some table which is more point siding more perfect table or rather better table and the table which is which is overlapping little less very imperfect table but still because they are overlapping we are all calling them table and this concept is really important because when we find things in this world they have different features this table is stable also plus it is white also so whiteness is also a idea just as tabless and when we are saying this is white table then it must participate in two ideas white and table when we say white wall it must participate in white and plus it is rectangular also rectangular also it must participate this means that one object may be participating in many ideas because it is having many features or qualities though in imperfect degree but it is therefore to explain more than one qualities in a thing he gave the theory of participation which is known as participation this means then when we are saying seeing anything supposedly what this bottle and this bottle participate black black translucent water form a particular shape plastic many many ideas and all of these ideas are found imperfectly in it neither it is perfect plastic neither it is perfect shape neither it is perfect black neither it is perfect this and perfect that but everything is found imperfectly but perfect things are found in perfect ideas are found in transcendental participation to explain how the world of ideas relates to World of objects how the ideas are related to objects understood then some people asked then he said okay let us talk about reflection Theory so the real thing is found in transcendental world of ideas and M reflection of it is found in empirical world just like moon is in sky in water do you find what do you find howsoever beautiful a reflection is but it is still a is it real real thing is the moon itself or the idea itself which which is in transcendental World understood this means that there is a transcendental world where real perfect things are found and this this empirical world is just the M imperfect World a copy M Copy now to understand his theory of knowledge all the souls perfect souls in their pristine sense were found where transcendental world of ideas all the souls all the souls were found where transcendental world of ideas and these Souls were pure pristine some pure nerik completely pure with with all good qualities but somehow these Souls came under ignorance ignorance means aan aan desires sensual desires and because of these desires they became heavy and they sunk down to the world of objects sunk down the world to the world of experience and when they come to the world of experience they forget everything they complete knowledge transcendental world is world of perfectness so when the souls are in transcendental World they are complete perfect knowledge but because of certain ignorance they sank and they came to the world of experience and when they come to the world of experience they forget everything this means you and me according to Plato our souls were perfect then we came under desires we were sent here and now in this world we have forgotten our perfectness we have forgotten our pristineness and we have become impure and we come under the influence of passions and desires you start getting lustful you start getting envious you start getting angry you start getting this and that and because of all these things all the pain in life is because of this this ad the person who is not concerned with Envy pride and greed anger is is there any pain with that person all pain and everything is because of this only says that because we forget our original nature and we have come under desires therefore the souls continue to take birth after birth continue to take birth after birth it is beginningless ignorance they don't know hm ah it is a beginningless thing basically uh to uh if you if you really want to understand later on Plato has not explained from how and where the ignorance starts but later on when platonic Christianity started later on Plato we will see uh the theory of this Plato will get adopted by Christianity and from there only the concept of heaven and world will come Dy this dichotomy of Two Worlds which was created by Plato this will be adopted by Christianity later on and they will say there is a world of Adam and Eve the heaven Where Angels Live where this live there which is the perfect tree perfect this perfect everything and there is a world of humans or this experience Christianity says this and the same thing Christianity says later on the explanation of this ignorance is given by Christianity that some demonic features or some demonic uh instincts actually uh misleaded Adam and Eve or certain angels to start Desiring something uh forbidden fruit and original sin that is but again that is the later interpretation this is not the interpretation given by PL therefore we will not write it is better not to know it because if you know then somehow you will be itching to WR reflection but don't know more than required simple when you know more than required it will create problem anyhow wasn't Christianity started before Christianity is a uh you can go on internet and see but it is detrimental H yes it it is it is comparable to jism especially the soul part Soul part is very much comparable to jism so new people have not studied jism fine you will study you we will have done it then don't do as the previous batch has done with you don't create foro but you can write the theory of soul is comparable to jism huh they will go back to once the complete H okay so these are the Souls which undergo birth and death and transmigration the souls are Immortal first thing souls are Immortal basically all this birth and death is going on just to enhance the knowledge and once the souls get complete knowledge knowledge once the souls get complet and how do they get knowledge their knowledge is through remembrance or reminisence what is reminisence y to get reminded of something supposedly you met a friend after long time you immediately see them and you you you do what so how how did you know that he is Karan it was there it was there in your mind but the moment you saw you recall so this is known as reminiscence according to Plato all knowledge is already within us when you say all knowledge is already within us this concept is known as innate knowledge innate knowledge we have all the knowledge within our selves and when we see things in this world it is not something new that we know but it is only the recollection of what we have known forever when a child gets born do anyone does anyone teach that child to cry no lot of things do you teach immediately already certain things are known the child knows how to cry for in pain how to laugh in something if he likes or she likes you now so a lot of things are already known I have a young kid my son is 2 and a half years old and I'm really amazed the things even if you don't teach lot of things they already know they get it themselves yes it takes a little effort but they know it and they do it themselves because whatever you do you cannot teach anybody to walk they learn it themselves so this is what the theory of innate ideas is according to Plato all the knowledge is within us and we are merely experiencing things and the moment we experience we oh you see a table this is table immediately you get the idea of tabless even if you don't know the word tabless but you still had the idea of table in your mind that this is known as table silent cabinet secret phone on yeah any important phone calls no can it take some uh can it get delayed a little okay but ma'am isn't it by observing that a child learn something huh this will be said by empiricist we will see and this is the different view which will be taken up by empiricist so concept is also similar as given in the bhagwat puran can we link it in the Main's answer bhagat pan is not in the syllabus but you can link it ma'am can we link Indian and Western philosophy in our answers yes definitely you can and it is very beneficial also okay you understand what is recollection so basically all knowledge you have when you see a person recalls and after a person has observed or you know seen lot of things the knowledge will be complete and once there is a complete knowledge the soul can it remain in this world of of experience no the soul will go back to the world of idea it will get liberated get liberated understood huh there is a transcendental world over and above this world this world remains there only the soul goes back to the heaven transal world because the task for which the that Soul has come up on this empirical world has ended huh uhuh Indian Concepts all the concept CTS of Liberation actually are much more prominent only in Indian philosophy Western philosophers have not been concerned about Liberation and all of these Concepts too much therefore only only person who in whom we study proper Liberation is Plato after Plato the concept of Liberation also liberates from Western philosophy there is no not much discussion about that Aristotle will start start talking about this world they C ex all the philosophers then we'll talk about matter and soul but Liberation as a concept is not there properly Liberation as a concept will come in Indian philosophy okay and what is Enlightenment Enlightenment is the end stage after which a soul gets liberated but again will come under Indian philosophy actually Western people are to not too much concerned about these things these concerns of life okay I'll tell you there is a difference between Indian and Western philosophy and because there is a difference between their uh culture Indian philosophy we are too much concerned about pain how to solve moral ethical dilemas in our lives and we want Liberation from this world but Western world is not too much concerned about these Western world is much more uh reason oriented rather they're like first tell me whether I get the knowledge through experience or reason they're not talking about pain they're not talking about how to resolve the concerns of Life moral ethical dilemas they are not they are talking about one particular one particular point and on that point there is a division whether you know this world through experience or through reason and on this they are debating only on this thing they are debating therefore when we say philosophy and dasan this defines the way Indian and Western philosophy are philosophy means love of knowledge basically Western people are merely knowledge lovers they are trying to know things only towards love of knowledge they're not very much concerned about lot of things rather they have they have divided philosophy and religion for understanding dook pain life what happens to us after life all of this they have Christianity or religion and for all other scientific rational logical thinking they have philosophy very different so their religion and philosophy is very different but in Indian d d means View Vision of this world and D is very much multi dimensional to view things how do you view things anything how do you view the other person how do you view the objects how do you view this world how do you view your own self as a soul or a body if you are just body if you are not Soul you you will be a materialist if there is no soul if this is if after 50 60 years you will be vanished from this Earth no Trace no coming back nothing no judgment no Karma Theory the way you will lead your life will be very different and if there is a soul and this Soul keeps coming back after birth and death having the fruits of karma then you live a very different life this means whatever you are doing you will have to beer and if this soul is permanent and it has the opportunity to get liberated to a position of ultimate Bliss can even break the karma and come to the ultimate Bliss then you will live a very different life the people who want that ultimate Bliss what do they become Saints see Seer of Liberation this means that the way you view will undertake all your choices understood and in Indian religion and philosophy merges jism a philosophy became a religion Buddhism became a religion apart from that when we say Orthodox it it majorly comes under Hinduism different variants of Hinduism vant philosophy religion understood so the way we understand Western philosophy is very different from we understand Indian philos very different J mindset Indian is much more interesting the reason being people find it I find Western very interesting also uh that Indian is what you have heard along the way you have heard it in your houses Karma iswar so you have heard it but Western and Western concepts are relatively new and because they are new therefore it it is it it takes a little time to absorb absorb because whatever we do Western thinking is based on their their understanding example to make you understand we do not wear footwares in our temples why as a me as a as a respect thing but in Western culture in churches you go with the shoes why fr raise your hands who have not got notes up [Music] count one page is blurry that is why we have given you one extra page see it on telegram beta m is the concept of sophist similar to the philosophy of Buddha because Phil Buddha also said apoa um Buddha is more close to heraclitus yes Shad yes okay lot of ideology sophist is a very wide School L sophist but not in our syus don't go to over deeply into them because they are not part of our cabus one thing I would like to tell you in philosophy shallow diverse or rather we we can not shallow divers uh medium divers get the best marks if you are too shallow then also you are not able to write good answers and if you go too deep then also you're not able to write good answers you have to have that Medium dive whereby you know the content but that which is asked relevant content because the questions are repetitive very well defined and not out of too much out a little Zone extension is there but not too out of syllabus or League therefore you remain and the benefit of taking philosophy will be that if you are taking a subject philosophy with short cabus with defined area of uh reading then you should utilize your time for GS isn't it that's the benefit of it now then don't make uh you know don't destroy your benefit just by uh becoming a kind of a researcher you don't have to become a researcher it doesn't matter whether you read 1 2 3 50 T 50 notes or not important is what do you write in your copies a person who has just read notes class notes can get better marks than a person who has read 10 different things because ultimately is the examiner ever going to know how many notes did you read they will know only the answer so we will have to work on on our answer writing abilities content is 50% 50% is answer writing abilities okay okay according to Plato some abilities remain some something remains so some people are born intell int intellectual or intelligent the Tendencies are there so Plato talks about tendencies that certain Tendencies will remain of course there there might be certain things Thursday Friday tomorrow there is a class ah tomorrow there is a class no I no we will do it we will read notes we will read these notes line by line so that uh everything gets Crystal Clear fine we will read these notes don't worry PL will take at least three classes I'm just joking uh so one one thing that is left is cave Theory and with the cave Theory all the theory will become crystal clear and there is another theory of theory of divided line but I want uh to not to do it today because you know let Let The Plato whatever we have learned today sink in and you people are new to philosophy I don't want you to become too burdened because already how many of your gray matter has started painting H so let us continue tomorrow fine till tomorrow what will you do if you want to you can read but tomorrow we will read it in class that is why the only thing that you are required to do is just whatever if you have written or scribbled something read that and if you want to read notes read okay okay I haven't understood is it difficult not yet okay okay bye-bye

okay good afternoon so let us start with today&#39;s philosopher PL before we talk about Plato let us understand what exactly initiated Plato every philosopher or every person comes due to some circumstances in life due to some circumstances socially and around it himself or herself that is the that is what we are so Plato must have been a cre ation of his times so in Western philosophy we start with Greek philosophy generally Greek philosophy is synonymous or considered to be the Western philosophy in philosophy earlier there were some mythological opinions about how this world is formed how this world is like earlier we were Stone people Stone people means Stone Age so when we were Stone Age people suddenly there was rain and we felt when we entered the caves said what has caused this rain ma&#39;am some of the people are unable to join the class why huh why ask ask ask ask ask D to handle it so when we saw that there is some rain going on we did not understand as people why is there rain what happened why so someone said oh I stepped on a log it must have angered some God therefore it might have rained such similar explanations that it rained because that man did did something wrong therefore it angered the god of rign therefore it rained such simplistic mythological inferences or interpretations we created what is this world made up of this world is made up of God or you know generic any any type of mythological without any reason without any proper science and explanation different cultures different people start Ed to make different inferences and interpretations about world someone more philosophy of religion topic but this simplistic explanation myological explanations were not sufficient because they were not logical enough someone said it is lightening happens because of anger someone said Lightening happens because someone is Happy someone one said when we make sacrifices lightening happens so no proper explanation was there why lightning happens and how this world is made up of what is the fundamental element of this world fundamental element what is this world made up of so if if we see this table if we see your body let&#39;s break it break it break it break it we come to the level of cell then we further break it some smaller smaller smaller now we haven&#39;t reached science hasn&#39;t reached the fun fundamental element of this univers science doesn&#39;t know what is the fundamental element of this world what is this world made up of you go you go to 10 scientists the shallow ones the shallow ones means who are less deep in science they will say atom atom you go a little deeper scientist a little greater scientist they will say electrons protons then quarks and someone will say leptons but there are various types of leptons this means there is something yet smaller even though we haven&#39;t discovered but there is yet something smaller which is the fundamental element of this world and Einstein has once said what is e energy is equal to mass means matter speed of light this means somewhere mass is related to energy maybe the fundamental element is energy we don&#39;t know because if there is only energy then what is M matter or mass can you just say matter is Just Energy so all these things even still the science is struggling with and these questions also originated in ancient world in Greek times so the first philosopher who comes to the four first logical philosopher was Tales tales started to wonder what this world is made up of and he reached the conclusion that the world is made up of water because everything comes from water and ends in water according to T he saw that whatever we do things dissolve in water this means the fundamental element must be water but of course water is not alone there are many things which are whoever is not able to join may give a call to DJ they will give him a call okay official number so tail said water is the fundamental element of this world but next G in aimer background because when when you are studying philosophy if somebody will start talking to you on Western philosophy they will say Tales tales and then you cannot say I don&#39;t know just for your understanding and basic general knowledge question has never been asked on Tales an exander or any such person or Socrates question has been on Plato because that is our cabus but Plato comes with the background of these philosophers halil and then came an aimer an aimer was the student of tales he said no no no not just water world is made up of one abstract infinite substance which can take up any shape this is neutral the world is made up of one abstract substance abstract means no particular feature of its own it&#39;s abstract it can take up any form so this this matter itself changes into fire and this matter itself changes into water this matter this this substance changes into matter according to the requirement shap but again how do you know about about such matter about such substance how do you know about this neutral substance again it was not it was a problem then came a very important person who might have known him earlier also Pythagoras how do you know him Pythagoras theorem of course he worked extensively in maths he gave mathematical equations and calculations metries Etc at the same time he was a great philosopher and he he said that the fundamental element of the world is numbers he said numbers are fundamental everything when you go down at the basic level everything is reduced to numbers numbers means abstract 1 + 1 2 2 + 1 3 so basically everything adds up only because of maths only because of numbers so he said the fundamental is numbers the matter then came two major philosophers hercus and paries heraclitus said change alone is true change alone is true in essay you generally found a term or a or a uh quote you can never bath in the same river twice who said itus is said can never step in a same river twice what does it mean yes River keeps moving you stepped it&#39;s moving the water you entered has already flown now when you come out is it the same water you are coming out from the water has changed is it the same person neither water is the same neither the person is the same when you entered the class and now are you same something has changed some new idea in your mind some new names some new interaction is say CH come to biology cells how many cells El change during 1 minute anyone who has watched the movie Ship of thesis homework homework for this weekend watch the movie Ship of thesis interesting homework so what is the philosophy behind ship of thesis if if each cell of your body is changed if I change one part of this ship every day after some time the whole ship has been changed is it the same ship ship or the new ship uh is it The Old Ship or the new ship is it new or is it the old one only okay your blood cells has the lifespan of RBC is lifespan 120 days RBC lifespan is 120 days this means within a span of few months your complete blood has changed completely new blood within few months your whole body rather it is said in s years all cells of your body are completely new or changed this means from your today so today Shan is this after 7even years tan will not have a single cell he is having today not a single cell all cells have changed is it a new shazan or an old is on yes yes so heraclitus according to heraclitus everything is changing and the only truth in this world is change he says everything is continuously continuously changing nothing is permanent and because everything is changes changing therefore everything is in a state of flux continuous change on the other hand came the person Peres he said what change everything is permanent change is only illus the change you are seeing is it the real change Shan he is only rising up and become becoming older but the person remains it takes he has the memory of old shazan name identity Soul everything shazan so what is changing Only The Superficial change perones will say it&#39;s fine cows come cows go but cow as a concept as a universal as a idea always the same has it been always there it&#39;s it has been there right cow is it now after 20 years 100 years still cow tree there is things that are Universal they never change never ever therefore he said the reality is permanent he talked about permanence and this herar us and pones what some people supported heres and some people supported pades and Hans and pones disciple were always against each other originate between a new thought originated which is known as ma&#39;am is it necessary to write all things that you are tting teaching in the notebook no no what like if you want to H this is only the background which is uh okay there are two or three things you have to understand two or three ways of attending any class number one is that some of the people like only listening and taking this sheet home and thinking that once they will get one day they will get time they will read it and they will learn it if you are disciplined enough evaluate yourself if you are disciplined enough that you will definitely go back you will read it you will learn it that&#39;s fine but many times when a teacher is speaking there are words there are sentences which are not in the notes but they are very effective in your answer writing as well as understanding the concept because what is the what is the benefit of a teacher or a lecture notes are there there I have given you this notes in a day or two they will be in the photo shops this is the this is the reality fine so this means that is it is it something which will which is important what is important important is that audio visual memory that you get audio visual memory what when I am speaking there is an audio as well as visual two sensory art of memorization anyone who knows art of memorization very good find Palace very he good how many students in the class and online also okay we will devote 5 minutes to this very quick but this is not the class what this class is for okay to memorize anything or rather to learn anything one mode is text that is to read okay how to read text that is a different way of learning then there is another here but again it has a different mode some of you might be watching how many of you hear podcasts you hear podcasts like so some people like to hear it 1X some 1.5x and some at 2x now different abilities of perceiving the content but whenever you hear you like it at that point of time but after some time you you forget generally only only 10% remains after some time if you do not revise it you do not write it or if you do not note it somewhere then next comes the audio visual mode audio visual mode is YouTube video lecture and and audio video audio video in the sense if this is a person standing in front front of you and speaking that is a little more impactful so offline is a little more impactful than online because in online there is a disconnect whereas if in offline you cannot eat hair only you cannot do lot of things because you have been restricted I&#39;m watching you big brother is watching you you cannot do much this has given you a forced Focus but this is not available in online online person has to keep their own discipline to be focused so this means online is less effective than offline but offline again apart from this any other mode only pies come under this only any other mode yourself writing so when you combine all these four you get the best result best result in the sense to watch the lecture when you are watching you are hearing at the same time you are writing whatever has stuck to your mind mind whatever you feel it&#39;s good you keep writing and then when you go back you read the text with this memory that has been generated so when you hear it creates only immediate memory immediate memory means exam before just writing an exam you people revise like maniacs and whenever sometimes it happens that you have revised and immediately the the question is there so you just read and duck say you write this is immediate memory but after some time if somebody asks you can you write it again no because immediate memory has a very short-term effect it is the it&#39;s it&#39;s the system or rather it&#39;s the Machinery of your mind this is how it is designed and go on internet if you have time and try to understand how your brain learns you&#39;re you are in the business of learning and if you don&#39;t know how your brain learns this means you will always be struggling with the learning thing so immediate memory but if you revise revise it again immediately after watching a lecture it creates a shortterm memory short-term memory means which remains there for some 6 seven days within 6 seven days if you immediately keep revising or you know if you revise it once or twice it will remain for one week for some people 10 days depending on the uh Focus that you has you have given but if you create a revision schedule and all the four modes then it goes into ABD yes I subconscious did you even think no it has gone to a subconscious because it has developed itself into a long-term memory similarly constitutions now all the all the schedules of constitution tell me not there not there you have to think because some of you have it in your short memory and some of you you have it in your immediate memory have just listened to the class fine but if it goes into your long-term memory 1 2 3 4 5 this is the difference fine so try whenever we are uh so this whole story was because that whenever you are hearing something if you find something useful write in your notes how many notes howsoever good notes somebody has given it to you always write something because that is important for your own memory because when you read what you have written from your own hand while listening to the lecture it creates another another what do you say layer so in your neurons this is the shape of neuron fine how does a neuron remember it&#39;s just a cell how does it remember it triggers electric signals through the use of acety choline okay fine basically each each neuron learns through the connections it has made connections it has made means the more connections a neuron makes the better your memory is a strong connection till the time that connection is strong you have something in your mind if that connection get loose you vaguely remember something you know I I know but I&#39;m not sure I&#39;m not getting it when the connection is lost you forget so that connection there are various ways to maintain that connection and one of the ways to reinforce that connection is to have um multiple modes of learning simultaneous L you are hearing you are seeing you are writing simultaneously and when you memory you have created through this when you read it again at home it immediately takes you with that to that same connection okay okay fine coming back so if you want to write you should write then come heraclitus ma&#39;am we didn&#39;t get Plato notes you will get it on your LMS a watch your see your LMS and telegram so heraclitus heraclitus talks about change and pones talks about permanence and both of them appear and seem to be right then comes Socrates Socrates or rather first sophist during this time sophists were also very popular who are sists Google people in the age of Google okay so sists these were the people who said that man is the measure of all things man is the measure of all man is the most important thing on the world in the world most most important thing and man should decide for himself in this sense that they talked about relativism [Music] relativism is it a plain surface no or rather okay is it a complete page for whole filled with words no yes but I was looking at something which was completely filled and you said it&#39;s not why perspective point of view I am looking at this thing from my side and you are looking at this thing from your side neither I am wrong neither you are wrong but we are contradictory so according to sophists all the truths in the world are mere relative truths M relative truths a person has his own truth there is no universal truth there is only there is no one truth which everyone should know rather each person everyone knows their own truth now if everyone knows their own truth this means is there anything which which can be said as truth now sist were very popular at that time like currently also you started getting impressed by sist right you felt say according to perties there must be something which must be permanent which must be a universal truth but according to sist there is no universal truth but sists sophists are a very different uh philosophy Al together you might have heard about epicurian you might have heard about orelus Marcus orelus meditations he has written a meditation he was a s many many sophists were are very popular have you heard about the uh uh self-help grow books and Etc they talk about motivation be your own light you are what you are what you think and your thoughts make you of course materialistic fine sist and after so fists there is Socrates Socrates what do you know about Socrates knowledge is virtue he was the Greek teacher so born in a very uh Noble family Socrates basically uh developed the very interesting method of discussion which is known as dialectic method what is dialectic method it is basically talking one way of me telling you that you will get selected only when you do hard work is directly and second way is I ask you the right questions example what do you think is required for upsc preparation what do you think is required for upsc Preparation how again consistent now what should you do if you want to get selected did I tell you no isn&#39;t it I did not tell you but you reached to the conclusion just by me asking the right questions this is dialectic method so so Socrates was the person who used to roam around taking the youngsters and he used to catch hold of people who wanted to argue and then he would rather than arguing with them directly he would ask them questions and inconsistencies will come up and the other person will himself understand oh I am wrong let go this is not uh factual questions now these are subjective questions and the moment you ask people used to realize and that is why Socrates became really popular from far away people used to come and talk to Socrates this and that and then the government of that time became really afraid that Socrates has become really uh popular and one day he was catch hold of on false charges he was given death sentence the person who was the Jailer was the disciple of Socrates he said teacher you run out I will completely support you you just run out Socrates denied he said I will not run away and rather he knew he&#39;s going to die and therefore he happily drank the hemlock Hemlock is the poison he drank the poison and died but his disciple Plato he loved his teacher too much and he was very much impressed by all these philosophers plus Socrates therefore Plato wrote lot of books which are known as dialogues and these dialogues are books pedo Etc different different books are there these different books are basically just the different dialogues and in these dialogues Plato has kept the philosopher as Socrates and different people are there so there is just the question and answer question and answer and at the end there is a conclusion what he or Plato wanted to talk about fine and in this only after Socrates Plato gave his theory and the theory name of Plato is PL theory of idea now these philosophers Plato Socrates Aristotle they have talked about everything on Under the Sun you talk about anything art you talk about family there must be something said by Plato you talk about Society you talk about governance you talk about democracy you talk about anything under the sun something must have been said by PL but do we have to study all of it no we just have to study what Plato has told about physics and simple no no no at that time uh there was not much connection 427 BC okay now he was very impressed with Plato was very impressed with Pythagoras pacus pades and and Socrates four people he was very impressed with he said heraclitus Is Right change is there I see change on daily basis I see the child was so young after 10 years grown up change is real definitely there is some change going on but the person Remains the Same even if the trees are there there are so many trees but the tree or treeness Remains the Same it&#39;s not changing this means pades is also right but how can both of them be right after thinking Plato comes to the conclusion that there is dichotomy of existence dichotomy of existence what is dichotomy of there is there are two worlds one world is the empirical World empirical world of sensation this is the empirical World which is sp is in space and time this world this world is empirical world a world of space and time a world of Sensations whatever knowledge you get in this world you get it through Sensations how do you know something because you touch it or see it or hear it only way to know something is Sensations in this world can you know anything else apart from Sensations in this world therefore he said that and this world change is real this world is completely changing always changing everything is changing changing changing changing but there is another world which is known as transcend ental worldend transcendental world of ideas transcendental world of ideas according to Plato there is another world perfect world and this perfect world has all the ideas idea what is this idea one cow two cow three cow four cow different cows but what makes them huh anybody who doesn&#39;t know cess two people three three two and a half is half consider space and time sha it is space and time SNT so okay fine so one cow two cow three cow four cow what makes them cow some essential common essence or features must be there these essential common features are what cess and this cess is the mere idea according to Plato idea or Universal so when we say idea oblique Universal oblique Essence oblique form oblique Perman feature all of this means the same different way of saying the same thing cup Tumbl glass glass but same thing similarly the concept of cess now this means you are so many men out there when what will be the idea of your your existence manness there are so many tables what is the concept or Universal about them tabless this means that tabless makes a table table because if you take out the tabless what is is it nothing which Hy because the essential feature what makes a cat a cat is catness this means that while there are many cows there are many cats but the cess or catness is one and Universal when whenever you see a cow so Indian cows are different in shape color Western cows South American cows Australian cow different different but the moment you see them even if you have not seen them earlier the moment you see them you immediately recognize this is a cow what made you recognize this the idea of cess in your mind you understand so the C makes you recognize every cow as a cow the moment you have never seen a person of Australia or Africa but the moment you see them you immediately recognize them as human being or man why because you immediately see that they they they have the idea of manness in them or humanness in them immediately you recognize so this means that even though man is changing but the idea of manness is there are different trees and trees are changing but the idea of treeness is not changing different tables drawing table dining table study table this table that table but the idea of tabless is not changing this means according to PL PL that this found as idea or Universal or Essence or form or a permanent feature understood so according to Plato all the ideas in their perfect form live in this transcendental world of ideas ideas all ideas this means idea of a perfect table is where in the transcendental world over and above above this world of Sensations and empir empirical uh perceptions there is another world according to Plato high above which is the transcendental world of ideas and in that transcendental world of ideas everything Perfect Like Heaven is there India May Con in India also you find such concept have you heard about kamu kamu what is a perfect cow a perfect cow and in normal cow is just the copy or reflection of that cow we will see what is copy and reflection such ideas of perfect human beings exist in heaven perfect body Indra Indra what is the body of Indra perfect Absa perfect Beauty people here M imperfect copies something like this the transcendental world of ideas of Plato is such thing perfect triangle transcendental Perfect Tree transcendental Word Perfect treeness is found in transcendental World while all the trees here in this world are M copies or reflection or Shadows of that perfect and to explain this he gave this copy Theory now the perfect cow is there the perfect cow lives where cess perfect cess lives where transcendental World understand it like mold mold so when you make cookies anyone who loves making cookies you know cookies huh so to make cookies you have a mold in which you pour and then you bake and cookies come out so the perfect mold is there but when you pour and when you bake the cookies come out are they perfect no something or the other will be something will break from the it will chip from the corner or some bubble will remain so the perfect cess resides in the transcendental world and from this cess copies are being made which are the particular cows all these cows they are imperfect so all cows found in this world are copy M copies imperfect copies imperfect copies not perfect copies imperfect copies but the real the real cus perfect cus is found in Transcendent similarly all things all perfectness is found in transcendental world all things in this world are m in imperfect copies this means all humans are M imperfect copies of humanness humanness is the perfect the jacket you are wearing perfect jackness is found in transcendental world all of you are wearing M the copy of that imperfect copies of that perfect jacket this is what plate think H just I I I&#39;ll tell you I&#39;ll tell you so there are certain rules to run a class okay most effectively because uh you will be able to understand better if you keep your uh gray and white matter open open open mean means uh flexible yes philosophy will make it don&#39;t worry to understand it like this there are there are numerous ideas that are going to come in your mind each time a new idea comes initially your mind will resist resist like your mind mind will say this yeah I told you know there is this whole chain of making and breaking of ideas and after some time you will be very flexible but initially when you start to exercise it pains and know that initial pain will be there but after some time it will become normal like these people initially they were so you you tell me so this is one secondly all your queries will get answered don&#39;t worry I never leave any query but you must give me the time because everything has a flow flow means there is only a stepbystep way in which I can make you understand but if you break the Flow by asking irrelevant questions at middle then something or the other will get missed you will not be able to understand the flow first let the concept complete and if after completion of that concept you feel there is something which needs to be addressed there is some doubt there is some query then you ask because if you are continuously uh what do you say keeping your interjections open then the ideas are not going inside did I ever say that whatever Plato said is the truth had it been the truth had it been correct Aristotle Aristotle is there this means there is something wrong with Plato but when we are understanding Plato will you be able to understand Plato if you are criticizing him no you will understand Plato the best when you are on the side of Plato you understand that you have to start thinking like Plato only then you will be able to understand Plato and of course the moment you understand Plato you will also understand the problems in his philosophy immediately you yourself will identify and the moment we will criticize then we will criticize heavily understood and know all of these philosophers give their peace of mind give their Peace of Mind means that they tell you what according to them is the world VI how this world was made and after you know four five World Views your mind will start entertaining the concept one world view is not enough currently you don&#39;t know about other views that is why understand it like this currently you people are like some tribal in the Phil in the domain of philosophy some tribal person living in andman or nicobar and I have first time given you a mobile phone and there is one app WhatsApp but currently according to you WhatsApp is the only app but what moment you start downloading you get the concept of social media now the concept of social media is very different from WhatsApp so first let us gather more and then it will become Absolut Ely more okay okay fine so how to know what is how to know that is perfect in transcendental world is not perfect in empirical World ah say this is the criticism of course when Aristotle will criticize he will give this argument but currently are we criticizing Plato we are trying to learn Plato you have to be on the side of Plato fine we will criticize him don&#39;t worry your complete satisfaction and criticism will be given to you don&#39;t worry nindar Ras how many you know about naras yes a kind of satisfaction that you get from from doing criticism so this is also a kind of uh Russ and and uh this is how people take pleasure criticizing government criticizing everyone around know everything in empirical no no no in this this is a world of Sensations sensation means that we can know humans can know about this world only through Sensations but there are other things also there is table there is share everything is there so stableness is found in transcendental World whereas numerous tables are found in this world humanness is found in transcendental World humans are found in this world this table humans Etc can be known only through this table humans are found in space and time but the stableness and humanness they are beyond space and Beyond time they are Timeless example there is a concept of dinosaur now there are no dinosaurs but still the dinosaur is there you can understand when I see something thing is dinosaur you understand now how do you understand because there is an idea still existing in the transcendental World dinosaur so according to Plato there are two worlds transcendental world of ideas empirical world of Sensations or change in transcendental world everything is permanent perfect permanent does it change no permanent Eternal Eternal means s No Beginning No End it has never start it has never started and it will never end transcendental world of ideas has always been there this is the world where you find universals it is a world of ideas this is the transcendental world just opposite to it is the world of Sensations or this world of experience where we find experience or perception how it will be will it be perfect imperfect will will be permanent no changing will it be Eternal no non Eternal or temporary is it a world of universal no it is a world of particulars particulars means one particular this is one particular pen many pen each one is particular but Universal means peness understood one cup particular Cup this this cup but when we say cup that is a universal H this is a world of ideas this is a world of objects understood ma&#39;am how to write answers on these top ma&#39;am it&#39;s same like sank okay done now according to Plato ideas are present here and copies are present here perfectness is present here imperfectness is present here this means to explain now Plato was a poet mystical person at heart he used to be he he&#39;s a romantic person very highly romantic person to understand The Plato you have to understand there are people who talk in metaphorical terms metaphorical terms what is your metaphor so so have I given you the example no have I given you okay so supposedly a boy says to a girl you are beautiful like a moon H Moon but if you try to make literal sense out of it literally moon is a dead object highly rough surface gray Dusty with lot of craters and it has not even light of its own isn&#39;t it no no that&#39;s a different thing you understand but when I when we say Moon intellectual immediately she will be like is it appreciation or depreciation because comparing yourself to Moon is really but for cies for people who are poets you understand so so when Plato talks about the relation between this world of ideas and this world of experience to explain it he used the poetic expressions your eyes are like dear every time the potis if you put into literal sense it is hilarious it&#39;s hilarious so but yes poets have their own way of putting things up similarly Plato had his own way of putting things up so he says when people asked okay there is a transcendental world and there is this empirical world but how are they related tell me how are they related now he talks in poetic terms he starts saying the real perfect things universals are found in transcendental world and objects are M copies M copies of these perfect things so perfect tabless is found in transcendental world all table found in this world are M copies imperfect copies of that tabless this is known as copy Theory original copy transcendal fine another way is participation the participation Theory means that there is this perfect whiteness circl redness tabless humanness perfect which is complete in itself but different humans tables colors basically participate in this perfectness perfect whiteness supposedly this is a perfect table all the tables in this world participate a little in this tabless therefore all the tables have certain features of table but all the tables are different this table is very different from this table and the table in front of you very different but all of them are tables because all of them in different degrees different Quantum overlap with the idea of tabless so some some table which is more point siding more perfect table or rather better table and the table which is which is overlapping little less very imperfect table but still because they are overlapping we are all calling them table and this concept is really important because when we find things in this world they have different features this table is stable also plus it is white also so whiteness is also a idea just as tabless and when we are saying this is white table then it must participate in two ideas white and table when we say white wall it must participate in white and plus it is rectangular also rectangular also it must participate this means that one object may be participating in many ideas because it is having many features or qualities though in imperfect degree but it is therefore to explain more than one qualities in a thing he gave the theory of participation which is known as participation this means then when we are saying seeing anything supposedly what this bottle and this bottle participate black black translucent water form a particular shape plastic many many ideas and all of these ideas are found imperfectly in it neither it is perfect plastic neither it is perfect shape neither it is perfect black neither it is perfect this and perfect that but everything is found imperfectly but perfect things are found in perfect ideas are found in transcendental participation to explain how the world of ideas relates to World of objects how the ideas are related to objects understood then some people asked then he said okay let us talk about reflection Theory so the real thing is found in transcendental world of ideas and M reflection of it is found in empirical world just like moon is in sky in water do you find what do you find howsoever beautiful a reflection is but it is still a is it real real thing is the moon itself or the idea itself which which is in transcendental World understood this means that there is a transcendental world where real perfect things are found and this this empirical world is just the M imperfect World a copy M Copy now to understand his theory of knowledge all the souls perfect souls in their pristine sense were found where transcendental world of ideas all the souls all the souls were found where transcendental world of ideas and these Souls were pure pristine some pure nerik completely pure with with all good qualities but somehow these Souls came under ignorance ignorance means aan aan desires sensual desires and because of these desires they became heavy and they sunk down to the world of objects sunk down the world to the world of experience and when they come to the world of experience they forget everything they complete knowledge transcendental world is world of perfectness so when the souls are in transcendental World they are complete perfect knowledge but because of certain ignorance they sank and they came to the world of experience and when they come to the world of experience they forget everything this means you and me according to Plato our souls were perfect then we came under desires we were sent here and now in this world we have forgotten our perfectness we have forgotten our pristineness and we have become impure and we come under the influence of passions and desires you start getting lustful you start getting envious you start getting angry you start getting this and that and because of all these things all the pain in life is because of this this ad the person who is not concerned with Envy pride and greed anger is is there any pain with that person all pain and everything is because of this only says that because we forget our original nature and we have come under desires therefore the souls continue to take birth after birth continue to take birth after birth it is beginningless ignorance they don&#39;t know hm ah it is a beginningless thing basically uh to uh if you if you really want to understand later on Plato has not explained from how and where the ignorance starts but later on when platonic Christianity started later on Plato we will see uh the theory of this Plato will get adopted by Christianity and from there only the concept of heaven and world will come Dy this dichotomy of Two Worlds which was created by Plato this will be adopted by Christianity later on and they will say there is a world of Adam and Eve the heaven Where Angels Live where this live there which is the perfect tree perfect this perfect everything and there is a world of humans or this experience Christianity says this and the same thing Christianity says later on the explanation of this ignorance is given by Christianity that some demonic features or some demonic uh instincts actually uh misleaded Adam and Eve or certain angels to start Desiring something uh forbidden fruit and original sin that is but again that is the later interpretation this is not the interpretation given by PL therefore we will not write it is better not to know it because if you know then somehow you will be itching to WR reflection but don&#39;t know more than required simple when you know more than required it will create problem anyhow wasn&#39;t Christianity started before Christianity is a uh you can go on internet and see but it is detrimental H yes it it is it is comparable to jism especially the soul part Soul part is very much comparable to jism so new people have not studied jism fine you will study you we will have done it then don&#39;t do as the previous batch has done with you don&#39;t create foro but you can write the theory of soul is comparable to jism huh they will go back to once the complete H okay so these are the Souls which undergo birth and death and transmigration the souls are Immortal first thing souls are Immortal basically all this birth and death is going on just to enhance the knowledge and once the souls get complete knowledge knowledge once the souls get complet and how do they get knowledge their knowledge is through remembrance or reminisence what is reminisence y to get reminded of something supposedly you met a friend after long time you immediately see them and you you you do what so how how did you know that he is Karan it was there it was there in your mind but the moment you saw you recall so this is known as reminiscence according to Plato all knowledge is already within us when you say all knowledge is already within us this concept is known as innate knowledge innate knowledge we have all the knowledge within our selves and when we see things in this world it is not something new that we know but it is only the recollection of what we have known forever when a child gets born do anyone does anyone teach that child to cry no lot of things do you teach immediately already certain things are known the child knows how to cry for in pain how to laugh in something if he likes or she likes you now so a lot of things are already known I have a young kid my son is 2 and a half years old and I&#39;m really amazed the things even if you don&#39;t teach lot of things they already know they get it themselves yes it takes a little effort but they know it and they do it themselves because whatever you do you cannot teach anybody to walk they learn it themselves so this is what the theory of innate ideas is according to Plato all the knowledge is within us and we are merely experiencing things and the moment we experience we oh you see a table this is table immediately you get the idea of tabless even if you don&#39;t know the word tabless but you still had the idea of table in your mind that this is known as table silent cabinet secret phone on yeah any important phone calls no can it take some uh can it get delayed a little okay but ma&#39;am isn&#39;t it by observing that a child learn something huh this will be said by empiricist we will see and this is the different view which will be taken up by empiricist so concept is also similar as given in the bhagwat puran can we link it in the Main&#39;s answer bhagat pan is not in the syllabus but you can link it ma&#39;am can we link Indian and Western philosophy in our answers yes definitely you can and it is very beneficial also okay you understand what is recollection so basically all knowledge you have when you see a person recalls and after a person has observed or you know seen lot of things the knowledge will be complete and once there is a complete knowledge the soul can it remain in this world of of experience no the soul will go back to the world of idea it will get liberated get liberated understood huh there is a transcendental world over and above this world this world remains there only the soul goes back to the heaven transal world because the task for which the that Soul has come up on this empirical world has ended huh uhuh Indian Concepts all the concept CTS of Liberation actually are much more prominent only in Indian philosophy Western philosophers have not been concerned about Liberation and all of these Concepts too much therefore only only person who in whom we study proper Liberation is Plato after Plato the concept of Liberation also liberates from Western philosophy there is no not much discussion about that Aristotle will start start talking about this world they C ex all the philosophers then we&#39;ll talk about matter and soul but Liberation as a concept is not there properly Liberation as a concept will come in Indian philosophy okay and what is Enlightenment Enlightenment is the end stage after which a soul gets liberated but again will come under Indian philosophy actually Western people are to not too much concerned about these things these concerns of life okay I&#39;ll tell you there is a difference between Indian and Western philosophy and because there is a difference between their uh culture Indian philosophy we are too much concerned about pain how to solve moral ethical dilemas in our lives and we want Liberation from this world but Western world is not too much concerned about these Western world is much more uh reason oriented rather they&#39;re like first tell me whether I get the knowledge through experience or reason they&#39;re not talking about pain they&#39;re not talking about how to resolve the concerns of Life moral ethical dilemas they are not they are talking about one particular one particular point and on that point there is a division whether you know this world through experience or through reason and on this they are debating only on this thing they are debating therefore when we say philosophy and dasan this defines the way Indian and Western philosophy are philosophy means love of knowledge basically Western people are merely knowledge lovers they are trying to know things only towards love of knowledge they&#39;re not very much concerned about lot of things rather they have they have divided philosophy and religion for understanding dook pain life what happens to us after life all of this they have Christianity or religion and for all other scientific rational logical thinking they have philosophy very different so their religion and philosophy is very different but in Indian d d means View Vision of this world and D is very much multi dimensional to view things how do you view things anything how do you view the other person how do you view the objects how do you view this world how do you view your own self as a soul or a body if you are just body if you are not Soul you you will be a materialist if there is no soul if this is if after 50 60 years you will be vanished from this Earth no Trace no coming back nothing no judgment no Karma Theory the way you will lead your life will be very different and if there is a soul and this Soul keeps coming back after birth and death having the fruits of karma then you live a very different life this means whatever you are doing you will have to beer and if this soul is permanent and it has the opportunity to get liberated to a position of ultimate Bliss can even break the karma and come to the ultimate Bliss then you will live a very different life the people who want that ultimate Bliss what do they become Saints see Seer of Liberation this means that the way you view will undertake all your choices understood and in Indian religion and philosophy merges jism a philosophy became a religion Buddhism became a religion apart from that when we say Orthodox it it majorly comes under Hinduism different variants of Hinduism vant philosophy religion understood so the way we understand Western philosophy is very different from we understand Indian philos very different J mindset Indian is much more interesting the reason being people find it I find Western very interesting also uh that Indian is what you have heard along the way you have heard it in your houses Karma iswar so you have heard it but Western and Western concepts are relatively new and because they are new therefore it it is it it takes a little time to absorb absorb because whatever we do Western thinking is based on their their understanding example to make you understand we do not wear footwares in our temples why as a me as a as a respect thing but in Western culture in churches you go with the shoes why fr raise your hands who have not got notes up [Music] count one page is blurry that is why we have given you one extra page see it on telegram beta m is the concept of sophist similar to the philosophy of Buddha because Phil Buddha also said apoa um Buddha is more close to heraclitus yes Shad yes okay lot of ideology sophist is a very wide School L sophist but not in our syus don&#39;t go to over deeply into them because they are not part of our cabus one thing I would like to tell you in philosophy shallow diverse or rather we we can not shallow divers uh medium divers get the best marks if you are too shallow then also you are not able to write good answers and if you go too deep then also you&#39;re not able to write good answers you have to have that Medium dive whereby you know the content but that which is asked relevant content because the questions are repetitive very well defined and not out of too much out a little Zone extension is there but not too out of syllabus or League therefore you remain and the benefit of taking philosophy will be that if you are taking a subject philosophy with short cabus with defined area of uh reading then you should utilize your time for GS isn&#39;t it that&#39;s the benefit of it now then don&#39;t make uh you know don&#39;t destroy your benefit just by uh becoming a kind of a researcher you don&#39;t have to become a researcher it doesn&#39;t matter whether you read 1 2 3 50 T 50 notes or not important is what do you write in your copies a person who has just read notes class notes can get better marks than a person who has read 10 different things because ultimately is the examiner ever going to know how many notes did you read they will know only the answer so we will have to work on on our answer writing abilities content is 50% 50% is answer writing abilities okay okay according to Plato some abilities remain some something remains so some people are born intell int intellectual or intelligent the Tendencies are there so Plato talks about tendencies that certain Tendencies will remain of course there there might be certain things Thursday Friday tomorrow there is a class ah tomorrow there is a class no I no we will do it we will read notes we will read these notes line by line so that uh everything gets Crystal Clear fine we will read these notes don&#39;t worry PL will take at least three classes I&#39;m just joking uh so one one thing that is left is cave Theory and with the cave Theory all the theory will become crystal clear and there is another theory of theory of divided line but I want uh to not to do it today because you know let Let The Plato whatever we have learned today sink in and you people are new to philosophy I don&#39;t want you to become too burdened because already how many of your gray matter has started painting H so let us continue tomorrow fine till tomorrow what will you do if you want to you can read but tomorrow we will read it in class that is why the only thing that you are required to do is just whatever if you have written or scribbled something read that and if you want to read notes read okay okay I haven&#39;t understood is it difficult not yet okay okay bye-bye

Transcript for:Lecture on Introduction to Plato and Western Philosophy

Transcript for:
Lecture on Introduction to Plato and Western Philosophy