15.3.09

Plato Part 12 - The Body


The philosopher seeks knowledge, but on Plato's view finds his body to be a great hindrance to his search. Plato was not the first philosopher to call attention to the difficulties posed by human perception. Parmenides had claimed that the entire world of the senses is nothing but illusion, while knowledge can be attained only through reason. Democritus had called attention to the relativity of perception, that is, the fact that virtually any perceptual object appears in different ways from different points of view. Plato endorsed reason the only instrument capable of revealing reality and its truth. For this reason, he is considered one of the earliest "rationalist" philosophers. The functioning of reason is impaired by numerous states of the body (e.g., drunkenness or fever), which is forever in turmoil. Most importantly, it is the body that is the source of needs and desires, and the attempt to satisfy them produces continual disruptive conflicts that interfere with reasoning and hence prevent us from attaining knowledge.