Ancient and Medieval Political Theory
Prompt:
In Book V of Republic, Plato provides his definition for the term “knowledge.” How does he define this term? Are you satisfied with his distinctions between knowledge and opinion? Why is having knowledge crucial to creating a just Republic? In your answer, provide a contemporary example to illustrate these points in a modern context.
Book V of Republic: http://classics(dot)mit(dot)edu/Plato/republic.6.v.html
(Please reference it at the bottom)
Additional Material provided in attached.
Learning Objectives:
Each discussion board is intended to help students in meeting the following course learning objectives:
1) Analyze a variety of texts foundational to Western political thought
2) Formulate arguments based on the theoretical concepts discussed in this course
3) Demonstrate the ability to place the texts into their proper historical context
4) Assess the impacts of these classic texts on contemporary political systems
Ancient And Medieval Political Theory
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Ancient And Medieval Political Theory
In his book, Plato defined knowledge as, “What is; Being; always the same in all respect.” Plato believed that there are truths that need to be discovered and that knowledge is possible. He mentioned that desiring the truth is always consistent with the type of nature that we expect from all our rulers, as every ruler should be guided by the knowledge of what is good (Plato, n.d). From his definition of knowledge, Plato believed that knowledge is not relative but rather objective as it is what our reason apprehends when used rightly.
Plato’s definitions of knowledge and opinion are both satisfactory. He defined opinion as a simple be...