 Today, I would discuss Plato's theory of mind. Plato's theory of mind provides a transcendental thesis of consciousness and we will try to see how transcendentalism is advocated by Plato. As you know, Plato's theory of mind or protest conception of the soul is a kind of a metaphysical theory of the notion of consciousness. Now, this metaphysical theory as I mentioned to you is something significant because it is initiating a debate on dualism. That is dualism between the forms and the particulars. So, Plato's conception of the soul is developing a dualistic thesis. That is how the forms are independent of the particulars that are there in the world. So, this idea of knowing the particulars or knowing the world is possible in Plato's philosophical schema with the help of the ontology of the forms. The ontology of the forms are presupposed to understand how knowledge is possible. So, Plato's dualism as a metaphysical theory of reality starts with an epistemological discourse that how knowledge about the world is possible and how can we have the objective knowledge about the world. So, in the epistemic discourse of Plato's philosophy, we will find that the metaphysics is delved very significantly and let us go into details of what is the Plato's idea of the soul or what is the Plato's notion of soul as a kind of a transcendental entity. The nature of the soul in Plato's theory shows that soul is the subject of knowledge, it is the source of all our cognitive activities. Whatever we do, whatever we perform and whatever we think all flows from the soul meaning thereby soul is the source of the entire activities. Hence, soul is considered as the principle of movement. In this lecture, when I am trying to discuss Plato's notion of soul, I would particularly refer to Eric Robert's philosophical essay on Plato's view of the soul, published in 1995 in the journal Mind. Robert's essay is a kind of an interpretation to Plato's understanding of the soul, where Robert reconstructs Plato's notion of mind, giving a contemporary interpretation to Plato's thesis. That is how mind is a transcendental phenomenon can be viewed from a Kantian perspective. As you all know, Kant advocated the transcendental philosophy very strongly. Now, going back to this understanding of the notion of soul, soul as a principle of movement can be interpreted as the source of voluntary actions and also the source of our thinking. Thinking also represents some kind of a process or a movement. Now, these activities of the mind is like the activities of the human beings. Human beings perform voluntary actions and they also represent some kind of a process or a movement. Human beings perform voluntary actions and they also think voluntarily. In fact, Plato would say it is natural to the being that the being thinks. So, the thinking is a kind of a natural activity. It is possible because there exists a spiritual vital force which is a natural activity because the Greeks have defined soul as a vital force. According to them, this vital force can be translated as intelligence, the subject that performs all mental activities. So, from that point of view, soul is the source of thinking. Thinking is a mental activity and the activities that are happening in the mental life flows from this vital force or possible because of the existence of this vital force. Now, when Plato says that Plato talks about motion, when Plato talks about the vital force as the basis of both voluntary movements and cognitions. Therefore, it is important that we talk about modes of actions. Referring to this idea of cognition and how do I cognize things? How do I interpret things? How do I view particular things in the world? So, therefore, the mode of cognition is important or the mode of action is important because it talks about the recognition of cognitive actions or thought is an important activity of the soul. So, what is that the soul is doing? The soul is in fact recognizing the activities. What is that the soul is doing? The soul is in fact recognizing the activities. Activities happening at the realm of the mental, at the realm of the mind. Now, this act of recognition, recognition of what is being done by the soul or what is being perceived or what is given to our sense experience or what is being experienced by the soul or the subject is important. So, this act of recognitions recognizing that what is being let us say represented and whatever is represented is there at the realm of thought or thinking. Thoughts are representations of the world. So, it is the soul which recognizes thoughts which try to understand the content of thought. Hence, recognizing is a kind of a unique activity of the soul. It recognizes something as something. Now, this act of recognition or identification is a kind of an epistemic act. It is not more a psychological act as Plato's epistemology talks about psychology. Plato says it is an epistemic act because epistemology talks about truth and falsity. Epistemology can talk about how the revisions of belief is possible. It talks about how beliefs are revised. Beliefs are not knowledge. In Plato you will see that how beliefs are different from knowledge. So, it is important therefore, that we talk about the world because as a knowing subject, as a conscious subject, the soul understands the things in the world. The soul possesses knowledge about the world. The soul recognizes what is there in the world and what is there in the mind. So, what is the world? The world is the totality of things as Wittgenstein says. So, there are things in the world. So, in Platonic world view, we find that Plato describes the world having particulars. So, there are particulars. There are unique particulars and these particulars are different from the ideas or the forms. So, in Plato's theory of mind or Plato's theory of soul, we will see that there are particulars. Say you have men, horses, things like that. There are n number of particulars. Now, these particulars are known. So, the knowledge of this particulars is possible through the subject who is a knower. So, this dichotomy between the knower and the known, the subject and the object, the particular subject is known. The knower and the known, the subject and the object, the particulars and the forms, how the individual, the subject who is a knower knows the particulars. How does he recognize that yes, this is a pain and this is my pain. The very fact that I recognize this as something, the very fact that I identify the pain and this identity is different from the identity that other particulars are having, that it is different from chess, tables, pencils and scales. So, that identity is something which Plato is concerned with. How we have this identity? How do we have the knowledge of identity? How do we know that yes, something is the case? So, that is how we will talk about Plato's epistemology. Plato's epistemology is concerned about knowledge as an unchanging reality. Knowledge is different from your experiences, your experience of things are changing. So, knowledge is something about an unchanging reality. Knowledge is a seamless flow of particulars in the world. So, there are two ways in which we know things. One, through our sense experiences, I see that there are chairs, I see that people sitting on the chairs, I see that people are listening to the lectures. Now, this is very fact that I have these sense experiences, shows that I know through sense experiences, but is this knowing will give impression of the knowledge which Plato is talking about? Plato is rather more concerned with the intuitive knowledge. Plato does not deny the fact that there are sense experiential knowledge, but is the sense experiential knowledge permanent for Plato visibility is different from intelligibility. So, there are knowledge and knowledge claims which are more intelligible in the sense that which is known through intuition, which is known through our reason. So, reason and intuition plays an important role in cognizing the objects that are there in the world, in cognizing those particulars that Plato is talking about. So, the sense experiential knowledge on the one hand which are temporary and the intelligible knowledge which is derived through the use of intuition or reason is something very significant. Now, what is that knowledge that Plato is concerned with? Plato is obviously concerned with the knowledge of forms. How do we know that it is a human being? How do we know that this is my horse or this is a horse? According to Plato, these particulars are nothing but the copies of the universals. So, Plato gives the primacy to the forms in the sense that forms are ontologically real and the knowledge of particulars is possible because they are the copies of those universals, universal ideas or forms. So, the very fact that Plato is giving primacy to the universals, we need to know how do we comprehend those universals, how do we understand those universals, how do we understand those universals. When a Plato, it is through the soul, we have the knowledge about those forms, the form of human beings or men or the horse or the table or any other particulars you take. For example, we will talk about how the soul is engaged with those forms. Now, let us little bit, you know, focus on how it is an epistemic activity. Now, Plato makes a distinction between doxa and epistemic. Doxa talks about opinion which is based on sense experience, whereas the epistemic talks about knowledge, that is the knowledge about the forms. As I have said, forms are eternal, it is not that ontological eternity that Plato is concerned with, whether the knowledge of those forms are eternal. In the sense that knowledge does not change, when talk about the change of knowledge, then we need to talk about how does one go on understanding the knowledge of these forms and the more abstract knowledge is the knowledge about goodness. So, Plato talks about the hierarchy of the knowledge of forms, just beauty, goodness. Goodness is the highest varieties of knowledge. So, in that sense, the knower transcends the knowledge. Each knowledge about the forms, permanent or eternal, this process of transcending one to the other is conceivable, is intelligible, is intelligible, that is knowing the forms by using forms. It is pure conceptual knowledge, whereas knowledge about the sense experiences are not permanent, they are transitory phenomenon. They are transitory phenomena in the sense that we can revise our knowledge based on our sense experiences. Now, this revision is possible. Now, the same color appears in many different ways, the variation of the light or the lightening condition. So, that kind of things we will talk about how knowledge varies from context to context, from place to place. So, knowledge about the particulars are not permanent knowledge, they keep on changing. So, from this we can conclude that there are knowledge which are permanent, which are universal and there are knowledge that is knowledge about the particulars are universal knowledge. As I mentioned that it is the soul which comprehends the knowledge of the forms. So, therefore, it is the soul is akin to ideas or forms. Now, this relationship is defined as a kind of an affinity. So, it is affinity to the forms. Now, look at what the robot writes. The robot says affinity is a condition by virtue of which the soul contemplates and apprehends true being. So, affinity is a kind of an epistemic relation, it is not mere psychological relation, it is an epistemic relation where the soul contemplates on the forms. So, for example, when I understand what beauty is or what goodness is, so my relationship or my engagement with this form and my engagement with a good action performed by a particular individual are two different modes of engagement. So, in that sense, Plato is making a kind of a distinction between the sense experiential knowledge where the subject is judging the action of the individual and my basic understanding of what good is are two different kinds of relationships. Both are in fact conscious because I am experiencing the performance of a good act. I am also understanding or characterizing this action as a good action. So, what is important for Plato is to emphasize that what kind of engagement, what kind of relationship we have with forms is the same with the particulars. For Plato, it is not. So, therefore, Plato says it is a kind of a affinity by virtue of which the soul contemplates. So, what is that affinity, affinity between the soul and the forms? So, that affinity we need to talk about when we say that soul and forms are connected with each other. So, it is this connection Plato is trying to bring out which is different from the connection which one would have with the particulars. So, this connection is different and this connection is different. Now, Plato's theory of forms vis-a-vis the theory of mind or the soul, one finds that Plato is talking about an ontological dualism which has an epistemic concern because Plato's ontology developed from the discourse of epistemology and this ontological dualism dualism between so the knower and the known or the forms and the particulars also has some kind of an ethical considerations. There is an ethical consideration attached to the ontological considerations because when we say that knowledge is universal Plato says truth and good are one because knowledge is universal in the sense that it is a true knowledge. It is different from the opinions. Opinions can be formed by everyone. Opinions are based on our sense experiences but opinions which are produced by understanding things for Plato is insignificant. If opinions have no grounding on our intelligence then opinions are just meaningless. As you know that opinions are meaningless. As you know that Socrates who is having dialogues with Plato and other disciples, other fellow friends is very critical of Sophists who are the decent wise people and Sophists were all the time engaged in giving opinions. So therefore they had no idea about what is goodness, what is justice. For them the judgment about justice keeps changing. So Socrates was very skeptical about that kind of approach where knowledge is not a permanent phenomenon because the definition of justice keeps changing and that is the criticism as a criterion or platonic criticism against relativism or against the kind of approach which Sophists used to have. So men who intends to know, who desires to know truth. This desire is a kind of a natural desire. Men is a secure of truth. So so the desire to know is something very basic, something very fundamental to human life. Similarly the desire to perform good action is also very fundamental to human life. In fact Plato is talking about this ethical aspect of human life. He is emphasizing this ethical aspect of human life that how the virtue of being good and the virtue of knowing are interrelated and knowledge is identical with virtue. Virtue is knowledge. Socrates famous statement. Virtue is knowledge. Now this is described in his famous parable that parable of cave. I am sure you all must be aware of famous parable where Plato tries to show how opinions are different from knowledge. Plato also shows the virtue of knowing. We would discuss about this parable in the next class, but let me summarize what I was trying to tell you about the nature of soul. There are two things I am trying to suggest here. One that the understanding of the nature of soul is an epistemic activities or this epistemic activity shows that there is an ontological dualism present in Plato. The dualism between the dualism between the form and the particulars. Now this dualism is created because of the mode in which the soul is engaged with the forms and the soul is engaged with the particulars. There are two different kinds of engagement. Forms are independent of particulars. Soul is independent of particulars because soul is not identical with particulars, but soul is in affinity with the forms. It is with this kind of affinity we can talk about how one relates the forms with the particulars or how does one recognize the basic particulars. We will discuss in detail about it in the next class with reference to Plato's famous parable that parable of cave. We will try to show that how ethics ontology and epistemology are interrelated.