 And this lecture is on Plato's idealism theory of ideas in continuation with the previous lecture, where we have discussed the contributions of the sophist. And this is in a sense of an ideal passage to discuss Plato, because in between we will see the contributions of Socrates as well, who is supposed to be the first martyr of philosophy. So, this lecture will be trying to address following issues, Plato's idealism and overview. So, we will try to provide an overview, then after that the influences on Plato, those philosophers and philosophical movements, which have influenced Plato, then the relevance of Socrates in this context has to be underlined, because Plato was the disciple of Socrates and the most famous disciple of Socrates. This is in the objects of the sensible world. So, when we discuss Plato's idealism, this distinction is paramount, the distinction between the ideas, the sensible objects, the objects in the sensible world. So, this distinction is primary in Plato's idealism, so this has to be discussed and clarified. And then afterwards we will see the ideal world, because Plato says that the ideas on the one hand is a monist, he says that ideas alone are real, on the other hand he believed in a plurality of ideas. So, he says that ideas constitute a kind of unity, there are plurality of ideas and there is a hierarchy they form in the ideal world. So, the ideal world needs to be discussed to understand this problem, after that the reality of ideas, because according to Plato ideas alone are real. And in this context we have to also mention a very important distinction, a very important dualism which Plato maintains. Plato says that matter is different from ideas or forms or essences. Ideas or forms are the only reality and matter for according to Plato is basically unreal. Then to elucidate and to explains these points further, we will discuss a couple of parables, the first one a couple of analogies, the first one is the famous parable of the cave and the second one is the analogy of vision. With all these things we are trying to understand, explain Plato's idealism. Now, about Plato, Plato was some details about his personal life, his life and he was born in Athens in a noble family in about 427. And he was educated by Catilus who was the disciple of the famous philosopher Heraclitus, who stated that everything in this world is under constant flux. The famous saying that you cannot step into the same river twice is attributed to Heraclitus. Earlier Plato had was educated by this person called Catilus who was himself a disciple of Heraclitus. Then Euclidus is another important thinker who was Plato's teacher once upon a time and who at Plato had studied Parmenides, the philosophy of Parmenides under the guidance of this man who later became a disciple of Socrates along with Plato. Now, let us see, there is a very famous quotation from the history of western philosophy written by Bertrand Russell and this says that Plato and Aristotle were the most influential of all philosophers ancient, medieval or modern and of the two it was Plato who had the greater effect upon subsequent ages. I say this for two reasons, first that Aristotle himself is an outcome of Plato, second that Christian theology and philosophy at any rate until the 13th century was much more platonic than Aristotelian. So, this underlines the importance of Plato as a philosopher in the whole history of western philosophy. So, according to many other historians of philosophy Plato is supposed to be the most important philosopher in the whole of western philosophy. Now, there are certain very preliminary problems which we come across which we encounter when we try to understand Plato's idealism. So, some of them are the problem of universals, what do you mean by a universal? See for example, you have a pen or a computer in front of you, let us take the example of a pen, there are thousands of pens in this world, but there is only one idea of pen, the general idea of pen what do you mean by a pen all of us know there are different types, different colors, different makes, but there is something called a pen what it is. So, that is a universal pen. So, he is concerned about the universal and his theory of ideas precisely deals with the universals and in connection with this problem we will come across another issue, what is the common element in the many particular objects that bear the same name, all these are all these objects we call pen, what is that common element by means of which by virtue of which all of them are understood as pen that is the question here. So, the common element the general features then again what is the relationship between particular and universal. So, there is a universal penness or an essence of pen in what way the ordinary pens which we use to write are related are connected with this universal pen, can we say that there is no universal apart from this particular many philosophers hold that view that is a very significant that is a very important view, but Plato would assert that it is a universal it is a essence which is more important than the particular objects in this universe. Again the next question is what happens to the universals when particular is perish, what happens whether anything happens to the idea of pen if one or two pens in this universe perish that is the question. So, these are some of the preliminary issues which which Plato is concerned as far as his theory of ideas are concerned. And now let us look into some of the subsidiary issues, the first one is the question of method, what should be the method of enquiry, this question an answer to this question we will consider in the next lecture, but this is a very important thing like the question is what should be the method of enquiry, when it comes to as all of us known natural sciences employ a very peculiar method of enquiry. Natural sciences will employ the method of observation, the method of experimentation, so it observes the world what happens to the world and observation rely on sense organs. And for Plato the question of method presupposes something else than the observation method, because he is a philosopher who has proclaimed from the very outset is disbelief in the sensible world, he says that the sensible world is only a copy we will see that subsequently. Can man a were no reality that is another very important philosophical problem, philosophers talk about reality a lot there is a reality, but can man ever know it, if man is unable to know it then why do you bother about it, but if man can know it then you have to tell how man can know it, the methodology has to be devised, so these are some of the questions again what are the different aspects of human reality, human reality can be there are there is a spiritual aspect of it there is an intellectual aspect, there is a sensible aspect, there are several phases of human reality what are they, so these are some of the issues which in general Plato is concerned about or rather we are concerned about when we discuss Plato. Now let us see the thinkers who have influenced Plato, the first and foremost one is Pythagoras who is famously associated with the Pythagorean theorem and who is a mathematician who is a religious person who has a very peculiar religion of his own and, but Plato was influenced by Pythagoras mostly with respect to the mathematical theories he has developed or the respect for mathematics, belief in immortality and other worldiness and the mysticism, mathematics is important because Plato also thought that mathematics is a very important discipline because mathematics involves abstract thinking and for Plato a philosopher a thinker is a person who has the capability of abstract thinking and if you are not able to think in terms of abstract objects you are not qualified to be a philosopher, so Pythagoras is important because mathematics he was a mathematician he was primarily a mathematician and Plato has famously brought it is said that in front of his academy Plato's the school which Plato established it was written that no man ignorant of mathematics should enter, so because he considered mathematics as so important in learning process of a philosopher. The second very important influence is from Parmenides, we have already discussed a little bit of Parmenides in one of the early lectures, Parmenides is a philosopher early great philosopher pre-socatic thinker who believed in the permanence of reality he says that reality must be imperishable, eternal and something which is permanent immovable in order to move something has to be located in space and time and if an object is conditioned by space and time it cannot be real in the philosophical sense of the term. So, this belief in an eternal and timeless reality the unreality of change Plato owes to Parmenides a lot and interestingly the next important influence in Plato is from Heraclitus we have already discussed Heraclitus just a few seconds ago. Heraclitus was a philosopher who says that there is nothing permanent in the sensible world hence do not believe in the senses. So, Plato derives this inside from Heraclitus do not believe in the senses though Heraclitus himself never proclaimed so and now comes the most important the most significant contribution the most significant influence on Plato's intellectual life by none other than Socrates. The great philosopher who was Plato's teacher and Plato was indebted to Socrates for making the ethical problem as the central concern of his philosophy. We can see that even in Plato in Plato's Utopia the state republic the major issue the most important question is what is justice which is an ethical question and when it comes to his metaphysics which we are going to discuss in this lecture the idea of good is at the center it is according to Plato the some important the most important essence the most important idea and every other ideas are under that. So, in one sense we can say that there is only one idea that is the idea of good everything is a derivative of this idea. This is a very important influence from Socrates then again the teleological rather than mechanical explanations of the world which we will find even in Aristotle's philosophy as well and also most importantly the method of dialectics I have mentioned the importance of a method the method to know truth and it is to this method Plato was inducted to Socrates the method of dialectics. Now, a little bit of Socrates we have to mention Socrates was a person who has literally taken philosophy to the marketplace and what I mean by marketplace is taking philosophy to the common man taking philosophy to the places where people from all weeks of life come assemble to do their daily business. So, he you will find Socrates in the marketplace you will find him in a marriage ceremony where he discussing philosophy with his friends and allies practical task of philosophy is according to Socrates to help man to think right in order that they may live right. So, again we can see the emphasis on the ethical issue what is more important is to live the right kind of life and in order to live the right kind of life you have to think in the right manner. So, here again practical task of philosophy is to help people to do that and to know what is good so that one becomes good. So, these and again further questions of knowledge truth and goodness are intimately connected you cannot separate these issues. So, a philosopher is concerned about all these problems about the question of knowledge truth goodness and in that sense logic ethics and aesthetics are all interconnected. Now, the question of truth is a little more prominent because philosophy is primarily concerned with the question of truth and here the question of truth is a domain of absolute clarity absolute certainty and absolute universality. This is basically Socrates approach you always believe that the domain of truth is absolutely clear one should be able to understand if at all one understands it it should be understood with absolute clarity and certainty and this truth should be universal and it should be distinguished from confused and vague opinions and thoughts we have we have lot of vague ideas about this world what is happening in this world. But truth as far as truth is concerned it cannot be vague at all it should be absolutely certain and despite diverse opinions there is a common ground of principle people might think differently people might have different beliefs and opinions but there is only one truth and that can be attained that can be achieved with the help of a method employed which is the dialectical method. Ideas and opinions are expressed in propositions and judgments truth can be expressed in the universal judgments which is beyond all doubts and contradictions. It is to arrive at these kind of judgments which with Socrates thought is the primary objective of philosophy and in all his endeavors all his delugs all his conversations with other other philosophers and other thinkers and other people we can see that the approach is to to to get a direct access to truth. And now let us talk about a little bit about Socrates method we will take it up in the subsequent lectures he pretends I mean this is the famous dialectical method of dialectics which we will explain in the next lecture. But primarily what happens is that he pretends not to know any more about the topic of discussion. So, he gets into conversation with other people by raising questions and as and he pretends that he does not know anything about it and he often acts as though he knew less than his opponents. Then he ask questions insist for clear definitions and explanations and in this way the process of dialogue proceeds makes them contradict and this is what happens in this process he makes his opponents or his partner in conversation to contradict himself. And this contradictions will eventually and ultimately expose the confusions the his opponents have in their minds and soon his opponents feel that Socrates is the master of the situation. This is what happens in in the dialect method of dialectic and now we will try to see we will straight away come to Plato we will see the influence of Socrates further when we discuss certain other issues in Plato's philosophy. Now, we will come to the central principle the theory of ideas or theory of forms it is called. What are they what are these forms what are these Platonic ideas which we are talking about. So, here we will see an interesting observation from famous very famous 20th century philosopher Gilbert Ryle. He says Gilbert Ryle says that it originated out of several different and partly independent features of the general ideas or notions that constituted the recurrent themes of dialectical disputations that include definitions standards of measurement and appraisal immutable things timeless truths one of a many intellectual knowledge conceptual certainties and ontology of forms. So, in a sense ideas are derived from all these things there is as I have already mentioned a very straight forward approach to generalize to see the generalizations. And when you take theory of ideas there is a famous observation by Bertrand Russell. Russell says that the theory of ideas is partly logical and partly metaphysical. What do you mean by logical logical here according to Russell it has to do with the meaning of general words like manness, catiness, penness, bookness whatever wherever you have general terms what do you mean by that what do you mean by catiness you know what a cat is, but what do you mean by catiness. Again when it comes to the metaphysical aspect what in reality corresponds to the general word. So, here an ontology of sentences is being envisaged. So, when I say cat I know that what a cat is when I say pen I know what a pen is, but when I say penness or catness to what this word correspond that is a question what is that corresponding object. So, this corresponding object cannot be a particular object because particular objects are when I talk about a pen which is there in my pocket I am talking about a particular pen, but when I talk about penness it is not there in my pocket it is not there in this world it is somewhere in my mind I can say to some extent. So, but what sort of an entity it is if it is there in the mind what is it status is it just an image shadow. So, these are questions which Plato deals with and Plato would say that they are absolute realities will see that there is a quote from again from Bressel the history of western philosophy it says that the logical part has to do with the meaning of general words. There are many individual names of whom we can truly say this is a cat what do we mean by the word cat obviously something different from each particular cat an animal is a cat it would seem because it participates in a general nature common to all cats. So, this is the central this is the crux of it an animal is a cat it would seem because it participates in a general nature common to all cats. So, this all concept of participation is very important again I start reading something which is not this or that cat, but some kind of universal cat in us this is not born when a particular cat is born and does not die when it dies in fact it is no position in space or time it is eternal this is the logical part of the doctrine. And now when we come to the metaphysical part of the doctrine it says again from Bressel the word cat the word cat means a certain ideal cat the cat created by god and unique particular cats partake of the nature of the cat, but more or less imperfectly it is only owing to this imperfection that there can be many of them the cat is real particular cats are only apparent. So, here you can see the problem of one and many appearance and reality what appears is the many cats what appears is a reality which is a reality of particularities, but what is real reality is always something which is unique there is only one cat in us. And again when you talk about ideas and idealism ideas are objects of the intellect known by reason alone Plato as categorically affirms that they are objects they are objects not of course of this word, but of the intellect known by reason alone they cannot be known through observation through sense experience they can be known only through reason there comes the relevance of mathematics. Mathematics is another discipline where we employ reason not observation and again their objective realities that exist in a world of their own they are not just there in the human mind, but they have a world of their own the objective realities. There are as many ideas that there are common names and every common name designates an idea. So, wherever you find a common name camera or a telephone computer all these are common names. So, the responding to all these there are ideas, but then now we have a problem in what sense these ideas are related to particular objects in what sense the idea of cat is related to cats in this world the idea of computer is related to different types of computers in this world. So, here Socrates Parmenides and Heraclitus are all met what is common to all of them is the man type the essence or idea of man beautiful flower beautiful poem beautiful painting and in all these cases what is common beauty the idea of beauty then again a moving car a moving man a moving cycle motion is the idea. So, common to all these things now when we talk about the knowledge about these ideas we see beautiful things we can say that it is a beautiful flower a beautiful mountain a beautiful house all these are beautiful things and lot of beautiful flowers are only, but what about beautiful as such where is beauty the essence of beauty. So, Plato's philosopher is a person of wisdom who is not bothered about particular beautiful objects in this world, but who is concerned about beauty as such the essence of beauty we see moving body is not the idea of moment where to the generalizations exist do they exist only in the human mind these are some of the questions and when it comes to general ideas they can be approached only through reason I have already mentioned this this cannot be a subject matter of observation that can be understood only by the employment of the intellect by reason. Reason has to be properly trained to see the ideas which are real every one of us all human beings are rational in fact one of the defining features of humanness is rationality procession of rationality if that is the case then why is it that everyone is not a philosopher according to Plato through reason with the employment of reason you can graduate you can understand the essence the world of essence is and thus you can become a philosopher, but everyone is not able to do that why the reason for that is that reason has to be properly trained to see the ideas which are real and when you contrast this world of ideas with the world of senses we can see that the world of senses are constantly fleeting and reality needs to be searched not in the world of senses because the world of senses is the world of change it is the world of destruction it is the world which is never the same the next moment it keeps on changing. So, in a world of complete change nothing is real reality is changeless and eternal. So, one has to search for the eternally changeless reality it needs to be searched in the intelligible world in the intellect and here we can see we will just contrast the sense objects and general ideas the common sensical view is that they are mental copies of the sensible objects as far as general ideas are concerned the common sensically we understand general ideas as copies of sensible objects we see different objects we see a computer for example the computer is a relatively new invention. So, this has not existed from time immemorial so it is a new invention and now all of us have an image of computer in our mind. So, we can logically conclude that the image of computer is being derived from the computer which came into existence only recently, but Plato would disagree with that they depend on the objects this is the common sensical view they are not real, but exist only in the individual mind and they cannot be communicated completely because since it exist only in my mind the ideas in my mind cannot be communicated to you to another person in complete sense of the term. Because to some extent it is mind and Plato's idealism presents an entirely different view it says that ideas are the models or the originals they are not copies of sensible objects, but they are the most original models of reality and individual objects are the copies it is the other way round for common sensical view the objects the ideas are copies of objects, but here for Plato individual objects are copies. But both are thoughts and the eternal objects of these thoughts both are thoughts and the eternal objects of these thoughts are part of that ideas and thoughts of God which no human intelligence can wholly reproduce so these are the differences main different ways in which Plato understands the ideas from the common sensical perspective. The most important point is that for Plato they are absolute realities and the world of objects are copies of these absolute realities and now when it comes to the question of the sensible and the real the real according to Plato and according to the general philosophical assumption it must be more enduring and unchanging it cannot be something which changes quite frequently it has to be more enduring and unchanging and again it must be eternal something which perishes cannot be treated as real or in other words the reality of perishable objects is a minimal reality they do have only a relative reality not absolute reality individual objects and instances may come and go like individual human beings Plato Aristotle all these people have come and they have gone all of us will go one day but manness exist they are not real what the individual objects are not real the individual pens and cats and mountains and human beings and whatever things in this world they are not real because they come and go they perish they are subjected to change the idea is what the individual expresses so but this is what from here he is trying to bring out one important aspect one important thing about the relationship between the objects and the ideas the idea is what the individual expresses so when you have a computer in friend of you an individual computer or a particular computer or a particular pen these objects express the ideas for instance the pen the particular pen expresses the universal idea of penness and the particular computer expresses the universal idea of computer without the idea it expresses the individual cannot exist so Plato puts the relationship the other way round the individual owes its existence to the universal idea it is the universal it is by virtue of its participating in the universal and individual acquires its name and status we call an object a pen because it partakes because it participates in the universal idea of penness we call a man we call an object a man an entity a man because that entity that object partakes or participates in the idea of universal manness the idea is absolute and unlimited sensible objects has something of what the idea is sensible object I repeat sensible object has something of what the idea is so this is that partaking relationship that participation and sensible objects partake of the idea is undivided being it cannot be divided it can it is it is simple in that sense and in contrast the objects of the phenomenal world everything is subjected to change and destruction fleeting and uncertain I have already mentioned it nothing is permanent in this world one cannot step into the same river twice because both the river as well as the person who is stepping down in the river will change so everything is a fleeting reality no absolute reality is the question of absolute reality never comes into picture at all as far as the object of phenomenal world is concerned we have small and big it is a big mountain a small mountain but all these are relative terms a big a tall man is tall in relation with a short man a man who is shorter than him but another taller a taller man in front of a taller man this tall man becomes short so all these expressions small big beautiful ugly good and bad something which is good today might be a bad tomorrow something which is beautiful today might be treated as ugly tomorrow so there are the world the world of objects the world of sensible objects are that is subjected to constant change and they are relative they cannot be absolute now when it comes to beauty I mean I am taking another more concrete example here the example of beautiful objects because this is one reason is that plaita is also preoccupied with the question of beauty very repeatedly very frequently he takes up this example of beautiful objects so there are beautiful objects in this world and the idea of beauty so about beautiful objects this is from Weber's book which is referred in the end of this lecture as Weber says they are fair today fall tomorrow fair at one place or in one relation or in one point of view or to one person fall under different circumstances and in the judgment of other persons hence everything in the world of phenomenal beauty is relative fleeting and uncertain it reminds me of Shakespeare's famous statement fair is foul and foul is fair in his back both everything fair is foul and foul is fair so the world is completely uncertain this world of uncertainties we are living but when you enter the domain of ideal beauty it is everlasting without beginning and without end without diminution and without digging invariable immutable and absolute it is beautiful in all its relations and from all points of view it is beautiful at all times and in all places and for all persons it is pure and clear and aneloid and therefore transcends the power of imagination so you can see the contrast the one is a domain of unrealities relative entities the other one is everlasting absolute entities now proper ideas what you mean by ideas as Plato says ideas are real beings they are the only real beings and they are more definitely more real than the objects of senses they only true realities they are the only true realities and they alone are real they are the eternal patterns after which the things of sense are made and on the other hand the phenomenal world is constituted of objects have which have only a borrowed existence they are mere copies of the world of ideas they receive their reality from the ideas I have already mentioned all these things only a simple an allegory or a figure of speech they exist not in themselves but as reflections of their ideas they do not have independent existence at all their mere copies their shadows they have no reality other than that which they receive from these ideas and when you talk about the ideal world this is a very important point to be understood what is this real world Plato is talking about what is it constituted I have already mentioned that it is constituted of ideas and there are as many ideas are as there are general terms in this world so we keep on inventing or rather invention is not the right word we keep on discovering new ideas with the discovery of new objects computers were not there earlier but with the discovery of computer we are actually also discovering the idea of computer which eternally exist and Plato says that the domain the world of ideas the world of abstract essences or forms or ideas constitute a hierarchical arrangement they form an hierarchy. So, what sort of a hierarchy as in the sensible world where there is a gradation of beings from the most imperfect to the more and more perfect the ideal world too has a gradation. So, here comes some Plato encounters some difficulties here because he recognizes the plurality of ideas there are a number of ideas plurality of ideas how do they relate themselves with each other. So, he says that there is a hierarchy and once you say that they are relational one ideas related to another both of them become relative then they cannot be absolute in the philosophical sense of the term. So, and also once you say that there is a I mean they are hierarchical there is an idea which is more real than other ideas or there is a gradation the more real on the top and then you come across lesser realities lesser real ideas. So, in that case be it seems that ideas are losing their individuality they are not individual ideas then. So, once you accept that they lose their individuality then how can you claim how can you assert their absolute status this is a question and ideas are joined together by means of other ideas of higher order this is what Plato says these are embraced under other still more exalted ideas and ideas constantly increase in generality and force until we reach the top. So, there is a supreme idea there is an idea the summum bonnum the objective of all ideas the goal of all ideas in a sense we can say the top the last the highest the most powerful idea which according to Plato is the idea of good. So, somewhere you can see that Plato takes us to the question of the to the ethical question and answer to the ethical question which he raised in the beginning of his philosophy. So, that ethical question is what is that ultimate objective of life what is that ultimate objective of philosophical thinking philosophical thinking aims at truth what is that truth and here Plato says that truth and knowledge are identical with good. So, truth consists or knowledge consists in knowing the goodness the idea of good which is the last idea what is that idea of good the only real absolute idea that is the only real absolute idea it comprehends contains or summarizes the entire system of ideas entire system of reality just as the visible universe its copy comprehends contains or summarizes all say creatures in this world ideas of a lower order exist by themselves and as substances only as compared to their visible copies. So, you can compare the absolute status of other ideas say for example, the idea of pen the absolute status of this the idea of motion the idea of beauty any of these ideas you take they have kind of substantial existence only when you compare them with the objects which are their copies, but the higher I mean when you compare them with the highest idea the idea of good they cease to have substantial existence they cease to have substances they are modes of the idea of good. And here again to substantiate this view the hierarchy the creation the hierarchical ordering of ideas Plato says that the ideas or the ideal the ideas in the ideal world exhibit a unity there is a universe of ideas ordered hierarchically a unity and connection of ideas at the expense of the individuality of ideas this is what I mentioned it is always done the unity is established always at the expense of the individuality of these individual ideas they form of a unity of an organism this is what Plato says. So, they leave a common life these ideas have a common life and it is not possible to separate them from each other as they are independent of time and space which are principles of separation. So, this is again very interesting to separate one thing from another you need space and time separations happens at a time and two places, but ideas are independent of space and time. So, no separation can be envisaged as far as ideas are concerned now the important question is the abode of ideas where do they exist they do not exist in the in the physical world they do exist in the mind, but not in the individual mind as a subjective idea they the heavens are their abode this is what Plato says and heaven of course is a symbolic term here and he says that they are housed in an ideal and intelligible place. So, you need an ideal and intelligible place what is it it is the the the abode of intellect the human mind of course, but not the subjective domain of human mind, but the domain which houses the universal rational intellectual aspects. The home of ideas is the idea as such it is not it cannot be housed somewhere else because it is self subsistence. So, the home of idea must be idea as such the idea has no place outside of itself it exist by virtue of itself it exist in the intelligence and it can be known through the intelligence alone. Again the absolute idea of good and all other ideas exist in the mind which is the the abode of the intelligence and they form the very essence of the mind. So, what is the human mind after all Plato would say that the essence of human mind is constituted of these ideas they are latent in the mind we are not conscious them of them probably we are not conscious of them, but they are there and when you when you when you try to understand the relationship between ideas and sensations Plato would say that ideas are not known through sensations you cannot know them through sensations. The senses can access only the external copies of ideas only the images only the shadows can be captured by the the the senses, but the original exist in us he says it is there in the intelligence it is already there in the human mind only thing is you have to discover it or rediscover it sensation only provoke ideas and it does not reduce them when you see you see an individual pen it can only provoke the idea, but it cannot perceive the idea what it perceives the individual pen, but it provokes the universal idea senses are deceptive this is a very basic principle in a Platonic approach to philosophy the highly suspicious about the abilities of senses to to depart knowledge they drag the mind into the world of particularities. So, this is something which we will examine when we discuss the cave analogy of Plato because that beautiful analogy brings out how Plato's idealism the theory of Plato's idealism with the help of certain analogies parables and all that truth can be accessed only through reasoning this is the ultimate conclusion of Plato's idealism can only be known through reasoning and whatever you talk about the material world it is essentially non-being. So, Plato calls that matter is essentially a non-endity the idea becomes a creator of this a cause a will in reference to non-being and thus non-being becomes like being and takes part in the absolute existence of the idea the non-being thus becomes the first matter out of which the idea forms after its own image the most perfect divine and finished visible world possible. So, now there are two things to be discussed which we will reserve for the next lecture the most important thing is the parable of the cave and also the analogy of vision which we are planning to discuss in this lecture which will reserve to the next lecture and what is interesting is that this conception about the previous slide we have discussed ideas and sensations where Plato denies the value of sensation and affirms the importance of ideas as far as ideas are concerned they can be known only through reason and here Plato envisages a method the method is called as I already mentioned the method of dialectic which he derives it develops it derives the basic insides of this method to develop this method from the approaches of Socrates, but later on he develops a lot on this and develops a very consistent philosophical method very influential philosophical method which depends a lot on dialogue conversation which consider other people as important. So, all these things we will reserve for the next lecture now we have discussed in this lecture we have summarized we have given a very basic understanding of what theory of ideas are the points to be remembered as number 1 ideas are absolute realities they are not images number 2 the world of objects the world of particular objects or these particular objects are all copies of the ideal objects they are imitations of the ideal objects they are imperfect imitations of the ideal objects because all copies and all imitations are bound to be imperfect number 3 you can never know ideas through sensations or sense observation you can know ideas only with the employment of reasoning only with the employment of intelligence number 4 the world of senses have to be suspected which is contained in point number 3. So, these are some of the points to be noted, but the most important one is the ideas themselves constitute a unity they themselves constitute a universe where the ideas are hierarchically arranged hierarchically organized on top of all these ideas you will find the idea of good which is a summum bottom to which all other ideas are subjected to. So, in one sense Platonic idealism or Plato's theory of ideas announces the importance of goodness in human life and he says that goodness is the summum bottom the most important idea and all other ideas are subsumed under that. So, in one sense Plato's theory of ideas is a theory of idea of goodness idea of goodness thank you.