However, no matter how many pages you open in Plato's works, you can't find any praise for women. On the contrary, Plato claimed that women were far inferior to men in morality. They are weaker than men, so they are more insidious than men. He thinks that women are frivolous, excitable and abusive, but they are also timid and superstitious. Plato even asserted that unfortunately becoming a woman must be God's punishment. Because only those men who can't control themselves, are timid and have no sense of justice will be reincarnated as women after death.
People who despise women so much will certainly not attach great importance to delicate emotional impulses on the issue of marriage. That's what happened. Plato did not look at marriage from the perspective that men and women create life together in mutual love. He thinks that love should not bring women and men together. The purpose of marriage is to have children, and the task of marriage is to have as strong and healthy offspring as possible. Therefore, it is the duty of the state to get the right men and women married, and the state should get involved in this matter. Women showed bravery in the war. As a reward, the national army assigned them women. In addition, women should be regarded as the public property of men. In this way, Plato's understanding of marriage is not based on spiritual harmony and admiration.
Of course, in Greece at that time, another kind of love prevailed. Compared with the marriage between men and women, it provides a more suitable place for delicate spiritual love. This is the love of the old man for the little boy. It is said that Socrates especially likes to associate with young people. In this way, the deep meaning of "platonic love" is very clear. It does not simply exclude sex, but endows sex with limited power and space. The important thing is to transcend and pursue a higher form of love. Through the beauty of body, soul, morality and cognition, it finally enters beauty itself. Plato's pursuit of love is the pursuit of the original beauty and the idea of beauty, and all beauty occupies a part of the original. Therefore, "platonic love" is closely related to Plato's philosophy and theory.
Plato's most outstanding contribution to the history of western thought. Plato believes that people are born knowing what justice is and what other moral qualities are. The human soul already has the essence of these moral behaviors. These could and should have determined people's actions.
Through further research, Plato made a second discovery: only from the origin of justice can we determine that an act is just, an act is unjust, or one act is more just than another. We know what a tree is because we have the original concept of a tree. We can understand the whole reality only because we already have the origin of all beings in our souls.
However, it further means that all realities can exist because they occupy a part of their original, and because they try to match the original as much as possible. Trees should be trees, people should be people and justice should be justice. Everything strives to realize its original unique idea in its existence. In this way, Plato got a vivid image of the world: the world is a place. Here, everything is in constant pursuit of perfection. The world is the persistence and pursuit of ideas.
Plato further reasoned: If this is the case, it must be admitted that what originally existed was not concrete things, but the original of those things. Because these initial ideas are the initial, real and practical existence. Concrete things are just copies of ideas, so there is no high degree of authenticity. What was originally real is in the deep layer of real existence. Similarly, things are producing, changing and dying. Transitivity is the fundamental feature of things. The original existence is not temporary. The pursuit of the whole world is the pursuit of the original existence and the temporary pursuit of eternity. Plato thinks this is the real secret.
From this point of view, observing human nature will inevitably lead to the conclusion that people can understand reality because the initial reality always emerges in front of them. But where did these originally come from? Plato said that this kind of knowledge, that is, the understanding of the original, must be acquired before the limited existence, that is, before birth. When a person knows something, its true colors will flash before his eyes. In other words, man recalls the first thing he saw. Knowing is remembering again. Idealism inevitably leads to the existence of a soul before birth, and thus draws the conclusion that the soul is immortal.
Before being born, people were fortunate enough to have experienced such a trip and saw the existence of ideas. People have been longing for this kind of experience all their lives, and always want to return to that place and their origin. Therefore, people always try to get rid of the shackles of sensory desires and are eager to see the concept itself by observing things that exist in the secular world.
Passion is the only way for people to see the essence of existence again in the world. Plato thinks that philosophical thinking is such a passion. Therefore, Plato said when talking about philosophy: "Philosophy is the best of all the gifts that the gods have given and will give to mankind. There is no greater wealth than this. " Philosophy is the most perfect and advanced love and pursuit of ideas, which makes people get rid of the shackles of mediocre life and return to ideas. Therefore, Plato said in the Republic that philosophers are "born to pursue the essence of existence, unlike ordinary people, who stay on the observation of a single thing." He will go further, never lose courage, and never leave God's love until he fully grasps the essence of all real existence. ..... close to the real existence, he will combine with it, create reason and truth, and he will gain knowledge. Now he is really alive and long, and he is free from the pain of childbirth. "This is the true meaning of" platonic love ". This kind of love is the love and pursuit of philosophical thinkers for the essence of things. Without it, there will be no real pursuit of eternity.