Plato (427-327 BC)
Plato was born into a wealthy aristocratic family. He started following Socrates when he around the age of 20. Socrates' beliefs had a major impact on Plato, and Plato opened his own school in Athens called the Academy to teach rhetoric after Socrates was sentenced to death.
His epistemology was very different from the Sophists because he believed that there are absolute truths. These absolute truths can only be obtained through the noumenal world. The noumenal world was a world of perfection: the perfect form of everything existed. Plato believed that we had access to this truth before birth when we lived in this perfect world. He also believed that a philosopher's task was to help others remember this truth by "clearing away the worldly debris that obscures the truth" ("Gorgias"). According to Plato, if we don't work to obtain these lost truths, we are just living in a world of shadows and illusions. This argument is illustrated through the allegory of the caves, which is something Plato is very famous for.
Although Plato is considered a rhetorician, he didn't like rhetoric and worked to undermine it and everyone who advocated it (the Sophists). He believed that its purpose was to deceive people and as a result, it was corrupting society.He hated the Sophists and thought that their use of rhetoric created false truths. While the sophists believed that philosophy and rhetoric were combined, Plato saw them separate studies further differentiating their views. A lot of his works were spent criticizing the Sophists with his most famous text "Gorgias". He believed that rhetoric should convey the good, but he thought that no one used it for this purpose. To him, rhetoric concealed the absolute truth and offered a counterfeit, extending the time for a person to be in "the shadows". Because of this, he put thought above language and philosophy over rhetoric.(Lee, "Plato")
Here is a video with an overview of Plato:
His epistemology was very different from the Sophists because he believed that there are absolute truths. These absolute truths can only be obtained through the noumenal world. The noumenal world was a world of perfection: the perfect form of everything existed. Plato believed that we had access to this truth before birth when we lived in this perfect world. He also believed that a philosopher's task was to help others remember this truth by "clearing away the worldly debris that obscures the truth" ("Gorgias"). According to Plato, if we don't work to obtain these lost truths, we are just living in a world of shadows and illusions. This argument is illustrated through the allegory of the caves, which is something Plato is very famous for.
Although Plato is considered a rhetorician, he didn't like rhetoric and worked to undermine it and everyone who advocated it (the Sophists). He believed that its purpose was to deceive people and as a result, it was corrupting society.He hated the Sophists and thought that their use of rhetoric created false truths. While the sophists believed that philosophy and rhetoric were combined, Plato saw them separate studies further differentiating their views. A lot of his works were spent criticizing the Sophists with his most famous text "Gorgias". He believed that rhetoric should convey the good, but he thought that no one used it for this purpose. To him, rhetoric concealed the absolute truth and offered a counterfeit, extending the time for a person to be in "the shadows". Because of this, he put thought above language and philosophy over rhetoric.(Lee, "Plato")
Here is a video with an overview of Plato: