English Literature And Theory This blog contains the explanation of various critical theories that provide a new insight to view literature and interpretation of various literary texts.

The view of "Plato" is called "Theory Of Time". It includes

Plato believed that everything we see around us in world is changeable. So, we can never gain true knowledge from something that changes constantly rather we can only have knowledge of things that can be understood with our reason.

Reality is divided into two reasons

World of senses

World of ideas

The world of ideas can provide true knowledge because here we use our reason. And based on this idea, Plato has claimed a man to be a duel creature having a body that is realted with senses and an immortal where the reasons lie.

Through myth of cave Plato refers to the journey of philosopher from darkness to light(knowledge). This myth leads to the idea of ideal state or (Utopian State) as elaborated by Plato in "The Republic".

The ideal state of Plato is clearly defined in his work "The Republic" which is somewhat like old Hindu caste systen where everyone is prescibed certain role and function to be performed in the society for the development of whole community like rulers and warriors are not allowed to have family life or private property in Plato's ideal state, rearing children should be responsibility of the state and so on.

It is worth noting that in Plato's ideal state, women could govern just as effectively as men. Since rulers govern by virtue of their reasons and women has exactly the same power of reasoning if they had provided similar traing. Plato, therefore had positive view of women considering the time he lived in.