plato

In his article titled "Philosophy as Literature/Philosophy and Literature/Philosophy of Literature," Arthur Danto argues that literary forms and techniques played a significant role in the philosophers' exposition of their ideas, but these characteristics have often been overlooked in the analysis of philosophical works. Interdisciplinary researchers have frequently analyzed literary works from the perspective of philosophical ideas or schools, but the examination of philosophical works from the standpoint of literary form and elements has received less attention. This research aims to draw researchers' attention to the role of literature within these texts by adopting Danto's distinct approach to the examination of philosophical works, and to study the interplay between literature and philosophy in a prominent philosophical work such as Plato's Phaedo, which exhibits distinct literary qualities. The study intends to use available resources to answer the question of why a great philosopher like Plato utilized the characteristics of a tragedy to present concepts such as the immortality of the soul, the transience of the body, and death, and how he portrayed the renowned Greek philosopher Socrates as a tragic hero for his audience. The research observes that literature possesses remarkable power in depicting philosophical ideas and persuading the reader's mind to accept them, and can lend new dimensions to the understanding of philosophers' texts and generate a different perspective on their discussions.

A quintessential element in Nizami’s oeuvre is the correspondence between the characters’ articulation and discursive features. In other words, one can explore different layers of their subjectivity in light of their articulation. In this respect, this study investigates Nizami’s Iqbal-Nameh. When Alexander instructs his three advisors, Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, to compile “Kherad-Nameh,” their individual formulation echoes their position and personality. This study aims to investigate the three advisors’ divergence of discourse in light of Fairclough's 3D model. He analyses the discourse in three levels: description, interpretation, and explanation. The description level is a textual analysis, the interpretation level is a contextual and intertextual analysis, and the explanation level is a socio-cultural analysis. This study concludes that in formulating “Kherad-Nameh,” Plato’s discourse is informed by his position beneath the king, Aristotle’s assertive discourse is informed by equating his position with the king, and Socrates’ authoritative/degrading discourse is informed by positioning himself above the king.

. The Symposium by Plato, best known in Persian as Ziāfat, is the scene of dialogue in a banquet held by Agathon, the tragic poet, on the special occasion of celebrating the prize for his first tragedy in 416 B.C. In this symposium, every attendee, including Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, and Socrates, gives a speech about Eros, respectively. Eros is known in Greek culture as Love or desire _ especially sexual and personified as the God of love. Two of Plato’s most famous dialogues focus on understanding Eros, the Symposium and the Phaedrus. (Preus, 2007→Eros)
The cause for comparing Nizami's Khosrow and Shirin and Plato's Symposium in this essay is their shared fictive patterns, except for similar themes that exist in both of them. The title of Hakim for Nizami, the sixth-century well-known poet and storyteller, indicates that he had a good grasp of common sciences of his age of which philosophy and Hekmat (wisdom) were basics. And this interest in philosophy can be seen in Iskendernāme and his other works like Khosrow and Shirin.
 
2.In the article, the perspectives of Plato and Nizami toward the arts in the Symposium and Khosrow and Shirin have been analyzed by library research method and content analysis. At first, the process of creating figures of speech that result from the unity of reason (Logos) and love (Eros), and then the importance of various rhetorical figures were studied in these two works.
 
3.There is a kind of social forces assemblage in Plato’s Symposium and Nizami’s Khosro and Shirin; each has a specific thought method about Eros (love) as well as a romantic relationship. Love brings people of different viewpoints together to communicate with each other. Even Techne or technique is one of the significant issues in the Symposium, including a kind of sense, consciousness, and love, which helps the human to create artworks. On the other hand, even in Khosrow and Shirin, love is observed in all types of arts; music, painting, architecture, poetry, and politics are all manifestations of Eros. So, “Techne” or “technique” and its relation to “Eros” or “love” is one of the subjects to study in both works.
In the present study, Plato and Nizami’s views have been analyzed on the techniques in the Treatise of Symposium and Khosrow and Shirin. First, the process of techniques’ creation, obtained from the association of reason (Logos) and love (Eros), and then the importance  of techniques’types in these two works have been studied.
 
4.
The perspective of Islamic philosophers about arts (different kinds of Techne) can be divided into verbal and non-verbal areas. Indeed, verbal arts are five Arts (five functions of the language in Aristotle’s view) following logic. And non-verbal arts are crafts, following ethics, under the branch of political philosophy.
According to Plato’s Symposium, the perception of rational imageries and the distinction between good and evil are manifested with the advent of Eros. When a human falls into love with someone for the first time, his/her obsession or object of love is perceivable with external senses, concretely and partially. But this love in human beings gives rise to the distinction because a lover always sees the beloved better and superior than others. The distinction of “superlatives,” that comes with love, in higher stages entails recognition of universals and the advent of philosophy by which one distinguishes between the data of estimative faculty and the data of rational faculty and does not get caught in the trap of fancies. Issues expressed in Khosrow and Shirin have a similar pattern to those of Plato’s Symposium examined in this article.
In both the Symposium and Khosrow and Shirin, with the advent of love, the discriminating faculty that is the reason is created in person, and the other arts are manifested following that. Love (Eros) is like a midwife that brings forth the reason (Logos); Thus, the reason is the logos or the rational soul connecting love with the arts because love (Eros) takes the monstrous reason to the actual stage. And the manifestation of various arts is one of the results of love’s advent and the actualism of reason. Nizami in Khosrow and Shirin has entered fiction from the viewpoint of utopias. And it has such priority that at the beginning of the debate between Khosrow and Farhad when Farhad introduces himself as belonging to the state of love and friendship, the first question that Khosrow asks him is about the craft of his fellow citizens.

One of the most important manifestations of love is literature and poetry. In Persian literature, the word love has a special importance and in Plato's thought, love has a high status. Many Indian poets have written precious poems about love, romance, the description of the beloved and the hardships of love; In other words, in most divans of Indian style poets, love is a kind of main theme of poetic themes and themes. Accordingly, the authors of this study intend to study love in the poetry of Safavid poets (Saeb Tabrizi, Talib Amoli, Naziri Neyshabouri, Orfi Shirazi and Kaleem Kashani) based on Plato's thoughts and division of love.

This research is a descriptive method and content analysis in the poems of Safavid poets.

Plato sometimes considers love as the desire to have goodness and sometimes the desire to possess beauty, so Platonic love needs beauty and perfection of the beloved and his love has a human face and can not be an obligatory description of transcendence, therefore it is not common in all universes. On the other hand, this love is a bridge to true love and absolute beauty.

The views of Platonic love can also be seen in the poems of Safavid poets. According to these poets, virtual love is the basis and prelude to achieving divine love and absolute beauty. Therefore, their love also has an epistemological aspect. In general, Indian poets have paid more attention to the reflection of virtual or physical love in their lyric poems. In this context, they talk about the ups and downs of the path of love, about the value and high status of love, as well as about the lover, the pain and sorrow of the beloved, and believe that the lover must go through worldly affairs to reach the beloved. The descriptions of love, lover and beloved in the poems of these poets are in line with Plato's ideas.

There are so many matters and topics, among indelible literary works of different nations, that if their contents would be studied, we will get opportunities of their challenges and debates that make their study rational. Worship and its genetical position, also, is a topic that is ignored in Hafez poems and Plato works. This topic is referred to the topic of love and based on creation and Man’s nature considering the Human nature and Alast promise (the promise that was given to God by his creatures in the world before this world), in the Hafez words, and considering the ideas before The descent of the Spirit in the Flesh, in the Plato’s words. By the importance of these topics in Iran’s literature and Western philosophy and necessity of clarifying of concerned issue to bring man to eternal bliss, this research tries to study these two kinds of works in an analytical-comparative manner. Findings show that the similarity, synonymy, and same meaning, in spite of long time between them, show that they ask to Man’s nature by intrinsic seeking prosperity and they say that love is integrated to Huma’s spirit and help him to pass spiritual levels toward God till eternal Companionship to him.

Intellectual and theoretical similarities always have been noteworthy subjects among great thinkers. Enthusiasts of this field, via using comparative analysis, have tried to reveal important impacts in history of human thought. In the present study, we have discussed the recognition of Plato’s thoughts and ideas in Chapter Four of Marzban­-nameh and have tried to present the overview via using content analysis and an inductive method, and relying on the library and documentary studies. Providing the evidence from Chapter Four of Marzban­-nameh, we have revealed similarities in the thoughts of the author of the book with Plato.An important point is that we should become acquainted with intellectual origins of the authors of these works for achieving a more detailed understanding of great works in the literature. A detailed readout of Chapter Four of Marzban­-nameh shows that the author, perhaps like Plato, believes that there is only one true benchmark that can test everything and it is knowledge; only wisdom can save us from engaging to invalid, worldly world and from being deceived by the illusion. This kind of research, in addition to providing the possibility of a more accurate understanding of valuable literary works, can be a setting for the exchanging of helpful ideas among Persian literature and philosophy researchers.

Even though in philosophical studies the Platonic dialogues have always been an area for investigation, little attention has been paid to their dramatic aspects. Since Plato was an opponent of the mimetic arts, in particular theatre and drama, narrative has been given priority in his works. Therefore, his dialogues can be measured against the criteria of narrative drama. In the modern period, narrative drama gained popularity in Europe and was recognized as closet drama. The present article studies the mimetic and narrative features of such dramas and compares them with Platonic dialogues. First, the concepts of mimesis and narrative are described and, then, Plato’s ideas on these concepts are explained. Plato’s views on tragedy and comedy have also been specifically studied. We have, then, concentrated on the place of theatre in the modern period and among non-mimetic arts – an outcome of which is closet drama. In interpreting closet dramas, Gertrude Stein’s Four Saints in Three Acts as well as the overall structure of the plays of Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, two modernist playwrights, have been examined. Finally, by extracting the features of closet drama and comparing them with Plato’s dialogues, we arrive at the coordinates of Platonic dialogues as a dramatic type.

Masoudi (Beyhaghi) History” covers the incidents of the 10-year-reign of Masoud Ghaznavi, and the stories of his downfall, the occupation of his lands, the rise of disagreements, and his murder. Along with a criticism of Masoud and his deeds in his book, Beihaghi expresses his idea of governance which considers the king as the absolute and right power, and he proposes his theory regarding government as having a religious-political foundation and being based on the divine rule of the king on earth (Zel-Allah fi-l-Arz= God’s image on earth). Here, God’s will dominates all, and the king’s deeds are aligned with destiny; the king is the agent of God’s will (ÊõÚöÒøõ ãóäú ÊóÔÇÁ æ ÊõÐöáøõ ....) , and as the representative of the Calipha accords his deeds with God’s ordains; he takes advantage of his consultants’ views, his troops, and his people's support, in order to spread the religion, especially into India. Based on an analytical method, this study is carried out to deal with Beihaghi’s view about governance and concludes that he accepted a traditional management and an Iranian-Islamic concept of Plato’s view of governance.

The Study of love and its meaning, not as a philosophical, literary or social concept, but as a multidimensional concept, has stretched different aspects of human life, from the adventure of mysterious creation to the mechanical life in today's world, and it has been in the idea of the scholars of the different nations, from Plato and Avicenna to Simon de Beauvoir and Sternberg. For this reason, we recognize love as a motivating category that made created enthusiasm in different layers of human life, and it has been manifesting at the highest level of human mental experience. Among the works in which a specific concept of love is expressed, we can mention The Symposium of Plato and The King and Slave Girl of Mevlana. Each of these two works has showed the metamorphosis of the concept of love and its types. This paper, relying on the relationship between wisdom and philosophy, studies the truth of love, the types of love, and its functions and requirements in these two works. The most important conclusions of this study are that love in the idea of Plato and Mevlana, has an evolutionary path. The base of Plato and Mevlana’s attitude to love is philosophical, and according to this view they have studied the nature and essence of love, and then they classified the categories of love based on its quality. In the wisdom view to the concept of love, there is a significant relationship between the higher and lower of its types. Mevlana is influenced by ancient Greek philosophy in the story of The King and Slave Girl.

Plato knows all of the world’s phenomena as the shadow of truth and he doesn’t include their existential identity independent. In this research the author has tried to deal with justifying and analyzing his aesthetics system. According to Plato the artistic works are the imitation from the absolute beauty that is eternal and everlasting. On the other hand he regards the beauty as a useful and working thing and says the art have to be in service of morality and society and he doesn’t like the exciting art. As well as, he doesn’t oppose with unexciting art, although it be without moral and social role. The author after the analysis of Plato’s thoughts concludes the contradictions in aesthetic and philosophic system of Plato that they have questioned the absoluteness of principle of beauty in Plato’s thoughts.

Islamic mysticism is a phenomenon formed on the grounds of philosophical and theosophical thoughts. This rich cultural process holds many meanings and teachings of previous schools of thought. Neo-Platonic philosophy is an important origin for Islamic mysticism and Sufism, reflected in the works of the outstanding mystics of the 6th and 7th Hegira centuries: Farid al-Din Attar Neishaburi and Jalal al-Din Mohammad Balkhi. Discovery, classification, and explication of the components existing in the Neo-Platonic philosophical system in Attar’s and Mowlavi’s poems reveal deep influences of Plato on these two summits of Islamic mysticism. The present article tries to present some evidence for this deep and basic influence.

Literary cognitivism, as I understand it, comprises two theses: (1) some literary works can convey non-trivial knowledge to readers and (2) the cognitive value of a literary work is part and parcel of its aesthetic value. In this paper, I argue for the first thesis and elaborate upon the various mechanisms by means of which literary works produce propositional and non-propositional knowledge (including perspective-based knowledge, empathic or phenomenal knowledge and ability knowledge or know-how). To do so, I give a brief sketch of Plato’s anti-cognitivist epistemological objections against the epistemic status of literary works and go on to reformulate them from a modern perspective to provide a background for my epistemological inquiry. My defence of literary cognitivism welcomes different kinds of knowledge-forming mechanisms but pace thinkers such as Noam Chomsky and Martha Nussbaum who prefer the literary discourse over the philosophical or scientific discourse in that the former might sometimes provide us with a kind of knowledge that we may not find in the latter, cautiously and deliberatey averts from making such dubious claims.

The subject of morality is an issue that the great philosophers، scholars and social peacemakers have been concerned about it in civilized communities. Saadi as a scholar and social peacemaker has emphasized on this important subject in his works ad he has tried to promote moral beneficences. He has notified to speech of philosophers in educating of moral courses، of course after the Islamic catechisms. The ancient Greek philosophers have had a special notification in morality and presented precious views. Moslem philosophers transcribe some of these thoughts in their works and through of these works، the thoughts of Greek philosophers have acceded to literary works. Saadi has accustomed to Greek philosophers'' viewpoints through of Ibn Moskouya''s and Abu- Al- Hassan Ameri''s books (not directly by reading Greek works) and he has reflected these opinions in his didactic works. This article tries to show impression of the Greek philosophers'' view on Saadi''s by studying the similarity of their speeches. Therefore، the original question is in which cases Saadi has been under impression of Greek philosophers? This survey divides to two chapters: virtues and wicked acts. In virtues، similarities of Saadi’s speeches about: science and philosophy، toleranceand humility of wises، braveness and fighting against cruelty، proper pride، excellence and richness، and finally friendship and unity compare to Greek philosophers words. And in wicked acts، similarities of speeches in: being ill- natured، tale – bearing and lie are proceeded.

Describing and explaining the nature of imagination and its function with regard to human being and ontology has always been one of the preoccupations of philosophers and thinkers. Plato is the first philosopher who considered an epistemological status for imagination and, by dividing the world into the world of reason and world of senses, he ascribed the knowledge of imagination to the world of senses. In different parts of Mathnavi, Molavi, the great Muslim-Iranian mystic, has paid much attention to imagination, its types, its status in the Knowledge of Man (both physical and metaphysical affairs) and its various influences on the body, soul and mental states of any individual. Thus, the present article aims to compare the concept of imagination in the view of the two thinkers. For reaching such aim, while using a descriptive-comparative method, first, the definitions of imagination in Mathnavi and Plato’s ideas are investigated and, then, the similarities and differences of the two views are shown. The conclusion is that their ideas are similar with regard to unreality and shadowiness of the world and phenomena, the relation between imitation and imagination, deficiency and restrictions of imagination for understanding the reality, whereas their ideas are different regarding the power of imagination, its epistemological status and the meaning and influence of it.

From Plato’s viewpoint, love is intermediate between gods and humans and it causes for the interconnection of the universe. Real love is beyond metaphor and achives the real beauty in “world of ideas”. Also, from Sohrevardi’s viewpoint, love is current in the universe and it is the reason of the creatures’ movement. All pleasures of this world (even pleasure of marriage) result from the rational and light pleasures and separating from soul forwards a man to the “real love.” Thus, from both theologians’ point of view, “metaphorical love” is like a bridge, but Plato knows it the only way and Sohrevardi knows it as one of the ways to access “real love.”

Plato and Aristotle agree about the mimetic nature of art; however, they have different ideas about art, poetry and mimesis. Aristotle following his master, Socrates, and for justice in utopia, introduces the mimesis as a kind of inspiration, and finds the poets unable to understand the Truth, which is in the World of Forms and believes that their works are immoral and misleading for young peoples. So the artists and poets have no way in his utopia. In contrast to moral criticism of Plato, Aristotle presents Aesthetic criticism and rejects the World of Forms and ignoring the inspiration, introduces the poetry as a technique with logical rules and is seeking a way to achieve aesthetic values of an art work. In Aristotle's view, poetry is more philosophic and superior than history because of its attention to generalities and the faults which may be found in poetic works. Both philosophers believed that the poetry has a great influence on human mind. The difference is that Plato scores this influence as the cause of psychosis; however, Aristotle considering the influence as a mental refinement and praises it.

The theory of "samples" is the basis of Plato's philosophy. It's one of the terms of Ešrâqi philosophy (intuitionism) as it is comprehensible only by meditation and not senses. Plato's view is that if a large number of people are gathered under one name, all of them have the same Idea (sample). These ideas belong to the rational world and this world is interpreted as the world of "samples", "forms" and "generalities" that sometimes is equated with what Islamic mystics believe about ayân-e sâbete, Âlam-e zarr, Âlam-e bi-jahat, and Âlam-e lâmakân, Âlam-e bud, and Âlam-e asmâ' va sefât-e elâhi. This article studies Platonism and its reflection on Mathnavi of Mowlânâ, based on four allegories as cave, sun, line and mirror.

Persian literature is enriched by mellifluous and beauteous stories which have passed from one generation to another in centuries and thus we have access to them at present time. There are also tales، stories and parables from other nations intermingled into Persian literature. Some tales، stories and parables have also gone to other countries and nations from Iran. Researching on how these literary forms have penetrated or entered other cultures and literatures is a very precious activity in which many people spend time. The present article studies the origin of one of the parables of “Iqbal Nameh” by Nizami named “The Signet Ring and the Shepherd” and how it is rooted in the parables of the book “The Republic” by Plato.

Qudāme-bin-Ja`far is one of the brilliant critics of the Abbasid era who applied Aristotle and Plato’s considerations in his critical ponderations and the present article discusses the main reasons which caused the literary men after him to follow his way.