A Comparative Study Of Plato’s Thought About Idealism In Early And Later Periods

Plato’s theory of Idealism can be divided into Idealism in early period andIdealism in later period. Idealism in early period was influenced by Parmenides andSocrates. Parmenides’ division of two worlds controls Plato’s construction of Idealismwhile Socrates’ Inductive argument and method of definition were absorbed by Plato.He also absorbed teleology in Anaxagoras’ nous and teleology of Socrates, thusforming his Idealism in early period which is shown in dialogues of middle period inMeno, Phaedo, Politeia and Phaedrus. He set world of idea against world of senses,thinking that idea is one-fold, unchanging, pure and eternal existence which can onlybe grasped by thought and that the relation between thing and idea is one of imitation.Plato’s Idealism in later period is further development of Idealism in early period.Its content is chiefly shown in Plato’s dialogues in later period in Parmenides,Theaetetus, Sophist, Philebus, Timaeus and The Laws. Development of Idealism inlater period to Idealism in early period can be seen in the following aspects. First, inParmenides, Plato showed critical reflection to Idealism in early period, holding thatdivision of idea and thing can cause contradiction that can’t be overcome. Second, inParmenides, he attempted to argue about the relations among different domainsthrough "eight sets of arguments" centered on relations between one and many andproved that if idea is isolated and cut off from other things, then it is somethingunknownable. Third, in Sophist, based on "eight sets of arguments", he put forwardtheory of the communion of genera and explored the relation of three domains, ie.existence and non-existence, sameness and difference, movement and stillness, tryingto explain the unity between world of idea and world of senses.Plato’s Idealism is a process of development from early period to later period which shows that he deepened his understanding in the process of explaining theworld on the rational side. In this process, one principle runs through all, that is,whether in early or later periods, he explained world with rationality, that is, the worldis abstract essence (idea) and he explained different phenomena on the stand ofessence, believing that only this explanation was truth or true knowledge. Meanwhilethe two are also different: Idealism in early period included idea of concrete objects,not purified into the most abstract category; Idealism in later period was more abstractand turned into category theory. Besides, Idealism in early period stressed more theseparation of ideas and that between idea and thing while Idealism in later periodbecame dialectical, stressing the connection between them. Because Idealism in earlyperiod and Idealism in late period are different in many ways, their influence is notthe same. Idealism in early period has important impact on forming of cognitivescience spirit and religious spirit while Idealism in late period has direct impact onspeculative Metaphysics.