NARRATIVE 1.

6: Engaging Narrative Concepts

Learning Outcomes:
• Show an understanding of the philosophical notions of Socrates
and Plato by relating relevant aspects of their theories to your
film concept.

Points to be covered:
• Beginning of philosophy – what is it and how does it relate to
film? Socrates and Plato and the theory of knowledge and reality:
Theory of Forms.

Socrates

• Socrates’ philosophy comes to us via Plato’s Dialogues: Socrates

influenced Plato who is one of the greatest philosophers of all
time.

• Socrates is customarily regarded as the father of Western ethics

or moral philosophy.

• The Socratic Method = systematic questioning in search for an

acceptable definition of a word/concept/idea. This involves a
search for a defensible (acceptable) definition of a word. Such a
definition would give an exact account of the essential nature of
the object to which it referred.

• This is known as the question-and-answer method of

philosophising (dialect) which he used in conjunction with his
pretence of ignorance (known as Socratic irony).

• This pretence of ignorance enabled him to question the

knowledge of others (usually experts in their field) on traditional
virtues of Greek culture.

• It was Socrates’ belief in the objective existence of these virtues,

the “knowledge of which, was in principle, attainable within a
process of rational discourse” (Ally & Tsie, 2004, p. 113).

• For Socrates, virtue is teachable, hence his credo, Virtue is

knowledge”.

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 • However, part of the teaching process is to uncover the
problematic nature of the principles and assumptions on which
our moral actions are based.

• This method is a dialectical method of inquiry, largely applied to

the examination of key moral concepts and first described by
Plato in the

• Socratic Dialogues. This is due to the fact that Socrates never

wrote anything.

• It is a form of philosophical inquiry. It typically involves two

speakers at any one time, with one leading the discussion and
the other agreeing to certain assumptions put forward for his
acceptance or rejection.

• Socrates focused on the teachings of Pythagoras (550-500BCE)

from whom he obtained the notion of the soul or the mind as the
rational faculty which makes humans unique.

• Socrates stated that the highest duty of the individual is the

improvement of the soul through rational enquiry, argumentation
and discourse.

• Socrates focused on solving Moral Dilemmas/Moral Premises,

which is often what films seek to do, as evidenced in the
previous lecture. Often Socratic methods of inquiry are needed
within the films premise for the characters to overcome the
challenges or obstacles.

Plato

• Plato, a pupil of Socrates, was concerned with notions within the

ethical system of the “Highest Good” (Ally & Tsie, 2004, p. 115).

• Plato’s ethical theory is thus based on the assumption that

humankind is potentially omniscient, and that this potential
omniscience makes possible moral perfection, which coincides
with insight or knowledge of the Form or Idea of the Good.

• For Plato, the discipline of ethics cannot be separated from either

the discipline of metaphysics (which deals with the ultimate
nature of reality) or epistemology (which deals with the status of
our knowledge regarding that reality).

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• Plato argues for the existence of Beauty, Courage, Truth etc as if
these ideas (Forms) exist objectively, with the Form of “the
Good” being superior to other Forms.

• The possibility of our knowledge of these forms depends on

philosophical education in which “the mind” or “the soul” seeks
to be released from its mortal or temporal limitations in order to
enter the eternal realm of absolute knowledge of “the Good” (the
“meaning of life”), which is the ultimate objective of all moral
behaviour. This is related to notion of self-actualisation.

• To become self-actualised, one must strive to attain moral

perfection encapsulated within the “Good”.

• Plato stipulated that the ordinary world we know through our five
senses cannot be fully real. The world according to Plato is filled
with change and decay.

• The main implication is that Plato views our moral existence on

earth in terms of abstaining from physical pleasure. He makes a
clear distinction between the body and the soul.

• It is the task of the philosopher (and filmmaker as philosopher) to

explore the world of stable and perfect objects behind the
changing objects of sense perception through logic and
deductive reasoning.

• Plato argued that knowledge is inseparable from ethics;

knowledge is virtue (arête).

• For the Greeks, to be virtuous, one had to be good at something;

one can not simply be a virtuous person. E.g. Neo in The Matrix
= the One, virtuous hero; Bruce Almighty = notions of virtuous
human.

• Plato thought the object of our awareness is imprecise, uncertain

and indeterminate. We can only have opinions about such
matters never knowledge.

• What is real must be unchanging, absolute and universal. This

philosophical notion was explored in the MATRIX, as our
immediate lives are a facade or an illusion.

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 • Plato’s Theory of Forms depends on acknowledging that the soul
is immortal, or at least that it existed before it came to the
material world.

• The immaterial soul is independent of the material body, known

as dualism. This dualistic ideology has dominated traditional
Western metaphysics.

• This Dualistic ideology was solidified by Descartes in the 17th

century, by stating, “I think therefore I am”.

• This statement is in reference to the dualistic mind/body divide,

or the dualistic ontological (nature of being) assumption behind
Western ideological thought.

• Plato thought the soul belongs to a changeless world of Forms

rather than to a changing world of sense perception. After death
it may return to world of Forms, but may return to material world
at later stage. When it retuned within a body it was as though it
was imprisoned and polluted, and would partially forget the
world of Forms.

• Sense perception might serve to remind the soul of that world,

but it could only begin to apprehend Forms because it had once
known them fully. This explains the sense of familiarity with
which people grasp a new point. –This aspect was illustrated in
the MATRIX with the computer uploads into the mind.

• Within Horror Films, popular themes include the soul and the
body; past lives, what it means to be human. – E.g. Skeleton
Key/Silent Hill.

• Aristotle, Plato’s student, accused Plato of being too idealistic in

his claims regarding the moral potential of human beings in
general for whom, the expectation to act morally is of greater
importance than the pursuit of the highest Good for its own sake.

Summary

 The Socratic Method = systematic questioning in search for an

acceptable definition of a word/concept/idea.

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  This is known as the question-and-answer method of
philosophising (dialect) which he used in conjunction with his
pretence of ignorance (known as Socratic irony).

 This method typically involves two speakers at any one time,

with one leading the discussion and the other agreeing to certain
assumptions put forward for his acceptance or rejection.

 Socrates stated that the highest duty of the individual is the

improvement of the soul through rational enquiry, argumentation
and discourse.

 Socrates focused on solving Moral Dilemmas/Moral Premises.

 Plato’s ethical theory is thus based on the assumption that

humankind is potentially omniscient, and that this potential
omniscience makes possible moral perfection, which coincides
with insight or knowledge of the Form or Idea of the Good.

 Plato argues for the existence of Beauty, Courage, Truth etc as if

these ideas (Forms) exist objectively, with the Form of “the
Good” being superior to other Forms.

 Plato stipulated that the ordinary world we know through our five
senses cannot be fully real. The world according to Plato is filled
with change and decay.

 The main implication is that Plato views our moral existence on

earth in terms of abstaining from physical pleasure. He makes a
clear distinction between the body and the soul, known as
dualism.

References:

• Ally, M. & Tsie, S. S. (2004). Introduction to Western Philosophy

PLS103-3. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Task

• The process of filmmaking provides a filmmaker with multiple

opportunities to use his or her craft for a variety of reasons;
these include entertainment value, delivery of information and
investigation.

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• Like the great philosophers Plato and Socrates, film can be used
to probe important questions such as, “Who are we?” “Where do
we come from?” and “Is there more to life than what we know?”

• In a 50-word paragraph, identify what you feel is the central

philosophical question asked by The Matrix?

• Does it question the meaning of life? Does it comment on

society? What does it say about the relationship between man
and technology?

• Please ensure you hand in this assignment on the 10th of

March during the allocated assessment slot on your
timetable.