Plato and Fredinand de sassure

-Mridu Agarwal CD L1

Fredinand De Sassure – Quick Intro • He was a Swiss linguist, where he was often referred

to as the founder of modern linguistics (study of nature/structure and a variation of language).

• He is also known as one of the founder father of semiotics.

• Wrote ’Course in General Linguistics’ - book. Here he explained that there is a relationship between speech and the development of language, investigating language as a structured system of signs.

• His study consisted of two part: concept of meaning and sound image.

Course in general linguistic “linguistic units”, “sound-images” and

”concepts” refers to the mental processes that create these entities. It doesn’t refer to spoken or written words, but to the mental impressions made on our senses by a certain ‘thing.’ It is our perception, or how we view this ‘thing,’ together with the sound system of our language that creates the two-part mental linguistic unit referred to as a ‘sign.’

For Example :

What is a signifier? Signifier is the object itself.

It can be words, written or oral. The brain then exchange the signifier for a working definition.

Signifier is also known as the concept.

For example: Baking associates with cakes, Zombies with horror films, social media with facebook.

What is signified?

What the signifier refers to (what it connotes). Here it points to the signified but has a deeper meaning. It is also known as sound image. A prime example of this can be seen with vampires= scary, supernatural, menacing, Dracula, bloodsucker, fangs.

Baking = Oven, dry heating, food. Social media = facebook, twiiter, instagram.

Plato- Quick Introduction Plato was a philosopher in Classical

Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his most-famous student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.

Famous for.. Plato wrote extensively and most of his writings survived.

His works are in the form of dialogues, where several characters argue a topic by asking questions of each other. This form allows Plato to raise various points of view and let the reader decide which is valid. Plato expounded a form of dualism, where there is a world of ideal forms separate from the world of perception. The most famous exposition of this is his metaphor of the Cave, where people living in a cave are only able to see flickering shadows projected on the wall of the external reality. This influenced many later thinkers, particularly the Neoplatonists and the Gnostics, and is similar to views held by some schools of Hindu dualistic metaphysics.

Early Dailogues In these dialogues, Socrates is the central character,

and is believed to be expressing his own views. These are the only remaining record of Socrates' teachings; hence these are known as the Socratic dialogues.

1. Apology (The death of Socorates) 2. Crito 3. Charmides, or temperance 4. Laches or courage 5. Lysis or friendship 6. Euthypro 7. Ion

Middle Dailogues In these dialogues, Plato begins expressing his own views, in the

guise of Socrates. The Symposium and Republic are the most important works in this period.

1. Gorgias 2. Protagoras 3. Meno 4. Euthydemus 5. Cratylus 6. Phaedo 7. Phaedrus 8. Symposium 9. The republic 10. Thaetetus 11. Parmenidus

Late Dailogues The later dialogues are deeper developments of

the philosophy expressed in the earlier ones; these are the most difficult of Plato's works.

1. Sophist 2. Statesman 3. Philebus 4. Timaeus 5. Critias 6. Laws 7. The seventh letter