The Alchemist Research Paper

Alchemist Paper

Plato’s love of universal arts and his quick comprehension, gave him the desire to be active in his work of Socratic thinking and mathematical learning in philosophy. He verifies the difference between thinking and knowing by stating, “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” (Aequitas, “Knowledge and Opinions”). Through this he makes the connection that thinking and knowing is similar to the concept of knowledge and ignorance. One’s opinion on a subject is what one thinks about in their own mind, but knowledge is facts, or the universal knowing. Some scholars, upon, did not agree with the teachings of Plato and his knowledge of the alchemical processes. After the death of Socrates, his mentor, Plato devoted himself

Due to Plato being part of the famous trinity of Socrates, himself, and Aristotle, Plato was not only taught by a great philosopher but also gained more knowledge through his encounter of teaching another known philosopher. Plato learned methods from Socrates, who was a legendary philosopher and was eventually considered the father of western philosophy. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Out of Plato comes all things written and debated by men of thought--Plato is philosophy and philosophy Plato” which also explains how great of a philosopher Plato turned out to be (Bosworth, “The lives of Plato and Socrates”). Plato’s fast ability of understanding and his want to learn is very similar to Santiago, in The Alchemist (Coelho). Santiago was thought to not even be able to read, but soon revealed his love of reading and writing early in the novel when he meets the young girl in Andalusia. Surprisingly, he was adequately educated himself, despite his inability to go to

He taught many of his works in his academy such as, Spuria, Epigrams, Structures, Analogies, Themes, Metaphysics, Theory of Forms, Epistemology, Platonic Scholarship, and many more. His Academy was known for philosophy, but he also incorporated arts such as dance, music, architecture, drama, ethics, and morality. In the Academy, the classes and teachings were not split up into groups but were all under the same category. This relates to alchemy through the fact that Plato combined many different subjects under one universal category, art. The Academy was not a school, but was actually a group of people that came together to be taught by Plato and learn his philosophy and teachings (Martin, “An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander”). He was the only teacher and mostly just gave lectures and taught his beliefs, philosophy, and Socratic methods. Though some of his teachings were not scientifically correct, many young philosophers still looked up to him as a great teacher. Plato taught his students that people as a whole want to be part of something higher, which unites everything into a single harmonious whole (Herman, "5 Reasons Why Plato and Aristotle Still Matter