Plato (pronounced /ˈpleɪtoʊ/, Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "broad"[2]; 428/427 BCE[a] – 348/347 BCE), was a Classical Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavily influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and still has an enduring effect on European civilization. Much of modern politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, literature, and philosophy derives from this ancient society. In the context of the art, architecture, and Greek The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world philosopher Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the, mathematician A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study or research, or both, is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts. Some notable mathematicians include Sir Isaac Newton, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwā, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy The Academy was founded by Plato in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for nineteen years before founding his own school at the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. Although philosophers continued to teach Plato's in Athens The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis (city-state) of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias. This system remained remarkably stable,, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical. Along with his mentor, Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most, and his student, Aristotle Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies and science Science is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about nature and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experimentation,.[3] Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by his apparently unjust execution.

Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues Socratic dialogue is a genre of prose literary works developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC, preserved today in the dialogues of Plato and the Socratic works of Xenophon - either dramatic or narrative - in which characters discuss moral and philosophical problems, illustrating a version of the Socratic method. Socrates is often; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.

Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the, logic Logic is the study of reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. Logic examines general forms which arguments may take, which forms are valid, and which are fallacies. It is one kind of critical thinking. In philosophy, the study of logic, rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively. It involves three audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the five canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient and mathematics Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Main article: Early life of Plato Plato (c. 428/427 BC–c. 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks–Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle–who between them are said to have laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture

Birth and family

The definite place and time of Plato's birth are not known, but what is certain is that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina Aegina (Greek: Αίγινα ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles (27 km) from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era[b] between 429 and 423 BCE.[a] His father was Ariston Ariston of Collytus, was the father of the Greek philosopher Plato (originally named Aristocles). Legend holds that he was descended from the ancient kings of Athens. Ariston died when Plato was still a boy, and his mother Perictione remarried Pyrilampes, a friend of the Athenian politician Pericles.1. According to a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laertius , was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens Before the Athenian democracy, the tyrants, and the archons, the city-state of Athens was ruled by kings. Most of these are probably mythical or only semi-historical. This list is based on that given by Eusebius of Caesarea, Codrus Codrus , King of Athens (r. ca 1089-1068 BC) was, according to Greek legend, the last of the legendary Kings of Athens, and the king of Messenia Messenia or Messinia is a prefecture in the Peloponnese, a region of Greece. Messenia is bounded on the east by Mount Taygetus, on the north by the river Neda and the Arcadian Mountains, and on the west and south by the Mediterranean Sea, more specifically on the west by the Ionian Sea, and on the south by the Gulf of Messenia. The plain is, Melanthus In Greek mythology, Melanthus was a king of Messenia. He was expelled by Heraclids, and became later on a king of Athens, the successor of Thymoetes, succeeded by Codrus.[4] Plato's mother was Perictione Perictione was the Greek mother of Plato. She was a descendant of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver. She was married to Ariston, and had three sons — Glaucon, Adeimantus, and Plato — and a daughter, Potone. After Ariston's death, she remarried Pyrilampes, her own uncle, and a friend of the Athenian statesman, with whom she had a fifth child, the, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker A legislator is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are usually politicians and are often elected by the people. Legislatures may be supra-national (for example, the United Nations General Assembly), national (for example, the United States Congress), regional (for example, the and lyric poet Lyric poetry is usually a form of poetry with rhyming schemes that express personal feelings. It does not need to, but can, be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis. The lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era, does have some thematic Solon Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens. His reforms failed in the short term yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.[5] Perictione was sister of Charmides Charmides was an Athenian statesman and one of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Uncle of Plato, Charmides appears in the Platonic dialogue bearing his name, as well as in Xenophon. He was killed in 403 BC when the democrats returned to Athens and niece of Critias Critias , born in Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. Some, like Sextus Empiricus, believe that, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants The Thirty Tyrants were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in April 404 BC. Contemporary Athenians referred to them simply as "the oligarchy" or "the Thirty"; the expression "Thirty Tyrants" is due to later historians. Its two leading members were Critias and, the brief oligarchic An oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, military control, or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words "ὀλίγος" (olígos), "a few" and the verb "ἄρχω" (archo), "to regime In politics, a regime is the form of government: the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of government and its interactions with society. For instance, the United States has one of the oldest regimes still active in the world, dating to the ratification of its Constitution in 1789. Although modern usage often, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 B.C., was an ancient Greek war, fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy (404-403 BCE).[6] Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus Adeimantus of Collytus was the name of an elder brother and nephew of Ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Plato mentions his nephew in his will, and his brother in The Republic and Glaucon Glaucon (born circa 445 BC) son of Ariston, was the philosopher Plato's older brother. He is primarily known as a major conversant with Socrates in the Republic, and the questioner during the Allegory of the Cave. He is also referenced briefly in the beginnings of two dialogues of Plato: Parmenides and the Symposium, and a daughter Potone Potone daughter of Ariston and Perictione, was Plato's older sister. Her mother was Perictione and she was born in Collytus, just outside of Athens. She married Eurymedon of Myrrhinus, by whom she bore Speusippus and a daughter, the mother of Speusippus Speusippus was an ancient Greek philosopher. Speusippus was Plato's nephew by his sister Potone. After Plato's death, Speusippus inherited the Academy and remained its head for the next eight years. However, following a stroke, he passed the chair to Xenocrates. Although the successor to Plato in the Academy, he frequently diverged from Plato's (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy).[6] According to the Republic The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written c. 380 B.C.E.. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and Plato's best known work. In Plato's fictional dialogues the characters of Socrates as well as various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and examine whether the just man is, Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato.[7] Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the 4th century BC, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and the life of ancient Greece presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.[8]

Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed of his purpose; then the ancient Greek god The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. The classical scheme of the Twelve Olympians (the Canonical Twelve of art and poetry) comprises Apollo In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and appeared to him in a vision, and, as a result of it, Ariston left Perictione unmolested.[9] Another legend related that, while he was sleeping as an infant, bees had settled on the lips of Plato; an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy.[10]

Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult.[11] Perictione then married Pyrilampes Pyrilampes was an ancient Athenian politician and stepfather of the philosopher Plato. His dates of birth and death are unknown; according to estimations of Debra Nails he must have been born after 480 BC, and he must have died before 413 BC, her mother's brother,[12] who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court The Achaemenid Empire , also known as the Persian Empire, was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, which encompassed the combined territories of several earlier empires and was a friend of Pericles Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BC, Greek: Περικλῆς, meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens.[13] Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty.[14] Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides Parmenides is one of the dialogues of Plato. It is widely considered to be one of, if not the most, challenging and enigmatic of Plato's dialogues.[15]

In contrast to his reticence about himself, Plato used to introduce his distinguished relatives into his dialogues, or to mention them with some precision: Charmides has one named after him; Critias speaks in both Charmides The Charmides is a dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of sophrosyne, a Greek word usually translated into English as "temperance", "self-control", or "restraint". As is typical with Platonic dialogues, the two never arrive at a completely and Protagoras Protagoras is a dialogue of Plato. The main argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated sophist, and Socrates. The discussion takes place at the home of Callias, who is host to Protagoras while he is in town, and concerns the teachability of virtue. A total of twenty-one people are named as present; Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent parts in the Republic The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written c. 380 B.C.E.. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and Plato's best known work. In Plato's fictional dialogues the characters of Socrates as well as various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and examine whether the just man is.[16] From these and other references one can reconstruct his family tree, and this suggests a considerable amount of family pride. According to Burnet, "the opening scene of the Charmides is a glorification of the whole [family] connection ... Plato's dialogues are not only a memorial to Socrates, but also the happier days of his own family".[17]

Name

According to Diogenes Laërtius, the philosopher was named Aristocles after his grandfather, but his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, dubbed him "Platon", meaning "broad," on account of his robust figure.[18] According to the sources mentioned by Diogenes (all dating from the Alexandrian period), Plato derived his name from the breadth (platytês) of his eloquence, or else because he was very wide (platýs) across the forehead.[19] In the 21st century some scholars disputed Diogenes, and argued that the legend about his name being Aristocles originated in the Hellenistic age.[c]

Education

Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study".[20] Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time.[21] Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian games.[22] Plato had also attended courses of philosophy; before meeting Socrates, he first became acquainted with Cratylus (a disciple of Heraclitus, a prominent pre-Socratic Greek philosopher) and the Heraclitean doctrines.[23]

Later life

Plato may have traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene.[24] Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus.[25] The Academy was "a large enclosure of ground that was once the property of a citizen at Athens named Academus... some, however, say that it received its name from an ancient hero",[26] and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of Christianity. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.[27]

Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysus. During this first trip Dionysus's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato was sold into slavery and almost faced death in Cyrene, a city at war with Athens, before an admirer bought Plato's freedom and sent him home. After Dionysius's death, according to Plato's Seventh Letter, Dion requested Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysus II and guide him to become a philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but he became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysus expelled Dion and kept Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysus and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

Plato and Socrates

Plato and Socrates in a medieval depiction

The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Plato makes it clear, especially in his Apology of Socrates, that he was Socrates' most devoted young follower. In that dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Later, Plato is mentioned along with Crito, Critobolus, and Apollodorus as offering to pay a fine of 30 minas on Socrates' behalf, in lieu of the death penalty proposed by Meletus (38b). In the Phaedo, the title character lists those who were in attendance at the prison on Socrates' last day, explaining Plato's absence by saying, "Plato was ill" (Phaedo 59b).

Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. In the Second Letter, it says, "no writing of Plato exists or ever will exist, but those now said to be his are those of a Socrates become beautiful and new" (341c); if the Letter is Plato's, the final qualification seems to call into question the dialogues' historical fidelity. In any case, Xenophon and Aristophanes seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates than Plato paints. Some have called attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation for irony.[28]

Aristotle attributes a different doctrine with respect to the ideas to Plato and Socrates (Metaphysics 987b1–11). Putting it in a nutshell, Aristotle merely suggests that his idea of forms, can be discovered through investigation of the natural world, unlike Plato's Forms that exist beyond and outside the ordinary range, of human understanding.

Philosophy

Recurrent themes

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms

Plato often discusses the father-son relationship and the "question" of whether a father's interest in his sons has much to do with how well his sons turn out. A boy in ancient Athens was socially located by his family identity, and Plato often refers to his characters in terms of their paternal and fraternal relationships. Socrates was not a family man, and saw himself as the son of his mother, who was apparently a midwife. A divine fatalist, Socrates mocks men who spent exorbitant fees on tutors and trainers for their sons, and repeatedly ventures the idea that good character is a gift from the gods. Crito reminds Socrates that orphans are at the mercy of chance, but Socrates is unconcerned. In the Theaetetus, he is found recruiting as a disciple a young man whose inheritance has been squandered. Socrates twice compares the relationship of the older man and his boy lover to the father-son relationship (Lysis 213a, Republic 3.403b), and in the Phaedo, Socrates' disciples, towards whom he displays more concern than his biological sons, say they will feel "fatherless" when he is gone.

In several dialogues, Socrates floats the idea that Knowledge is a matter of recollection, and not of learning, observation, or study.[29] He maintains this view somewhat at his own expense, because in many dialogues, Socrates complains of his forgetfulness. Socrates is often found arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. In many middle period dialogues, such as the Phaedo, Republic and Phaedrus Plato advocates a belief in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. More than one dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul.

Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. In Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literature that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.

On politics and art, religion and science, justice and medicine, virtue and vice, crime and punishment, pleasure and pain, rhetoric and rhapsody, human nature and sexuality, love and wisdom, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say.

Metaphysics

Main article: Platonic realism

"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world. In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the Theaetetus, he says such people are "eu a-mousoi", an expression that means literally, "happily without the muses" (Theaetetus 156a). In other words, such people live without the divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to higher insights about reality.

Socrates's idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his allegory of the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. The allegory of the cave (begins Republic 7.514a) is a paradoxical analogy wherein Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible ("noeton") and that the visible world ("(h)oraton") is the least knowable, and the most obscure.

Socrates says in the Republic that people who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good and real are living pitifully in a den of evil and ignorance. Socrates admits that few climb out of the den, or cave of ignorance, and those who do, not only have a terrible struggle to attain the heights, but when they go back down for a visit or to help other people up, they find themselves objects of scorn and ridicule.

According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists (although it is not clear where) and his own trial would be a cheap copy of it.

The allegory of the cave (often said by scholars to represent Plato's own epistemology and metaphysics) is intimately connected to his political ideology (often said to also be Plato's own), that only people who have climbed out of the cave and cast their eyes on a vision of goodness are fit to rule. Socrates claims that the enlightened men of society must be forced from their divine contemplations and compelled to run the city according to their lofty insights. Thus is born the idea of the "philosopher-king", the wise person who accepts the power thrust upon him by the people who are wise enough to choose a good master. This is the main thesis of Socrates in the Republic, that the most wisdom the masses can muster is the wise choice of a ruler.

The word metaphysics derives from the fact that Aristotle's musings about divine reality came after ("meta") his lecture notes on his treatise on nature ("physics"). The term is in fact applied to Aristotle's own teacher, and Plato's "metaphysics" is understood as Socrates' division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual. The theory has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western philosophy and religion.

Theory of Forms

Main article: Theory of Forms

The Theory of Forms (Greek: ιδέες) typically refers to the belief expressed by Socrates in some of Plato's dialogues, that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image or copy of the real world. Socrates spoke of forms in formulating a solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to Socrates, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and see around us, that can only be perceived by reason (Greek: λογική); (that is, they are universals). In other words, Socrates sometimes seems to recognise two worlds, the apparent world which is constantly changing, and the permanent and heavenly world of ideas (forms) which is a more unchanging cause of what is apparent.

Epistemology

Main article: Platonic epistemology

Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view that informed future developments in modern analytic epistemology. This interpretation is based on a reading of the Theaetetus wherein Plato argues that belief is to be distinguished from knowledge on account of justification. Many years later, Edmund Gettier famously demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. This interpretation, however, imports modern analytic and empiricist categories onto Plato himself and is better read on its own terms than as Plato's view.

Really, in the Sophist, Statesman, Republic, and the Parmenides Plato himself associates knowledge with the apprehension of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in Dialectic). More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. In other words, if one derives one's account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. And opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On the other hand, if one derives one's account of something by way of the non-sensible forms, because these forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. It is only in this sense that Plato uses the term "knowledge".

In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by recollection. Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be present, Socrates concludes, in an eternal, non-experiential form.

The State

Papirus Oxyrhynchus, with fragment of Plato's Republic

Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period, as well as in the Laws and the Statesman. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases.

Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes of society.[30]

According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:

"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (Republic 473c-d)
Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom

Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. According to him, sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings.

However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the Republic is qualified by Socrates as the ideal luxurious city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (Republic 372e). According to Socrates, the "true" and "healthy" city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the Republic, 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as "perfumed oils, incense, prostitutes, and pastries", in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and hunters, and war.

In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body. Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act according to wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists.

Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better—a bad democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be a bad democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing many bad deeds.) This is emphasised within the Republic as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship.[31] Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited through ailments, the tyrant. Plato's description of this event is parallel to that of democracy within the state and the inherent problems that arise.

According to Plato, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant)[citation needed].

Unwritten Doctrine

For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine[32][33][34] had been considered unworthy of attention. Most of the books on Plato seem to diminish its importance. Nevertheless the first important witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his Physics (209 b) writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i.e. in Timaeus] of the participant is different from what he says in his so-called unwritten teaching (ἄγραφα δόγματα)." The term ἄγραφα δόγματα literally means unwritten doctrine and it stands for the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato, which he disclosed only to his most trusted fellows and kept secret from the public.

The reason for not revealing it to everyone is partially discussed in Phaedrus (276 c) where Plato criticizes the written transmission of knowledge as faulty, favoring instead the spoken logos: "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and beautiful ... will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words, which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot teach the truth effectually." The same argument is repeated in Plato's Seventh Letter (344 c): "every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing." In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare concerning all these writers who claim to know the subjects that I seriously study ... there does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any treatise of mine dealing therewith." Such secrecy is necessary in order not "to expose them to unseemly and degrading treatment" (344 d).

It is however said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to the public in his lecture On the Good (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ), in which the Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν), the fundamental ontological principle. The content of this lecture has been transmitted by several witnesses, among others Aristoxenus who describes the event in the following words: "Each came expecting to learn something about the things that are generally considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful happiness. But when the mathematical demonstrations came, including numbers, geometrical figures and astronomy, and finally the statement Good is One seemed to them, I imagine, utterly unexpected and strange; hence some belittled the matter, while others rejected it." Simplicius quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias who states that "according to Plato, the first principles of everything, including the Forms themselves are One and Indefinite Duality (ἡ ἀόριστος δυάς), which he called Large and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν) ... one might also learn this from Speusippus and Xenocrates and the others who were present at Plato's lecture on the Good"

Their account is in full agreement with Aristotle's description of Plato's metaphysical doctrine. In Metaphysics he writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τὸ ἕν), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One" (987 b). "From this account it is clear that he only employed two causes: that of the essence, and the material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible things, and the One in that of the Forms - that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς), the Great and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν). Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively the causation of good and of evil" (988 a).

The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus[35] or Ficino[36] which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. A modern scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten doctrine of Plato was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930.[37] All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica.[38] These sources have subsequently been interpreted by scholars from the German Tübingen School such as Hans Joachim Krämer or Thomas A. Szlezák.[39]

Works

Part of the series on: The Dialogues of Plato
Early dialogues:
Apology – Charmides – Crito
Euthyphro – First Alcibiades
Hippias Major – Hippias Minor
Ion – Laches – Lysis
Transitional & middle dialogues:
Cratylus – Euthydemus – Gorgias
Menexenus – Meno – Phaedo
Protagoras – Symposium
Later middle dialogues:
Republic – Phaedrus
Parmenides – Theaetetus
Late dialogues:
Clitophon – Timaeus – Critias
Sophist – Statesman
Philebus – Laws
Of Doubtful Authenticity:
Axiochus – Demodocus
Epinomis – Epistles – Eryxias
Halcyon – Hipparchus – Minos
Rival Lovers – Second Alcibiades
Sisyphus – Theages
This box:

Thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have traditionally been ascribed to Plato, though modern scholarship doubts the authenticity of at least some of these. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.

The usual system for making unique references to sections of the text by Plato derives from a 16th century edition of Plato's works by Henricus Stephanus. An overview of Plato's writings according to this system can be found in the Stephanus pagination article.

One tradition regarding the arrangement of Plato's texts is according to tetralogies. This scheme is ascribed by Diogenes Laertius to an ancient scholar and court astrologer to Tiberius named Thrasyllus.

In the list below, works by Plato are marked (1) if there is no consensus among scholars as to whether Plato is the author, and (2) if most scholars agree that Plato is not the author of the work. Unmarked works are assumed to have been written by Plato.[40]

The remaining works were transmitted under Plato's name, most of them already considered spurious in antiquity, and so were not included by Thrasyllus in his tetralogical arrangement. These works are labelled as Notheuomenoi ("spurious") or Apocrypha.

Composition of the dialogues

No one knows the exact order Plato's dialogues were written in, nor the extent to which some might have been later revised and rewritten.

Lewis Campbell was the first[41] to make exhaustive use of stylometry to prove objectively that the Critias, Timaeus, Laws, Philebus, Sophist, and Statesman were all clustered together as a group, while the Parmenides, Phaedrus, Republic, and Theaetetus belong to a separate group, which must be earlier (given Aristotle's statement in his Politics[42] that the Laws was written after the Republic; cf. Diogenes Laertius Lives 3.37). What is remarkable about Campbell's conclusions is that, in spite of all the stylometric studies that have been conducted since his time, perhaps the only chronological fact about Plato's works that can now be said to be proven by stylometry is the fact that Critias, Timaeus, Laws, Philebus, Sophist, and Statesman are the latest of Plato's dialogues, the others earlier.[43]

Increasingly in the most recent Plato scholarship, writers are skeptical of the notion that the order of Plato's writings can be established with any precision,[44] though Plato's works are still often characterized as falling at least roughly into three groups.[45] The following represents one relatively common such division.[46] It should, however, be kept in mind that many of the positions in the ordering are still highly disputed, and also that the very notion that Plato's dialogues can or should be "ordered" is by no means universally accepted.

Among those who classify the dialogues into periods of composition, Socrates figures in all of the "early dialogues" and they are considered the most faithful representations of the historical Socrates.[citation needed] They include The Apology of Socrates, Charmides, Crito, Euthyphro, Ion, Laches, Less Hippias, Lysis, Menexenus, and Protagoras (often considered one of the last of the "early dialogues"). Three dialogues are often considered "transitional" or "pre-middle": Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Meno.[citation needed]

Whereas those classified as "early dialogues" often conclude in aporia, the so-called "middle dialogues" provide more clearly stated positive teachings that are often ascribed to Plato such as the theory of forms.[citation needed] These dialogues include Cratylus, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Symposium, Parmenides, and Theaetetus.[citation needed] Proponents of dividing the dialogues into periods often consider the Parmenides and Theaetetus to come late in this period and be transitional to the next, as they seem to treat the theory of forms critically (Parmenides) or not at all (Theaetetus).[citation needed]

The remaining dialogues are classified as "late" and are generally agreed to be difficult and challenging pieces of philosophy.[citation needed] This grouping is the only one proven by stylometic analysis.[43] While looked to for Plato's "mature" answers to the questions posed by his earlier works, those answers are difficult to discern. Some scholars[who?] say that the theory of forms is absent from the late dialogues, its having been refuted in the Parmenides, but there isn't total consensus that the Parmenides actually refutes the theory of forms.[47] The so-called "late dialogues" include Critias, Laws, Philebus, Sophist, Statesman, and Timaeus.[citation needed]

Narration of the dialogues

Plato never presents himself as a participant in any of the dialogues, and with the exception of the Apology, there is no suggestion that he heard any of the dialogues firsthand. Some dialogues have no narrator but have a pure "dramatic" form (examples: Meno, Gorgias, Phaedrus, Crito, Euthyphro), some dialogues are narrated by Socrates, wherein he speaks in first person (examples: Lysis, Charmides, Republic). One dialogue, Protagoras, begins in dramatic form but quickly proceeds to Socrates' narration of a conversation he had previously with the sophist for whom the dialogue is named; this narration continues uninterrupted till the dialogue's end.

Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)

Two dialogues Phaedo and Symposium also begin in dramatic form but then proceed to virtually uninterrupted narration by followers of Socrates. Phaedo, an account of Socrates' final conversation and hemlock drinking, is narrated by Phaedo to Echecrates in a foreign city not long after the execution took place.[48] The Symposium is narrated by Apollodorus, a Socratic disciple, apparently to Glaucon. Apollodorus assures his listener that he is recounting the story, which took place when he himself was an infant, not from his own memory, but as remembered by Aristodemus, who told him the story years ago.

The Theaetetus is a peculiar case: a dialogue in dramatic form imbedded within another dialogue in dramatic form. In the beginning of the Theaetetus (142c-143b), Euclides says that he compiled the conversation from notes he took based on what Socrates told him of his conversation with the title character. The rest of the Theaetetus is presented as a "book" written in dramatic form and read by one of Euclides' slaves (143c). Some scholars take this as an indication that Plato had by this date wearied of the narrated form.[49] With the exception of the Theaetetus, Plato gives no explicit indication as to how these orally transmitted conversations came to be written down.

Trial of Socrates

Main article: Trial of Socrates

The trial of Socrates is the central, unifying event of the great Platonic dialogues. Because of this, Plato's Apology is perhaps the most often read of the dialogues. In the Apology, Socrates tries to dismiss rumors that he is a sophist and defends himself against charges of disbelief in the gods and corruption of the young. Socrates insists that long-standing slander will be the real cause of his demise, and says the legal charges are essentially false. Socrates famously denies being wise, and explains how his life as a philosopher was launched by the Oracle at Delphi. He says that his quest to resolve the riddle of the oracle put him at odds with his fellow man, and that this is the reason he has been mistaken for a menace to the city-state of Athens.

If Plato's important dialogues do not refer to Socrates' execution explicitly, they allude to it, or use characters or themes that play a part in it. Five dialogues foreshadow the trial: In the Theaetetus (210d) and the Euthyphro (2a–b) Socrates tells people that he is about to face corruption charges. In the Meno (94e–95a), one of the men who brings legal charges against Socrates, Anytus, warns him about the trouble he may get into if he does not stop criticizing important people. In the Gorgias, Socrates says that his trial will be like a doctor prosecuted by a cook who asks a jury of children to choose between the doctor's bitter medicine and the cook's tasty treats (521e–522a). In the Republic (7.517e), Socrates explains why an enlightened man (presumably himself) will stumble in a courtroom situation. The Apology is Socrates' defense speech, and the Crito and Phaedo take place in prison after the conviction. In the Protagoras, Socrates is a guest at the home of Callias, son of Hipponicus, a man whom Socrates disparages in the Apology as having wasted a great amount of money on sophists' fees.

Unity and Diversity of the Dialogues

Two other important dialogues, the Symposium and the Phaedrus, are linked to the main storyline by characters. In the Apology (19b, c), Socrates says Aristophanes slandered him in a comic play, and blames him for causing his bad reputation, and ultimately, his death. In the Symposium, the two of them are drinking together with other friends. The character Phaedrus is linked to the main story line by character (Phaedrus is also a participant in the Symposium and the Protagoras) and by theme (the philosopher as divine emissary, etc.) The Protagoras is also strongly linked to the Symposium by characters: all of the formal speakers at the Symposium (with the exception of Aristophanes) are present at the home of Callias in that dialogue. Charmides and his guardian Critias are present for the discussion in the Protagoras. Examples of characters crossing between dialogues can be further multiplied. The Protagoras contains the largest gathering of Socratic associates.

In the dialogues Plato is most celebrated and admired for, Socrates is concerned with human and political virtue, has a distinctive personality, and friends and enemies who "travel" with him from dialogue to dialogue. This is not to say that Socrates is consistent: a man who is his friend in one dialogue may be an adversary or subject of his mockery in another. For example, Socrates praises the wisdom of Euthyphro many times in the Cratylus, but makes him look like a fool in the Euthyphro. He disparages sophists generally, and Prodicus specifically in the Apology, whom he also slyly jabs in the Cratylus for charging the hefty fee of fifty drachmas for a course on language and grammar. However, Socrates tells Theaetetus in his namesake dialogue that he admires Prodicus and has directed many pupils to him. Socrates' ideas are also not consistent within or between or among dialogues.

Platonic Scholarship

"The safest general characterisation of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929).

Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". However, in the Byzantine Empire, the study of Plato continued.

The Medieval scholastic philosophers did not have access to the works of Plato, nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from Constantinople in the century of its fall, by George Gemistos Plethon. It is believed that Plethon passed a copy of the Dialogues to Cosimo de' Medici when in 1438 the Council of Ferrara, called to unify the Greek and Latin Churches, was adjourned to Florence, where Plethon then lectured on the relation and differences of Plato and Aristotle, and fired Cosimo with his enthusiasm.[citation needed] Medieval scholars knew of Plato only through translations into Latin from the translations into Arabic by Persian and Arab scholars. These scholars not only translated the texts of the ancients, but expanded them by writing extensive commentaries and interpretations on Plato's and Aristotle's works (see Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes).

Only in the Renaissance, with the general resurgence of interest in classical civilization, did knowledge of Plato's philosophy become widespread again in the West. Many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with Scholasticism and fostered the flowering of the Renaissance, with the support of the Plato-inspired Lorenzo de Medici, saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. By the 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's.

Notable Western philosophers have continued to draw upon Plato's work since that time. Plato's influence has been especially strong in mathematics and the sciences. He helped to distinguish between pure and applied mathematics by widening the gap between "arithmetic", now called Number Theory and "logistic", now called arithmetic. He regarded logistic as appropriate for business men and men of war who "must learn the art of numbers or he will not know how to array his troops," while arithmetic was appropriate for philosophers "because he has to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being."[50] Plato's resurgence further inspired some of the greatest advances in logic since Aristotle, primarily through Gottlob Frege and his followers Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church, and Alfred Tarski; the last of these summarised his approach by reversing the customary paraphrase of Aristotle's famous declaration of sedition from the Academy (Nicomachean Ethics 1096a15), from Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas ("Plato is a friend, but truth is a greater friend") to Inimicus Plato sed magis inimica falsitas ("Plato is an enemy, but falsehood is a greater enemy"). Albert Einstein drew on Plato's understanding of an immutable reality that underlies the flux of appearances for his objections to the probabilistic picture of the physical universe propounded by Niels Bohr in his interpretation of quantum mechanics.[citation needed] Conversely, thinkers that diverged from ontological models and moral ideals in their own philosophy, have tended to disparage Platonism from more or less informed perspectives. Thus Friedrich Nietzsche attacked Plato's moral and political theories, Martin Heidegger argued against Plato's alleged obfuscation of Being, and Karl Popper argued in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) that Plato's alleged proposal for a government system in the Republic was prototypically totalitarian. Leo Strauss is considered by some as the prime thinker involved in the recovery of Platonic thought in its more political, and less metaphysical, form. Deeply influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger, Strauss nonetheless rejects their condemnation of Plato and looks to the dialogues for a solution to what all three thinkers acknowledge as 'the crisis of the West.'

Text history

The oldest surviving manuscript for about half of Plato's dialogues is the Clarke Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39), which was written in Constantinople in 895 and acquired by the Oxford University in 1809.[51]

Criticism

Friedrich Nietzsche set himself in direct opposition to Socrates and Plato, regarding Plato especially as the fundamental source of nihilism in the West.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

a. ^ The grammarian Apollodorus argues in his Chronicles that Plato was born in the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad (427 BCE), on the seventh day of the month Thargelion; according to this tradition the god Apollo was born this day.[52] According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death.[52] If we accept Neanthes' version, Plato was younger than Isocrates by six years, and therefore he was born in the second year of the 87th Olympiad, the year Pericles died (429 BCE).[53] According to the Suda, Plato was born in Aegina in the 88th Olympiad amid the preliminaries of the Peloponnesian war, and he lived 82 years.[54] Sir Thomas Browne also believes that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad.[55] Renaissance Platonists celebrated Plato's birth on November 7.[56] Wilamowitz-Moellendorff estimates that Plato was born when Diotimos was archon eponymous, namely between July 29 428 BCE and July 24 427 BCE.[57] Greek philologist Ioannis Kalitsounakis believes that the philosopher was born on May 26 or 27 427 BCE, while Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BCE as year of Plato's birth.[58] For her part, Debra Nails asserts that the philosopher was born in 424/423 BCE.[56]

b. ^ Diogenes Laertius mentions that Plato "was born, according to some writers, in Aegina in the house of Phidiades the son of Thales". Diogenes mentions as one of his sources the Universal History of Favorinus. According to Favorinus, Ariston, Plato's family, and his family were sent by Athens to settle as cleruchs (colonists retaining their Athenian citizenship), on the island of Aegina, from which they were expelled by the Spartans after Plato's birth there.[59] Nails points out, however, that there is no record of any Spartan expulsion of Athenians from Aegina between 431-411 BCE.[60] On the other hand, at the Peace of Nicias, Aegina was silently left under Athens' control, and it was not until the summer of 411 that the Spartans overran the island.[61] Therefore, Nails concludes that "perhaps Ariston was a cleruch, perhaps he went to Aegina in 431, and perhaps Plato was born on Aegina, but none of this enables a precise dating of Ariston's death (or Plato's birth).[60] Aegina is regarded as Plato's place of birth by Suda as well.[54]

c. ^ Plato was a common name, of which 31 instances are known at Athens alone.[62]

Footnotes

  1. ^ St-Andrews.ac.uk, St. Andrews University
  2. ^ Diogenes Laertius 3.4; p. 21, David Sedley, Plato's Cratylus, Cambridge University Press 2003
  3. ^ "Plato". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002.
  4. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, III * D. Nails, "Ariston", 53 * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
  5. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, I
  6. ^ a b W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy', IV, 10 * A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
  7. ^ Plato, Republic, 2.368a * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
  8. ^ Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.6.1
  9. ^ Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 1 * Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, I "Plato". Suda.
  10. ^ Cicero, De Divinatione, I, 36
  11. ^ D. Nails, "Ariston", 53 * A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv
  12. ^ Plato, Charmides, 158a * D. Nails, "Perictione", 53
  13. ^ Plato, Charmides, 158a * Plutarch, Pericles, IV
  14. ^ Plato, Gorgias, 481d and 513b * Aristophanes, Wasps, 97
  15. ^ Plato, Parmenides, 126c
  16. ^ W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 11
  17. ^ C.H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, 186
  18. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV
  19. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV * A. Notopoulos, The Name of Plato, 135
  20. ^ Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 2
  21. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV * W. Smith, Plato, 393
  22. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, V
  23. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1.987a
  24. ^ McEvoy, James (1984). "Plato and The Wisdom of Egypt". Irish Philosophical Journal (Belfast: Dept. of Scholastic Philosophy, Queen's University of Belfast) 1 (2). ISSN 0266-9080. http://poiesis.nlx.com/display.cfm?clientId=0&advquery=toc.sect.ipj.1.2&infobase=postoc.nfo&softpage=GetClient42&view=browse. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  25. ^ Huntington Cairns, Introduction to Plato: The Collected Dialogues, p. xiii.
  26. ^ Robinson, Arch. Graec. I i 16.
  27. ^ "Biography of Aristotle". ClassicNote. GradeSaver LLC. http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_aristotle.html. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  28. ^ Leo Strauss, The City and Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), 50–1.
  29. ^ Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6.
  30. ^ Gaarder, Jostein (1996). Sophie's World. New York City: Berkley. pp. 91.
  31. ^ The Republic; p282
  32. ^ Rodriguez- Grandjean, Pablo. Philosophy and Dialogue: Plato's Unwritten Doctrines from a Hermeneutical Point of View, Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, in Boston, Massachusetts from August 10–15, 1998.
  33. ^ Reale, Giovanni, and Catan, John R., A History of Ancient Philosophy, SUNY Press, 1990. ISBN 0-7914-0516-8. Cf. p.14 and onwards.
  34. ^ Krämer, Hans Joachim, and Catan, John R., Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics: A Work on the Theory of the Principles and Unwritten Doctrines of Plato with a Collection of the Fundamental Documents, (Translated by John R. Catan), SUNY Press, 1990. ISBN 0-7914-0433-1, Cf. pp.38-47
  35. ^ Plotinus describes this in the last part of his final Ennead (VI, 9) entitled On the Good, or the One (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ ἢ τοῦ ἑνός). Jens Halfwassen states in Der Aufstieg zum Einen (2006) that "Plotinus' ontology—which should be called Plotinus' henology - is a rather accurate philosophical renewal and continuation of Plato's unwritten doctrine, i.e. the doctrine rediscovered by Krämer and Gaiser."
  36. ^ In one of his letters (Epistolae 1612) Ficino writes: "The main goal of the divine Plato ... is to show one principle of things, which he called the One (τὸ ἕν)", cf. Marsilio Ficino, Briefe des Mediceerkreises, Berlin, 1926, p. 147.
  37. ^ H. Gomperz, Plato's System of Philosophy, in: G. Ryle (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Philosophy, London 1931, pp. 426-431. Reprinted in: H. Gomperz, Philosophical Studies, Boston, 1953, pp. 119-24.
  38. ^ K. Gaiser, Testimonia Platonica. Le antiche testimonianze sulle dottrine non scritte di Platone, Milan, 1998. First published as Testimonia Platonica. Quellentexte zur Schule und mündlichen Lehre Platons as an appendix to Gaiser's Platons Ungeschriebene Lehre, Stuttgart, 1963.
  39. ^ For a bried description of the problem see for example K. Gaiser, Plato's enigmatic lecture "On the Good", Phronesis 25 (1980), pp. 5-37. A detailed analysis is given by Krämer in his Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics: A Work on the Theory of the Principles and Unwritten Doctrines of Plato With a Collection of the Fundamental Documents, Albany: SUNY Press, 1990. Another good description is by Giovanni Reale: Toward a New Interpretation of Plato, Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1997. Reale summarizes the results of his research in A History of Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle, Albany: SUNY Press, 1990. However the most complete analysis of the consequences of such an approach is given by Thomas A. Szlezak in his fundamental Reading Plato, New York: Routledge, 1999. Another supporter of this interpretation is the german philosopher Karl Albert, cf. Griechische Religion und platonische Philosophie, Hamburg, 1980 or Einführung in die philosophische Mystik, Darmstadt, 1996. Hans-Georg Gadamer is also sympathetic towards it, cf. J. Grondin, Gadamer and the Tübingen School and Gadamer's 1968 article Plato's Unwritten Dialectic reprinted in his Dialogue and Dialectic. Gadamer's final position on the subject is stated in his introduction to La nuova interpretazione di Platone. Un dialogo tra Hans-Georg Gadamer e la scuola di Tubinga, Milano 1998.
  40. ^ The extent to which scholars consider a dialogue to be authentic is noted in John M. Cooper, ed., Complete Works, by Plato (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997), v–vi.
  41. ^ p. 9, John Burnet, Platonism, University of California Press 1928.
  42. ^ 1264b24-27
  43. ^ a b p. xiv, J. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works, Hackett 1997.
  44. ^ Richard Kraut, "Plato", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed 24 June 2008; Malcolm Schofield (1998, 2002), "Plato", in E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge.com, accessed 24 June 2008; Christopher Rowe, "Interpreting Plato", in H. Benson (ed.), A Companion to Plato, Blackwell 2006.
  45. ^ T. Brickhouse & N. Smith, "Plato", The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed 24 June 2008.
  46. ^ See W. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press 1975; G. Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher, Cambridge University Press 1991; T. Penner, "Socrates and the Early Dialogues", in R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato, Cambridge University Press 1992; C. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, Cambridge University Press 1996; G. Fine, Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, Oxford University Press 1999.
  47. ^ Constance Chu Meinwald, Plato's Parmenides (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
  48. ^ "The time is not long after the death of Socrates; for the Pythagoreans [Echecrates & co.] have not heard any details yet" (J. Burnet, Plato's Phaedo, Oxford 1911, p. 1.
  49. ^ sect. 177, J. Burnet, Greek Philosophy, MacMillan 1950.
  50. ^ Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The age of Plato and Aristotle". A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp. 86. ISBN 0471543977. "Plato is important in the history of mathematics largely for his role as inspirer and director of others, and perhaps to him is due the sharp distinction in ancient Greece between arithmetic (in the sense of the theory of numbers) and logistic (the technique of computation). Plato regarded logistic as appropriate for the businessman and for the man of war, who "must learn the art of numbers or he will not know how to array his troops." The philosopher, on the other hand, must be an arithmetician "because he has to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being.""
  51. ^ Manuscripts - Philosophy Faculty Library
  52. ^ a b Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, II
  53. ^ F.W. Nietzsche, Werke, 32
  54. ^ a b "Plato". Suda.
  55. ^ T. Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, XII
  56. ^ a b D. Nails, The Life of Plato of Athens, 1
  57. ^ U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
  58. ^ "Plato". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002. | birth_place = *"Plato". Encyclopaedic Dictionary The Helios Volume V (in Greek). 1952.
  59. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, III
  60. ^ a b D. Nails, "Ariston", 54
  61. ^ Thucydides, 5.18 | birth_place = * Thucydides, 8.92
  62. ^ W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 10 * L. Tarán, Plato's Alleged Epitaph, 61

References

Primary sources (Greek and Roman)

Secondary sources

Further reading

External links

English Wikisource has original text related to this article: Plato
Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Platon
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Plato
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Plato
Links to related articles
Platonists
Academics
Old Plato · Speusippus · Heraclides Ponticus · Menedemus of Pyrrha · Eudoxus of Cnidus · Philip of Opus · Xenocrates · Crantor · Polemon · Crates of Athens
Middle Arcesilaus · Lacydes · Telecles · Evander · Hegesinus
New Carneades · Clitomachus · Charmadas · Philo of Larissa
Middle Platonists Antiochus · Philo of Alexandria · Plutarch · Albinus · Alcinous · Atticus · Maximus of Tyre · Numenius of Apamea · Longinus · Origen the Pagan
Neoplatonists Ammonius Saccas · Plotinus · Disciples of Plotinus · Amelius · Porphyry · Iamblichus · Sopater · Sosipatra · Aedesius · Dexippus · Chrysanthius · Julian · Sallustius · Maximus of Ephesus · Eusebius of Myndus · Antoninus · Hypatia · Plutarch of Athens · Macrobius · Asclepigenia · Hierocles · Syrianus · Hermias · Aedesia · Proclus · Ammonius Hermiae · Asclepiodotus · Marinus · Hegias · Isidore · Damascius · Simplicius · Priscian · Olympiodorus
Ancient Greece topics
Timeline Cycladic civilization · Minoan civilization · Mycenaean civilization · Greek Dark Ages · Archaic period · Classical Greece · Hellenistic Greece · Roman Greece
Geography Aegean Sea · Hellespont · Macedonia · Sparta · Athens · Corinth · Thebes · Thermopylae · Ionian Sea · Ionia · Aeolis · Doris · Antioch · Alexandria · Pergamon · Miletus · Ephesus · Delphi · Delos · Olympia · Troy · Rhodes · Crete · Peloponnesus · Epirus · Cyprus · Pontus · Magna Grecia · Ancient Greek Colonies
Life Agriculture · Cuisine · Democracy · Economy · Education · Festivals · Law · Prostitution · Religion · Slavery · Olympic Games · Philosophy · Warfare · Wine
People
Philosophers Anaxagoras · Anaximander · Anaximenes · Antisthenes · Aristotle · Democritus · Diogenes of Sinope · Epicurus · Empedocles · Heraclitus · Leucippus · Gorgias · Parmenides · Plato · Protagoras · Pythagoras · Socrates · Thales · Zeno
Authors Aeschylus · Aesop · Aristophanes · Euripides · Herodotus · Hesiod · Homer · Lucian · Menander · Pindar · Plutarch · Polybius · Sappho · Sophocles · Thucydides · Xenophon
Others

Alexander the Great · Alcibiades · Archimedes · Aspasia · Demosthenes · Euclid · Hipparchus · Hippocrates · Leonidas · Lycurgus · Milo of Croton · Pericles · Ptolemy · Solon · Themistocles
Buildings Parthenon · Temple of Artemis · Acropolis · Ancient Agora · Temple of Zeus at Olympia · Temple of Hephaestus · Samothrace temple complex
Arts Architecture · Coinage · Literature · Music · Pottery · Sculpture · Theatre
Sciences Astronomy · Mathematics · Medicine · Technology
Language Proto-Greek · Mycenaean · Homeric · Dialects (Aeolic • Arcadocypriot • Attic • Doric • Ionic • Locrian • Macedonian • Pamphylian) · Koine
Writing Linear A · Linear B · Greek alphabet · Western Greek script
Metaphysics
Related articles

Cosmology · Epistemology · Ontology · Teleology · Philosophy of psychology · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of space and time · Axiology · Theoretical physics · meta-
Concepts in metaphysics

Action · Abstract object · Being · Category of being · Causality · Change · Choice · Concept · Cogito ergo sum · Embodied cognition · Entity · Essence · Existence · Experience · Form · Idea · Identity · Information · Insight · Intelligence · Intention · Matter · Memetics · Mind · Meaning · Mental representation · Modality · Motion · Necessity · Notion · Object · Pattern · Physical object · Perception · Principle · Properties · Qualia · Quality · Reality · Self · Subject · Substance · Thought · Time · Truth · Type · Unity · Universal · Unobservable · Value · more ...
Metaphysical theories

Anti-realism · Cartesian dualism · Free will · Liberty · Materialism · Meaning of life · Idealism · Existentialism · Essentialism · Libertarianism · Determinism · Naturalism · Monism · Platonic idealism · Hindu idealism · Phenomenalism · Nihilism · Realism · Physicalism · MOQ · Relativism · Scientific realism · Solipsism · Subjectivism · Substance theory · Type theory
Metaphysicians

Parmenides · Plato · Aristotle · Plotinus · Duns Scotus · Thomas Aquinas · René Descartes · John Locke · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Isaac Newton · Arthur Schopenhauer · Baruch Spinoza · Georg W. F. Hegel · George Berkeley · Gottfried Leibniz · Henri Bergson · Friedrich Nietzsche · Charles Sanders Peirce · Ludwig Wittgenstein · Martin Heidegger · Alfred N. Whitehead · Bertrand Russell · Dorothy Emmet · G. E. Moore · Jean-Paul Sartre · Gilbert Ryle · Hilary Putnam · P. F. Strawson · R. G. Collingwood · Adolph Stöhr · Rudolf Carnap · Saul Kripke · Willard V. O. Quine · Donald Davidson · more ...
Portal · Category · Task Force · · Discussion
Epistemology
Related articles

Outline of epistemology · Alethiology · Formal epistemology · Meta-epistemology · Philosophy of perception · Philosophy of science · Faith and rationality · Theaetetus
Concepts in epistemology

Knowledge · Justification · Belief · Perception · A priori knowledge · Induction · Other minds · Analytic-synthetic distinction · Causality · Common sense · Descriptive knowledge · Gettier problem · Objectivity · Analysis · Proposition · Regress argument · Simplicity · Speculative reason · Truth · more... ·
Epistemological theories

Coherentism · Constructivist epistemology · Contextualism · Determinism · Empiricism · Fallibilism · Foundationalism · Holism · Infinitism · Innatism · Internalism and externalism · Naïve realism · Naturalized epistemology · Objectivist epistemology · Phenomenalism · Positivism · Reductionism · Reliabilism · Representative realism · Rationalism · Skepticism · Theory of Forms · Transcendental idealism · Uniformitarianism
Epistemologists

Thomas Aquinas · Robert Audi · A.J. Ayer · George Berkeley · Laurence BonJour · René Descartes · Edmund Gettier · Alvin Goldman · Nelson Goodman · Paul Grice · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Søren Kierkegaard · John Locke · G. E. Moore · Robert Nozick · Alvin Plantinga · Plato · Louis Pojman · P. F. Strawson · W.V.O. Quine · Bertrand Russell · Ludwig Wittgenstein · Vienna Circle ·
Portal · Category · Task Force · · Discussion
Social and political philosophy
Related articles

Philosophy of economics · Philosophy of education · Philosophy of history · Jurisprudence · Philosophy of social science · Philosophy of love · Philosophy of sex
Social concepts

Society · War · Law · Justice · Peace · Rights · Revolution · Civil disobedience · Democracy · Social contract · more...
Social theories

Anarchism · Authoritarianism · Conservatism · Liberalism · Libertarianism · National liberalism · Socialism · Utilitarianism · Conflict theory · Consensus theory
Philosophers

Plato · Augustine · Marsilius · Machiavelli · Grotius · Montesquieu · Comte · Bosanquet · Spencer · Malebranche · Durkheim · Santayana · Royce · Confucius · Hobbes · Leibniz · Hume · Kant · Rousseau · Locke · Burke · Smith · Bentham · Mill · Thoreau · Marx · Gandhi · Gentile · Maritain · Berlin · Rand · Schmitt · Foucault · Rawls · Popper · Habermas · Oakeshott · Nozick · Chomsky · Badiou · Strauss · Žižek · Walzer
Portal · Category · Task Force · Discussion ·
Ethics
Related articles Applied ethics · Normative ethics · Meta-ethics · Descriptive ethics · Medical ethics · Professional ethics
Concepts in ethics

Freedom · Autonomy · Rights · Conscience · Value · Morality · Responsibility · Care · Humane · Justice · Principles · Virtue · Happiness · Norm · Suffering or Pain · Equality · Trust · Free will · Consent · Moral right · Human rights · Just War · Axiology · more...
Theories

Utilitarianism · Consequentialism · Prioritarianism · Deontology · Ethics of care · Virtue ethics
Philosophers

Plato · Aristotle · Confucius · Mencius · Augustine of Hippo · Thomas Aquinas · Baruch Spinoza · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Georg W. F. Hegel · Arthur Schopenhauer · Jeremy Bentham · John Stuart Mill · Søren Kierkegaard · Henry Sidgwick · Friedrich Nietzsche · G. E. Moore · Karl Barth · Paul Tillich · Philippa Foot · John Rawls · Bernard Williams · J. L. Mackie · Alasdair MacIntyre · Peter Singer · Derek Parfit · Thomas Nagel · more...
Portal · Category · Task Force · · Discussion
Philosophy of language
Related articles: Analytic philosophy • Language • Philosophy of information • Philosophical logic • Linguistics • Pragmatics • Rhetoric • Semantics • Formal semantics • Semiotics
Concepts in language

Ambiguity • Linguistic relativity • Meaning • Language • Truthbearer • Proposition • Use–mention distinction • Concept • Categories • Set • Class • Intension • Logical form • Metalanguage • Mental representation • Principle of compositionality • Property • Sign • Sense and reference • Speech act • Symbol • Entity • Sentence • Statement • more...
Theories of language

Causal theory of reference • Contrast theory of meaning • Contrastivism • Conventionalism • Cratylism • Deconstruction • Descriptivist theory of names • Direct reference theory • Dramatism • Expressivism • Linguistic determinism • Logical atomism • Logical positivism • Mediated reference theory • Nominalism • Non-cognitivism • Phallogocentrism • Quietism • Relevance theory • Semantic externalism • Semantic holism • Structuralism • Supposition theory • Symbiosism • Theological noncognitivism • Theory of descriptions • Verification theory
Philosophers of language

Plato (Cratylus) • Confucius • Xun Zi • Aristotle • Stoics • Pyrrhonists • Scholasticism • Thomas Hobbes • Gottfried Leibniz • Johann Herder • Wilhelm von Humboldt • Fritz Mauthner • Paul Ricoeur • Ferdinand de Saussure • Gottlob Frege • Franz Boas • Paul Tillich • Edward Sapir • Leonard Bloomfield • Zhuangzi • Henri Bergson • Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations • Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) • Bertrand Russell • Rudolf Carnap • Jacques Derrida (Of Grammatology • Limited Inc) • Benjamin Lee Whorf • Gustav Bergmann • J. L. Austin • Noam Chomsky • Hans-Georg Gadamer • Saul Kripke • Alfred Jules Ayer • Donald Davidson • Paul Grice • Gilbert Ryle • P. F. Strawson
Portal · Category · Task Force · Discussion ·
Philosophy of science
Related

Epistemology · History and philosophy of science · History of science · History of evolutionary thought · Philosophy of biology · Philosophy of chemistry · Philosophy of physics · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of artificial intelligence · Philosophy of information · Philosophy of perception · Philosophy of space and time · Philosophy of thermal and statistical physics · Philosophy of social sciences · Philosophy of environment · Philosophy of psychology · Philosophy of technology · Philosophy of computer science · Pseudoscience · Relationship between religion and science · Rhetoric of science · Sociology of scientific knowledge · more...
Concepts

Analysis · Analytic-synthetic distinction · A priori and a posteriori · Artificial intelligence · Causality · Commensurability · Construct · Demarcation problem · Explanatory power · Fact · Falsifiability · Ignoramus et ignorabimus · Inductive reasoning · Ingenuity · Inquiry · Models of scientific inquiry · Nature · Objectivity · Observation · Paradigm · Problem of induction · Scientific explanation · Scientific law · Scientific method · Scientific revolution · Scientific theory · Testability · Theory choice ·
Metatheory of science

Confirmation holism · Coherentism · Contextualism · Conventionalism · Deductive-nomological model · Determinism · Empiricism · Fallibilism · Foundationalism · Hypothetico-deductive model · Infinitism · Instrumentalism · Positivism · Pragmatism · Rationalism · Received view of theories · Reductionism · Semantic view of theories · Scientific realism · Scientism · Scientific anti-realism · Skepticism · Uniformitarianism · Vitalism
Philosophers

Albert Einstein · Alfred North Whitehead · Aristotle · Auguste Comte · Averroes · Berlin Circle · Carl Gustav Hempel · C. D. Broad · Charles Sanders Peirce · Dominicus Gundissalinus · Daniel Dennett · Epicurians · Francis Bacon · Friedrich Schelling · Galileo Galilei · Henri Poincaré · Herbert Spencer · Hugh of Saint Victor · Immanuel Kant · Imre Lakatos · Isaac Newton · John Dewey · John Stuart Mill · Jürgen Habermas · Karl Pearson · Karl Popper · Karl Theodor Jaspers · Larry Laudan · Otto Neurath · Paul Haeberlin · Paul Feyerabend · Pierre Duhem · Pierre Gassendi · Plato · R.B. Braithwaite · René Descartes · Robert Kilwardby · Roger Bacon · Rudolf Carnap · Stephen Toulmin · Stoics · Thomas Hobbes · Thomas Samuel Kuhn · Vienna Circle · W.V.O. Quine · Wilhelm Windelband · Wilhelm Wundt · William of Ockham · William Whewell · more...
Portal · Category · Task Force · Discussion ·
Authority control: LCCN: n79139459
Persondata
NAME Plato
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aristocles, Plátōn, Πλάτων (Greek)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher, a student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy
DATE OF BIRTH ca. 428 BCE/427 BCE
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH ca. 348 BCE/347 BCE
PLACE OF DEATH

Categories: 420s BCE births | 340s BCE deaths | 4th-century BCE Greek people | 4th-century BCE philosophers | 4th-century BCE poets | Academic philosophers | Ancient Athenian philosophers | Ancient Greek philosophers | Ancient Greek physicists | Ancient Greeks sold as slaves | Ancient Syracuse | Attic Greek writers | Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology | Ontologists | Philosophers of language | Philosophers of law | Plato | Platonism | Political philosophers | Pupils of Socrates | Philosophers of education | Metaphysicians

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Mon Jul 26 18:53:23 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
'Plato' News
Obamacare Should Be Repealed, but That Should Be Just the First Step - Big Government (blog)
biggovernment.com
Obamacare Should Be Repealed, but That Should Be Just the First Step - Big Government (blog)
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:13:58 GMT+00:00
Big Government (blog) Plato (427 BC 347 BC), The Republic "When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. ...
Google News Search: Plato,
Sun Jul 18 17:12:44 2010
'Plato' Images
Plato
astrosurf.com
Plato
457px x 548px | 30.10kB

[source page]



Yahoo Images Search: Plato,
Wed Jul 28 21:53:07 2010
'Plato' Blogs
Socrates in Hades: On Plato's Protagoras, Part II
ashokkarra.com
Socrates in Hades: On Plato's Protagoras, Part II

ashok

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:57:50 GM

Socrates in Hades: On . Plato's. Protagoras, Part II. Below is an outline of the Protagoras that should make things clearer even to those who have not read the dialogue. If you are really pressed for time, the most important sections are ...

Google Blogs Search: Plato,
Thu Jul 29 09:01:09 2010
'Plato' Answers
What is Plato's most important contribution to the study of philosophy?
Q. What is your personal belief? Or, if you were to put yourself in Plato's shoes, what do you believe he may have thought it to be?
Asked by disco infiltrator. - Sat Nov 1 22:46:31 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. I think it would be what he wrote and what he inspired directly via dialectic but also through his writing. The inspiration relating to useful application from anything someone has done or written is what is most important. Over time this is something that changes and it is probably most useful as an individual application. The dialogue style Plato chose to write in is interesting and it is difficult to try to discern what philosophies were Plato's or Socrates'. I believe Plato's use of this unique method of analysis is definitely attributable to him though and the most important contribution to me at the moment.
Answered by I - Sat Nov 1 22:53:15 2008

Yahoo Answers Search: Plato,
Tue Jul 27 12:06:47 2010
[Hide]▲