Plato: The Life of Plato Plato was born around 427 BC, in Athens Greece to rich and politically involved family. Plato's parents spared no expense in educating him; he was taught at the finest schools. He was taught by Socrates and defended Socrates when he was on trial. Plato traveled to Italy and may have even visited Egypt before founding The Academy. Plato also visited Sicily and instructed a young king there before returning to The Academy to teach for twenty years before his death in 347 BC at the age of eighty. Growing up Plato would have gone to best schools the area had to offer; his parents were rich there were no limitations to what they could afford. Plato was taught by the best teachers available and was a very skillful student. Like the majority of boys in ancient Greece Plato was taught to wrestle and fight and in both activities Plato excelled. Poems were also an activity Plato enjoyed; he wrote them quite often, unfortunately none of them survived because when Plato began studying under Socrates he burned all of the poems he had written to devote himself to philosophy. The first time we know of Plato meeting Socrates is when Plato is twenty; however because of Plato's parents' involvement with government, their family friends, and Plato's schooling Plato mostly likely met Socrates at a young age. There are several rumors that during the Peloponnesian war Plato not only fought but gained a few medals. While Plato was certainly capable of accomplishing these acts of bravery, yet it can not be known for sure as there is no proof. After the Peloponnesian War Sparta set up a government called the Thirty Tyrants, when the Thirty Tyrants were over-thrown Socrates was accused of several acts of treason. During Socrat... ... middle of paper ... ... surprised that Plato didn't love democracy and pushed for Utopia, but Plato had seen democracy at work in Athens and thought it a wretched idea. Bibliography Baggani, Julian and Jeremy Stangroom, eds. Great Thinkers A-Z. London: Continuum, 2004. Guthrie, W.K.C. A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol. IV; Plato: The Man and His Dialogues, Earlier Period. London: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Proffitt, Brian. Plato Within Your Grasp. Hoboken: Wiley Publishing, 2004. Exploring Ancient World Cultures; Essays on Ancient Greece. Ed. Bernard F. Suzanne. 1996. 2 Feb. 2007. http://eawc.evansville.edu/eassays/suzanne.htm Plato and His Dialogues, A Short Biography of Plato. Ed. Bernard F. Suzanne. 2001. 2 Feb. 2007. http://plato-dialogues.org/life.htm Plato. Ed. J.J. O'Connor. 2005. 2 Feb. 2007. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/biographies/plato.html
Plato, Phaedo, In: The Collected Dialogues Of Plato Including The Letters, Editors: E. Hamilton and H. Cairns, Bollingen Series LXXI, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1961.
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Sterling, Richard and Scott, William. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
Through time there have been a number of great philosophers, John Locke, Rene Descartes, Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, that positively impacted and changed the world’s way of thinking. Plato lived from about 428 BC until 347 BC in which he wrote over twenty six dialogues, including the Apology, Crito, and Euthyphro (Source 2). Socrates introduced ethics, the study of what people should do, instead of analyzing what people do like the other philosophers of that time period (Source 4). Socrates did not believe he was a teacher to anyone, therefore it is said Plato studied with Socrates for about ten years and was not a student of his (Source 2). Due to the fact there is no written record directly from Socrates, what is known about him comes primarily from Plato’s dialogues (Source 4). The Apology is Plato’s account of the dialect Socrates used to defend himself at his indictment trial and conviction.
1. Plato, Symposium, in The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Seth Benardete (New York: Bantam Books, 1986).
Plato. The Republic of Plato, 2nd edition. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1991.
Michel Serres, "Platonic Dialogue," Hermes, Literature, Science, Philosophy, ed. Josué V. Harari and David F., Bell (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 67.
The great philosopher, Plato, wrote two specific dialogues; the book Timaeus and the book Critias. Plato was a professional teacher who valued intelligence immensely. Plato founded the first Philosophical Academy in Athens in the early fourth century BC. He devoted his life to philosophy and the teachings of his friend Socrates. Plato learned from Socrates and passed on his knowledge to his students. After his friend's sudden death, Plato became dissatisfied with the government in Athens. He filtered away from his family and lived his dream of researching and teaching philosophy. Plato focused on many philosophical aspects and wrote numerous dialogues. In the book Timaeus, Plato spoke of the beginning of the world and the creation of living creatures. Plato believed the human body and soul were created with precise, divine planning.
Plato, The Republic. In Classics of Moral and Political Theory, 2nd ed., edited by Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996.
Plato, Phaedrus, trans. R. Hackforth, in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato (New York: Pantheon, 1966).
Plato. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Bollingen Series LXXI. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961.
Unlike Socrates, Plato did have many writing. Because of Socrates influence, he was often the main character in a lot of Plato’s writing. For example, in one of his dialogues called The Republic, he describes the idea of government and creates an ideal state to show Socrates’ principle of specialization. “Plato considers at length the ways in which the lives of the unjust are inferior to those of the just, where these ways include, but are not limited to the frustrations born of their individual patterns of implementation failure” (Bobonich & Destree 94). His ideal society consisted of three classes: producers, auxiliaries, and guardians. Producers were usually craftsman, farmers, and artisans. Auxiliaries were warriors and guardians were rulers. He believed that each of the classes should perform only the duties that fit their societal role because that is the position in which nature had put them. “…More plentiful and better-quality goods are more easily produced if each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited, does it at the right time, and is released from having to do any of the others” (Plato). He thought that if everyone stuck to his or her role and didn’t interfere with another social class, the government would work a lot
Plato. 1941 [385 B.C.E.]. The Republic of Plato. Trans. Francis Macdonald Cornford. New York: Oxford University Press.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Richard W. Sterling and William C. Scott. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
Plato. "Republic, Book X" The Critical Tradition. Ed., David H. Richter, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.