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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plato (Ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-shouldered"; c. 428/427 – c. 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the trio of ancient Greeks including Socrates and Aristotle said to have laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.[1]

Little can be known about Plato's early life and education due to the very limited accounts. Plato came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies. His father contributed everything necessary to give to his son a good education, and Plato therefore must have been instructed in grammar, music, gymnastics and philosophy by some of the most distinguished teachers of his era.

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Transcription

The Greek philosopher Plato was a student of Socrates, and teacher of Aristotle. He wrote on a wide variety of topics including Politics, Aesthetics, Cosmology, and Epistemology. To this day, we refer to “Platonic Love” and “Platonic Ideals.” Plato’s search for knowledge and truth formed the basis of much of Western Philosophy. Plato’s birthdate is disputed - some sources say around 428 BC, others claim 424 BC. In any case, it was a fortunate birth. Plato’s parents were both descended from Athenian nobility. Like other children from distinguished families in Athens, Plato received the best education of the day, studying philosophy, poetry, and gymnastics. Plato grew up during the Peloponnesian War, and as a young man saw the political chaos surrounding the final defeat of Athens by Sparta. Two of Plato’s relatives came to power in the new government, who were known as the Thirty Tyrants, and were notorious for denying Athenians their rights. The group ruled briefly until this despised oligarchy was overthrown and Athens returned to democracy in 403 BC. You might expect, given Plato’s prominent family connections, that he was destined to be a politician. Plato’s life took a different path, however, when he met the great teacher Socrates and was inspired by his philosophy of the pursuit of knowledge and virtue. It’s ironic, considering that Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, including Plato. Socrates was unpopular with the Thirty Tyrants, as well as with the leaders of the newly restored democracy. In a grave miscarriage of justice, Socrates was found guilty of the trumped-up offenses and was sentenced to death. Plato tried to prevent his execution, offering to pay a fine to spare Socrates’ life. However, Socrates willingly went to his death. Plato was forever afterwards disgusted by politics and dedicated his life to the study of philosophy, like his teacher. Although Plato was famously taught by Socrates, he was also influenced by Pythagoras and others. After Socrates’ death, Plato left Athens and traveled for a dozen years, studying various subjects including mathematics with the Pythagoreans in Italy, and geometry and astronomy in Egypt. During these travels, Plato wrote his early Dialogues, which featured Socrates and his teachings. Since Socrates did not write any books of his own, these Dialogues represent one of the few pictures of the legendary philosopher and his style of discourse. Returning to Athens, Plato founded The Academy around 387 BC. The Academy is thought to be the first Western institution of higher learning. Here, one could attend open-air lectures in astronomy, biology, mathematics, politics, and philosophy. The Socratic Method was commonly used as the form of rational discussion, whereby a given hypothesis is examined by questioning. If these questions lead logically to a contradiction, a new candidate for truth must be adopted. Generations were educated at the Academy until it was destroyed in 86 BC when Athens was conquered by the Romans during the First Mithridatic War. The Academy was revived in the early 5th century by Neoplatonists, who saw themselves as successors to Plato. In 529, Emperor Justinian I of Byzantium closed The Academy once and for all. He saw it as a threat to Christianity. While Plato taught at the Academy, he continued to write. He amassed 35 Dialogues and 13 Letters (known as Epistles), although the authenticity of some of these works has been called into question. Although he was reluctant to write about himself, several of Plato’s family members appear in these works. Most historians consider this a sign of Plato’s pride in his distinguished family. The order in which Plato’s works were written is not known for certain, although some rough grouping is traditionally done by historians as follows: The earliest dialogues, including the Apology and Crito, presented the teachings of Socrates. Later dialogues, such as The Republic and The Symposium, introduce Plato’s Theory of Forms and the relationship between the soul, the state, and the cosmos. Finally, his most mature works are grouped together because they are considered stylistically similar. These include The Laws and Timaeus, and address such topics as law, mathematics, and natural science. The Theory of Forms is at the heart of Platonism - In Plato’s view, reality is unavailable to those who completely rely on their senses. He explained that every object that we could see or interact with in our experience of reality was actually just a mimic of a Form (capital F). For instance, we recognize a brick when we see it, even though every brick is a little bit different, because they are all reflections of some essential, true brick that is the real, Ideal brick. Plato argued that these Forms and other abstract ideas were more real than those things we could see and hear and touch. Universals, such as Justice, Beauty, and Equality are not accessible to the senses, but are understood only through reason. Plato’s view of the condition of humankind is perhaps best captured in his Allegory of the Cave as written in The Republic. The words of this parable are spoken by Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon, but it is considered to be Plato’s own ideology. Socrates describes to Glaucon a group of prisoners, chained for their entire lives in a cave, shackled in such a way that they can only look in front of them at one of the walls of the cave. Behind them is a fire, burning brightly. In between the fire and the prisoners is a platform, where objects are exhibited. The prisoners cannot see the reality of these objects, only the shadows they cast on the wall of the cave. If we rely solely on our senses, we are like the prisoners in the cave, who cannot sense the reality behind them, only the poor copies of the real world projected before them. The real word of Ideals can only perceived by reason. Hence the vital importance of the Academy. Plato spent his last years writing and teaching at the Academy. Undoubtedly we cannot know all of what Plato thought, especially since he preferred speaking to writing as a means of transmitting knowledge. According to the writings of his students, Plato had a set of Unwritten Doctrines which were taught only orally. Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle, came to study at the Academy in 367 BC and remained there for the next 20 years. He would go on to found his own academy, called the Lyceum, where he would carry on the great tradition of Plato and Socrates. Plato died around 348 BC, and is believed to be buried on the grounds of the Academy.

Birthdate and birthplace

The specific birthdate of Plato is not known. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that Plato was born between 428 and 427 BC. The grammarian Apollodorus of Athens argues in his Chronicles that Plato was born in the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad (427 BC), on the seventh day of the month Thargelion; according to this tradition the god Apollo was born this day.[2] According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death.[3] 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 BC).[4]

The Chronicle of Eusebius names the fourth year of the 89th Olympiad as Plato's, when Stratocles was archon, while the Alexandrian Chronicle mentions the eighty-ninth Olympiad, in the archonship of Isarchus.[5] According to Suda, Plato was born in Aegina in the 88th Olympiad amid the preliminaries of the Peloponnesian war, and he lived 82 years.[6] Sir Thomas Browne also believes that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad.[7] Renaissance Platonists celebrated Plato's birth on November 7.[8] Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff estimates that Plato was born when Diotimos was archon eponymous, namely between July 29 428 BC and July 24 427 BC.[9] Greek philologist Ioannis Kalitsounakis believes that the philosopher was born on May 26 or 27, 427 BC, while Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BC as year of Plato's birth.[10] For her part, Debra Nails asserts that the philosopher was born in 424/423 BC.[8]

Plato's birthplace is also disputed. Diogenes Laërtius states 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 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.[3] Nails points out, however, that there is no record of any Spartan expulsion of Athenians from Aegina between 431 and 411 BC.[11] 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.[12] 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)".[11] Aegina is regarded as Plato's place of birth by Suda as well.[6]

Family

Plato's father was Ariston, of the deme of Colytus. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laërtius but disputed by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus.[13] Codrus himself was a demigod fathered by the God of the sea Poseidon.[14][failed verification] These claims are not however exploited in the philosopher's dialogues.[15] Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon.[13] Solon's heritage can be traced back to Dropides, Archon of the year 644 b.c. Perictione was sister of Charmides and cousin of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian war (404–403 BC).[16]

Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter, Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy).[16] According to the Republic, Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato; the two brothers distinguished themselves in the Battle of Megara, when Plato could not have been more than 5 years old.[17] Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.[18]

Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult.[19] When Ariston died, Athenian law forbade the legal independence of women, and, therefore Perictione was given to marriage to Pyrilampes, her mother's brother[a] (Plato himself calls him the uncle of Charmides),[20] who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens.[21] Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demos, who was famous for his beauty.[22] Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides, where he is said to have given up philosophy, in order to devote most of his time to horses.[23] Thus Plato was reared in a household of at least six children, where he was number five: a stepbrother, a sister, two brothers and a half-brother.[24]

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 and Protagoras; Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent parts in the Republic.[25] From these and other references one can reconstruct his family tree, and this suggests a considerable amount of family pride. According to John 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".[26]

Family tree

Critias{{{Poseidon}}}{{{Dropides}}}Antiphon
Callaeschrus{{{Codrus}}}{{{Solon}}}GlauconNN
CritiasCharmidesAristonPerictionePyrilampes
PotoneAdeimantosGlauconPlatoAntiphonDemus

Note: John Burnet[27] gives Glaucon as Plato's grandfather. Diogenes Laërtius gives Aristocles as Plato's grandfather.[28]

Name

According to Diogenes, the philosopher was named after his grandfather Aristocles, but his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, dubbed him "Platon", meaning "broad" on account of his robust figure.[28] Diogenes mentions three sources for the name of Plato (Alexander Polyhistor, Neanthes of Cyzicus and unnamed sources), according to which the philosopher derived his name from the breadth (πλατύτης, platytēs) of his eloquence, or else because he was very wide (πλατύς, platýs) across the forehead.[28] All these sources of Diogenes date from the Alexandrian period of biography which got much of its information from its Peripatetic forerunners.[29] Recent scholars have disputed Diogenes, and argued that Plato was the original name of the philosopher, and that the legend about his name being Aristocles originated in the Hellenistic age. W. K. C. Guthrie points out that Ρlato was a common name in ancient Greece, of which 31 instances are known at Athens alone.[30]

Legends

According to certain fabulous reports of ancient writers, Plato's mother became pregnant from a divine vision: Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed of his purpose; then the ancient Greek god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and, as a result of it, Ariston left Perictione unmolested. When she had given birth to Plato, only then did her husband lie with her.[31] Another legend related that, while he was sleeping as an infant on Mount Hymettus in a bower of myrtles (his parents were sacrificing to the Muses and Nymphs), bees had settled on the lips of Plato; an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy.[32]

Education

Portrait of Socrates, Roman marble (Louvre, Paris)

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".[33] Later Plato himself would characterize as gifts of nature the facility in learning, the memory, the sagacity, the quickness of apprehension and their accompaniments, the youthful spirit and the magnificence in soul.[34] According to Diogenes, Plato's education, like any other Athenian boy's, was physical as well as mental; he was instructed in grammar (that is, reading and writing), music,[b] painting, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time.[35] He excelled so much in physical exercises that Dicaearchus went so far as to say, in the first volume of his Lives, that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian games and did extremely well and was well known.[36] Apuleius argues that the philosopher went also into a public contest at the Pythian games.[33] 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.[37]

According to the ancient writers, there was a tradition that Plato's favorite employment in his youthful years was poetry. He wrote poems, dithyrambs at first, and afterwards lyric poems and tragedies (a tetralogy), but abandoned his early passion and burnt his poems when he met Socrates and turned to philosophy.[38] There was also a story that on the day Plato was entrusted to him, Socrates said that a swan had been delivered to him.[6] There are also some epigrams attributed to Plato, but these are now thought by some scholars to be spurious.[39] Modern scholars now believe that Plato was probably a young boy when he became acquainted with Socrates. This assessment is based on the fact that Critias and Charmides, two close relatives of Plato, were both friends of Socrates.[40]

Public affairs

"Certain men of assumed position summoned our comrade Socrates before the law-courts, laying a charge against him which was most unholy, and which Socrates of all men least deserved; for it was on the charge of impiety that those men summoned him and the rest condemned and slew him – the very man who on the former occasion, when they themselves had the misfortune to be in exile, had refused to take part in the unholy arrest of one of the friends of the men then exiled."
— Plato (?), Seventh Letter (325b–c)

According to the Seventh Letter, whose authenticity has been disputed, as Plato came of age, he imagined for himself a life in public affairs.[41] He was actually invited by the regime of the Thirty Tyrants (Critias and Charmides were among their leaders) to join the administration, but he held back; he hoped that under the new leadership the city would return to justice, but he was soon repelled by the violent acts of the regime.[42] He was particularly disappointed, when the Thirty attempted to implicate Socrates in their seizure of the democratic general Leon of Salamis for summary execution.[43]

In 403 BC, the democracy was restored after the regrouping of the democrats in exile, who entered the city through the Piraeus and met the forces of the Thirty at the Battle of Munychia, where both Critias and Charmides were killed.[44] In 401 BC the restored democrats raided Eleusis and killed the remaining oligarchic supporters, suspecting them of hiring mercenaries.[45] After the overthrow of the Thirty, Plato's desire to become politically active was rekindled, but Socrates' condemnation to death put an end to his plans. Plato led his voyage through Sicily, Egypt, and Italy guided by this question. [46] In 399 BC, Plato and other Socratic men took temporary refuge at Megara with Euclid, founder of the Megarian school of philosophy.

According to Diogenes Laërtius, throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of the city of Syracuse. Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysius.[47] During this first trip Dionysius's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato almost faced death, but he was sold into slavery. Anniceris, a Cyrenaic philosopher, subsequently bought Plato's freedom for twenty minas,[48] and sent him home. After Dionysius's death, according to Plato's Seventh Letter, Dion requested Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysius 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. Dionysius expelled Dion and kept Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysius and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

Death

According to Seneca, Plato died at the age of 81 on the same day he was born.[49] The Suda indicates that he lived to 82 years,[6] while Neanthes claims an age of 84.[50] A variety of sources have given accounts of his death. One story, based on a mutilated manuscript,[51] suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a young Thracian girl played the flute to him.[52] Another tradition suggests Plato died at a wedding feast. The account is based on Diogenes Laërtius's reference to an account by Hermippus, a third-century Alexandrian.[53] According to Tertullian, Plato simply died in his sleep.[53]

Notes

^ a: Marriages between uncle and niece, as between first cousins, were common and expedient in Athens, preserving rather than dividing family estates.[8]
^ b: By "music" we are to understand the domains of all the Muses; not only dance, lyric, epic and instrumental music, but geometry, history, astronomy and more.[24]

Citations

  1. ^ "Plato". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2002.
  2. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 2
  3. ^ a b Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 3
  4. ^ F.W. Nietzsche, Werke, 32
  5. ^ W. G. Tennemann, Life of Plato, 315
  6. ^ a b c d "Plato". Suda.
  7. ^ T. Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, XII
  8. ^ a b c D. Nails, The Life of Plato of Athens, 1
  9. ^ U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
  10. ^ "Plato". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2002.
    * "Plato". Encyclopaedic Dictionary The Helios Volume V (in Greek). 1952.
  11. ^ a b D. Nails, "Ariston", 54
  12. ^ Thucydides, 5.18
    * Thucydides, 8.92
  13. ^ a b Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 1
    * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
  14. ^ The Great Books of the Western World. Dialogues of Plato, Biographical Note
  15. ^ D. Nails, "Ariston", 53
  16. ^ a b W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy', IV, 10
    * A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv
    * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
  17. ^ Plato, Republic, 2.368a
    * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
  18. ^ Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.6.1
  19. ^ D. Nails, "Ariston", 53
    * A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv
  20. ^ Plato, Charmides, 158a
    * D. Nails, "Perictione", 53
  21. ^ Plato, Charmides, 158a
    * Plutarch, Pericles, IV
  22. ^ Plato, Gorgias, 481d and 513b
    * Aristophanes, Wasps, 97
  23. ^ Plato, Parmenides, 126c
  24. ^ a b D. Nails, The Life of Plato of Athens, 4
  25. ^ W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 11
  26. ^ C.H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, 186
  27. ^ John Burnet, Greek Philosophy (1914, p. 351); cf. Charmides 154b
  28. ^ a b c Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 4
  29. ^ A. Notopoulos, The Name of Plato, 135
  30. ^ For the use of the name Plato in Athens, see W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 10
    For the suggestion that Plato's name being Aristocles was a fancy of the Hellenistic age, see L. Tarán, Plato's Alleged Epitaph, 61
  31. ^ Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 1
    * Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 1
    * "Plato". Suda.
  32. ^ Cicero, De Divinatione, I, 36
  33. ^ a b Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 2
  34. ^ Plato, Republic, 6.503c
    * U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
  35. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 4–5
    * W. Smith, Plato, 393
  36. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 5
  37. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1.987a
  38. ^ E. Macfait, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Plato, 7–8
    * P. Murray, Introduction, 13
    * W. G. Tennemann, Life of Plato, 315
  39. ^ A.E. Taylor, Plato, 554
  40. ^ "Plato". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2002.
    * P. Murray, Introduction, 13
    * D. Nails, The Life of Plato of Athens, 2
  41. ^ Plato (?), Seventh Letter, 324c
  42. ^ Plato (?), Seventh Letter, 324d
  43. ^ Plato (?), Seventh Letter, 324e
  44. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica, 2:4:10-19
  45. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica, 2:4:43
  46. ^ Plato (?), Seventh Letter, 325c
  47. ^ Riginos 1976, p. 73.
  48. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, Book iii, 20 Archived 28 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  49. ^ Seneca, Epistulae, VI, 58, 31: natali suo decessit et annum umum atque octogensimum.
  50. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, Life of Plato, II
  51. ^ Riginos 1976, p. 194.
  52. ^ Schall 1996.
  53. ^ a b Riginos 1976, p. 195.

References

Primary sources (Greek and Roman)

Secondary sources

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