Plato’s Life and his Work

About the life and significance of Plato

Plato’s Life

Born in Athens towards what is known as the Golden Age of Perciles, Plato made a significant impact on Philosophy and, perhaps, shaped its development in a pivotal way.

Plato’s birthname was Aristocles (after his grandfather), which means “the best glory”. It is rumored that he came to be called ‘Plato’ (a name allegedly given to him by his wrestling coach) because of his broad shoulders (‘platon’ means broad in Greek).

He had noble blood from both his parents’ side, and consequently, his family was socially elite. His privilege allowed him to partake in a number of activities like poetry, theater, writing, art and philosophy.

Since this was also the time period when there was a political upheaval in Athens (because of conflict with the Sparta), it is believed that Plato served in the war.

Plato and Socrates

Plato had initially planned on having a career in theater and playwrighting. But one day, he heard Socrates speak in a marketplace. This had a great impact on him, so much so that he changed the course of his life and became a disciple of Socrates. Some time after this, Socrates was charged with impiety for ‘leading the youth astray’ and for not recognizing the Greek deities. Socrates died by drinking hemlock (a poison) in 399 B.C.

His death had a great impact on Plato. He was deeply saddened and he left Athens for 12 years. He travelled to places like North Africa and Southern Italy, where he got to interact with a number of intellectuals who played important role in shaping his philosophy. Plato would go on to write a lot about Socrates during his lifetime. On returning to Athens, he founded The Academy (named after the park in which it was situated), which was the first university for higher education in the West. This institution offered young men with an opportunity to pursue a good variety of subjects under the guidance of skilled teachers. The Academy continued till a few centuries after Plato’s death.

Read more about Socrates here — Socrates’ Life, and His View on Death

The Significance of Plato

The opinion that Plato is the greatest philosopher there has ever been is fairly popular. His influence on the development of metaphysics and epistemology has been pivotal because of the topics that he introduced and discussed.

Plato introduced concepts like the Theory of Forms (and the Allegory of the Cave), Nature of Virtue and Tripartite Soul, which remain widely discussed. The former earned him the title of the father of idealism. He also touched upon topics like the meaning of knowledge, and whether it is justified, true belief.

The Republic is undoubtedly his most influential work. In it, he propounds his elitist ideas and proposes that only a philosopher would make an ideal king. He elucidates on the relation between harmony in the individual and the state.

Since Socrates did not leave behind any written work, what we know of him is mostly through the works of Plato.

Plato’s Writings

Plato is known for the use of the Socratic Dialogue method in his work. It is named so because Socrates’ philosophical discussions progressed with him and another interlocutor engaging in a dialogue in which they each presented, and subsequently replied to each others’ ideas. It is through this method that Socrates exposed how the other person’s beliefs had shaky foundations and should not be taken to be absolutely true.

Plato has been credited with writing 36 dialogues. His work has been divided into three periods — early, middle and late. Early works, like Euthyphro, Charmides and The Apology deal with ethical questions and prominently feature Socrates. The questions raised in these are not answered conclusively by Socrates. Works belonging to the middle time period mostly deal with questions regarding the state, knowledge and reality. These are different from his earlier works as here, Socrates does provide answers to the questions asked. Also, in addition to addressing ethical questions, he raises epistemological, social, metaphysical and political questions too. What has been proclaimed as Plato’s best work belongs to this category — The Republic, Symposium, Phaedo, among other. His popular Theory of Forms was introduced in the works he wrote in this period. In his later works, he no longer portrays Socrates as the main character. These works include Parmenides, Theaetetus and Critias.

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.” — Alfred North Whitehead (noted mathematician and philosopher)

References

What You Should Know About the Philosopher Plato
Plato was one of the most famous, respected, and influential philosophers of all time. A type of love ( Platonic) is…www.thoughtco.com

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Plato is one of the world’s best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the student of Socrates…iep.utm.edu

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