History Chapter 10 - Plato PDF

# Chapter 10 - Plato In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill...we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one. (Plato) Plato was born in about 428 BCE in Athens. At the feet of Socrates, he stu...

# Chapter 10 - Plato In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill...we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one. (Plato) Plato was born in about 428 BCE in Athens. At the feet of Socrates, he studied philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences. Greatly inspired by the work of his teacher and Pythagoras, Plato went to great lengths to obtain a copy of Pythagoras' work so that he could study the great philosopher's mathematics and personal ideologies firsthand and use them as a foundation for his own work. He'd been inspired to do so after meeting a group of people who emulated the lifestyle of Pythagoras, from his diet to his communal home. To Plato, Pythagoras was as important to mankind as the Titan Prometheus had been when he brought humans the gift of fire. - Brown, Calvin. _Masterworks of World Literature_. 1970. - Bernard, Raymond W. _Pythagoras, the Immortal Sage_. 1958. Plato's most well-known literary work, _The Republic_, describes an egalitarian community very much like the one championed by Pythagoras less than a century before. This wasn't Plato's only extension of Pythagoras' work; he also took his predecessor's studies of the stars and the theory of a round Earth and perfected it, positing that the Earth spun on an axis at the center of the universe. In philosophical endeavors, Plato was fixated on the theme of love. It was not an uncommon philosophical pursuit in Classical Greece, but Plato's musings on the subject have come to define the many types of loving emotions that humans are naturally inclined to experience during their lives. Nearly his entire book _Symposium_ is made up of a set of monologues on love. He included Socrates as the main character, providing readers with a valuable glimpse into the life and habits of one of Western civilization's first philosophers. This was a common feature in Plato's literature, the many dialogues between Socrates and other important citizens of Athens. The term "platonic love" has been used to describe the non-sexual types of love Plato discusses in his books. In honor of Socrates, Plato founded the first institute of higher learning in Athens called the Academy, and he taught his students to employ the Socratic method of exploration and experimentation. He took this very seriously; above the door of the Academy were the Greek words "Let no one enter here who is ignorant of geometry." Plato wanted his students to come prepared with a basic education upon which they would be able to build up to more advanced subjects. He encouraged students to ask questions about their lessons and then formulate hypotheses based on the information they put together. They would test their theories and either move forward based on positive results or start again if their hypothesis was negated. Another of Plato's philosophical methods, was that of negate discussion, in which several opposing points of view are used in a discussion to establish a universal truth between them. The theory of forms is an excellent example of how Plato's philosophical models of thinking revolutionized traditional thought patterns. He posited that we could think of each object or idea in two forms: the phenomenon and the ideal. This is demonstrated in his "Allegory of the Cave," a model described by Socrates in Plato's _Republic_. In the Allegory, several prisoners sit chained, facing the back of a large cave. Behind them is a roadway leading toward the exit, and beyond that is a large fire. Since the prisoners can only face one direction, they see the incorrect forms of reality in the black shadows before them. Whatever true form passes between the prisoners and the fire is misconstrued in those shadows which are all the people can ever perceive. The philosopher, explained Socrates via Plato, is one who has been unbound from his place in that cave. He can now turn around and discover the light from the fire-surely a metaphor for universal truth. - Plato. *Timaeus*. Note: Plato's astronomical theories have been interpreted in various ways, one of which is used here. - Rosen, Stanley. *The Philosopher's Handbook*. 2009.