Plato: Early Life & Education PDF

Plato: Early Life & Education Plato was born around 428 B.C., during the final years of the Golden Age of Pericles’ Athens. He was of noble Athenian lineage on both sides. His father Ariston died when Plato was a child. His mother Perictione...

Plato: Early Life & Education Plato was born around 428 B.C., during the final years of the Golden Age of Pericles’ Athens. He was of noble Athenian lineage on both sides. His father Ariston died when Plato was a child. His mother Perictione remarried the politician Pyrilampes. Plato grew up during the Peloponnesian War (431-404) and came of age around the time of Athens’ final defeat by Sparta and the political chaos that followed. He was educated in philosophy, poetry and gymnastics by distinguished Athenian teachers including the philosopher Cratylus.  Plato's Influences The young Plato became a devoted follower of Socrates—indeed, he was one of the youths Socrates was condemned for allegedly corrupting. Plato’s recollections of Socrates’ lived-out philosophy and style of relentless questioning, the Socratic method, became the basis for his early dialogues. Plato’s dialogues, along with “Apologia,” his written account of the trial of Socrates, are viewed by historians as the most accurate available picture of the elder philosopher, who left no written works of his own. Following Socrates’ forced suicide, Plato spent 12 years traveling in southern Italy, Sicily and Egypt, studying with other philosophers including followers of the mystic mathematician Pythagoras including Theodorus of Cyrene (creator of the spiral of Theodorus or Pythagorean spiral), Archytas of Tarentum and Echecrates of Phlius. Plato’s time among the Pythagoreans piqued his interest in mathematics.  Platonic Academy Around 387, the 40-year-old Plato returned to Athens and founded his philosophical school in the grove of the Greek hero Academus, just outside the city walls. In his open-air Academy he delivered lectures to students gathered from throughout the Greek world (nine-tenths of them from outs Many of Plato’s writings, especially the so-called later dialogues, seem to have originated in his teaching there. Aristotle arrived from northern Greece to join the Academy at age 17, studying and teaching there for the last 20 years of Plato’s life. Plato died in Athens, and was probably buried on the Academy grounds.  Plato's Dialogues With the exception of a set of letters of dubious provenance, all of Plato’s surviving writings are in dialogue form, with the character of Socrates appearing in all but one of them. His 36 dialogues are generally ordered into early, middle and late, though their chronology is determined by style and content rather than specific dates. The “Symposium” is a series of drinking-party speeches on the nature of love, in which Socrates says the best thing to do with romantic desire is to convert it into amicable truth- seeking (an idea termed “Platonic love” by later writers). In the “Meno,” Socrates demonstrates that wisdom is less a matter of learning things than “recollecting” what the soul already knows, in the way that an untaught boy can be led to discover for himself a geometric proof.  The monumental “Republic” is a parallel exploration of the soul of a nation and of an individual. In both, Plato finds a three-part hierarchy between rulers, auxiliaries and citizens and between reason, emotion and desire. Just as reason should reign supreme in the individual, so should a wise ruler control a society. Plato’s late dialogues are barely dialogues at all but rather explorations of specific topics. The “Timeaus” explains a cosmology intertwined with geometry, in which perfected three-dimensional shapes—cubes, pyramids, icosahedrons—are the “Platonic solids” out of which the whole universe is made. In the “Laws,” his final dialogue, Plato retreats from the pure theory of the “Republic,” suggesting that experience and history as well as wisdom can inform the running of an ideal state.  Plato Quotes Plato is credited with coining several phrases that are still popular today. Here are some of Plato’s most famous quotes: · “Love is a serious mental disease.” · “When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.” · “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” · “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” · “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” · “Man-a being in search of meaning.” · “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of lover, everyone becomes a poet.” THE PHILOSOPER WHO WOULD BE KING PLATO GROUP 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Philosophical Contribution Fact’s about Plato Real Life Application FAST FACTS  FACTS ABOUT HIS LIFE As a young wrestler Plato competed in the Isthmian Games, an athletic event similar to the Greek Olympics. According to the 3rd century Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, Plato at birth was given the name Aristocles, after his grandfather. The name Plato may have been a nickname in reference to his broad shoulders and widely framed body. In light of his superb stature, Plato was a wrestler as a child. Plato died in 347 B.C.E. His remains were buried at The Academy, yet archaeologists have never discovered them.  CONTRI GROUP 3 BUTIONS  01 INSTITUTION: ACADEMY An academic program that many consider to be the first Western university, where he stressed the importance of science and mathematics. Because of this, he became known as the “maker of mathematicians.”  02 BOOK: MENO The Meno takes up the familiar question of whether virtue can be taught, and, if so, why eminent men have not been able to bring up their sons to be virtuous. This book mainly focuses on a primary problem: How is it possible to search either for what one knows or for what one does not know.  03 BOOK: THE REPUBLIC One of the most important dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, renowned for its detailed expositions of political and ethical justice and its account of the organization of the ideal state (or city-state)—hence the traditional title of the work. 04 BOOK: THE LYSIS The Lysis is an examination of the nature of friendship; this book discusses the notion of a primary object of love, for whose sake one loves other things. APPLI CATIONS  01 GOVERNMENT In the Republic, Plato's Socrates raises a number of criticisms of democracy. He claims that democracy is a danger due to excessive freedom. He also argues that, in a system in which everyone has a right to rule, all sorts of selfish people who care nothing for the people but are only motivated by their own personal desires are able to attain power.  02 EQUALITY Plato acknowledged the physical strength disparity between the male and female sexes. But in all other regards, he believed woman to be man’s equal, and that no opportunity should be denied to her on the basis of sex.  03 MATHEMATICS Plato’s contributions to mathematics were focused on the foundations of mathematics. He discussed the importance of examining the hypotheses of mathematics. He also drew attention toward the importance of making mathematical definitions clear and precise as these definitions are fundamental entities in mathematics.