When one begins to formulate thoughts on the most influential philosopher of all time, how does one stop and gather every thought into one paper. The historical significance of Plato has impacted generations for more than two thousand years. In fact, his writings, which consisted of mostly dialogues, has probably had more influence than any set of writings in the Western World apart from the Judeo-Christian Bible. As I dug into the life of Plato, which can be an endless search with overwhelming amount of information, his lasting ideas can be summed up in his allegory of the cave and theory of the tripartite soul. Plato was born in around 424 BCE, from an Athenian family that can be traced back to come notable figures in ancient Greece. Even given his influential and well documented writings, many scholars still do not know much about Plato’s past. This can be understandable because in modern day individuals are so use to being able to pull up information on anyone’s background and not have to think twice about it. As for Plato’s time period that more than likely did not so thirst for the information that many are used to getting today. Where there are lives of ancient figures, they tend to be a mixture of idealizing, gossip, and plain fiction. Plato was a student of Socrates who at one point in time was killed for his beliefs and teachings, many believed at the time that he was corrupting the minds of Greece. As it would have it, Plato left the Athenians to go to Sicily
Plato was born into an aristocratic family and later became a disciple of Socrates, eventually witnessing the philosopher 's execution in 399BC, he feared for his safety and went travelling to Italy and Egypt. He returned to Athens after his travels and founded the first European university, the Academy. There, astronomy, biology, mathematics, politics and philosophy were taught, with Aristotle as the most famous student. He also compared the state and the individual, stating they both consisted of three parts: the desiring, the spirited and the rational. If they are all in harmony but ruled by the rational you have justice. He went further to construct many statements that have been quoted throughout history in reference to issues of the times, one being ‘ The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men’
Plato was born in Athens, Greece around 427 B.C. He was always interested in politics, until he witnessed his mentor and teacher, Socrates, death. After learning of the callousness of politics, Plato changed his mind and eventually opened up The Academy, which is considered if not the first, one of the first Universities. Students at the Academy studied many different fields of science, including biological and astronomical. The students also studied many other fields, such as math. Plato developed many views that were mathematical in nature. He expressed these views through his writings. According to Dr. Calkins of Andrew University, "Timaeus is probably the most renowned of Plato's thirty-five dialogues. [In it] Plato expresses that he
Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived between 428-432 B.C. He wrote mainly in dialogues, to stay true to how Socrates communicated philosophy. Plato displayed what is considered Socrates’ philosophy throughout the dialogue The Apology. In The Republic, Socrates is mainly used as a mouthpiece to communicate Plato’s philosophy. Socrates follows a philosophy best explained as “I do not know”, whereas Plato tries to find the ultimate solution to philosophical problems. In this essay, I will argue how Socrates has the best philosophical approach compared to that of Plato.
One of Plato’s more famous writings, The Allegory of the Cave, Plato outlines the story of a man who breaks free of his constraints and comes to learn of new ideas and levels of thought that exist outside of the human level of thinking. However, after having learned so many new concepts, he returns to his fellow beings and attempts to reveal his findings but is rejected and threatened with death. This dialogue is an apparent reference to his teacher’s theories in philosophy and his ultimate demise for his beliefs but is also a relation to the theory of the Divided Line. This essay will analyze major points in The Allegory of the Cave and see how it relates to the Theory of the Divided Line. Also, this
He writes, “when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then [the soul] has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and seems to have no intelligence” (Book VI, p. 25). By establishing opinion as the opposite to the ultimate good, and by definition, the ultimate evil, he criticizes the use of rhetoric and persuasion while praising to his long-winded, circuitous form of writing. By continually asking questions and telling parables, Plato avoids direct advocation of his beliefs and allows his readers to discover the truth for themselves, rather than to be coerced through eloquent language.
This paper discussed The Allegory of The Cave in Plato's Republic, and tries to unfold the messages Plato wishes to convey with regard to his conception of reality, knowledge and education.
Plato is one of the succinct psychologists, analyst, and scholar the world has ever had. He is a lucrative figure in the birth, generation, and early development of the western civilization. His contributions through ethics, politics, religion, symposiums, and dialogues with Socrates exemplify a myriad of his works since he was a young scholar. He participated in a number of events, theoretical appearances, and analysis, and posting of theories and precepts, which gave birth to the present knowledge in psychology, religion, and other disciplines of study in the world. It is with immediate agreement that Plato had a lot of influence on the western civilization. Plato had an extensive relation to western civilization (Mason, 2010).
“The Allegory of Caves”, written by Plato, was a piece of work made to give determination to the people, so they can go above and beyond what they originally thought was true. It influenced their ideas, so they can understand what it truly means to be a philosopher. He makes emotional bonds with the reader and the paper to help them understand his point. He does this through his use of diction, analogies, and metaphors, and helps people change how they interpret the
Plato’s idea that there was a perfect world of ideas affected this pieces subject and the
Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, wrestled at the Olympic level, is one of the classical Greek authors, mathematicians and the founder of The Academy, the first higher learning institute in the west. In short, Plato is one of the great thinkers in history and his contributions to philosophy, ethics and politics are many and varied. One of Plato’s main philosophical ideas is based on the idea that the world
Plato's views on Forms, Ideas, and Knowledge are all expressed beautifully in the allegory of
The theory of the Ideas is the base of Plato’s philosophy: the Ideas are not only the real objects ontologically speaking, but they are the authentically objects of knowledge epistemologically speaking. From the point of view of ethics and politics, they are the foundation of the right behaviour, and anthropologically speaking they are the base of Plato’s dualism and they even allow him demonstrate the immortality of the soul.
Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.
Plato was a philosopher and educator in ancient Greece. He was one of the most important thinkers and writers in the history of Western culture. Plato was born in Athens into a family that was one of the oldest and most distinguished in the city. His father Ariston died when Plato was only a child. The name Plato was a nickname meaning broad shoulders. Plato's real name was Aristocles. Plato had aspirations of becoming a politician, however these hopes were destroyed when his friend Socrates was sentenced to death in 299 B.C. Extremely hurt Plato left Athens and traveled for several years. In 387 B.C., Plato returned to Athens and founded a school of philosophy and science that became known as the Academy. Topics such as astronomy,
Greek philosopher, born into an aristocratic Athenian family in the year 427BC, he was expected to take up a political