Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO

The Biography of Plato Hannelise Lerida University of Central Florida

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO The Biography of Plato A student of Socrates, Plato was born in the year 428 BCE in Athens to a wealthy family. Originally named Aristocles, Plato obtained his nickname because of his broad forehead (2008, p.1). In his youth, Plato studied music and poetry at a gymnasium owned by Dionysios, and at the palaistra of Ariston of Argos. Since his family was involved with politics, he as well studied politics, but with the Peloponnesian war occurring, Plato became disillusioned and abandoned his political aspirations. A well rounded man who studied Mathematics, poetry, music, epistemology, justice, law and such other things, began his Philosophical career at age twenty, when he became a student of Socrates. Though Socrates did not have any books, Plato's dialogues make mention of him describing the kind of person Socrates was and the friendship between Plato and Socrates. Socrates questioned how we came about knowing certain things, including concepts such as truth, beauty, piety, and justice, which was called the Problem of Universals (McConnell, 2009, p. 16). Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do. -Plato It was then that Plato devoted himself to the exploration of justice, beauty, equality, aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and the philosophy of language (Meinwald, 2011, p.1). Socrates guided Plato into many of his beliefs and was a major influence to many of Plato's works. Plato also had a great admiration for Socrates, but because Socrates questioned many things and was critical of the religious and political institutions, Socrates was charged with heresy and the corruption of the youth (Merriman, 2006, p.1) because he made the youth question their own beliefs and culture. Socrates was then executed in 399 B.C., which affected Plato dearly. After Socrates passing, Plato traveled to Greece, Egypt and Italy to study in Pythagoras and spent majority of his time advising the ruling family of Syracuse. He also began to write and wrote the Apology, which was shortly written after Socrates' death (2010, p.1).

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our waysI to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows. -Socrates. The Apology showed the trial of Socrates and what Socrates might have said throughout his whole experience before his death. Many of his work covered various subjects like education, ethics, epistemology, mathematics, metaphysics, natural science, politics, law, and philosophy ( Merriman, 2006, p.1). Amongst his many writings, he also wrote The Republic, which discussed the virtue of justice, the education of citizens, what an ideal state would be like and other things that involved Plato's major thoughts (2010, p.1). When Plato returned in 387 B.C., to Athens at the age of forty, he began his own academy of philosophy in hopes to pass on the Socratic teachings. The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.- Plato Though Plato was mostly influenced by Socrates teachings, he was also influenced by the Pythagorean idea that the true path to knowledge comes from within, not from observation (McConnel1, 2009, p. 17), which caused Plato to present the Allegory of the cave, which was presented in The Republic. In the Allegory of the cave, he presented the example of prisoners being chained in a very dark cave. The prisoners are bound to the floor and so they cannot turn around to see what is behind them. To the back of the prisoners are some people casting shadows on the wall, which the prisoners see and believe it to be reality. The story is presented as a conversation between Socrates and another person, and as it continues the story develops into an important thought that what we perceive as real from birth may be completely false based on our imperfect interpretation (B.R., 2011, p.2). It goes on to explaining that any knowledge about the nature of reality cannot be seen through shadows, but rather we must free ourselves from the bonds of the cave to really see the reality that these shadows themselves could not provide The only way to actually be free of such bonds was through meditation, introspection, and reflection, which again goes back towards the Pythagorean ideas. The Pythagorean

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO idea was that to have a deeper understanding, one would have to practice meditation. As stated before Plato had a major influence by Pythagoras and believed in the idea that a perfect form came from within and it came from reasoning and revelation obtained through mystical experiences (McConnell, 2009, p.11). Plato's Academy had an extensive curriculum, which offered subjects such as astronomy, biology, mathematics and philosophy. His Academy offered students a higher end education and also provided a place for thinkers to work towards a better Grecian government. One of his most famous student's was Aristotle, who later on ends up establishing his own school called the Lyceum, and coming up with the second major psychological theory called the principle of associationism (McConnell, 2009, p. 18). Aristotle along with Socrates and Plato, laid the fundamentals of Western Philosophy (2008, p.1). It is not clear when exactly Plato wrote many of his works nor is there a chronological order as to which one came first, but it is said that during his time in the Academy, he had written the Meno, Euthydemus, Menexenus, Cratylus, Repuglic, Phaedrus, Syposium and Phaedo (2010, p.1). These works had a major difference compared to his early work because he was establishing his own voice in philosophy. Though, Socrates still had an influence on Plato since he was still very much present in his work as a fictional character. It is said that Plato wrote thirteen letters and eighteen epigrams of which were structured with dialogues between two people he knew personally as fictional characters. In his writings he would also use analogies to explain his philosophy and also included metaphysics in his work, which later on turned into one of Plato's many theories that had great importance on Western philosophy and religion (2008, p.1). Majorly influenced by Socrates, Plato considered many of Socrates questions, but as he formed his own philosophical views, he disagreed with many of Socrates thoughts. One example, is when Socrates questioned the essence of beauty and how one can know of such thing. His thought was that observing using the senses would surely give us such knowledge. Plato, however, disagreed and

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO concluded that the only way to obtain this knowledge is if it were innate. This lead him to the development of two theories, one metaphysical and the other epistemological (McConnell, 2009, p.18). According to Merriman (2006), Plato developed his first theory, the Theory of Forms in such works such as Symposium and The Republic. This theory described reality in a metaphysical sense. The Theory of Forms explains that beyond the imperfect world is a perfect ethereal realm that holds all the perfect essences, which were known as forms. So anything that was not so perfect in the imperfect world, was perfect in the ethereal realm, like the perfect form of a circle. This thought process brought Plato to the exaggerated realism, which explains that the reason why many of the same beautiful things are different is because of their imperfections, but that their core is the same. Meaning that the imperfect world is a lesser form of reality, while the ethereal realm is the highest form of reality (McConnell, 2009, p.18). This theory also shows the Pythagorean belief of a mystical experience and perfection as stated earlier, and also shows that Pythagoras was a realist himself. Plato's next theory, the Reminiscence Theory came in the form of rational epistemology, which was created to give an explanation as to how we can know these forms. The reminiscence Theory explains that before we are born our soul goes to the ethereal realm, where the forms exist. Our souls come into contact with these forms and we know these forms in their essence. After we are born and our soul enter our body, we forget about our knowledge of the forms temporarily until we experience anamnesis. According to McConnell (2009), anamnesis is when we experience reminiscence of the innate knowledge, which then activates the memories of what we once knew in the ethereal realm and that the only thing needed is our reasoning and insight to develop that wisdom and understanding we have even further. In the European Graduate School article (2010), it is stated that the way Plato ran his Academy was a major influence to the education theory, that his work has been very influential in the areas of logic and legal philosophy and that his beliefs on the importance of mathematics has also left a lasting influence on the subject. During Plato's final years in the Academy, he wrote Parmenides,

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO Theatetus, Sophist, Statesmas, Timaeus, Critias, Philebus, and Laws, which of course Socrates no longer played a major role in (2010, p.1). Plato spent most of his life in Athens until his death in 347 B.C., leaving the Academy in hands of his sister's son Speusippus (2010, p.1). Although Many of Plato's ideas and theories were controversial, he left a lasting influence in philosophy and though he disagreed with Socrates about the importance of induction and observation (McConnell, 2009, p.18), it inspired Aristotle to provide his own theories and reintroducing Socrates logic system in the form of scientific method, which became well known in Psychology.

Running head: THE BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO References European Graduate School. (2010). Plato-Biography. Retrieved from: http://www.egs.edu/library/plato/biography/ Kemerling, Garth. (2011). Plato. Retrieved from: http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm. McConnell, Daniel S. (2009). Philosophical & Theoretical Foundations of Psychology. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. Merriman, C.D. (2006). Plato. Retrieved from: http://www.online-literature.com/plato/ . Meinwald, Constance C. (2011). Plato biography. Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/plato-9442588?page=1 University Press Inc.(2008). Plato. Retrieved from: http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Plato/