Western Philosophy Ancient philosophy Plato Name Plato (Πλάτων) Birth c. This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic 424–423 BC, Athens Death c. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's 348–347 BC, Athens School/tradition Platonism Main interests Rhetoric, Art, Literature, Epistemology, Justice, Virtue, Politics, Education, Family, Militarism Notable ideas Platonic realism Influenced by Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Orphism Influenced Aristotle, Augustine, Neoplatonism, Cicero, Plutarch, Stoicism, Anselm, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Mill, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Gadamer, Russell and countless other western philosophers and theologians

This article is part of the series Plato Early life of Plato

Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-browed"^[1]) (428/427 BC^[a] – 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher, who together with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, helped to lay the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly In the context of the art architecture and culture of Ancient Greece, the classical period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Western culture (sometimes equated with Western Civilization) are terms which are used to refer to Cultures of European origin ^[2] Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. For the Raphael painting see The School of Athens The Academy (Ἀκαδήμεια was founded by Plato in ca The History of Athens is one of the longest of any city in Europe and in the world Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.

Plato's sophistication as a writer can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. ^[3] Interestingly, although there is little question that Plato lectured at the Academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. Pedagogy (ˈpɛdəgɒdʒi or paedagogy is the Art or Science of being a Teacher. The dialogues have since Plato's time been used to teach a range of subjects, mostly including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and

Biography

Early life

Main article: Early life of Plato

Birth and family

The exact birthdate of Plato is unknown. Plato ( ancient Greek:, Plátōn, "wide broad-shouldered" (c Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that he was born in Athens or Aegina^[b] between 429 and 423 BC^[a] His father was Ariston. Aegina ( Greek: Αίγινα ( Egina) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles (30 km from Ariston of Collytus (d c 424 BC was the father of the Greek philosopher Plato (originally named Aristocles According to a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus. Diogenes Laërtius ( Greek:, Diogénes Laértios) the biographer of the Greek Philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname Before the Athenian democracy, the Tyrants and the Archons the City-state of Athens was ruled by kings. Codrus ( Greek:) King of Athens (r ca 1089 - 1068 BC) was according to Greek legend the last of the legendary Kings of Athens Messenia or Messinia (Μεσσηνία is a prefecture in the Peloponnese, a region of Greece. In Greek mythology, Melanthus (Μέλανθος was a king of Messenia. ^[4] Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. Perictione, or Periktíone was the Greek mother of Plato. She was a descendant of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver A legislator (or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws especially someone who is a member of a Legislature. Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings which may or may not be set to music Solon ( ancient Greek:, c 638 BC&ndash558 BC was an Athenian Statesman, Lawmaker and Lyric poet. ^[5] Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian war (404-403 b. Charmides was an Athenian statesman and one of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Critias is also a work by Plato see Critias (dialogue. Critias ( Greek, 460-403 BC born in Athens son of Callaeschrus was The Thirty Tyrants (30 τύραννοι or οἱ Τριάκοντα were a pro- Spartan Oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian Oligarchy' ( Greek, Oligarkhía) is a Form of government where Political power effectively rests with a small elite segment The word regime (occasionally spelled " régime " particularly in older texts refers to a set of conditions most often of a Political nature c. e. ). ^[6] Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy). Glaucon (Greek Γλαύκων (born circa 445 BC son of Ariston, was the Philosopher Plato 's older brother Potone (b bef 427 BC) daughter of Ariston and Perictione, was Plato 's older sister Speusippus (407 BC-339 BC was an ancient Greek Philosopher. Speusippus was Plato 's nephew by his sister Potone. ^[6] According to the Republic, Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or ^[7] Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato. The Memorabilia are also known by the alternate Latin title Commentarii, the Greek title Apomnemoneumata (Απομνημονεύματα Xenophon (Ancient Greek, Modern Greek "Ξενοφών" "Ξενοφώντας" ca ^[8]

According to certain reports of ancient writers, Plato' s mother became pregnant through a virginal conception: Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed of his purpose; then the ancient Greek god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and, as a result of it, Ariston left Perictione unmolested. The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon ( Greek: Δωδεκάθεον ^[9] Another legend related that, while he was sleeping as an infant, bees had settled on the lips of Plato; an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy. ^[10]

Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. ^[11] Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother,^[12] who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens. Pyrilampes was an ancient Athenian politician and stepfather of the Philosopher Plato. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia Pericles (also spelled Perikles) (c 495 – 429 BC Greek:, meaning "surrounded by glory" was a prominent and influential Statesman, orator ^[13] Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. ^[14] Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides. Parmenides is one of the Dialogues of Plato. It is perhaps Plato 's most challenging dialogue ^[15]

In contrast to his reticence about himself, Plato used to introduce his distinguished relatives into his dialogues, or to mention them with some precision: Charmides has one named after him; Critias speaks in both Charmides and Protagoras; Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent parts in the Republic. The Charmides ( Ancient Greek:) is a Dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of Protagoras is a Dialogue of Plato. The main Argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or ^[16] From these and other references one can reconstruct his family tree, and this suggests a considerable amount of family pride. A family tree is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional Tree structure. According to Burnet, "the opening scene of the Charmides is a glorification of the whole [family] connection . . . Plato's dialogues are not only a memorial to Socrates, but also the happier days of his own family". ^[17]

Name

According to Diogenes Laertius, the philosopher was named Aristocles after his grandfather, but his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, dubbed him "Platon", meaning "broad" on account of his robust figure. Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two people in which each wrestler strives to get an advantage over or control of the opponent ^[18] According to the sources mentioned by Diogenes (all dating from the Alexandrian period), Plato derived his name from the breadth (platytês) of his eloquence, or else because he was very wide (platýs) across the forehead. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' ^[19] In the 21st century some scholars disputed Diogenes, and argued that the legend about his name being Aristocles originated in the Hellenistic age. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. ^[c]

Education

Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study". Apuleius should not be confused with Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, a Roman demagogue or with Pseudo-Apuleius, an author ^[20] Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time. Gymnastics is a Sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength agility and coordination ^[21] Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian games. Dicaearchus (or Dicearchus, Δικαίαρχος of Messana, who lived c The Isthmian Games or Isthmia ( Ancient Greek Ἴσθμια were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, and were named after the ^[22] Plato had also attended courses of philosophy; before meeting Socrates, he first became acquainted with Cratylus (a disciple of Heraclitus, a prominent pre-Socratic Greek philosopher) and the Heraclitean doctrines. Cratylus ( ancient Greek:, Kratylos) was an ancient Athenian Philosopher from late 5th century BC mostly known through his portrayal Heraclitus of Ephesus ( Ancient Greek: &mdash grc-Latn ''Hērákleitos ho Ephésios'' English Heraclitus the Ephesian) (ca The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously but expounding knowledge developed earlier ^[23]

Later life

Plato may have traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Cyrene (in Greek, Κυρήνη &ndash Kurene) was an ancient Greek Colony in present-day Libya, the oldest and most ^[24] Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus. ^[25] The Academy was "a large enclosure of ground which was once the property of a citizen at Athens named Academus. An academy ( Greek Ἀκαδημία is an institution of higher learning research or honorary membership Akademos (Greek) (or Hekademos (Ἑκάδημος Academus, or Hecademus) was an Attic hero in Greek mythology. . . some, however, say that it received its name from an ancient hero" ,^[26] and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of Christianity. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ( Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ιουστινιανός; known in English as Justinian I or This article is about the city See also Byzantine Empire. Byzantium ( Greek: Βυζάντιον Latin: la BYZANTIVM Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ^[27]

Plato and Socrates

Plato and Socrates in a medieval picture.

Plato makes it clear, especially in his Apology of Socrates, that he was one of Socrates' devoted young followers. SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. In that dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Later, Plato is mentioned along with Crito, Critobolus, and Apollodorus as offering to pay a fine of 30 minas on Socrates' behalf, in lieu of the death penalty proposed by Meletus (38b). In the Phaedo, the title character lists those who were in attendance at the prison on Socrates' last day, explaining Plato's absence by saying, "Plato was ill" (Phaedo 59b). Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with

The relationship between Plato(the square) and Socrates is not unproblematic, however. Aristotle, for example, attributes a different doctrine with respect to the ideas to Plato and Socrates (Metaphysics 987b1–11), but Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess In the Second Letter, it says, "no writing of Plato exists or ever will exist, but those now said to be his are those of a Socrates become beautiful and new" (341c); if the Letter is Plato's, the final qualification seems to call into question the dialogues' historical fidelity. The Second Letter of Plato, also called Epistle II or Letter II, is an Epistle that tradition has ascribed to Plato In any case, Xenophon and Aristophanes seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates than Plato paints. Xenophon (Ancient Greek, Modern Greek "Ξενοφών" "Ξενοφώντας" ca Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz in English ca Leo Strauss calls attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation for irony. Leo Strauss (September 20 1899 &ndash October 18 1973 was a German -born Jewish-American political philosopher who specialized in the study of classical ^[28]

The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars.

Narration of the dialogues

Plato never presents himself as a participant in any of the dialogues, and with the exception of the Apology, he does not claim to have heard any of the dialogues firsthand. Some dialogues have no narrator (examples: Meno, Gorgias, Phaedrus, Crito, Euthyphro), some dialogues are narrated by Socrates, wherein he speaks in first person (examples: Lysis, Charmides, Apology, Republic). Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue Gorgias is an important Socratic Dialogue in which Plato sets the rhetorician, whose specialty is persuasion in opposition to the Philosopher The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an The Crito (IPA; in English usually) is a short but important Dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. Lysis is a dialogue of Plato which discusses the nature of Friendship. The Charmides ( Ancient Greek:) is a Dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or In one dialogue, Protagoras, Socrates narrates to an unnamed friend a conversation he had previously with the sophist for whom the dialogue is named. Protagoras is a Dialogue of Plato. The main Argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and

Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)

Three dialogues, Phaedo, Symposium, and Theaetetus, are narrated by disciples of Socrates, and all, apparently, from distant memories. The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC Anselm Feuerbach ( September 12, 1829 &mdash January 4, 1880) was a German painter Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. Phaedo, an account of Socrates' final conversation and hemlock drinking, is narrated by Phaedo to Echecrates in a foreign city many years after the execution took place. The Symposium is narrated by Apollodorus, a Socratic disciple, apparently to Glaucon. Apollodorus assures his listener that he is recounting the story, which took place when he himself was an infant, not from his own memory, but as remembered by Aristodemus, who told him the story years ago. In the Theaetetus (142c-143b), Euclides says that he compiled the conversation from notes he took based on what Socrates told him of his conversation with the title character. Euclid of Megara, a Greek Socratic Philosopher who lived around 400 BC founded the Megarian school of philosophy. With the exception of the Theaetetus, Plato gives no hint as to how these orally transmitted conversations came to be written down, or how he came by them.

For some scholars, Plato's own absence from the dialogues, and the absence of a character who might readily be identified as holding Plato's actual view, is at odds with the traditional belief that he was a disciple and part of Socrates' inner circle. Nevertheless, the question of why Plato explicitly distances himself by time, place, and authorship from three of his greatest dialogues is in some respects no more an issue than other questions that the dialogues raise in terms of exegesis or interpretation. In this vein, it is worth noting that although tradition tends to see Plato as writing a kind of "pseudo-history" of the life of Socrates, the chronologies of the characters are inconsistent. For example, in the Protagoras, Alcibiades and Agathon are teenage boys growing beards (and are the respective beloveds of Socrates and Pausanias), and Apollodoros and Glaucon are fathers of teenage sons. Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (ˌælsɨˈbaɪədiːz (pronunciation Greek:, transliterated Alkibiádēs Kleiníou Skambōnidēs) meaning Alcibiades Agathon (Ἀγάθων (ca 448&ndash400 BC was an Athenian tragic poet and friend of Euripides and Plato. Pausanias, an Athenian of the Deme Kerameis, was the lover of the poet Agathon. When the Symposium allegedly took place, however, Glaucon and Apollodorus were infants and Alcibiades and Agathon were full-grown men (and Alcibiades is said to be older than his beloved Agathon). This chronological discrepancy, which does not appear to be inadvertent, suggests that Plato is not a historical writer.

Plato's dialogues bear at least some similarities to the classical plays, in having no more than three speakers "on stage" (speaking) at one time, and in often having "a chorus" of (silent) listeners.

Trial of Socrates

See main article: Trial of Socrates

The trial of Socrates is the central, unifying event of the great Platonic dialogues. The trial of Socrates refers to the Trial and the subsequent execution of the Athenian Philosopher Socrates in 399 BC. Because of this, Plato's Apology is perhaps the most often read of the dialogues. In the Apology, Socrates tries to dismiss rumors that he is a sophist and defends himself against charges of disbelief in the gods and corruption of the young. Socrates insists that long-standing slander will be the real cause of his demise, and says the legal charges are essentially false. Socrates famously denies being wise, and explains how his life as a philosopher was launched by the oracle at Delphi. He says that his quest to resolve the riddle of the oracle put him at odds with his fellow man, and that this is the reason he has been mistaken for a menace to the city-state of Athens.

Unity and diversity of the dialogues

If Plato's important dialogues do not refer to Socrates' execution explicitly, they allude to it, or use characters or themes that play a part in it. Five dialogues foreshadow the trial: In the Theaetetus (210d) and the Euthyphro (2a–b) Socrates tells people that he is about to face corruption charges. The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. In the Meno (94e–95a), one of the men who brings legal charges against Socrates, Anytus, warns him about the trouble he may get into if he does not stop criticizing important people. Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue Anytus was one of the prosecutors of Socrates. An unsubstantiated legend has it that he was banished from Athens after the public felt guilty about having Socrates executed In the Gorgias, Socrates says that his trial will be like a doctor prosecuted by a cook who asks a jury of children to choose between the doctor's bitter medicine and the cook's tasty treats (521e–522a). Gorgias ( Greek: Γοργίας ca 487-376 BC Greek Sophist, Pre-socratic philosopher and Rhetorician was a native In the Republic (7. A republic is a State or Country that is not led by a hereditary Monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people have impact on its 517e), Socrates explains why an enlightened man (presumably himself) will stumble in a courtroom situation. The Apology is Socrates' defense speech, and the Crito and Phaedo take place in prison after the conviction. The Crito (IPA; in English usually) is a short but important Dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with In the Protagoras, Socrates is a guest at the home of Callias, son of Hipponicus, a man whom Socrates disparages in the Apology as having wasted a great amount of money on sophists' fees. Protagoras ( Greek:) (ca 490&ndash 420 BC was a pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher and is numbered as one of the Sophists by Callias ( Greek: Kαλλίας, pronounced "Kahl-LEE-as" son of Hipponicus by the ex-wife of Pericles, an Alcmaeonid and

Two other important dialogues, the Symposium and the Phaedrus, are linked to the main storyline by characters. The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an In the Apology (19b, c), Socrates says Aristophanes slandered him in a comic play, and blames him for causing his bad reputation, and ultimately, his death. Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz in English ca In the Symposium, the two of them are drinking together with other friends. The character Phaedrus is linked to the main story line by character (Phaedrus is also a participant in the Symposium and the Protagoras) and by theme (the philosopher as divine emissary, etc. ) The Protagoras is also strongly linked to the Symposium by characters: all of the formal speakers at the Symposium (with the exception of Aristophanes) are present at the home of Callias in that dialogue. Charmides and his guardian Critias are present for the discussion in the Protagoras. Charmides was an Athenian statesman and one of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Critias is also a work by Plato see Critias (dialogue. Critias ( Greek, 460-403 BC born in Athens son of Callaeschrus was Examples of characters crossing between dialogues can be further multiplied. The Protagoras contains the largest gathering of Socratic associates.

In the dialogues for which Plato is most celebrated and admired, Socrates is concerned with human and political virtue, has a distinctive personality, and friends and enemies who "travel" with him from dialogue to dialogue. This is not to say that Socrates is consistent: a man who is his friend in one dialogue may be an adversary or subject of his mockery in another. For example, Socrates praises the wisdom of Euthyphro many times in the Cratylus, but makes him look like a fool in the Euthyphro. Cratylus ( Greek: Κράτυλος is the name of a dialogue by Plato. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. He disparages sophists generally, and Prodicus specifically in the Apology, yet tells Theaetetus in his namesake dialogue that he admires Prodicus and has directed many pupils to him. Prodicus of Ceos ( Greek: Πρόδικος Pródikos, (c 465 BC - 415 BC was a Greek philosopher, part of the first generation of Sophists. In Cratylus (384b-c), Socrates says that he studied with Cratylus, and took his one-drachma course because he could not afford the full fifty-drachma course. Cratylus ( ancient Greek:, Kratylos) was an ancient Athenian Philosopher from late 5th century BC mostly known through his portrayal Drachma, pl drachmas or drachmae (δραχμή pl δραχμές or δραχμαί (until 1982 is the name of An ancient currency unit found in many Socrates' ideas are also not consistent within or between or among dialogues.

Unwritten doctrine

For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine has been considered unworthy of attention. Most of the books on Plato seem to diminish its importance. Nevertheless the first important witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his Physics (209 b) writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Physics (or "Physica" or "Physicae Auscultationes" meaning "lessons" is a key text in the philosophy of Aristotle. e. in Timaeus] of the participant is different from what he says in his so-called unwritten teaching (ἄγραφα δόγματα). Timaeus ( Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written " The term ἄγραφα δόγματα literally means unwritten doctrine and it stands for the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato which he disclosed only to his most trusted fellows and kept secret from the public.

The reason for not revealing it to everyone is partially discussed in Phaedrus (276 c) where Plato criticizes the written transmission of knowledge as faulty, favoring instead the spoken logos: "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and beautiful … will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot teach the truth effectually. The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion " The same argument is repeated in Plato's Seventh Letter (344 c): "every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing. The Seventh Letter is a literary and philosophical text of the mid-fourth century BC (ca " In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare concerning all these writers who claim to know the subjects which I seriously study . . . there does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any treatise of mine dealing therewith. " Such secrecy is necessary in order not "to expose them to unseemly and degrading treatment" (344 d).

It is however said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to the public in his lecture On the Good (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ), in which the Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν), the fundamental ontological principle. The content of this lecture has been transmitted by several witnesses, among others Aristoxenus who describes the event in the following words: "Each came expecting to learn something about the things which are generally considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful happiness. For the 1st century physician of Asia Minor see Aristoxenus (physician. But when the mathematical demonstrations came, including numbers, geometrical figures and astronomy, and finally the statement Good is One seemed to them, I imagine, utterly unexpected and strange; hence some belittled the matter, while others rejected it. " Simplicius quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias who states that "according to Plato, the first principles of everything, including the Forms themselves are One and Indefinite Duality (ἡ ἀόριστος δυάς) which he called Large and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν) . Simplicius (Σιμπλίκιος of Cilicia, lived c 490-c 560 AD was a disciple of Ammonius and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists Alexander of Aphrodisias was the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. . . one might also learn this from Speusippus and Xenocrates and the others who were present at Plato's lecture on the Good"

Their account is in full agreement with Aristotle's description of Plato's metaphysical doctrine. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. In Metaphysics he writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i. Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly the material principle is the Great and Small [i. e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τὸ ἕν), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the the One" (987 b). "From this account it is clear that he only employed two causes: that of the essence, and the material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible things, and the One in that of the Forms - that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς), the Great and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν). Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively the causation of good and of evil" (988 a).

The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus^[29] or Ficino^[30] which has been considered errorneous by many but may in fact have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. Plotinus ( Greek:) (ca AD 204–270 was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his Marsilio Ficino ( Latin name Marsilius Ficinus; October 19 1433 - October 1 1499) was one of the most influential humanist The first scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten doctrine of Plato was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930. Heinrich Gomperz ( January 18, 1873, Vienna, Austria - December 27, 1942, Los Angeles, California) was an The International congress of philosophy is a large international congress of Philosophers List of congresses 1900 Paris ^[31] All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica. ^[32] These sources have subsequently been interpreted by scholars from the german Tübingen School such as Hans Joachim Krämer or Thomas A. Szlezák. ^[33]

Works

Raphael's Plato in The School of Athens fresco, probably in the likeness of Leonardo da Vinci. Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and The School of Athens, or it Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous Paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Plato gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms. Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess

Structure

Some of Plato's dialogues are framed by human elements. The clearest example of this is Phaedo, wherein Socrates dismisses his wife Xanthippe from the prison at the beginning of the dialogue, and again towards the end. Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with Xanthippe (Ξανθίππη was the wife of Socrates and mother of their three sons Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. The frame elements suggest that Socrates' relationship with his disciples, who mourn the imminent loss of their spiritual "father" is more important to him than his actual family. In this dialogue, an entire chorus of people is said to be silently listening to a very long conversation, and apparently, saying nothing.

Other dialogues, such as Euthyphro and Crito, involve only two characters who are not said to be overheard by anyone else. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. The Crito (IPA; in English usually) is a short but important Dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. The characters are meant to be compared and contrasted. Socrates is more like Euthyphro (whom he mocks) than he thinks. Both are pious men whose knowledge of god's will comes from different sources - Euthyphro reads myths and takes them literally, while Socrates relies on divine inspiration that originates in his soul. Socrates is less compatible with his friend Crito than he thinks, and even says that people who are so morally at odds ought to despise each other. Sometimes characters appear and disappear throughout the course of a dialogue without notice, as a slave and an aristocrat (Anytus) in the Meno. Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue

Two of Plato's dialogues are better described as monologues. They are called Apology, and Menexenus. The Menexenus (Greek Μενέξενоς is a Socratic dialogue of Plato traditionally included in the seventh tetralogy along with the Greater Gorgias, Protagoras and Lesser Hippias are structurally similar: each depicts Socrates being invited to converse with a well-known wise man who is visiting Athens. Gorgias is an important Socratic Dialogue in which Plato sets the rhetorician, whose specialty is persuasion in opposition to the Philosopher Protagoras is a Dialogue of Plato. The main Argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and Hippias Minor (or On Lying) is thought to be one of Plato 's early works Lysis and Charmides are twin dialogues that picture Socrates chatting with boys who require attendants, slaves or older male relations who are appointed to walk them to and from their lessons at school. Lysis is a dialogue of Plato which discusses the nature of Friendship. The Charmides ( Ancient Greek:) is a Dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of Phaedrus and the Symposium are a pair of dialogues linked by the theme of man-boy love. The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC

Many other dialogues ascribed to Plato also use the Socratic character, but do not share this pronounced concern for virtue. In these dialogues, Plato uses Socrates as a mere name, a voice-marker who does not have the distinctive, self-deprecating wit of the important dialogues. The metaphysical dialogues attributed to Plato do not contain material of human interest, but are very abstract and read by specialists.

The dialogues have been divided by influential scholarship into the early, middle and late periods. Gregory Vlastos argued that the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo were written first and are a more or less historical record of the philosophy of the historical character Socrates. Gregory Vlastos ( July 27, 1907 &ndash October 12, 1991) was a Scholar of ancient Philosophy, and author of several works Vlastos' aim was to account for the obvious contradictions among dialogues. He argues that Plato's early dialogues represent Socratic philosophy, and that in the so-called middle and later dialogues, Plato expresses his own, quite different philosophy. Even Vlastos admitted that this division is not well-supported by the dialogues themselves. Nevertheless, his theory continues to be extremely influential.

Important analogies

The analogies in the dialogues are as interesting as the arguments, and just as important. Socrates' most enduring analogy is his comparison of the philosopher to the medical doctor. He says that the philosopher cures the mind ("psyche") of its worst affliction, ignorance, just as the medical doctor ("iatros") cures the body of disease. The ancient philosopher Epicurus took up the analogy, and claimed that any philosopher who did not reduce spiritual suffering was worthless. Socrates never pretended that his cures were pleasant, and never shied from saying that philosophical refutation, which chases false ideas from the brain, was a bitter medicine, and comparable to surgery or cautery. Diogenes of Sinope agreed. Diogenes (Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς Diogenes ho Sinopeus) "the Cynic " Greek Philosopher, was born in Sinope He reputedly said that a philosopher who did not hurt anybody's feeling was not doing his job. Even today, doctors of the mind are called "psych-iatrists".

Socrates compares the body to a prison house for the soul, and promoted the distinction that remains today, that a spiritual or wise person has a certain disgust for the body and its functions. In another celebrated analogy, Socrates likens the soul to a charioteer trying to manage a pair of lust ridden horses who ride by a love object, and start sweating and rearing uncontrollably. In still another comical analogy for the mind, Socrates says the brain is like a bird cage with pieces of knowledge fluttering about in it like doves and pigeons, so that a man might reach in for one fact and pull out the wrong one (Theaetetus). The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge.

Socrates frequently compares ideas with children, and says that ideas are the produce of the intercourse that men have with their beloved disciples (Symp. 209a–e). In a related analogy, Socrates compares himself to a midwife to men and boys who are "pregnant with thought" (Theaetetus). In the Protagoras, Socrates compares ideas to food, claiming that sophists are more dangerous to the mind than peddlers of spoiled food are to the body.

In several dialogues, Socrates compares intellectual debate to the physical contests so popular in the ancient Greek world. In the Gorgias he says that trainers cannot be blamed for the misbehaviors of their students. He says that you would not exile his trainer if a boxing student started punching his friends and parents, and just so, a teacher of rhetoric cannot be blamed if his students use their skills for unjust purposes. In the Lesser Hippias, Socrates says that a person who lies deliberately is a better man than the man who lies unwittingly, just as a man who throws an athletic contest is better than the man who loses from lack of skill.

Recurrent themes

Much on Plato's mind is the father-son relationship, and the "question" of whether a father's interest in his sons has much to do with how well his sons turn out. A boy in ancient Athens was socially located by his family identity, and Plato often refers to his characters in terms of their paternal and fraternal relationships. Socrates was not a family man, and saw himself as the son of his mother, who was apparently a midwife. A divine fatalist, Socrates mocks men who spent exorbitant fees on tutors and trainers for their sons, and repeatedly ventures the idea that good character is a gift from the gods. Crito reminds Socrates that orphans are at the mercy of chance, but Socrates is unconcerned. In the Theaetetus, he is found recruiting as a disciple a young man whose inheritance has been squandered. Socrates twice compares the relationship of the older man and his boy lover to the father-son relationship (Lysis 213a, Republic 3. 403b), and in the Phaedo, Socrates' disciples, towards whom he displays more concern than his biological sons, say they will feel "fatherless" when he is gone. Many dialogues, like these, suggest that man-boy love (which is "spiritual") is a wise man's substitute for father-son biology (which is "bodily").

In several dialogues, Socrates floats the idea that Knowledge is a matter of recollection, and not of learning, observation, or study. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding He maintains this view somewhat at his own expense, because in many dialogues, Socrates complains of his forgetfulness. Socrates is often found arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. He is quite consistent in believing in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. AfterLife is a film drama set in Scotland directed by Alison Peebles made in 2003 about an ambitious Scottish journalist forced to choose between More than one dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul. Reality, in everyday usage means "the state of things as they actually exist" Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. The only contrast to this is his Parmenides.

Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. In Greek mythology, the Muses ( Ancient Greek, hai moũsai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root * men- "think" are He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or In Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. In Plato 's Ion ( Greek:) Socrates discusses with the title character the question of whether the Rhapsode, a professional performer The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literature that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.

On politics and art, religion and science, justice and medicine, virtue and vice, crime and punishment, pleasure and pain, rhetoric and rhapsody, human nature and sexuality, love and wisdom, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say.

Metaphysics

Main article: Platonic realism

"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world. Platonic realism is a philosophical term usually used to refer to the idea of realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the Theaetetus, he says such people are "eu a-mousoi", an expression that means literally, "happily without the muses" (Theaetetus 156a). The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. In other words, such people live without the divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to higher insights about reality.

Socrates's idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his allegory of the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. The Allegory of the Cave is an Allegory used by the Greek Philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Plato, in his dialogue The Republic Book 6 (509D–513E has Socrates explain the literary device of a divided line to teach basic philosophical The allegory of the cave (begins Republic 7. 514a) is a paradoxical analogy wherein Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible ("noeton") and that the visible world ("(h)oraton") is the least knowable, and the most obscure. (This is exactly the opposite of what Socrates says to Euthyphro in the soothsayer's namesake dialogue. There, Socrates tells Euthyphro that people can agree on matters of logic and science, and are divided on moral matters, which are not so easily verifiable. )

Socrates says in the Republic that people who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good and real are living pitifully in a den of evil and ignorance. Socrates admits that few climb out of the den, or cave of ignorance, and those who do, not only have a terrible struggle to attain the heights, but when they go back down for a visit or to help other people up, they find themselves objects of scorn and ridicule.

According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists (although it is not clear where) and his own trial would be a cheap copy of it.

The allegory of the cave (often said by scholars to represent Plato's own epistemology and metaphysics) is intimately connected to his political ideology (often said to also be Plato's own), that only people who have climbed out of the cave and cast their eyes on a vision of goodness are fit to rule. Socrates claims that the enlightened men of society must be forced from their divine contemplations and compelled to run the city according to their lofty insights. Thus is born the idea of the "philosopher-king", the wise person who accepts the power thrust upon him by the people who are wise enough to choose a good master. This is the main thesis of Socrates in the Republic, that the most wisdom the masses can muster is the wise choice of a ruler.

The word metaphysics derives from the fact that Aristotle's musings about divine reality came after ("meta") his lecture notes on his treatise on nature ("physics"). The term is in fact applied to Aristotle's own teacher, and Plato's "metaphysics" is understood as Socrates' division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual. The theory has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western philosophy and religion.

Theory of Forms

Main article: Theory of Forms

The Theory of Forms typically refers to Plato's belief that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only a shadow of the real world. Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess The Allegory of the Cave is an Allegory used by the Greek Philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Plato spoke of forms in formulating his solution to the problem of universals. Platonic realism is a philosophical term usually used to refer to the idea of realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek The problem of universals is an ancient problem in Metaphysics about whether universals exist The forms, according to Plato, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types and properties (that is, of universals) of things we see all around us. An archetype ( pronounced: /ˈɑːkɪtaɪp/ (Brit or /ˈɑrkɪtaɪp/ (Amer --> Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information In Metaphysics, a type is a Category of being. A Human is a type of thing a cloud is a type of thing ( Entity) and so on In Metaphysics (in particular Ontology) the different kinds or ways of Being are called categories of being or simply categories In Metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common namely characteristics or qualities

Epistemology

Main article: Platonic epistemology

Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view which informed future developments in modern analytic epistemology. Platonic Epistemology holds that knowledge is innate so that learning is the development of ideas buried deep in the soul often under the mid-wife-like guidance of Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge This interpretation is based on a reading of the Theaetetus wherein Plato argues that belief is to be distinguished from knowledge on account of justification. The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. Many years later, Edmund Gettier famously demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. Edmund L Gettier III (born 1927 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American Philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University This interpretation, however, imports modern analytic and empiricist categories onto Plato himself and is better read on its own terms than as Plato's view.

Really, in the Sophist, Statesman, Republic, and the Parmenides Plato himself associates knowledge with the apprehension of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in Dialectic). The Sophist ( Greek: Σοφιστής) is one of the late Dialogues of Plato, which was written much later than the Parmenides The Statesman, or Politikos in Greek and Politicus in Latin, is a four part dialogue contained within the work of Plato. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or Parmenides is one of the Dialogues of Plato. It is perhaps Plato 's most challenging dialogue In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. Timaeus ( Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written In other words, if one derives their account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. And opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On the other hand, if one derives their account of something by way of the non-sensible forms, because these forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. It is only in this sense that Plato uses the term "knowledge. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding "

In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by recollection. Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue Anamnesis (ἀνάμνησις = "recollection reminiscence" is a term used in Medicine, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be present, Socrates concludes, in an eternal, non-experiential form.

The state

Papirus Oxyrhynchus, with fragment of Plato's Republic

Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period, as well as in the Laws and the Statesman. The Laws is Plato 's last and longest Dialogue. The question asked at the beginning is not "What is law?" as one would expect- that is the question The Statesman, or Politikos in Greek and Politicus in Latin, is a four part dialogue contained within the work of Plato. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases.

Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes of society. ^[34]

• Productive Which represents the abdomen. (Workers) — the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.
• Protective Which represents the chest. (Warriors or Guardians) — those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.
• Governing Which represents the head. (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.

According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Athenian democracy developed in the Greek City-state of Athens Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:

"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,. . . nor, I think, will the human race. " (Republic 473c-d)

Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom

Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. Sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings.

However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the Republic is qualified by Socrates as the ideal luxurious city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (Republic 372e). According to Socrates, the "true" and "healthy" city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the Republic, 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as "perfumed oils, incense, prostitutes, and pastries", in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and hunters, and war.

In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body. The question of free will Reason involves the ability to think understand and draw Conclusions in an Abstract way as in Human thinking Interpersonal attraction (known as biological attraction in animals is the attraction between people which leads to Friendships and romantic Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. Philosopher kings are the hypothetical rulers or Guardians of Plato 's Utopian Kallipolis. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act according to wisdom. In Politics and Religion, a moderate is an individual who holds an intermediate position between two viewpoints neither to be extreme or radical by those applying Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity Gallantry redirects here Or see Gallant for other meanings Courage, also known as bravery, will, intrepidity Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how why and to what degree humans should or do value things whether the thing is a person idea object or anything else In common usage existence is the world of which we are aware through our senses but in Philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning and is often contrasted with

Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better - a bad democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant (since then there is only one person committing bad deeds) than be a bad democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions. )

According to Plato a state, which is made up of different kinds of souls, will overall decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant). Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations Constitutional theory defines a timocracy as either a State where only property owners may participate in Government; or a government Oligarchy' ( Greek, Oligarkhía) is a Form of government where Political power effectively rests with a small elite segment Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system In modern usage a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute power over a State or within an Organization. Perhaps Plato is trying to warn us of the various kinds of immoderate souls that can rule over a state, and what kind of wise souls are best to advise and give counsel to the rulers that are often lovers of power, money, fame, and popularity. Political power ( Imperium in Latin is a type of power held by a group in a Society which allows administration of some or all of

Platonic scholarship

"The safest general characterisation of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. " (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929). Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, In Philosophy, especially Metaphysics, the book Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead, sets out its author's Philosophy of organism

Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Latin West in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th 13th and 14th centuries However, in the Byzantine Empire, the study of Plato continued.

The Medieval scholastic philosophers did not have access to the works of Plato, nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from Constantinople in the century before its fall, by George Gemistos Plethon. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS Georgius Gemistos (or Plethon, Pletho) in Greek Γεώργιος Πλήθων Γεμιστός, (c Medieval scholars knew of Plato only through translations into Latin from the translations into Arabic by Persian and Arab scholars. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. These scholars not only translated the texts of the ancients, but expanded them by writing extensive commentaries and interpretations on Plato's and Aristotle's works (see Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes). In Literary criticism, close reading describes the careful sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Abū Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Fārābi ( Nastaliq:) or Abū Nasr al-Fārābi TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabicأبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد better known just as Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد and in European

Only in the Renaissance, with the general resurgence of interest in classical civilization, did knowledge of Plato's philosophy become widespread again in the West. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with Scholasticism and fostered the flowering of the Renaissance, with the support of the Plato-inspired Lorenzo de Medici, saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Latin West in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th 13th and 14th centuries Lorenzo de' Medici (January 1 1449 &ndash 9 April 1492 was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance By the 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's.

Notable Western philosophers have continued to draw upon Plato's work since that time. Plato's influence has been especially strong in mathematics and the sciences. He helped to distinguish between pure and applied mathematics by widening the gap between "arithmetic", now called Number Theory and "logistic", now called arithmetic. Broadly speaking pure mathematics is Mathematics motivated entirely for reasons other than application Applied mathematics is a branch of Mathematics that concerns itself with the mathematical techniques typically used in the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains Number theory is the branch of Pure mathematics concerned with the properties of Numbers in general and Integers in particular as well as the wider classes Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used by almost everyone He regarded logistic as appropriate for business men and men of war who "must learn the art of numbers or he will not know how to array his troops," while arithmetic was appropriate for philosophers "because he has to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being. "^[35] He further inspired some of the greatest advances in logic since Aristotle, due to Gottlob Frege and his followers Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church, and Alfred Tarski, the last of whom summarised his approach by reversing Aristotle's famous declaration of sedition from the Nicomachean Ethics (1096a15: Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas): Inimicus Plato sed magis amica veritas ("Plato is a friend, but truth is yet a greater friend"). Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin  &ndash 26 July 1925 Kurt Gödel (kʊɐ̯t ˈgøːdl̩ (April 28 1906 – January 14 1978 was an Austrian American Logician, Mathematician and Philosopher Alonzo Church ( June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American Mathematician and logician Alfred Tarski ( January 14, 1901, Warsaw, Russian ruled Poland – October 26, 1983, Berkeley California Nicomachean Ethics (sometimes spelled "Nichomachean" or Ta Ethika, is a work by Aristotle on Virtue and Moral character which Albert Einstein drew on Plato's understanding of an immutable reality that underlies the flux of appearances for his objections to the probabilistic picture of the physical universe propounded by Niels Bohr in his interpretation of quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Niels Henrik David Bohr (nels ˈb̥oɐ̯ˀ in Danish 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962 was a Danish Physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons Conversely, thinkers that diverged from ontological models and moral ideals in their own philosophy, have tended to disparage Platonism from more or less informed perspectives. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event Thus Friedrich Nietzsche attacked Plato's moral and political theories, Martin Heidegger argued against Plato's alleged obfuscation of Being, and Karl Popper argued in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) that Plato's alleged proposal for a government system in the Republic was prototypically totalitarian. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher Disambiguation For the Wigwam album see Being (album, for spiritual or religious beingness, see Ego (spirituality Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor The Open Society and Its Enemies, is an influential two-volume work by Karl Popper written during World War II. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private Leo Strauss is considered by some as the prime thinker involved in the recovery of Platonic thought in its more political, and less metaphysical, form. Leo Strauss (September 20 1899 &ndash October 18 1973 was a German -born Jewish-American political philosopher who specialized in the study of classical Deeply influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger, Strauss nonetheless rejects their condemnation of Plato and looks to the dialogues for a solution to what all three thinkers acknowledge as 'the crisis of the West. '

Bibliography

Plato's writings (most of them dialogues) have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts. A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities.

Those works ascribed to Plato that have a separate Wikipedia article can be found in Category:Dialogues of Plato

Tetralogy

One tradition regarding the arrangement of Plato's texts is according to tetralogies. A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four ( Numerical prefix tetra-) distinct works This scheme is ascribed by Diogenes Laertius to an ancient scholar and court astrologer to Tiberius named Thrasyllus. Diogenes Laërtius ( Greek:, Diogénes Laértios) the biographer of the Greek Philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (or Tiberius I) born Tiberius Claudius Nero (November 16 42 BC – March 16 AD 37) was the second Roman Thrasyllus of Mendes whose full name was Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus (flourished 1st century BC & 1st century died 36 Greek: ο Τιβερίος Κλαύδιος

In the list below, works by Plato are marked (1) if there is no consensus among scholars as to whether Plato is the author, and (2) if scholars generally agree that Plato is not the author of the work. Unmarked works are assumed to have been written by Plato.

Tetralogies

Works not in Thrasyllus' tetralogies

The remaining works were transmitted under Plato's name, most of them already considered spurious in antiquity, and so were not included by Thrasyllus in his tetralogical arrangement. These works are labelled as Notheuomenoi ("spurious") or Apocrypha.

• Axiochus (2), Definitions (2), Demodocus (2), Epigrams, Eryxias (2), Halcyon (2), On Justice (2), On Virtue (2), Sisyphus (2). Demodocus is purported to be one of the dialogues of Plato. The dialogue is extant and was included in the Stephanus edition published in Geneva in 1578 Halcyon is a short dialogue attributed to Plato, in which Socrates relates the ancient myth of the Halcyon (a woman transformed into a bird forever searching Sisyphus is purported to be one of the dialogues of Plato. The dialogue is extant and was included in the Stephanus edition published in Geneva in 1578

Stephanus pagination

The usual system for making unique references to sections of the text by Plato derives from a 16th century edition of Plato's works by Henricus Stephanus. Henri Estienne, also known as Henricus Stephanus or Henry Stephens, was a 16th-century Parisian printer. An overview of Plato's writings according to this system can be found in the Stephanus pagination article. Stephanus pagination is the system of reference and organization used in modern editions and translations of Plato (and less famously Plutarch)

Plato's Dialogues

Plato's The Republic, Latin edition cover, 1713

The exact order in which Plato's dialogues were written is not known, nor is the extent to which some might have been later revised and rewritten. However, according to modern linguistic theory there is enough information internal to the dialogues to form a rough chronology. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields The dialogues are normally grouped into three fairly distinct periods, with a few of them considered transitional works, and some just difficult to place. Friedrich Schleiermacher, whose translation of Plato into German still stands uncontested in Germany, is very likely the first to have divided Plato's dialogues into three distinct periods. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (ˈʃlaɪɐmaxɐ ( November 21, 1768 &ndash February 12, 1834) was a German theologian However, his ordering is quite different from the modern one, and rather than being based upon philology, he claims to have traced Plato's philosophical development. Schleiermacher divides the dialogues thus:

1. Foundation: Phaedrus, Lysis, Protagoras, Laches, Charmides, Euthyphro, Parmenides;
2. Transition: Gorgias, Theaetetus, Meno, Euthydemus, Cratylus, Sophist, Statesman, Symposium, Phaedo, Philebus
3. Culmination: The Republic, (Critias, Timaeus, The Laws)

The final three dialogues above, in parentheses, were not translated by Schleiermacher, though ten other dialogues (including Ion, etc. The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an Lysis is a dialogue of Plato which discusses the nature of Friendship. Protagoras is a Dialogue of Plato. The main Argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and Laches, also known as Courage, is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato, and concerns the topic of Courage. The Charmides ( Ancient Greek:) is a Dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. Parmenides is one of the Dialogues of Plato. It is perhaps Plato 's most challenging dialogue Gorgias is an important Socratic Dialogue in which Plato sets the rhetorician, whose specialty is persuasion in opposition to the Philosopher The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue Euthydemus (Euthydemos written 380 BCE is dialogue by Plato which satirizes the Logical fallacies of the Sophists. Cratylus ( Greek: Κράτυλος is the name of a dialogue by Plato. The Sophist ( Greek: Σοφιστής) is one of the late Dialogues of Plato, which was written much later than the Parmenides The Statesman, or Politikos in Greek and Politicus in Latin, is a four part dialogue contained within the work of Plato. Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together" but has since come to refer to any Academic conference Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with Philebus (often called The Philebus) is among the last of the late Socratic dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or An ion is an Atom or Molecule which has lost or gained one or more Valence electrons giving it a positive or negative electrical charge ) were translated and deemed spurious. Finally, Schleiermacher maintained that the Apology and probably the Crito were Plato's memory of Socrates' actual words. The Crito (IPA; in English usually) is a short but important Dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Lewis Campbell was the first to make exhaustive use of stylometry to prove objectively that the Critias, Timaeus, Laws, Philebus, Sophist, and Statesman were all clustered together as a group, while the Parmenides, Phaedrus, Republic, and Theaetetus belong to a separate group, which must be earlier (given Aristotle's statement in his Politics^[36] that the Laws was written after the Republic; cf. Lewis Campbell (3 September 1830&ndash 25 October 1908 British classical scholar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Diogenes Laertius Lives 3. Diogenes Laërtius ( Greek:, Diogénes Laértios) the biographer of the Greek Philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname 37).

Many of the positions in the ordering are still highly disputed. The generally agreed upon modern ordering is as follows.

Early dialogues

Socrates figures in all of these, and they are considered the most faithful representations of the historical Socrates; hence they are also called the Socratic dialogues. Socratic dialogue ( Greek Σωκρατικός λόγος or Σωκρατικός διάλογος) is a genre of prose literary works developed in Most of them consist of Socrates discussing a subject, often an ethical one (friendship, piety) with a friend or with someone presumed to be an expert on it. Through a series of questions he will show that apparently they do not understand it at all. It is left to the reader to figure out if "he" really understands "it". This makes these dialogues "indirect" teachings. This period also includes several pieces surrounding the trial and execution of Socrates.

• Apology
• Crito
• Charmides
• Laches
• Lysis
• Euthyphro
• Menexenus
• Lesser Hippias
• Ion

The following are variously considered transitional or middle period dialogues:

• Gorgias
• Protagoras
• Meno

Middle dialogues

Late in the early dialogues Plato's Socrates actually begins supplying answers to some of the questions he asks, or putting forth positive doctrines. The Crito (IPA; in English usually) is a short but important Dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. The Charmides ( Ancient Greek:) is a Dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of Laches, also known as Courage, is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato, and concerns the topic of Courage. Lysis is a dialogue of Plato which discusses the nature of Friendship. Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. The Menexenus (Greek Μενέξενоς is a Socratic dialogue of Plato traditionally included in the seventh tetralogy along with the Greater Hippias Minor (or On Lying) is thought to be one of Plato 's early works In Plato 's Ion ( Greek:) Socrates discusses with the title character the question of whether the Rhapsode, a professional performer Gorgias is an important Socratic Dialogue in which Plato sets the rhetorician, whose specialty is persuasion in opposition to the Philosopher Protagoras is a Dialogue of Plato. The main Argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of Virtue This is generally seen as the first appearance of Plato's own views. The first of these, that goodness is wisdom and that no one does evil willingly, was perhaps Socrates' own view. What becomes most prominent in the middle dialogues is the idea that knowledge comes of grasping unchanging forms or essences, paired with the attempts to investigate such essences. The immortality of the soul, and specific doctrines about justice, truth, and beauty, begin appearing here. The Symposium and the Republic are considered the centrepieces of Plato's middle period. The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or

• Euthydemus
• Cratylus
• Phaedo
• Phaedrus
• Symposium
• Republic
• Theaetetus
• Parmenides

Late dialogues

Early modern latin incunabulum of Plato's Timaeus, 1491

The Parmenides presents a series of criticisms of the theory of Forms which are widely taken to indicate Plato's abandonment of the doctrine. Euthydemus (Euthydemos written 380 BCE is dialogue by Plato which satirizes the Logical fallacies of the Sophists. Cratylus ( Greek: Κράτυλος is the name of a dialogue by Plato. Plato 's Phaedo (ˈfiːdoʊ Greek: Φαίδων, Phaidon) is one of the great Dialogues of his middle period along with The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or The Theætetus ( Greek: Θεαίτητος is one of Plato 's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. Parmenides is one of the Dialogues of Plato. It is perhaps Plato 's most challenging dialogue Timaeus ( Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written Parmenides is one of the Dialogues of Plato. It is perhaps Plato 's most challenging dialogue Some recent publications (e. g. , Meinwald (1991)) have challenged this characterisation. In most of the remaining dialogues the theory is either absent or at least appears under a different guise in discussions about kinds or classes of things (the Timaeus may be an important, and hence controversially placed, exception). Timaeus ( Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written Socrates is either absent or a minor figure in the discussion. An apparently new method for doing dialectic known as "collection and division" is also featured, most notably in the Sophist and Statesman, explicitly for the first time in the Phaedrus, and possibly in the Philebus. The Sophist ( Greek: Σοφιστής) is one of the late Dialogues of Plato, which was written much later than the Parmenides A statesman or stateswoman or statesperson is usually a Politician or other notable figure of State who has had a long and respected career in The Phaedrus ( Greek: Φαίδρος written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main Protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus an Philebus (often called The Philebus) is among the last of the late Socratic dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. A basic description of collection and division would go as follows: interlocutors attempt to discern the similarities and differences among things in order to get clear idea about what they in fact are. One understanding, suggested in some passages of the Sophist, is that this is what philosophy is always in the business of doing, and is doing even in the early dialogues. The Sophist ( Greek: Σοφιστής) is one of the late Dialogues of Plato, which was written much later than the Parmenides

The late dialogues are also an important place to look for Plato's mature thought on most of the issues dealt with in the earlier dialogues. There is much work still to be done by scholars on the working out of what these views are. The later works are agreed to be difficult and challenging pieces of philosophy. On the whole they are more sober and logical than earlier works, but may hold out the promise of steps towards a solution to problems which were systematically laid out in prior works.

• Sophist
• Statesman
• Philebus
• Timaeus
• Critias
• Laws

Loeb Classical Library

James Loeb provided a very popular edition of Plato's works, still in print in the 21st century: see Loeb Classical Library#Plato for how Plato's works were named in Loeb's publications. The Sophist ( Greek: Σοφιστής) is one of the late Dialogues of Plato, which was written much later than the Parmenides The Statesman, or Politikos in Greek and Politicus in Latin, is a four part dialogue contained within the work of Plato. Philebus (often called The Philebus) is among the last of the late Socratic dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Timaeus ( Greek: Τίμαιος, Timaios) is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written Critias, one of Plato 's late Dialogues contains the story of the mighty island kingdom Atlantis and its attempt to conquer Athens, The Laws is Plato 's last and longest Dialogue. The question asked at the beginning is not "What is law?" as one would expect- that is the question James Loeb ( August 6, 1867 – May 27, 1933) was a Jewish-German-American Banker and Philanthropist.

See also

• Platonic Realism
• Mitchell Miller
• Eric A. Havelock
• Alexander Nehamas
• Platonic love
• Seventh Letter (Plato)
• Cambridge Platonists
• Jacob Klein (philosopher)

Notes

Citations

References

Primary sources (Greek and Roman)

Secondary sources

Further reading

• Allen, R. E. (2006). Studies in Plato's Metaphysics II. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-18-6
• Ambuel, David (2006). Image and Paradigm in Plato's Sophist. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-004-9
• Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments, Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-4843-5
• Barrow, Robin (2007). Plato: Continuum Library of Educational Thought. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-8408-5.  
• Cooper, John M. & Hutchinson, D. S. (Eds. ) (1997). Plato: Complete Works. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Hackett Publishing Company Inc is an academic Publishing house based in Indianapolis, Indiana. ISBN 0-87220-349-2.  
• Corlett, J. Angelo (2005). Interpreting Plato's Dialogues. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-02-5
• Durant, Will (1926). The Story of Philosophy. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-69500-2.  
• Derrida, Jacques (1972). La dissémination, Paris: Seuil. (esp. cap. : La Pharmacie de Platon, 69-199) ISBN 2-02-001958-2
• Fine, Gail (2000). Plato 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-875206-7
• Guthrie, W. K. C. (1986). William Keith Chambers Guthrie ( 1 August 1906 &ndash 17 May 1981) was a Scottish Classical scholar, best known for his History A History of Greek Philosophy (Plato - The Man & His Dialogues - Earlier Period), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31101-2
• Guthrie, W. K. C. (1986). William Keith Chambers Guthrie ( 1 August 1906 &ndash 17 May 1981) was a Scottish Classical scholar, best known for his History A History of Greek Philosophy (Later Plato & the Academy) Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31102-0
• Havelock, Eric (2005). Preface to Plato (History of the Greek Mind), Belknap Press, ISBN 0-674-69906-8
• Hamilton, Edith & Cairns, Huntington (Eds. ) (1961). The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Including the Letters. Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 0-691-09718-6.  
• Irwin, Terence (1995). Plato's Ethics, Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-508645-7
• Jackson, Roy (2001). Plato: A Beginner's Guide. London: Hoder & Stroughton. ISBN 0-340-80385-1.  
• Kochin, Michael S. (2002). Gender and Rhetoric in Plato’s Political Thought. Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 0-521-80852-9.  
• Kraut, Richard (Ed. ) (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43610-9.  
• Krämer, Hans Joachim (1990). Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-791-40433-1.  
• Lilar, Suzanne (1954), Journal de l'analogiste, Paris, Éditions Julliard; Reedited 1979, Paris, Grasset. Suzanne Baroness Lilar ( Née Suzanne Verbist (b Ghent, 21 May 1901 - d Foreword by Julien Gracq
• Lilar, Suzanne (1963), Le couple, Paris, Grasset. Julien Gracq ( July 27, 1910 &ndash December 22, 2007) born Louis Poirier in St Suzanne Baroness Lilar ( Née Suzanne Verbist (b Ghent, 21 May 1901 - d Translated as Aspects of Love in Western Society in 1965, with a foreword by Jonathan Griffin London, Thames and Hudson.
• Lilar, Suzanne (1967) A propos de Sartre et de l'amour , Paris, Grasset. Suzanne Baroness Lilar ( Née Suzanne Verbist (b Ghent, 21 May 1901 - d
• Lundberg, Phillip (2005). Tallyho - The Hunt for Virtue: Beauty,Truth and Goodness Nine Dialogues by Plato: Pheadrus, Lysis, Protagoras, Charmides, Parmenides, Gorgias, Theaetetus, Meno & Sophist. Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4184-4977-6.  
• Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-19-517510-7.  
• Meinwald, Constance Chu (1991). Plato's Parmenides. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506445-3.  
• Miller, Mitchell (2004). Mitchell H Miller Jr is Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College. The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-16-2
• Mohr, Richard D. (2006). God and Forms in Plato - and other Essays in Plato's Metaphysics. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-01-6
• Moore, Edward (2007). Plato. Philosophy Insights Series. Tirril, Humanities-Ebooks. ISBN 978-1-84760-047-9
• Reale, Giovanni (1990). A History of Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-791-40516-8.  
• Reale, Giovanni (1997). Toward a New Interpretation of Plato. CUA Press. ISBN 0-813-20847-5.  
• Sallis, John (1996). John Sallis (born 1938) is an American Philosopher. He is currently the Frederick J Being and Logos: Reading the Platonic Dialogues. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21071-2.  
• Sallis, John (1999). John Sallis (born 1938) is an American Philosopher. He is currently the Frederick J Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's "Timaeus". Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21308-8.  
• Sayre, Kenneth M. (2006). Plato's Late Ontology: A Riddle Resolved. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-09-4
• Szlezak, Thomas A. (1999). Reading Plato. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18984-5.  
• Taylor, A. E. (2001). Plato: The Man and His Work, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-41605-4
• Vlastos, Gregory (1981). Gregory Vlastos ( July 27, 1907 &ndash October 12, 1991) was a Scholar of ancient Philosophy, and author of several works Platonic Studies, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-10021-7
• Vlastos, Gregory (2006). Gregory Vlastos ( July 27, 1907 &ndash October 12, 1991) was a Scholar of ancient Philosophy, and author of several works Plato's Universe - with a new Introducution by Luc Brisson, Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-13-1
• Oxford University Press publishes scholarly editions of Plato's Greek texts in the Oxford Classical Texts series, and some translations in the Clarendon Plato Series. Oxford Classical Texts (OCTs or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press.
• Harvard University Press publishes the hardbound series Loeb Classical Library, containing Plato's works in Greek, with English translations on facing pages. Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly
• Thomas Taylor has translated Plato's complete works. Thomas Taylor ( 15 May 1758 - 1 November 1835) was an English translator and Neoplatonist the first to translate into English
• Smith, William. (1867 — original). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. University of Michigan/Online version.  
• Aspects of antiquity: Discoveries and Controversies by M. I. Finley, issued 1969 by The Viking Press, Inc.
• Interpreting Plato: The Dialogues as Drama by James A. Arieti, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8476-7662-5

External links

• Works available on-line
  • Works by Plato at Perseus Project - Greek & English hyperlinked text
  • Works of Plato (Jowett, 1892)
  • Works by Plato at Project Gutenberg
    • Spurious and doubtful works at Project Gutenberg
  • Plato complete works, annotated and searchable, at ELPENOR
  • Euthyphro LibriVox recording
  • Ion LibriVox recording
  • Quick Links to Plato's Dialogues (English, Greek, French, Spanish)

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • Plato
  • Plato's Ethics
  • Friendship and Eros
  • Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology
  • Plato on Utopia
  • Rhetoric and Poetry

• Other Articles:
  • Excerpt from W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. IV, Plato: the man and his dialogues, earlier period, Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 8-38
  • Website on Plato and his works: Plato and his dialogues by Bernard Suzanne
  • Are there really Platonic forms?
  • "Plato and Totalitarianism: A Documentary Study"
  • The New Academy
  •   "Plato and Platonism". The Perseus Project is a Digital library project of Tufts University that assembles digital collections of Humanities resources Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.  
• Plato Bibliography at PlatoGeek
• Online library "Vox Philosophiae"