Plato (c. 427-347 BCE) was born in Athens from a prominent family, but he quickly grew disillusioned with the corrupt political nature of his city-state. He became fascinated by the ethical questioning of his friend and mentor Socrates, carrying further the search for philosophical insight following Socrates' execution in 399 BCE under allegations of corrupting the youth of the city.

Plato sought a cure for the ills of his society through carefully structured inquiry into the nature of such things as justice, knowledge, and "the good". He was an avid writer, composing over twenty known dialogues during his life. He also traveled quite extensively and became a political advisor to the ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius II.

One of Plato's most famous achievements was the founding of The Academy in 387 BCE, which was the first institution strictly devoted to the teaching of philosophic principles and became the model for the western universities to come in later years. The Academy accepted students until closed by Justinian, the Christian Roman Emperor who thought that it spread pagan ideals. Nonetheless, Plato's Academy existed for 900 years, which makes it the longest surviving university currently known.

The best known of Plato's dialogues is The Republic, which is a beautifully composed and well thought out application of his philosophical ideas as they apply to the realm of politics. Plato searches for the nature of justice in the form of a fictitious debate between his old mentor, Socrates, and several other characters. They do this by searching for justice on a larger scale (i.e., the State) to find the elusive virtue in the individual. With a thorough reading of the text, one can get a general outline of nearly all of his principles and how they are to be applied, including such things as social behavior, educational requirements, and wealth distribution. Plato even manages to bring his theory on the nature of the soul, afterlife, and the gods to the fore.

It should be noted that Plato never appears as a character in his dialogues due to the nature of Athens at the time; if he wasn't careful, then he could very well have shared the fate of Socrates. Therefore, Plato expresses his view, which were sometimes openly critical of Athenian democracy, through a fictitious Socrates, who by all accounts manifests the same literary flavor as the original. Thus, Plato is able to express his views safely through "Socrates", who has already suffered the ultimate punishment for his beliefs.

In The Republic, Book I, 351-354, Plato has Socrates discussing the nature of justice with a sophist named Thrasymachus. Sophists were individuals at the time that taught rhetoric for a fee. Thrasymachus has made the claim that injustice is a source of strength, since it is the stronger party using force (i.e., the government) to keep the citizens in line. He also claims that the ideal situation is to be unjust while still having the appearance of being a just person due to the inherent benefits one would get from the appearance rather than the burdens of the reality. Socrates, on the other hand, claims that injustice is a source of disunity and, therefore, weakness.

The Platonic and Socratic method of extracting information from the interlocutors in the dialogues has come to be known as "the Socratic method of teaching" and is now the basis of cross-examination in our own legal system.

More Philosophy Links and Bibliography!!

Return To The Digital Muse