PLATO
Aristocles
429 – 347 BC
BIOGRAPHY
• a classical Greece philosopher
• was born in Athens
• son of wealthy and influential Athens
• his father died whe he was young
• when he was young, his basis of study was music and poetry
• served in the Athens army during the Pheloponnesian War
PLATO AND SOCRATES
• Socrates‘ student
• started to adopt his philosophy style of debate
• the question of virtue the formation of noble character
• In 386 BC in Athens he founded his own school of philosophy, the ACADEMY - the 1st European University.
• astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, and philosophy
• Plato and Aristotele shared sense of the importance of aesthetics, music, poetry, architecture, and drama as fundamental institutions within the body politic.
EXAMPLES OF HIS WORK
Republic
• Plato’s most famous work
• details a wise society run by a philosopher.
Dialogues
• represent his metaphysical theory of forms - something else he is well known for
PLATO‘S PHILOSOPHY
• Plato was the first to unify a system of thought in Western society.
• We all begin with common sense beliefs, opinions, we are lead further to ideas, and principles.
• Human life always involves our fellow man and our personal and societal destiny.
• Philosophy is not specialized nor technical but a way of life.
• Everything has a truth or an essence, your job is to seek this truth.
• All humans have potential for virtue, goodness, and to shape good character.
• The only good life or life worth living is a life reasoned by your own mind, not others ideas and opinions change your life and mind!
• Examine your life, history, and ideas, once you self examine, then you are ready for
knowledge.
• All knowledge begins in not knowing. To state I don‘t know is the first step open to learning.
• Character is what is developed from this soul, and is molded and tested and shaped - a
dynamic process.
THE DIALOGUE FORM
• Plato used the dialogue form of writing as the most effective means of presenting his
philosophical ideas.
• Plato preferred instead to do something that
would stimulate original thinking on the part of the reader.
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
• Plato described how the human mind achieves
knowledge, and indicated what knowledge consisted of, by means of:
• 1) his allegory of the Cave
• 2) his metaphor of the divided line
• 3) his theory of the Forms
THEORY OF ART
• Plato had two theories of art:
1. Art is imitation
2. Art is powerful, and therefore dangerous
MAJOR CONTRIBUTION OF PLATO
Plato‘s theory of Mimesis (imitation)
• The arts deal with illusion or they are
imitation of an imitation (twice removed from reality).
Psychology
• He developed the view that the good life
reguires not just a certain type of knowledge, but also the healthy emotional responses and harmony of the three part of the soul:
Metaphysics
• the study of the nature of things metaphysician ask what kind of things exist, and what they are like.
Mathematics
Division of Labor
• Plato often discussed the father-son relationship.
• The universe is a perfect sphere.
• The real world is the world of forms beyond human senses and can be understood only by using logic and not by observation and experiments.
Videos:
◦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDiyQub6vpw
◦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgotDFs6cdE
◦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA
