Plato was born in Athens around 428 B.C. He had two older brothers, Adeimantus and Glaucon, who appear in Plato's Republic, and a sister, Potone. Though he may have known Socrates since childhood, Plato was probably nearer twenty when he came under the intellectual spell of Socrates. The death of Socrates made an enormous impression on Plato and contributed to his call to bear witness to posterity of "the best, . . . the wisest and most just" person that he knew (Phaedo, 118). Though Plato was from a distinguished family and might have followed his relatives into politics, he chose philosophy.
Following Socrates' execution, the twenty-eight-year-old Plato left Athens and traveled for a time. He is reported to have visited Egypt and Cyrene--though some scholars doubt this. During this time he wrote his early dialogues on Socrates' life and teachings. He also visited Italy and Sicily, where he became the friend of Dion, a relative of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily.
On returning to Athens from Sicily, Plato founded a school called the Academy. One might say it was the world's first university, and it endured as a center of higher learning for nearly one thousand years, until the Roman emperor Justinian closed it in A.D. 529. Except for two later trips to Sicily where he unsuccessfully sought to institute his political theories, Plato spent the rest of his life at the Athenian Academy. Among his students was Aristotle. Plato died at eighty in 348/7 B.C.Plato's influence
was best described by the twentieth-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
when he said, "The safest general characterization of the European
philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to
Plato."
It is difficult to separate the ideas of Plato from those of his teacher, Socrates. In virtually all of Plato's dialogues Socrates is the main character, and it is possible that in the early dialogues Plato is recording his teacher's actual words. But in the later dialogues "Socrates" gives Plato's views--views that, in some cases, in fact, the historical Socrates denied.
Four of Plato's dialogues presented describe the trial and death of Socrates'. The Euthyphro, takes place as Socrates' has just learned of an indictment against him. He strikes up a conversation with a "theologian" so sure of his piety that he is prosecuting his own father for murder. The dialogue moves on, unsuccessfully, to find a definition of piety. Along the way, Socrates asks a question that has vexed philosophers and theologians for centuries: Is something good because the gods say it is, or do the gods say it is good because it is?
The next
dialogue, the Apology, is generally regarded as one of Plato's
first and as eminently faithful to what Socrates
said at his trial on charges of impiety and corruption of youth. The speech
was delivered in public and heard by a large audience; Plato has Socrates
mention that Plato was present; and there is no need to doubt the historical
veracity of the speech, at least in essentials. There are two breaks in
the narrative: one after Socrates'
defense (during which the Athenians vote "guilty") and one after
Socrates proposes
an alternative to the death penalty (during which the Athenians decide
on death). This dialogue includes Socrates'
famous characterization of his mission and purpose in life.
In the Crito,
Plato has Crito visit Socrates
in prison to assure him that his escape from Athens
has been well prepared and to persuade him to consent to leave. Socrates
argues that one has an obligation to obey the state even when it orders
one to suffer wrong. That Socrates,
in fact, refused to leave is certain; that he used the arguments Plato
ascribes to him is less certain. In any case, anyone who has read the
Apology will agree that after his speech Socrates
could not well escape.
The moving account of Socrates'
death is given at the end of the Phaedo. There is common agreement
that this dialogue was written much later than the other three and that
the earlier part of the dialogue, with its Platonic doctrine of Forms
and immortality, uses "Socrates'"
as a vehicle for Plato's own ideas.
Like the
Phaedo, the Meno and the Republic were written during
Plato's "middle period," when he had returned from Sicily to
Athens and
had established the Academy. The Meno gives a fine and faithful
picture of Socrates practicing
the art of dialogue; it also marks the point where Plato moves beyond
his master. This dialogue answers the question, "Can virtue be taught?,"
and treats the issues of knowledge and belief.
There are
few books in Western civilization that have had the impact of Plato's
Republic--aside from the Bible, perhaps none. Like the Bible there
are also few books whose interpretation and evaluation have differed so
widely. Apparently it is a description of Plato's ideal society: a utopian
vision of the just state, possible if only philosophers were kings. But
some (see the following suggested readings) claim that its purpose is
not to give a model of the ideal state, but to show the impossibility
of such a state and to convince aspiring philosophers to shun politics.
Evaluations of the Republic have also varied widely: from the criticisms
of Karl Popper, who denounced the Republic as totalitarian, to
the admiration of more traditional interpreters such as Francis MacDonald
Cornford and Gregory Vlastos. The Republic includes a description
of the guardians and of the "noble lie" (in Book III), a discussion
of the virtues and the soul (in Book IV), a presentation of the guardians'
qualities and lifestyles (in Book V), and key sections on knowledge, including
the analogy of the line and the myth of the cave (the end of Book VI and
the beginning of Book VII).