Plato

1
Plato
For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation) and Platon (disambiguation).
Plato: copy of portrait bust by Silanion
Full name Plato ()
Born
c. 428427 BC
[1]
Athens
Died c. 348347 BC (age approx 80)
Athens
Era Ancient philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Platonism
Main interests Rhetoric, Art, Literature, Epistemology, Justice, Virtue, Politics, Education, Family, Militarism
Notable ideas Platonic realism
Plato (English pronunciation:/pleto/; Greek: , Pltn, "broad"
[2]
; 428/427 BC
[a]
348/347 BC), was a
Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in
Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student,
Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.
[3]
Plato was originally a student of
Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by his apparently unjust execution.
Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have
been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions
regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.
Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, rhetoric and mathematics.
Biography
Early life
Birth and family
The definite place and time of Plato's birth are not known, but what is certain is that he belonged to an aristocratic
and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or
Aegina
[b]
between 429 and 423 BC.
[a]
His father was Ariston. 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.
[4]
Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian
lawmaker and lyric poet Solon.
[5]
Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of
Plato
2
the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the
Peloponnesian War (404-403 BC).
[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).
[6]
According to the Republic, Adeimantus and Glaucon
were older than Plato.
[7]
Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.
[8]
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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[16]
From these and other references one
can reconstruct his family tree, and this suggests a considerable amount of family pride. 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 Lartius, 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.
[18]
According to the
sources mentioned by Diogenes (all dating from the Alexandrian period), Plato derived his name from the breadth
(platyts) of his eloquence, or else because he was very wide (plats) across the forehead.
[19]
In the 21st century
some scholars disputed Diogenes, and argued that the legend about his name being Aristocles originated in the
Hellenistic age.
[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".
[20]
Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, and
gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time.
[21]
Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at
the Isthmian games.
[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.
[23]
Later life
Plato may have traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene.
[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 that was once the property of a citizen
at Athens named Academus... 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. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.
[27]
Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laertius,
Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysus. During this first trip Dionysus's
Plato
3
brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato
was sold into slavery and almost faced death in Cyrene, a city at war with Athens, before an admirer bought Plato's
freedom and sent him home. After Dionysius's death, according to Plato's Seventh Letter, Dion requested Plato return
to Syracuse to tutor Dionysus II and guide him to become a philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's
teachings, but he became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysus expelled Dion and kept Plato against his will.
Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysus and ruled Syracuse for a short time before
being usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.
Plato and Socrates
Plato and Socrates in a medieval depiction
The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of
contention among scholars. Plato makes it clear, especially in his
Apology of Socrates, that he was Socrates' most devoted young
follower. 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 never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. 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. In
any case, Xenophon and Aristophanes seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates than Plato paints.
Some have called attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation
for irony.
[28]
Aristotle attributes a different doctrine with respect to the ideas to Plato and Socrates (Metaphysics 987b111).
Putting it in a nutshell, Aristotle merely suggests that his idea of forms can be discovered through investigation of
the natural world, unlike Plato's Forms that exist beyond and outside the ordinary range of human understanding.
Plato
4
Philosophy
Recurrent themes
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a
detail of The School of Athens, a
fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures
to the earth, representing his belief in
knowledge through empirical
observation and experience, while
holding a copy of his Nicomachean
Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his
Timaeus and gestures to the heavens,
representing his belief in The Forms
Plato often discusses 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.
In several dialogues, Socrates floats the idea that Knowledge is a matter of
recollection, and not of learning, observation, or study.
[29]
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. In many middle period
dialogues, such as the Phaedo, Republic and Phaedrus Plato advocates a belief in
the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. More than one
dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul.
Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational.
He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the
Phaedrus (265ac), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. In Ion,
Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. 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
"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. 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). 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
Plato
5
captured in his allegory of the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. 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.
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
The Theory of Forms (Greek: ) typically refers to the belief expressed by Socrates in some of Plato's dialogues,
that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image or copy of the real world. Socrates
spoke of forms in formulating a solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to Socrates, are roughly
speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and see around
us, that can only be perceived by reason (Greek: ); (that is, they are universals). In other words, Socrates
sometimes seems to recognise two worlds, the apparent world which is constantly changing, and the permanent and
heavenly world of ideas (forms) which is a more unchanging cause of what is apparent.
Epistemology
Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view that informed future
developments in modern analytic epistemology. 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. Many years later, Edmund
Gettier famously demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. 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).
More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which
it is gained. In other words, if one derives one's 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
Plato
6
stability. On the other hand, if one derives one's 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".
In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is
acquired by recollection. 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. 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. 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.
[30]
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. 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
7
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. According to
him, 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, 369c372d, 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. 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. 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. Wisdom is knowledge
about the Good or the right relations between all that exists.
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, than be a bad
democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing
many bad deeds.) This is emphasised within the Republic as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship.
[31]
Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited
through ailments, the tyrant. Plato's description of this event is parallel to that of democracy within the state and the
inherent problems that arise.
According to Plato, a state 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).
Unwritten Doctrine
For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine
[32]

[33]

[34]
had 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.e. in Timaeus] of the
participant is different from what he says in his so-called unwritten teaching ( )." The term
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.
Plato
8
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 same argument is repeated
in Plato's Seventh Letter (344 c): "every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing."
In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare concerning all these writers who claim to know the
subjects that 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 ( ),
in which the Good ( ) is identified with the One (the Unity, ), 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 that are generally
considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful
happiness. 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 (
), which he called Large and Small ( ) ... 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. In Metaphysics he
writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.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 ( ), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in 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, ), the Great and Small ( ). 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
[35]
or Ficino
[36]
which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact
have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. A modern 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.
[37]
All the sources related to the have been
collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica.
[38]
These sources have subsequently been
interpreted by scholars from the German Tbingen School such as Hans Joachim Krmer or Thomas A. Szlezk.
[39]
Works
Plato
9
Part of the series on:
The Dialogues of Plato
Early dialogues:
Apology Charmides Crito
Euthyphro First Alcibiades
Hippias Major Hippias Minor
Ion Laches Lysis
Transitional & middle dialogues:
Cratylus Euthydemus Gorgias
Menexenus Meno Phaedo
Protagoras Symposium
Later middle dialogues:
Republic Phaedrus
Parmenides Theaetetus
Late dialogues:
Clitophon Timaeus Critias
Sophist Statesman
Philebus Laws
Of Doubtful Authenticity:
Axiochus Demodocus
Epinomis Epistles Eryxias
Halcyon Hipparchus Minos
Rival Lovers Second Alcibiades
Sisyphus Theages
Thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have traditionally been ascribed to Plato, though modern scholarship doubts
the authenticity of at least some of these. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to
several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.
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. An overview of Plato's writings according to this system can be found in the
Stephanus pagination article.
One tradition regarding the arrangement of Plato's texts is according to tetralogies. This scheme is ascribed by
Diogenes Laertius to an ancient scholar and court astrologer to Tiberius named Thrasyllus.
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 most scholars agree that Plato is not the author of the work. Unmarked works are assumed to have
been written by Plato.
[40]
Plato
10
I. Euthyphro, (The) Apology (of Socrates), Crito, Phaedo
II. Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman
III. Parmenides, Philebus, (The) Symposium, Phaedrus
IV. First Alcibiades (1), Second Alcibiades (2), Hipparchus (2), (The) (Rival) Lovers (2)
V. Theages (2), Charmides, Laches, Lysis
VI. Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno
VII. (Greater) Hippias (major) (1), (Lesser) Hippias (minor), Ion, Menexenus
VIII. Clitophon (1), (The) Republic, Timaeus, Critias
IX. Minos (2), (The) Laws, Epinomis (2), Epistles (1).
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 (2), Eryxias (2), Halcyon (2), On Justice (2), On Virtue
(2), Sisyphus (2).
Composition of the dialogues
No one knows the exact order Plato's dialogues were written in, nor the extent to which some might have been later
revised and rewritten.
Lewis Campbell was the first
[41]
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
[42]
that the Laws was written after the Republic; cf. Diogenes Laertius Lives 3.37). What is remarkable about
Campbell's conclusions is that, in spite of all the stylometric studies that have been conducted since his time, perhaps
the only chronological fact about Plato's works that can now be said to be proven by stylometry is the fact that
Critias, Timaeus, Laws, Philebus, Sophist, and Statesman are the latest of Plato's dialogues, the others earlier.
[43]
Increasingly in the most recent Plato scholarship, writers are skeptical of the notion that the order of Plato's writings
can be established with any precision,
[44]
though Plato's works are still often characterized as falling at least roughly
into three groups.
[45]
The following represents one relatively common such division.
[46]
It should, however, be kept
in mind that many of the positions in the ordering are still highly disputed, and also that the very notion that Plato's
dialogues can or should be "ordered" is by no means universally accepted.
Among those who classify the dialogues into periods of composition, Socrates figures in all of the "early dialogues"
and they are considered the most faithful representations of the historical Socrates. They include The Apology of
Socrates, Charmides, Crito, Euthyphro, Ion, Laches, Less Hippias, Lysis, Menexenus, and Protagoras (often
considered one of the last of the "early dialogues"). Three dialogues are often considered "transitional" or
"pre-middle": Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Meno.
Whereas those classified as "early dialogues" often conclude in aporia, the so-called "middle dialogues" provide
more clearly stated positive teachings that are often ascribed to Plato such as the theory of forms. These dialogues
include Cratylus, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Symposium, Parmenides, and Theaetetus. Proponents of dividing the
dialogues into periods often consider the Parmenides and Theaetetus to come late in this period and be transitional to
the next, as they seem to treat the theory of forms critically (Parmenides) or not at all (Theaetetus).
The remaining dialogues are classified as "late" and are generally agreed to be difficult and challenging pieces of
philosophy. This grouping is the only one proven by stylometic analysis.
[43]
While looked to for Plato's "mature"
answers to the questions posed by his earlier works, those answers are difficult to discern. Some scholars say that the
theory of forms is absent from the late dialogues, its having been refuted in the Parmenides, but there isn't total
consensus that the Parmenides actually refutes the theory of forms.
[47]
The so-called "late dialogues" include Critias,
Laws, Philebus, Sophist, Statesman, and Timaeus.
Plato
11
Narration of the dialogues
Plato never presents himself as a participant in any of the dialogues, and with the exception of the Apology, there is
no suggestion that he heard any of the dialogues firsthand. Some dialogues have no narrator but have a pure
"dramatic" form (examples: Meno, Gorgias, Phaedrus, Crito, Euthyphro), some dialogues are narrated by Socrates,
wherein he speaks in first person (examples: Lysis, Charmides, Republic). One dialogue, Protagoras, begins in
dramatic form but quickly proceeds to Socrates' narration of a conversation he had previously with the sophist for
whom the dialogue is named; this narration continues uninterrupted till the dialogue's end.
Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)
Two dialogues Phaedo and Symposium also begin in
dramatic form but then proceed to virtually
uninterrupted narration by followers of Socrates.
Phaedo, an account of Socrates' final conversation
and hemlock drinking, is narrated by Phaedo to
Echecrates in a foreign city not long after the
execution took place.
[48]
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.
The Theaetetus is a peculiar case: a dialogue in dramatic form imbedded within another dialogue in dramatic form.
In the beginning of 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. The rest of the Theaetetus is presented
as a "book" written in dramatic form and read by one of Euclides' slaves (143c). Some scholars take this as an
indication that Plato had by this date wearied of the narrated form.
[49]
With the exception of the Theaetetus, Plato
gives no explicit indication as to how these orally transmitted conversations came to be written down.
Trial of Socrates
The trial of Socrates is the central, unifying event of the great Platonic dialogues. 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.
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 (2ab)
Socrates tells people that he is about to face corruption charges. In the Meno (94e95a), 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. 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 (521e522a). In the
Republic (7.517e), 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. 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.
Plato
12
Unity and Diversity of the Dialogues
Two other important dialogues, the Symposium and the Phaedrus, are linked to the main storyline by characters. 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. 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. Examples of characters crossing between dialogues can be further multiplied. The Protagoras
contains the largest gathering of Socratic associates.
In the dialogues Plato is most celebrated and admired for, 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. He disparages sophists generally, and Prodicus specifically in the Apology, whom he
also slyly jabs in the Cratylus for charging the hefty fee of fifty drachmas for a course on language and grammar.
However, Socrates tells Theaetetus in his namesake dialogue that he admires Prodicus and has directed many pupils
to him. Socrates' ideas are also not consistent within or between or among dialogues.
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).
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". 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. Plato's
original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they
were brought from Constantinople in the century of its fall, by George
Gemistos Plethon. It is believed that Plethon passed a copy of the
Dialogues to Cosimo de' Medici when in 1438 the Council of Ferrara,
called to unify the Greek and Latin Churches, was adjourned to
Florence, where Plethon then lectured on the relation and differences
of Plato and Aristotle, and fired Cosimo with his enthusiasm. Medieval
scholars knew of Plato only through translations into Latin from the
translations into Arabic by Persian and Arab scholars. 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).
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. 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. By the 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and
at least on par with Aristotle's.
Plato
13
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. 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."
[50]
Plato's resurgence further inspired some of the greatest advances in
logic since Aristotle, primarily through Gottlob Frege and his followers Kurt Gdel, Alonzo Church, and Alfred
Tarski; the last of these summarised his approach by reversing the customary paraphrase of Aristotle's famous
declaration of sedition from the Academy (Nicomachean Ethics 1096a15), from Amicus Plato sed magis amica
veritas ("Plato is a friend, but truth is a greater friend") to Inimicus Plato sed magis inimica falsitas ("Plato is an
enemy, but falsehood is a greater enemy"). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.'
Text history
The oldest surviving manuscript for about half of Plato's dialogues is the Clarke Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39), which
was written in Constantinople in 895 and acquired by the Oxford University in 1809.
[51]
Criticism
Friedrich Nietzsche set himself in direct opposition to Socrates and Plato, regarding Plato especially as the
fundamental source of nihilism in the West.
See also
Cambridge Platonists
List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
Plato's tripartite theory of soul
Platonic love
Platonic realism
Seventh Letter (Plato)
Notes
a. The grammarian Apollodorus argues in his Chronicles that Plato was born in the first year of the eighty-eighth
Olympiad (427 BC), on the seventh day of the month Thargelion; according to this tradition the god Apollo was born
this day.
[52]
According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death.
[52]
If
we accept Neanthes' version, Plato was younger than Isocrates by six years, and therefore he was born in the second
year of the 87th Olympiad, the year Pericles died (429 BC).
[53]
According to the Suda, Plato was born in Aegina in
the 88th Olympiad amid the preliminaries of the Peloponnesian war, and he lived 82 years.
[54]
Sir Thomas Browne
Plato
14
also believes that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad.
[55]
Renaissance Platonists celebrated Plato's birth on
November 7.
[56]
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff estimates that Plato was born when Diotimos was archon eponymous,
namely between July 29 428 BC and July 24 427 BC.
[57]
Greek philologist Ioannis Kalitsounakis believes that the
philosopher was born on May 26 or 27 427 BC, while Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BC as year of Plato's birth.
[58]
For her part, Debra Nails asserts that the philosopher was born in 424/423 BC.
[56]
b. Diogenes Laertius mentions that Plato "was born, according to some writers, in Aegina in the house of Phidiades
the son of Thales". Diogenes mentions as one of his sources the Universal History of Favorinus. According to
Favorinus, Ariston, Plato's family, and his family were sent by Athens to settle as cleruchs (colonists retaining their
Athenian citizenship), on the island of Aegina, from which they were expelled by the Spartans after Plato's birth
there.
[59]
Nails points out, however, that there is no record of any Spartan expulsion of Athenians from Aegina
between 431-411 BC.
[60]
On the other hand, at the Peace of Nicias, Aegina was silently left under Athens' control,
and it was not until the summer of 411 that the Spartans overran the island.
[61]
Therefore, Nails concludes that
"perhaps Ariston was a cleruch, perhaps he went to Aegina in 431, and perhaps Plato was born on Aegina, but none
of this enables a precise dating of Ariston's death (or Plato's birth).
[60]
Aegina is regarded as Plato's place of birth by
Suda as well.
[54]
c. Plato was a common name, of which 31 instances are known at Athens alone.
[62]
References
Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, I. See original text in Latin Library
[63]
.
Aristophanes, The Wasps. See original text in Perseus program
[64]
.
Aristotle, Metaphysics. See original text in Perseus program
[65]
.
Cicero, De Divinatione, I. See original text in Latin library
[66]
.
Diogenes Lartius, Life of Plato, translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1925).
Plato: Charmides on Wikisource. See original text in Perseus program
[67]
.
Plato: Gorgias on Wikisource. See original text in Perseus program
[68]
.
Plato, Parmenides. See original text in Perseus program
[69]
.
Plato: The Republic on Wikisource. See original text in Perseus program
[70]
.
Plutarch, Pericles. See original text in Perseus program
[71]
.
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War on Wikisource, V, VIII. See original text in Perseus program
[72]
.
Xenophon, Memorabilia. See original text in Perseus program
[73]
.
Secondary sources
Browne, Sir Thomas (1646-1672). Pseudodoxia Epidemica
[74]
.
Guthrie, W.K.C. (1986). A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 4, Plato: The Man and His Dialogues: Earlier
Period. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-31101-2.
Kahn, Charles H. (2004). "The Framework". Plato and the socratic dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary
Form. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-64830-0.
Nails, Debra (2006). "The Life of Plato of Athens". A Companion to Plato edited by Hugh H. Benson. Blackwell
Publishing. ISBN1-405-11521-1.
Nails, Debra (2002). "Ariston/Perictione". The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics.
Hackett Publishing. ISBN0-872-20564-9.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1967). "Vorlesungsaufzeichnungen". Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (in
German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN3-110-13912-X.
Plato
15
Notopoulos, A. (April 1939). "The Name of Plato". Classical Philology (The University of Chicago Press) 34 (2):
135145. doi:10.1086/362227.
"Plato". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002.
"Plato". Encyclopaedic Dictionary The Helios Volume XVI (in Greek). 1952.
"Plato
[75]
". Suda. 10th century.
Smith, William (1870). "Plato"
[76]
. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
Tarn, Leonardo (2001). Collected Papers 1962-1999. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN9-004-12304-0..
Taylor, Alfred Edward (2001). Plato: The Man and his Work. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN0-486-41605-4.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von (2005 (first edition 1917)). Plato: his Life and Work (translated in Greek
by Xenophon Armyros. Kaktos. ISBN960-382-664-2.
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. ISBN0-8264-8408-5.
Cadame, Claude (1999). Indigenous and Modern Perspectives on Tribal Initiation Rites: Education According to
Plato, pp.278312, in Padilla, Mark William (editor), "Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece: Literature, Religion,
Society"
[77]
, Bucknell University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8387-5418-X
Cooper, John M. & Hutchinson, D. S. (Eds.) (1997). Plato: Complete Works. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN0-87220-349-2.
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. ISBN0-671-69500-2.
Derrida, Jacques (1972). La dissmination, Paris: Seuil. (esp. cap.: La Pharmacie de Platon, 69-199) ISBN
2-02-001958-2
Field, G.C. (Guy Cromwell) (1969). The Philosophy of Plato (2nd ed. with an appendix by R. C. Cross. ed.).
London: Oxford University Press. ISBN0198880405.
Fine, Gail (2000). Plato 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-875206-7
Garvey, James (2006,). Twenty Greatest Philosophy Books. Continuum. ISBN0826490530.
Guthrie, W. K. C. (1986). 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). 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. ISBN0-691-09718-6.
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. ISBN0-340-80385-1.
Kochin, Michael S. (2002). Gender and Rhetoric in Platos Political Thought. Cambridge Univ. Press.
ISBN0-521-80852-9.
Kraut, Richard (Ed.) (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-43610-9.
Krmer, Hans Joachim (1990). Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics
[78]
. SUNY Press.
ISBN0-791-40433-1.
Plato
16
Lilar, Suzanne (1954), Journal de l'analogiste, Paris, ditions Julliard; Reedited 1979, Paris, Grasset. Foreword by
Julien Gracq
Lilar, Suzanne (1963), Le couple, Paris, Grasset. 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.
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.
ISBN1-4184-4977-6.
Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill.
ISBN0-19-517510-7.
Meinwald, Constance Chu (1991). Plato's Parmenides. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-506445-3.
Miller, Mitchell (2004). 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 978-1-930972-01-8
Moore, Edward (2007). Plato. Philosophy Insights Series. Tirril, Humanities-Ebooks. ISBN 978-1-84760-047-9
Nightingale, Andrea Wilson. (1995). "Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy"
[79]
,
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-48264-X
Reale, Giovanni (1990). A History of Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle
[80]
. SUNY Press.
ISBN0-791-40516-8.
Reale, Giovanni (1997). Toward a New Interpretation of Plato
[81]
. CUA Press. ISBN0-813-20847-5.
Sallis, John (1996). Being and Logos: Reading the Platonic Dialogues. Indiana University Press.
ISBN0-253-21071-2.
Sallis, John (1999). Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's "Timaeus". Indiana University Press.
ISBN0-253-21308-8.
Sayre, Kenneth M. (2006). Plato's Late Ontology: A Riddle Resolved. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN
978-1-930972-09-4
Seung, T. K. (1996). Plato Rediscovered: Human Value and Social Order. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN
0-8476-8112-2
Szlezak, Thomas A. (1999). Reading Plato
[82]
. Routledge. ISBN0-415-18984-5.
Taylor, A. E. (2001). Plato: The Man and His Work, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-41605-4
Vlastos, Gregory (1981). Platonic Studies, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-10021-7
Vlastos, Gregory (2006). Plato's Universe - with a new Introducution by Luc Brisson, Parmenides Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-930972-13-1
Zuckert, Catherine (2009). Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, The University of Chicago
Press, ISBN 978-0-226-99335-5
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.
Harvard University Press publishes the hardbound series Loeb Classical Library, containing Plato's works in
Greek, with English translations on facing pages.
Thomas Taylor has translated Plato's complete works.
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
Plato
17
External links
Works available on-line:
Works by Plato
[83]
at Perseus Project - Greek & English hyperlinked text
Works of Plato (Jowett, 1892)
[84]
Works by Plato
[85]
at Project Gutenberg
Spurious and doubtful works
[86]
at Project Gutenberg
Plato complete works, annotated and searchable, at ELPENOR
[87]
Euthyphro
[88]
LibriVox recording
Ion
[89]
LibriVox recording
The Apology of Socrates
[90]
(Greek), LibriVox recording
Quick Links to Plato's Dialogues (English, Greek, French, Spanish)
[91]
THE DIALOGUES OF PLATO-5 vols (mp3) tr. by B. JOWETT
[92]
at archive.org
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Plato
[93]
Plato's Ethics
[94]
Friendship and Eros
[95]
Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology
[96]
Plato on Utopia
[97]
Rhetoric and Poetry
[98]
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
[99]
Website on Plato and his works: Plato and his dialogues by Bernard Suzanne
[100]
Reflections on Reality and its Reflection: comparison of Plato and Bergson; do forms exist?
[101]
"Plato and Totalitarianism: A Documentary Study"
[102]
| (1913). "Plato and Platonism"
[103]
. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Online library "Vox Philosophiae"
[104]
Comprehensive Research Materials:
Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues
[105]
Other sources:
Interview with Mario Vegetti on Plato's political thought. The interview, available in full on video, both in Italian
and English, is included in the series Multi-Media Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences
[106]
.
Authority control: LCCN: n79139459
[107]
References
[1] St-Andrews.ac.uk (http:/ / www-history.mcs.st-andrews. ac. uk/ Biographies/ Plato. html), St. Andrews University
[2] Diogenes Laertius 3.4; p. 21, David Sedley, Plato's Cratylus (http:/ / assets. cambridge. org/ 052158/ 4922/ sample/ 0521584922ws. pdf),
Cambridge University Press 2003
[3] "Plato". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002.
[4] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, III
* D. Nails, "Ariston", 53
* U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
[5] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, I
[6] W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy', IV, 10
* A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv
* U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
Plato
18
[7] Plato, Republic, 2. 368a (http:/ / old.perseus.tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Plat. + Rep. + 2. 368a)
* U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 47
[8] Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.6. 1 (http:/ / www. perseus.tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0208& layout=& loc=3. 6. 1)
[9] Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 1
* Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, I
"Plato". Suda.
[10] Cicero, De Divinatione, I, 36
[11] D. Nails, "Ariston", 53
* A.E. Taylor, Plato, xiv
[12] Plato, Charmides, 158a (http:/ / www.perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0176& query=section=#376& layout=&
loc=Charm.157e)
* D. Nails, "Perictione", 53
[13] Plato, Charmides, 158a (http:/ / www.perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0176& query=section=#376& layout=&
loc=Charm.157e)
* Plutarch, Pericles, IV
[14] Plato, Gorgias, 481d (http:/ / www. perseus.tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0178;query=section=#620;layout=;loc=Gorg. 481c) and 513b (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0178;query=section=#778;layout=;loc=Gorg. 513chttp:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0178;query=section=#620;layout=;loc=Gorg. 481c)
* Aristophanes, Wasps, 97 (http:/ / www. perseus.tufts.edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0044;query=card=#3;layout=;loc=54)
[15] Plato, Parmenides, 126c (http:/ / www.perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0174;query=section=#3;layout=;loc=Parm.126b)
[16] W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 11
[17] C.H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, 186
[18] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV
[19] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV
* A. Notopoulos, The Name of Plato, 135
[20] Apuleius, De Dogmate Platonis, 2
[21] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, IV
* W. Smith, Plato, 393
[22] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, V
[23] Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1. 987a (http:/ / www.perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0052& query=section=#15&
layout=& loc=1. 987b)
[24] McEvoy, James (1984). "Plato and The Wisdom of Egypt" (http:/ / poiesis. nlx. com/ display. cfm?clientId=0& advquery=toc. sect. ipj.1.
2& infobase=postoc. nfo& softpage=GetClient42& view=browse). Irish Philosophical Journal (Belfast: Dept. of Scholastic Philosophy,
Queen's University of Belfast) 1 (2). ISSN0266-9080. . Retrieved 2007-12-03.
[25] Huntington Cairns, Introduction to Plato: The Collected Dialogues, p. xiii.
[26] Robinson, Arch. Graec. I i 16.
[27] "Biography of Aristotle" (http:/ / www. gradesaver.com/ classicnotes/ authors/ about_aristotle. html). ClassicNote. GradeSaver LLC. .
Retrieved 2007-12-03.
[28] Leo Strauss, The City and Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), 501.
[29] Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
ISBN0-13-158591-6.
[30] Gaarder, Jostein (1996). Sophie's World. New York City: Berkley. pp.91.
[31] The Republic; p282
[32] Rodriguez- Grandjean, Pablo. Philosophy and Dialogue: Plato's Unwritten Doctrines from a Hermeneutical Point of View (http:/ / www. bu.
edu/ wcp/ Papers/ Anci/ AnciRodr. htm), Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, in Boston, Massachusetts from August 1015, 1998.
[33] Reale, Giovanni, and Catan, John R., A History of Ancient Philosophy, SUNY Press, 1990. ISBN 0-7914-0516-8. Cf. p.14 and onwards.
[34] Krmer, Hans Joachim, and Catan, John R., Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics: A Work on the Theory of the Principles and
Unwritten Doctrines of Plato with a Collection of the Fundamental Documents, (Translated by John R. Catan), SUNY Press, 1990. ISBN
0-7914-0433-1, Cf. pp.38-47
[35] Plotinus describes this in the last part of his final Ennead (VI, 9) entitled On the Good, or the One ( ). Jens
Halfwassen states in Der Aufstieg zum Einen (http:/ / ccat. sas. upenn. edu/ bmcr/ 2006/ 2006-08-16. html) (2006) that "Plotinus'
ontology which should be called Plotinus' henology - is a rather accurate philosophical renewal and continuation of Plato's unwritten
doctrine, i.e. the doctrine rediscovered by Krmer and Gaiser."
[36] In one of his letters (Epistolae 1612) Ficino writes: "The main goal of the divine Plato ... is to show one principle of things, which he called
the One ( )", cf. Marsilio Ficino, Briefe des Mediceerkreises (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=KuYYAAAAIAAJ), Berlin, 1926, p.
147.
Plato
19
[37] H. Gomperz, Plato's System of Philosophy, in: G. Ryle (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Philosophy (http:/ /
books.google. com/ books?id=zN0MAAAAIAAJ), London 1931, pp. 426-431. Reprinted in: H. Gomperz, Philosophical Studies (http:/ /
books.google. com/ books?id=ox81AAAAIAAJ), Boston, 1953, pp. 119-24.
[38] K. Gaiser, Testimonia Platonica. Le antiche testimonianze sulle dottrine non scritte di Platone, Milan, 1998. First published as Testimonia
Platonica. Quellentexte zur Schule und mndlichen Lehre Platons as an appendix to Gaiser's Platons Ungeschriebene Lehre, Stuttgart, 1963.
[39] For a bried description of the problem see for example K. Gaiser, Plato's enigmatic lecture "On the Good" (http:/ / www. ingentaconnect.
com/ content/ brill/ phr/ 1980/ 00000025/ F0020001/ art00002), Phronesis 25 (1980), pp. 5-37. A detailed analysis is given by Krmer in his
Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics: A Work on the Theory of the Principles and Unwritten Doctrines of Plato With a Collection of the
Fundamental Documents (http:/ / books.google.com/ books?id=T2k6edyBklwC), Albany: SUNY Press, 1990. Another good description is
by Giovanni Reale: Toward a New Interpretation of Plato (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xmsGAAAACAAJ), Washington, D.C.:
CUA Press, 1997. Reale summarizes the results of his research in A History of Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=QfvRZSlJd3MC), Albany: SUNY Press, 1990. However the most complete analysis of the consequences of such an approach
is given by Thomas A. Szlezak in his fundamental Reading Plato (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=x34szlJIRIgC), New York:
Routledge, 1999. Another supporter of this interpretation is the german philosopher Karl Albert, cf. Griechische Religion und platonische
Philosophie (http:/ / books. google.com/ books?id=5D4NAAAAIAAJ), Hamburg, 1980 or Einfhrung in die philosophische Mystik (http:/ /
books.google. com/ books?id=VFvoAAAACAAJ), Darmstadt, 1996. Hans-Georg Gadamer is also sympathetic towards it, cf. J. Grondin,
Gadamer and the Tbingen School (http:/ / www.philo.umontreal. ca/ prof/ documents/ GadamerandtheTubingenSchool2006. doc06. doc)
and Gadamer's 1968 article Plato's Unwritten Dialectic reprinted in his Dialogue and Dialectic (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?hl=en&
lr=& id=HfNUhz7T6ocC). Gadamer's final position on the subject is stated in his introduction to La nuova interpretazione di Platone. Un
dialogo tra Hans-Georg Gadamer e la scuola di Tubinga (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=wNzXAQAACAAJ), Milano 1998.
[40] The extent to which scholars consider a dialogue to be authentic is noted in John M. Cooper, ed., Complete Works, by Plato (Indianapolis:
Hackett, 1997), vvi.
[41] p. 9, John Burnet, Platonism, University of California Press 1928.
[42] 1264b24-27 (http:/ / www. perseus.tufts.edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0058& layout=& loc=2. 1264b)
[43] p. xiv, J. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works, Hackett 1997.
[44] Richard Kraut, "Plato" (http:/ / plato.stanford.edu/ entries/ plato/ ), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed 24 June 2008; Malcolm
Schofield (1998, 2002), "Plato", in E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge.com (http:/ / www. rep. routledge. com/
article/ A088), accessed 24 June 2008; Christopher Rowe, "Interpreting Plato", in H. Benson (ed.), A Companion to Plato, Blackwell 2006.
[45] T. Brickhouse & N. Smith, "Plato" (http:/ / www.iep. utm. edu/ p/ plato. htm), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed 24 June
2008.
[46] See W. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press 1975; G. Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral
Philosopher, Cambridge University Press 1991; T. Penner, "Socrates and the Early Dialogues", in R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge Companion
to Plato, Cambridge University Press 1992; C. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue, Cambridge University Press 1996; G. Fine, Plato 2:
Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, Oxford University Press 1999.
[47] Constance Chu Meinwald, Plato's Parmenides (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
[48] "The time is not long after the death of Socrates; for the Pythagoreans [Echecrates & co.] have not heard any details yet" (J. Burnet, Plato's
Phaedo, Oxford 1911, p. 1.
[49] sect. 177, J. Burnet, Greek Philosophy, MacMillan 1950.
[50] Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The age of Plato and Aristotle". A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp.86.
ISBN0471543977. "Plato is important in the history of mathematics largely for his role as inspirer and director of others, and perhaps to him
is due the sharp distinction in ancient Greece between arithmetic (in the sense of the theory of numbers) and logistic (the technique of
computation). Plato regarded logistic as appropriate for the businessman and for the man of war, who "must learn the art of numbers or he will
not know how to array his troops." The philosopher, on the other hand, must be an arithmetician "because he has to arise out of the sea of
change and lay hold of true being.""
[51] Manuscripts - Philosophy Faculty Library (http:/ / www. ouls. ox. ac. uk/ philosophy/ collections/ manuscripts)
[52] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, II
[53] F.W. Nietzsche, Werke, 32
[54] "Plato". Suda.
[55] T. Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, XII
[56] D. Nails, The Life of Plato of Athens, 1
[57] U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Plato, 46
[58] "Plato". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002. | birth_place = *"Plato". Encyclopaedic Dictionary The Helios Volume V (in Greek). 1952.
[59] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato, III
[60] D. Nails, "Ariston", 54
[61] Thucydides, 5.18 | birth_place = * Thucydides, 8.92
[62] W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, IV, 10
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Article Sources and Contributors
21
Article Sources and Contributors
Plato Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=379556145 Contributors: (aeropagitica), (jarbarf), 09dphelps, 172, 200.255.83.xxx, 24.58.228.xxx, 83d40m, 97198, A Macedonian,
APH, ATLBeer, Abc518, Abdullais4u, Academic Challenger, Across.The.Synapse, Adam Conover, Adashiel, Addshore, Adrian, Afp2258, Ahoerstemeier, Akhilleus, Akhristov, Akradecki, Aksi
great, Alansohn, Aldaron, Aldux, Alex2706, Alexalderman, Alexrexpvt, [email protected], Aliter, Allreet, Allstrak, Altenmann, Amillar, Amitch, Amore Mio, An Italian Friend, AndreasJS,
Andrew Lancaster, Andrewsandberg, Android1961, Andy Smith, Anlagan, Anonymous Dissident, AnsonF, Antandrus, Antireconciler, Antonrojo, Ap, AppleCinamon, Arcadian, Argonautica,
Argos'Dad, Arjun01, Arpan123, ArqMage, Ashmedai 119, AtStart, Athrash, AuburnPilot, AugPi, Avaya1, Aweihgiwurhg, AxelBoldt, Axl, Azeira, AznPhilo, BD2412, Badgernet, Badlermd,
Balorio, Bandaidboy, Banes, Banno, Barak181, Bardak, Barfoed, Barrylb, Barticus88, Bassbonerocks, Bbatsell, Bchaosf, Bcorr, Bearcat, Becckyairdd, Beetstra, Beforepluto, BehnamFarid,
Bejnar, Ben-Zin, Benasso, Benjamin grante, Benne, Beno1000, Benoni, Betacommand, Bewildebeast, Bhadani, Bibliomaniac15, Bidabadi, Binabik80, Bkwillwm, Blacksheetofpaper, Blcckl,
Blue520, Blueskyboris, Bmistler, BoNoMoJo (old), Bobblehead, Bobo192, Bookandcoffee, BorgQueen, BradBeattie, BraveLittleToaster, BrenDJ, Brenda maverick, Briaboru, Brian Pearson,
Brian0918, Bridesmill, Brokethebank, Bunty234, Buridan, Burntsauce, Bwmcmaste, C d h, C mon, C.lettingaAV, CALR, CWY2190, Caltas, Calum Hutchinson, Camembert, Camerong, Can't
sleep, clown will eat me, Canadian-Bacon, CanadianLinuxUser, CapitalR, Carcharoth, Carlaude, Carlj7, Carn, Catalographer, Cave troll, CaveatLector, Celebrei, Center4499, Chaleyer61, Charles
Matthews, Cheezy Bergy 2, Chgwheeler, Chick Bowen, Chochopk, Chodorkovskiy, Cholmes75, Chris 73, Chris G, ChrisO, Christiangamer7, Christofurio, ChristopherWillis, Chronicler, Cimon
Avaro, Cleared as filed, CloudNine, Coasterlover1994, Cobored192, Codetiger, Cognition, Colinclarksmith, Commander Keane, Connection, Contaldo80, Conversion script, Cowgirl92,
Crazycomputers, Cremepuff222, Crescent66, Cursorial, Cwoyte, Cyborg Ninja, Cyfal, D. Webb, DHN, DJ Clayworth, DRMAR777, DVD R W, Da Vynci, Daddy Kindsoul, Dan100, DanMS,
Dandrake, Danethol, DanielCD, Danny lost, Dar-Ape, Darivative, DarkLink, Darkbreed, Darry2385, Darth Panda, Dast, DaughterofSun, David.Monniaux, Dawillia, Dbachmann, Dcattell,
Dchmelik, Debresser, Defyn, DelianDiver, Delief, Delldot, DennisDaniels, Deor, DerHexer, Dessymona, Devbhargava, Dgfdgf, Diderot, DiogenesTCP, Dionysiaca, Discospinster, Djnjwd,
Djsasso, Dmaftei, DocWatson42, Dominics Fire, Don Brillante, Donjanssen, Dorftrottel, Doug Coldwell, Dougofborg, Download, Dpol, Dr who1975, Dripping Flame, Drknow2000, Drunken
Pirate, DubaiTerminator, Duke33, Dylan Lake, Dysepsion, EALacey, ELApro, ESkog, EWS23, Eameece, EamonnPKeane, Eastern Emperor, Eddiedog, Edgar181, Editor at work, Edivorce,
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File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Plato_Silanion_Musei_Capitolini_MC1377.jpg License: Creative Commons
Attribution 2.5 Contributors: User:Jastrow
Image:Socrates and Plato.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Socrates_and_Plato.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Mattes, Tomisti
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Jacobolus, Kentin, Mattes, MonteChristof, Tomisti, Wutsje, 5 anonymous edits
Image:POxy3679 Parts Plato Republic.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:POxy3679_Parts_Plato_Republic.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Bender235, Bibi
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Image:Plato i sin akademi, av Carl Johan Wahlbom (ur Svenska Familj-Journalen).png Source:
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File:Herma of Plato - 0042MC.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Herma_of_Plato_-_0042MC.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0
Contributors: User:Tetraktys
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