Plato’s family was aristocratic and claimed great
distinction. His paternal ancestry reportedly goes
back to the old Athenian kings, and his mother
counted among her forbears Solon, an influential
statesman who is considered the father of Athenian
democracy.
The future philosopher was born during the age
of Pericles, a political leader and champion of
Athenian democracy. Under Pericles, the world’s
first great democratic system flourished, and potentially
contentious subjects like religion, philosophy,
morality, and affairs of state were discussed
freely. Early on, Plato aspired to the legislative and
social pursuits in which a young man of his class
was expected to engage.
Plato may have become acquainted with
SOCRATES in his childhood, for the great philosopher
was friendly with some members of the
youngster’s extended family.What is certain is that
during his late teens and early 20s, Plato was
among Socrates’ ardent pupils, and his experiences
during this time would become the subject matter
of Plato’s future writings.
Athens was defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian
War in the early 400s B.C., and Plato was repelled
by the tyranny and injustice that followed.
After Socrates’ conviction for impiety and execution
in 399 B.C., Plato became embittered and left his
homeland. The works he wrote soon after are, like
nearly all of his writings, written in dialogue and
feature Socrates as the consummate seeker of truth.
The so-called Socratic Method employed in
Plato’s dialogues has the great thinker and teacher
feigning ignorance of critical ethical and social issues,
such as the nature of justice, whether virtue
can be taught, and the best form of government.
Although Socrates resembles the historical personage,
he is primarily a vehicle by which Plato expresses
his own intellectual interests and processes.
As such, Socrates asks a group of listeners a series of
pointed questions. After listening to their answers,
Socrates demonstrates their illogical thinking and
erroneous conclusions. As the conversations persist,
the players begin to contradict themselves, and
they become hesitant. By the end of these discourses,
the value of independent thinking and the
unrelenting pursuit of truth have been brought to
light.
In other discourses, the dialogues often end inconclusively
since, according to Plato, the purpose
of reason—a faculty that only humans possess—is
to strive toward definition with disciplined thinking
and to illuminate the natural world, not to
limit its possibilities. This philosophy can be seen
in some of the works Plato produced during his
years of self-imposed exile and travel: Lysis, which
asks, “What is friendship?”; Euthyphro (“What is
piety?”); Charmides (“What is temperance?”); and
Theatetus (“What is knowledge?”).
In the 380s B.C., Plato returned to Athens to establish
the school that would become known as the
Academy, which emphasized pure research and
discourse on the topics of mathematics, astronomical
disciplines, government, natural sciences, and
rhetoric. Plato spent two decades of his life as an
educator and director of the Academy. It was most
likely during this time that he produced the bulk of
his 29 treatises.Among these were The Symposium,
which takes place at a banquet whose guests, including
Plato’s friend ARISTOPHANES, attempt to define
love; The Republic, Plato’s magnum opus; and
Phaedo, purportedly an account of the exchange
between Socrates and his followers and friends on
the eve of his execution. (In reality, due to illness,
Plato was not among Socrates’ visitors.) During
the exchange, Socrates explains that the philosopher
should not fear death, as he does not, because
only without the burden of corporeal form can the
eternal soul come to know the pure truth and
splendor that mortal beings seek during their existence
on earth.
In the late 360s B.C., Plato twice visited Dionysius
II, the “tyrant of Syracuse,” to put to the test
his theories regarding the education of philosopher-
kings as described in The Republic, and to
persuade the ruler to implement a platonic government.
Plato’s ambitions were not realized, and
he returned to the Academy, where he remained
until his death.
Critical Analysis
Contained in 10 books, The Republic is Plato’s
longest finished work; Professor Allan Bloom’s
seminal translation runs 300 pages long. Appearing
initially to be an inquiry into the nature of justice,
the discourse soon turns toward an attempt to
define and describe a “just man” and a “just city.”
Ultimately, the soul of the just man is shown to be
a microcosm of the operations of a just state.
Early in the dialog, Socrates and his interlocutors
deduce how a city comes about:
[It] comes into being because each of us isn’t
self-sufficient but is in need of much. . . . So,
then, when one man takes on another for one
need and another for another need, and, since
many things are needed, many men gather in
one settlement as partners and helpers, to this
common settlement we give the name city,
don’t we?
(II.369b–c)
In essence, Plato is saying that no one can provide
entirely for himself; a city needs farmers, house
builders, weavers, shoemakers, carpenters, herdsmen,
merchants, and laborers. But life would be
bleak without luxuries such as olives, furniture,
perfumes, embroidery, and ivory. Therefore many
more people are needed, including poets, servants,
beauticians, and chefs.
The dramatis personae agree with Socrates that
“each of us is naturally not quite like anyone else,
but rather differs in his nature; different men are
apt for the accomplishment of different jobs”
(II.370a–b). They also agree that it is appropriate
for one person to practice one art rather than
many arts.
The philosophical discussion of The Republic
then leads the characters to deduce that the existence
of valuables in the city will lead to crime,
which in turn creates a need for military forces.
The “origin of war,” says Socrates, lies “in those
things whose presence in cities most of all produces
evils both private and public” (II.373e). The
characters’ final conclusion regarding the formation of a just city is that there should be three
classes: the merchants or money-makers, the
armed forces or auxiliary, and the ruling class.
The discussion then turns to the question of
who should rule. Ultimately, they determine that
thinkers should become the rulers-philosopherkings
because they themselves are governed by reason
and harmony. Furthermore, precisely because
the true philosopher has no worldly ambitions—in
fact, he “despises political offices” (VII.521b)—he
cannot be corrupted or made to impose his rule on
a reluctant populace. “Unless,” Socrates asserts,
“philosophers rule as kings or those now called
kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize,
and political power and philosophy coincide
in the same place . . . there is no rest from ills
for the cities . . . nor I think for human kind, nor
will the regime we have now described in speech
ever come forth from nature, insofar as possible,
and see the light of the sun” (V.473c–d).
Plato employs sunshine as a symbol of enlightenment
in another important part of The Republic,
when Socrates presents the famous “Allegory of the
Cave” (Book VII). The benighted, Socrates says, are
shackled in cavernous hollows of ignorance and
believe the shadows cast on the cave walls represent
reality,when they are, in fact, merely illusions.
The light of day represents a cosmos of perfect
being, where the universal ideals—the Forms—
exist. Here, there are ideals not only for concrete
items, like “chair,” but also abstractions like “circle”
and “good.”
Most individuals do not “see the light,” nor do
they realize that there is an alternative to their
shadowy netherworld or that what they perceive as
reality is a mere approximation of the ideal (or Platonic)
Form. These representations merely refer to
the Form; they do not duplicate it.
The Republic, wrote critic David Denby, is
the single most widely read work of philosophy
in the West, and for immediately obvious reasons.
Plato, an entrancing writer, had perfected
the form of a dialogue, with its gracefully sinuous
plait of questions and answers, its anticipation
of the readers’ objections, its courtesies
that are really a form of sly mockery.
Within a framework of spirited debate, Plato
addresses the most profound questions of human
existence that remain relevant to this day. His influence
on Western thought over thousands of
years is immeasurable and cannot be overstated.As
the English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
says, “all philosophy is a set of footnotes to Plato.”
English Versions of Works by Plato
The Complete Works of Plato. Edited by John M.
Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis, Ind.:
Hackett Publishing, 1997.
Phaedo. Translated by G. M. A. Grube. Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1976.
The Republic of Plato. Translated by Allan Bloom.
New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Works about Plato
Brann, Eva. The Music of the Republic: Essays on
Socrates’ Conversations and Plato’s Writings.
Philadelphia: Dry, Paul Books, 2004.
Dickinson, G. Lowes. Plato and His Dialogues. La
Vergne, Tenn.: University Press of the Pacific/
Ingram Book Group, 2003.
Heidegger, Martin. Essence of Truth: On Plato’s Parable
of the Cave and the Theaetetus. Translated by
Ted Sadler. London: Continuum International
Publishing, 2002.
Johansen, Thomas. Plato’s Natural Philosophy: A
Study of the Timaeus-Critias. Cambridge, Mass.:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Kunkel, John H. Winged Soul: Plato’s Autobiography.
Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2003.
Michelini,Ann N., ed. Plato as Author: The Rhetoric of
Philosophy. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Aca-demic
Publishers, 2003.