Greek Philosophers Biographies - Platonism school Part 1
2015-12-20 : the website is under construction. THE PROVERBS ARE O.K., but It will take me a few hours to re-insert the images of the greek philosophers, which for some reason were lost, after my last revision, which i have done a few days ago. so until i remove the sign 'website - under - construction' ... you can study the proverbs with safety !. Please stay on Alert !.
Notes: 1. Diogenes of Sinope ... and ... Sinope ... is the same Greek Philosopher
2. Heraclitus of Ephesus ,,, and ... Ephesus is the same Greek Philosopher
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Greek Philosophers Biographies - Platonism school Part 1 in English
The Greek philosophers were among the most influential people in history because they invented both philosophy and science. By asking questions about themselves and the world around them, these philosophers helped create modern civilization.
Interestingly enough, the Greek philosophers thought of themselves as scientists rather than thinkers. They called themselves seekers and lovers of wisdom and often studied a wide variety of subjects, including history, physics, law, sociology, politics, mathematics, and biology. The famous philosophers were also teachers, educating wealthy children and operating schools as well as thinkers.
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Author Birth - Death
11 PLATONISM - Plato 427 BC - 347 BC
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11 PLATONISM - Plato
Πλάτων
Plato: copy of portrait bust by Silanion
Plato from The School of Athens by Raphael, 1509
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 in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom
Volume 3, pages 32–33, of the 1578 Stephanus edition of Plato, showing a passage of Timaeus with the Latin translation and notes of Jean de Serres
Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)
"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).
First page of the Euthyphro, from the Clarke Plato (Codex Oxoniensis Clarkianus 39), 895 AD. The text is Greek minuscule.
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Classical Greek philosophy - Plato
Plato was an Athenian of the generation after Socrates. Ancient tradition ascribes thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters to him, although of these only twenty-four of the dialogues are now universally recognized as authentic; most modern scholars believe that at least twenty-eight dialogues and two of the letters were in fact written by Plato, although all of the thirty-six dialogues have some defenders. A further nine dialogues are ascribed to Plato but were considered spurious even in antiquity.
Plato's dialogues feature Socrates, although not always as the leader of the conversation. (One dialogue, the Laws, instead contains an "Athenian Stranger.") Along with Xenophon, Plato is the primary source of information about Socrates' life and beliefs and it is not always easy to distinguish between the two. While the Socrates presented in the dialogues is often taken to be Plato's mouthpiece, Socrates' reputation for irony, his caginess regarding his own opinions in the dialogues, and his occasional absence from or minor role in the conversation serve to conceal Plato's doctrines. Much of what is said about his doctrines is derived from what Aristotle reports about them.
The political doctrine ascribed to Plato is derived from the Republic, the Laws, and the Statesman. The first of these contains the suggestion that there will not be justice in cities unless they are ruled by philosopher kings; those responsible for enforcing the laws are compelled to hold their women, children, and property in common; and the individual is taught to pursue the common good through noble lies; the Republic says that such a city is likely impossible, however, generally assuming that philosophers would refuse to rule and the people would refuse to compel them to do so.
Whereas the Republic is premised on a distinction between the sort of knowledge possessed by the philosopher and that possessed by the king or political man, Socrates explores only the character of the philosopher; in the Statesman, on the other hand, a participant referred to as the Eleatic Stranger discusses the sort of knowledge possessed by the political man, while Socrates listens quietly. Although rule by a wise man would be preferable to rule by law, the wise cannot help but be judged by the unwise, and so in practice, rule by law is deemed necessary.
Both the Republic and the Statesman reveal the limitations of politics, raising the question of what political order would be best given those constraints; that question is addressed in the Laws, a dialogue that does not take place in Athens and from which Socrates is absent. The character of the society described there is eminently conservative, a corrected or liberalized timocracy on the Spartan or Cretan model or that of pre-democratic Athens.
Plato's dialogues also have metaphysical themes, the most famous of which is his theory of forms. It holds that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through our physical senses, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.
Plato often uses long-form analogies (usually allegories) to explain his ideas; the most famous is perhaps the Allegory of the Cave. It likens most humans to people tied up in a cave, who look only at shadows on the walls and have no other conception of reality. If they turned around, they would see what is casting the shadows (and thereby gain a further dimension to their reality). If some left the cave, they would see the outside world illuminated by the sun (representing the ultimate form of goodness and truth). If these travelers then re-entered the cave, the people inside (who are still only familiar with the shadows) would not be equipped to believe reports of this 'outside world'. This story explains the theory of forms with their different levels of reality, and advances the view that philosopher-kings are wisest while most humans are ignorant. One student of Plato (who would become another of the most influential philosophers of all time) stressed the implication that understanding relies upon first-hand observation:
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Laws are made to instruct the good, and in the hope that there may be no need of them; also to control the bad, whose hardness of heart will not be hindered from crime.
Plato is regarded as the father of political science and the founder of one of the world's first known institutions of higher learning, the Academy in Athens. The Academy created formal philosophy by teaching students the Socratic Method. Plato wrote widely on many subjects, including philosophy, ethics, religion, and mathematics. He created an influential school of philosophy called Platonism, which influenced Christianity. Plato wrote one of the first and most influential works on politics, The Republic, which described an ideal or Utopian society. Like his mentor Socrates, Plato was a critic of democracy.
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Plato the Metaphysic Philosopher
Plato (428-358 BC) is one of the three most famous Athenian philosophers. Student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, Plato is the most vague of the classical thinkers. His theories were much innovative for his time. Plato introduced a new political system, where philosophers, as the holders of real truth and knowledge, would rule. An opponent of democracy, Plato thinks that ruling a state must not be based on persuasion but on wisdom. Giving his theories a metaphysical aspect, Plato believed that two parallel worlds exist, the real world and the world we live in, which is a reflection of the real world.
Plato (428-348 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher and founder of the Academy of Athens, the first university of the western world. Along with his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle, Plato is considered to have set the grounds for Western philosophy and to have influences the thinking of many modern philosophers.
Life and education
The son of two wealthy and prominent members of the Athenian society, Ariston and Perictione, Plato was born around 428 BC and died around 348 BC. He belonged to the prominent, oligarchic class and it is said that his mother originated from Solon, the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet. Moreover, two of Plato's uncles were members of the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime established in Athens after the end of the Peloponnesian War (404-403 BC). As a child, Plato received good education. A Hellenistic legend says that his original name was Aristocles after his grandfather, but he got the nickname Plato from his wrestling coach, due to his broad ("platys" in Greek) and strong figure. From an early age, he showed a special interest in philosophy and became a follower of Socrates, the famous Athenian thinker who would stroll around the town and ask people questions, trying to find the right answer out of them. A fact that marked the life of Plato was the trial and sentence to death of Socrates, his beloved mentor, in 399 BC. That time, he lost his belief in the Athenian society and disappointed as he was, Plato left his homeland to travel all around the world. He traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Libya. There, he met new people and civilizations, while he had the chance to discuss with famous personalities of his time.
The Academy
When Plato returned to Athens, at the age of forty, he established a school on a plot of land that belonged to some man named Academus, which is why the school was called Academy. The Academy of Plato is one of the earliest upscale institutions in the western world and young Athenians would learn philosophy, mathematics, music, art astronomy and other subjects there. One of the first students of the Academy was Aristotle, the third most famous of the Athenian philosophers. The Academy of Plato worked for almost 900 years, until it was closed by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 529 BC for spreading pagan, anti-Christian ideas.
The Dialogues of Plato
The works of Plato have the form of dialogues/discourses. Scholars divide his works in three categories: the early, middle and late works. His most famous dialogues are the Apology of Socrates, where Plato describes the trial of his mentor and the last days in prison; Republic, where he suggests a new form of government and political system; Timaeus and Critias, where he discusses the origins of language and knowledge; and Protagoras, referring to the ideas of this famous Sophist philosopher. The central character in all the Dialogues of Plato is his teacher Socrates, who discusses with other people a certain issue. Scientists, however, haven't concluded whether the ideas expressed in these dialogues were indeed the teachings of Socrates, or whether they were ideas of Plato that he put in the mouth of Socrates to give them more credibility.
The Ideal State
In his Republic, Plato describes the ideal state, according to him. Disappointed by all the political systems that Athens had used till that time, including democracy and oligarchy, Plato suggested his own system. He divided the society in three categories: the Philosopher Rulers or Kings, the Warriors or Guardians and the Workers. He divided the society in these categories in comparison to the categories of the soul. The philosopher-rulers correspond to the reasonable part of the soul and they are the elite of every society. Intelligent, rational, self-controlled and wise, the philosophers have conquered the Knowledge and therefore, they must rule the state. The Guardians represent the spiritual part of the soul. Adventurous and brave in nature, these people should guard the well-being of the state. The lower social category was the Workers, in whose soul the "appetite" element dominates. These people occupy manual professions, so they can be laborers, merchants, farmers, carpenters or do any other manual work. According to Plato, a state must not base on rhetoric and persuasion, as happens in democracy, but on reason and wisdom. As philosophers are the few enlightened people of every society, they must govern all the others because they have conquered the "real truth". Therefore, Plato rejects all kinds of existing political systems and introduces his own.
The Ideal Education
A very important issue for the Ideal Society of Plato is the education of the youth. He suggests that all children must seperate from parents since their birth and that public institutions must take care of their education. Children do not need to know their parents, brothers or relatives, but consider the broader society as their family. The public institutions must be governed by the philosophers who will provide children all the opportunities to "remember" the real knowledge.
Knowledge
Knowledge, for Plato, is not a matter of learning or observation, but a matter of recollection. He believes that there are two parallel worlds: the real world and the world we live in, which is a reflection of the real world. People on earth do not see the real sight of the objects, but their shadow. To explain this theory, Plato used the allegory of the cave.
The Allegory of the Cave
Imagine, says Plato, that the real world is like some people inside a cave. These people are chained and made to look at a wall since their childhood. Behind these people, there is the entrance of the cave and outside the entrance, there is the real world. Between these chained people and the real world, there is a big fire. Therefore, the chained people can't see the real world, but only their shadows/ representations as reflected by the big fire on the wall. Wouldn't they believe that these shadows are the real world, for they have seen only that? Imagine now, he continues, that someone manages to unchain himself and turn the head towards the outside world. He sees the truth, he gets to know the real side of things, but when he tells the other people, they don't believe him. This unchained man, for Plato, is the philosopher. That is why, Plato thinks that knowledge is all about recollection: we all have seen the truth in another parallel world, but only a few get to remember it. Such interesting metaphysical beliefs were innovative for the ancient world and they influenced a lot modern philosophical thinking. Although a lot of these ideas were questioned even by his student Aristotle, a defender of reason instead of passion, Plato is considered as a greatly-inspiring philosopher, even in our days.
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for more information, please visit the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia in the following web page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
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