Plato

I. early life (p. 108)

A. Birth

1. Athens

2. 427 B.C.

B. military service (p.109)

1. Peloponnesian War

a. fought through last four or five years

C. Athens as a result of Peloponnesian War

1. defeat

2. economic, social, and moral dissolution

D. family

1. mother's side

a. descended from Solon

1. Athenian statesman and reformer

2. father's side

a. descended from god Poseidon

b. Charmides

1. uncle

2. prominent noble

3. leader of Oligarchical faction (the Thirty)

c. Critias

1. cousin

2. prominent noble

3. leader of Oligarchical faction (the Thirty)

3. political leadership

a. traditional in family

b. not foregone conclusion for Plato

1. historically it would have been a given

c.. choice

1. play to the people

a. compromise of principles

2. join a coup d' e' tat

a. excesses of Oligarchs

1. showed Plato the rule of the few no better than the rule of the many

d. democracy that overturned the Oligarchs

1. savage in own right

E. effect of Socrates

1. dramatic

2. Socrates

a. 40+ when Plato born

b. lived during Athens' greatest power

a. half century after defeat of Persians

c. contemporary of Thucydides

d. member of generation that went to war with Sparta (p. 110)

e. not a leader or politician

f. described himself as knowing nothing and spent time proving no one else knew anything either

g. intellectual sensibility

1. common sense

a. intensely realistic

b. down to earth

2. conviction

a. reality of goodness

b. goodness of reality

3. mysticism

a. passionate

b. deep religious sense

4. skepticism

a. dispassionate

b. concerned with

1. ordinary beliefs and opinions

h. effect of death of Socrates on Plato (p. 118)

1. shock

2. launched philosophical career

3. Plato was young when Socrates died

a. early dialogues

1. defending memory

b. as thought developed

1. continued using Socrates as protagonist

c. in the end Plato and Socrates

1. thoroughly blended

II. Later life (p. 119)

A. Socrates' death

1. confirmed

a. Plato's aristocratic bias

b. cause of loss of Peloponnesian war

2. consequence

a. bad state

1. breeds only bad men

2. good man cannot live in a bad state

b. state ruled by many

1. bad

a. "many"

1. ignorant, emotionally unstable, narrowly self centered

3. reaction

a. left active politics

b. retained interest in politics

1. wanted to discover

a. basis for a good state

B. attempt to discover basis for a good state

1. first

a. studied every way the degeneration of state and of individuals could be prevented

2. realization

a. degeneration not limited to democracy or military defeat

3. conclusion

a. power

1. must be combined with knowledge

a. philosopher king

4. consequence

a. abandoned plan to reform Athenian constitution

b. embarked on education

C. philosophical writings

1. dialogues

a. philosophical subjects presented as a conversation

2. not systematic

3. often inconclusive

4. conclusive dialogues

a. conclusions often negative

1. eliminate false views

5. philosophy is ongoing

6. written for students and friends

a. would have been able to expound

D. personal nature (p.120)

1. mystic

a. highest truths cannot be formulated in language

2. rationalist and mathematician

a. lower truths can be formulated in language

3. administrator and executive

a. founded school

1. top educational institution

2. trained statesman

3. supplied constitutions and legal systems for Greek States

E. one experience in politics

1. Dionysius

a. ruler of Syracuse

b. died in 368 B.C.

c. left Dion as regent for son Dionysius II

2. Dion

a. chose to incorporate Plato's views

b. enlisted Plato to educate Dionysius II

c. exiled in 366 B.C.

d. Plato returned to Athens

3. Dionysius II

a. invited Plato back in 362 B.C.

1. trip failed

F. Plato's death

1. 347 B.C.

2. Athens

3. 80 years old

III. theory of knowledge

A. introduction

1. primary concern

a. discover basis for good state

1. where a good man can be happy

2. primary concern

a. had to establish that this question has an answer

b. sophistry

1. no truth in morality and politics

2. truth lies in private prejudice

c. consequence

1. Plato focused on epistemology

3. realization

a. like Democritus Plato realized

1. solutions had to be found to early problems in previous theories

b. one thing to point out weakness of skepticism another to resolve dilemmas leading to it

B. the puzzle about change

1. like Democritus Plato realized

a. problems present since earliest philosophers

1. problem of appearance and reality

2. problem of change

3. Thales

a. "What is the oe out of which everything comes?"

1. appearance

a. assumption

1. the one is water

a. things appear different than what they are

1. water = ship

2. water = cabage

b. problem

1. one vs many

a. one = water

b. many = ships, cabbages, concrete

2. change

a. one transforms into appearance

b. apparent contradiction (p. 122)

1. same as once was only different

a. how can be same and different?

1. baby and man

2. Plato's response

a. philosophy must

1. give rational account of vague

a. "somehow or other"

2. change

a. assume it occurs

1. Parmenides

a. denies change

b. extreme rationalist

b. the fact of change existing caused dilemma

1. round squares

a. contradiction not troubling

1. unless round squares continually encountered

a. early thinkers felt this way about change

2 Sophists

a. became skeptical of reason

3. Heraclitus and Parmenides

a. Each focused on one side of problem

b. Heraclitus

1. denied identity

2. explained everything in terms of flux

c. Parmenides

1. what changes

a. must be identical through change

2. denied change

3. explained everything in terms of identity

4. Zeno

a. motion

1. type of change of place that is impossible

b. Plato's realization

1. had to resolve apparent contradiction

a. in order to answer Sophists