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Vico, influenced by Plato and Augustine (in his conception of a history that participates in the eternal), anticipates numerous themes of romanticism.15
In: Historiological Discussions, Silo
Chapter 2: The Past Seen as Without Temporal Foundation, 2.1 Conceptions of History
Plato (427 - 347 BC)
Plato (427 - 347 BC)
Classical Greek philosopher.
Biographical information
c. 428/27 BC Plato was born into a wealthy and influential family in Athens. His family was politically active and related to famous statesmen.
c. 409 BC Plato met the philosopher Socrates, who had a strong influence on him. Socrates became his teacher and mentor.
399 BC. After Socrates was sentenced to death and executed, Plato lost faith in Athenian democracy and the politics of the time. The death of his teacher encouraged him to deepen his philosophy.
c. 395-87 BC Plato travelled to southern Italy and Sicily, where he met the Pythagoreans and other schools of thought. He continues to develop his philosophical ideas, in particular the theory of ideas.
c. 387 BC. Back in Athens, Plato founded the Academy, the first known university in the Western world. It became a centre of philosophical and scientific studies and attracted many important students, including Aristotle. Plato wrote numerous works in dialogue form, including key texts such as ‘The Republic’ (‘Politeia’), ‘Phaedo’ and ‘Symposium’. These writings deal with topics such as justice, knowledge, the soul and the state, and continue to shape philosophy today. Plato travelled repeatedly to Syracuse to advise Dionysius II, the tyrant of Syracuse, and to establish a just government. However, these attempts to unite philosophy and politics failed.
c. 348/47 BC Plato dies in Athens. His academy continued to exist for many centuries.
Topics
Duality of reality: Plato draws a radical distinction between two levels of reality:
The sensible world, which is impermanent and mutable and is perceived by the senses.
The intelligible world of ideas, an authentic and immutable reality, which is accessible through reason.
The ideas are higher, eternal and unchanging realities. They represent the authentic truth, in contrast to the things perceived by the senses, which are only imperfect copies of them. Every sensual thing ‘participates’ in the corresponding idea, which is its essence. For example, beautiful things partake in the idea of beauty itself.
The ideas form a hierarchy, at the top of which stands the idea of the Good, which is the cause of being and knowing.
We can only know the ideas through reason, not through the senses. This is true and certain knowledge, in contrast to opinion about the sensual world. This knowledge of the ideas is made possible by reminiscence: our soul has seen the ideas before it was born and retains a dim memory of them.
This idea is well illustrated in the Allegory of the Cave: it calls on humanity to break out of the cave of ignorance in order to attain higher knowledge.
Nature of the soul: Plato argues that the soul is immortal and passes through different bodies (cyclical character). In his opinion, the soul consists of three parts: reason (in the head), desire (in the heart) and passion (in the belly and liver). It is constantly moving and envelops the body world in a circular fashion.
Time and the movement of the heavens: Time is created according to the model of eternity and is connected to the movement of the heavens. The demiurge created the sun, moon and planets to measure time.
Nature of ideas and of the good: Plato describes the Demiurge and the soul as incorporeal and therefore indestructible. Ideas are the principles that characterise nature's productions. The goal of man is to become similar to God, and virtue is sufficient for happiness, although it is supported by bodily and external goods.
Use of myths: Plato is criticised for using myths to deter injustice, often mixing fables with his teachings to influence people morally. For him, myths are a complementary tool to illustrate, anchor and communicate his philosophical worldview in a pictorial and traditional way.
Major works
Plato wrote more than 30 works in dialogue form. These are generally divided into three chronological groups:
Socratic and short dialogues in which Socrates is the main protagonist:
Examples: Apology of Socrates (topic: defence of Socrates during his trial, philosophy), Protagoras (topic: virtue, criticism of the Sophists).
Dialogues that present extensive metaphysical theories but retain Socrates as the central figure:
Examples: ‘The State’ (or: ‘The Republic’) (topics: justice and ideal city), ‘The Banquet’ (topic: love), ‘Phaedo’ (immortality of the soul), ‘Phaedrus’ (rhetoric, love, immortality of the soul), ‘Gorgias’ (dialogue criticising the sophists and deceptive rhetoric).
Later dialogues, in which Socrates is no longer the protagonist and Plato expounds his own teachings.
Examples: The Laws (political organisation, role of education, moral and religious legislation), Timaeus (creation of the world), Theaetetus (the knowledge and definition of science).
Influence
Plato is considered one of the most influential philosophers in the Western world and his ideas have laid the foundation for many disciplines. In philosophy, he created the concept of the theory of ideas, according to which a higher, unchanging reality exists behind the world as we perceive it – the world of ideas or forms. His work, especially the Republic, continues to shape thinking about ethics, justice and the structure of the ideal state to this day.
Plato's Academy in Athens, the first known university in the Western world, served as a model for later educational institutions and influenced the system of dialogue as a method of teaching and learning.
He also left his mark on theology, psychology and political science, particularly through his reflections on the human soul and moral action.
Plato's philosophy laid the foundation for the thinking of Aristotle, his most famous student, and remained formative for many philosophical currents and for European intellectual life from the Middle Ages to the modern age.
Why is he mentioned by Silo in ‘Historiological Discussions’?
Because of his great influence on Western philosophy, in particular on Vico, who takes up these ideas, see:
Criticism of rational abstraction
Like Plato, Vico is opposed to a purely abstract and rational conception of knowledge, one that is disconnected from the sensual world and concrete experience. Instead, both value a form of knowledge that is rooted in poetic and mythical reality and is an expression of the original wisdom of the people. Vico sees in Plato a forerunner of his own Poetic Logic, which assigns a central role to the creative imagination and the metaphorical language of myths in grasping the first truths. In particular, the myths of the cave and the androgyne serve him as inspiration to reflect on the development of the human mind.
Poetic conception of the political
Vico also looks to Plato as a model for reflecting on the poetic origins of social and legal institutions. Just as the ideal city in The Republic emerges from a founding myth, so, according to Vico, the first codes of law and forms of government arise from mythical fables and metaphors created by the popular imagination. Vico saw in Plato a thinker who, like himself, had fruitfully combined philosophy, philology and reflection on the origins of human civilisation through the prism of myth and poetry.
History that touches on the eternal
Plato believed that history can reflect or imperfectly imitate eternal ideas, in particular the idea of the Good, which guides the ideal philosopher-king.
For Plato, the sensible world of becoming and change, where human history unfolds, is separate from the intelligible world of eternal and immutable ideas. The sensible world may, however, be an imperfect ‘copy’ or ‘imitation’ of the intelligible world.
For Vico, while history is limited in time, it participates in a form of eternity through the immutable laws and principles that structure it and approximate it to an eternal, divinely created order of providence.
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