The son of Ariston (his father) and Perictione (his mother), Plato was
born in the year after the death of the great Athenian statesman Pericles. His
brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus are portrayed as interlocutors in Plato’s
masterpiece the Republic, and his half brother Antiphon figures in the
Parmenides. Plato’s family was aristocratic and distinguished: his father’s
side claimed descent from the god Poseidon, and his mother’s side was related
to the lawgiver Solon (c. 630–560 BCE). Less creditably, his mother’s close
relatives Critias and Charmides were among the Thirty Tyrants who seized power
in Athens and ruled briefly until the restoration of democracy in 403.
Plato as a young man was a member of the circle around Socrates. Since
the latter wrote nothing, what is known of his characteristic activity of
engaging his fellow citizens (and the occasional itinerant celebrity) in
conversation derives wholly from the writings of others, most notably Plato
himself. The works of Plato commonly referred to as “Socratic” represent the
sort of thing the historical Socrates was doing. He would challenge men who
supposedly had expertise about some facet of human excellence to give accounts
of these matters—variously of courage, piety, and so on, or at times of the
whole of “virtue”—and they typically failed to maintain their position.
Resentment against Socrates grew, leading ultimately to his trial and execution
on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth in 399. Plato was profoundly
affected by both the life and the death of Socrates. The activity of the older
man provided the starting point of Plato’s philosophizing. Moreover, if Plato’s
Seventh Letter is to be believed (its authorship is disputed), the treatment of
Socrates by both the oligarchy and the democracy made Plato wary of entering
public life, as someone of his background would normally have done.
After the death of Socrates, Plato may have traveled extensively in
Greece, Italy, and Egypt, though on such particulars the evidence is uncertain.
The followers of Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 BCE) seem to have influenced his
philosophical program (they are criticized in the Phaedo and the Republic but
receive respectful mention in the Philebus). It is thought that his three trips
to Syracuse in Sicily (many of the Letters concern these, though their
authenticity is controversial) led to a deep personal attachment to Dion
(408–354 BCE), brother-in-law of Dionysius the Elder (430–367 BCE), the tyrant
of Syracuse. Plato, at Dion’s urging, apparently undertook to put into practice
the ideal of the “philosopher-king” (described in the Republic) by educating
Dionysius the Younger; the project was not a success, and in the ensuing
instability Dion was murdered.
Plato’s Academy, founded in the 380s, was the ultimate ancestor of the
modern university (hence the English term academic); an influential centre of
research and learning, it attracted many men of outstanding ability. The great
mathematicians Theaetetus (417–369 BCE) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 395–c. 342
BCE) were associated with it. Although Plato was not a research mathematician,
he was aware of the results of those who were, and he made use of them in his
own work. For 20 years Aristotle was also a member of the Academy. He started
his own school, the Lyceum, only after Plato’s death, when he was passed over
as Plato’s successor at the Academy, probably because of his connections to the
court of Macedonia.
Because Aristotle often discusses issues by contrasting his views with
those of his teacher, it is easy to be impressed by the ways in which they
diverge. Thus, whereas for Plato the crown of ethics is the good in general, or
Goodness itself (the Good), for Aristotle it is the good for human beings; and
whereas for Plato the genus to which a thing belongs possesses a greater
reality than the thing itself, for Aristotle the opposite is true. Plato’s
emphasis on the ideal, and Aristotle’s on the worldly, informs Raphael’s
depiction of the two philosophers in the School of Athens (1508–11). But if one
considers the two philosophers not just in relation to each other but in the
context of the whole of Western philosophy, it is clear how much Aristotle’s
program is continuous with that of his teacher. (Indeed, the painting may be
said to represent this continuity by showing the two men conversing amicably.)
In any case, the Academy did not impose a dogmatic orthodoxy and in fact seems
to have fostered a spirit of independent inquiry; at a later time it took on a
skeptical orientation.
Plato once delivered a public lecture, “On the Good,” in which he
mystified his audience by announcing, “the Good is one.” He better gauged his
readers in his dialogues, many of which are accessible, entertaining, and
inviting. Although Plato is well known for his negative remarks about much
great literature, in the Symposium he depicts literature and philosophy as the
offspring of lovers, who gain a more lasting posterity than do parents of
mortal children. His own literary and philosophical gifts ensure that something
of Plato will live on for as long as readers engage with his works.
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