Political Philosophy Research : Plato

Plato

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Plato's Philosophical Works

Plato's Philosophy of the Idea


Life of Plato

Plato was born into a wealthy aristocratic family of Athens in 428-7 B.C. His family's position in society inevitably led him to be exposed to the great minds of the Greek arts as well as the great battling forces among the great political classes within the Ancient Greek world. During the early year's of Plato's life, Athens was involved in one of the greatest wars that the world had yet seen. The battles among Athens', Sparta and their Greek allies spanned from 431 – 404 B.C. and is known as the Peloponnesian War. The eventual Athenian loss led to a year of oppression at the hands of the “thirty tyrants” who were instituted by the Spartans. However, after approximately a year, the Athenians revolted and their democracy was restored, marking the end of the “golden age” of Greece.


From a young age Plato demonstrated a great talent for poetic artistry. However, he would reject this career path after being mentored by the infamous philosopher Socrates. This mentoring began when Plato was about twenty years of age and would last until until he was approximately twenty-eight, at which point Socrates suffered execution at the hands of Athenian rulers (399 B.C.). Not only the life of Socrates, but also his 'unjust' death, undoubtedly had the greatest impact on Plato's philosophic works. In all, there are 35 dialogues and 13 letters that still exist, of which some are disputed as not being genuine.


After the death of Socrates, Plato set his focus abroad as he traveled to Megara, Cyrene, Italy, Sicily and Egypt. Upon his return, he founded the Academy, which was a school of philosophy named after the Athenian hero Academus, whose sacred grove is located nearby. At the Academy, Plato would mentor Aristotle, the next great philosopher of the western world.


Plato made two more trips to Sicily after the founding of the Academy. In Sicily, the ruler Dionysius I, died and his son ascended to the throne where he acted as tyrant. Dionysius II's uncle persuaded Plato to come to Sicily in order to teach the young tyrant how to become a “philosopher king.” However, once in Sicily, the tyrant sent his uncle into exile as punishment for 'sedition' and forced Plato to remain under his control. Plato convinced the tyrant to let him return to Athens after some time. However, Plato was summoned back to Sicily four years later but Plato refused. Only after a Pythagorean friend came to persuade him to return did Plato go. This last time in Sicily ended similar to the previous time. The tyrant imprisoned Plato would eventually escape with the help of some Tarentine friends. After this last episode, Plato returned to his Academy where he lived out the rest of his life. He died at the age of sixty.


Philosophical Work

Plato represents his philosophy, or lack thereof, in the form of dialogues among characters often representing real life characters. His dialogues revolved in large part around his mentor Socrates, although he played a much larger and active role in his earlier dialogues than his later works. Despite not having exact dates of when the dialogues were made, scholars have pieced together with some vague sense of accuracy, a basic chronology of Plato's works based on their individual content.


From this time-frame, noticeable differences in content and theme are extrapolated from three stages of Plato's philosophy. These are referred to as the early, middle and late dialogues and can be used in observing an evolution in the character of Socrates. Although there is great speculation and inferences about who the “real Socrates” was, it is generally accepted that the early dialogues most probably reveal more about the actual Socrates than the later dialogues. Probably the best source for understanding Socrates the man is from one of Plato's early dialogues: the Apology. One can contrast the characters of Socrates and the corresponding dialogues of the Apology with the Symposium of the middle dialogues and the Statesman and the Laws of the late dialogues. One noticeable exception is the Republic, which most likely was edited and “perfected” over the course of many years that span from the early to middle time-frame for the Plato's dialogues.


In his early dialogues, Plato almost always used Socrates as the central focus. Socrates is never portrayed as giving advice or espousing a particular point of view. Plato made famous what is now known as the “Socratic method” in the early dialogues; a method which teaches or seeks understanding by way of questioning. The character of Socrates claims ignorance and oftentimes humiliates those for whom he is questioning by revealing their own ignorance. According to the Apology, he does so due to an ordained mission in Athens to expose false wisdom. And this mission inevitably led to the condemnation of his contemporaries and eventually his execution.


In the middle dialogues Socrates moves on from his passive mode of teaching and at times comes forth with more partiality, oftentimes being portrayed as an expert willing to give his own theories and defend them. Thus, Socrates begins to mix the old method of questioning with articulating an expertise on many subjects ranging from ethics to natural science to metaphysics. Not only does he cover such a wealth of subjects, but Socrates begins giving broad systematical theories into the seen and unseen realities of mankind. Many scholars suggest that Plato began using the character of Socrates to play the role of himself, in effect professing philosophical theories by way of “Socratic” teaching. However, this is open to interpretation. Because Plato never attributed any given theory to himself, but only through characters, some argue that he didn't convey his own theory so much as used his characters for the mere purpose of promoting philosophy in Athenian culture. That being said, a clear theoretical framework which may be referred as the “Theory of Ideas” or the “Theory of Forms,” which deal with concepts of the ideal reality.


Once Plato reaches his late dialogues, he becomes less interested with theories of the ideal and more focused on what is practicable and what is truly attainable. He also adapts the Socratic Method and the theory of forms into what Plato refers to as “collection and division.” In this method, the philosopher “collects” the occurrences of a broad category with similar characteristics and begins dividing and regrouping these categories until a division of a category can no longer be made. This method is used in Plato's Parmenides in a way that some interpret as a refutation of the Theory of Ideas by using the character of Parmenides to refute a young Socrates. However, in other dialogues seem to have been created in the same period, such as the Timaeus, Plato seems to continue to give the Theory of Ideas a prominent role in the philosophic dialogue.


One can see an evolution in Plato's dialogues not only in regard to the intricate changes the theoretical framework of specific dialogues previously mentioned, but also in the role in which Socrates plays. In the late dialogues of the Sophist and the Statesman, Socrates loses his once prominent role. He is represented without making any comments at all. Furthermore, Plato omits Socrates altogether in the Laws and Critias. However, in the Theaetetus and Philebus, Socrates continues to emerge in his more traditional role. The meaning for the changing role of Socrates is of particular interest to scholars, but of course, is open to a wide range of interpretation.


Philosophy of the Idea

Although Plato seemed to move away from the Theory of the Idea in some of his later dialogues, showing a willingness to experiment with other methods, it is quite clear that the philosophy of the Idea has historically been his defining philosophy.


The philosophy of the Idea was rooted in “Socratic” teaching and was an effort to define the conditions of knowledge. Through Plato's work, Socrates taught that true knowledge and the reality of things could only be attained through the understanding of concepts, which were the principles of knowledge. The concepts of what is ideal are what Socrates refers to as Ideas. Ideas are found in all realities and makeup the principles for which knowledge of a given reality can be understood.


By extracting these ideals, one is able to learn the objectively real “Idea” in all things and therefore, the foundations of both scientific knowledge (physics) and metaphysics (dialectics). Plato believed that the Idea never changes and therefore, defines what is true. However, the world of what humans experience does change and how things are seen oftentimes is far separated from its true realities, its Idea.


Plato refers to the world for which we see and experience as “phenomena,” and he sees it as far inferior to that of the Idea. He portrays all human souls as once dwelling in the world of the Idea but having moved away from this world through phenomena; the world of phenomena, is really a world of shadows that give the appearance of realities, but are themselves not true. The act of enlightening oneself from knowledge of phenomena (appearances) to knowledge of noumena (realities) and the realm of the Idea is considered by Plato to be what defines philosophy.


Through Plato's dialogues, three divisions in philosophy emerge: Dialectics, Physics, and Ethics and the Theory of the State. Dialectics is the science of the realm of metaphysics and is often centered on the philosophy of the realities of the human soul. It also refers to the science of the Idea, which is the heart of all philosophy. For instance, the history of political philosophy is often centered on what justice is. In the world of phenomena, we can understand that justice is imperfect and oftentimes subjective to the phenomenon of worldly men and/or institutions who execute the application of the so-called justice. However, through dialectics, one comprehends the Idea of Justice. This justice is perfect, absolute, and immortal. Because dialectics acts to comprehend the perfection of reality, Plato considers it the most important and dignified form of philosophy.


Physics is the knowledge of the Idea within the realm of the phenomenon; the Idea is incorporated into human society, but as a mere occasion of truth rather than its fullness encapsulated in dialectics. Because phenomenon is less perfect than the Idea in its own realm, the level of importance and dignity of physics is inferior to that of dialectics. By understanding the Idea of justice, a person can begin to bridge the gap from the imperfect physics of justice executed by imperfect men in a subjective manner to the dialectics of the perfect, objective and absolute Justice understood in the realm of Ideas.


The means by which one attains knowledge of the Idea beyond instances of true knowledge found in the realm of the phenomena is ethics. Ethics defines a science by which the knowledge of the greatest good, the Idea of Good / God, can be achieved. In the personal sense, one achieves such knowledge through the practice virtue and acquire wisdom. When understood in terms of a society as a whole, Plato theorizes the possibility of a system for aiding in the acquisition of the Idea, as a collective rather than just an individual. In the Republic, such a system requires education which would be fostered by philosopher-kings who would devote themselves to cultivating wisdom in society.


Plato set the stage for a future of political philosophy by taking philosophy that was traditionally applied to the natural world and implementing it into the world of civil society. He made parallels between the nature of the soul and the nature of the state. He effectively divided the natures of both into three categories: the reason of an individual and the rulers of a state, desires of an individual and the producers of a society, and the courage of an individual and the warrior of an army. He then defined the virtues of the nature of a warrior, a producer, and a ruler. By identifying the virtues of an individual, they can be properly placed into the field of service that best suits the goal of achieving the happiness for the State. Plato defines virtue in terms of the order, harmony and health of the soul and its opposite, vice, in terms of disorder, discord, and disease. In doing so, he successfully characterizes the importance of virtue as being indispensable to the happiness of the State.


For Plato, the ideal State is modeled after the individual soul and is the greatest entity for which the Idea is incorporated in the world of phenomena. By making this relation, he fostered the future of political philosophy in terms of the characteristics of individuals within society, a system in which the state operates, the interaction among distinctive societies and how they all relate to the soul and the metaphysical realm.