Plato

Plato is known as the legendary philosopher from which all formal disciplines arise. The aegis of his contentions and beliefs have influenced every strand of philosophical thought there is. The dialectic and dialogue arise from his representation of Aristotle. He also became the founder of the Platonic Academy, a profound and radiating institution in Athens that spread the cause of Greek philosophy to the four corners of the earth.

Aristokles, known properly by his divine name of Plato, was born in Aegina during the eighty-eighth Olympiad on the day of modern November 21st (the all-important November 8th for Renaissance humanists). Ariston, his father, hailed from the Athenian deme of Kolytus; he was a descendant of the legendary king of Athens named Kodrus. His mother, Perictione, was a descendant of Solon, the highly esteemed lawgiver of Athens, as well as being a cousin of the tyrant Critias. Plato was born to a highly esteemed aristocratic family.

A legend states that Perictione became pregnant via a vision of Apollo (Azazel):

Σπεύσιππος δ᾿ ἐν τῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ Πλάτωνος περιδείπνῳ καὶ Κλέαρχος ἐν τῷ Πλάτωνος ἐγκωμίῳ καὶ Ἀναξιλαΐδης ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ Περὶ φιλοσόφων φασίν, ὡς Ἀθήνησιν ἦν λόγος, ὡραίαν οὖσαν τὴν Περικτιόνην βιάζεσθαι τὸν Ἀρίστωνα καὶ μὴ τυγχάνειν· παυόμενόν τε τῆς βίας ἰδεῖν τὴν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ὄψιν· ὅθεν καθαρὰν γάμου φυλάξαι ἕως τῆς ἀποκυήσεως.

Speusippus, in the work titled Plato’s Banquet, and Clearchus, in Plato’s Encomium, and Anaxilaïdes, in the second book On Philosophers, say that, as it was told in Athens, Ariston attempted to force himself upon Perictione, who was beautiful, but was unsuccessful. And when he ceased his attempt, he saw a vision of Apollo, from which it was believed that she remained pure in marriage until she gave birth. ¹

His family were cleurchs, colonists to Aegina who retained Athenian citizenship. The Spartan invasion of the island shortly after his birth forced Ariston back to Athens. Some months after this, Ariston perished and Plato was bought up by his stepfather Pyrilampes, his grand-uncle.

From a very early age, Plato was known for his prodigious memory and ability to exercise mental feats unknown to other children; on the other hand, he was known to work to extents that were inconceivable. His tutors Speusippus and Dionysius made Plato earn his intellect in severe tasks and difficult training regimens, a process that nevertheless that crowned his mental excellence and made it.

Roman copy of Silanion’s head of Plato made for the Academy

During his youth, much like his associate Socrates, Plato excelled in all of the arts (mousike) to a very notable extent. Of particular interest to Plato were the arts of poetry and playwriting, a skill that also helped him compose his dialogues. He acquired the status of something akin to a modern Poet Laureate of Athens prior to his late teens.

Later, he progressed into writing tragedies fashionable at the time and was said to be a choregus, the lead of a chorus. In fact, Plato first noticed the presence of Socrates not through family ties but due to the latter’s creative association with the legendary playwright Euripides.

It was not only in this arena that he made a mark of extreme distinction: Plato was known as one of the finest sportsmen Athens had produced in its history, largely through the tutelage of Ariston of Argos. At the Isthmian Games and Pythian Games, he engaged in many wrestling matches and participated in other sports, winning the vast majority of bouts. One of Plato’s most famous sayings relates to his high esteem of sport and physical exercise:

Plato was known for his seriousness and gravity of character from a young age. He had a reputation for being stony-faced and at times difficult.

His first philosophical role model was Heraclitus whom he studied the doctrines of at the Academy of Athens. Plato’s meeting with Socrates, an individual he observed outside of the Theater of Dionysus, changed his life. The path he chose in studying under Socrates was supplemented by studying further doctrines of Heraclitus from Cratylus and Parmenides from Hermogenes.

At first, Plato desired a position in politics. However, the instigation of violence and tyranny at the hand of Critias (Plato was his first cousin once removed), particularly in circumscribing Socrates, dissuaded him entirely from associating with the oligarchical Thirty Tyrants, despite the fact a civic position was a certainty on account of his excellence. When the Tyrants were killed and deposed, the democratic regime of Athens eventually turning their ire towards Socrates and experiencing the worst of both systems made him increasingly disillusioned with politics altogether.

Berkeley bust of Plato, of ancient origin and found with his quotes.
The headband had long white tassles at the side

He fled Athens, leaving with select disciples to Megara. From there Plato journeyed to Cyrene to visit Theodorus to comprehend mathematical concepts, then to the Greek colonies in Italy to meet with the Pythagoreans, finally he ended up in Egypt to understand certain doctrines from the priests of that country. Plato was also educated in many things by Epicharmus, a comic poet of some philosophical weight who refined his style. Later on, he made the acquaintance of Dion of Syracuse and attracted the ire of the tyrant Dionysius. At this point in his travels, Plato was even sold into slavery, being an inch away from death at Dionysius’ command. He was taken to Aegina where a fellow philosopher luckily recognized him and paid for his freedom.

Who but the man with the most extreme life and yet with the most solid self-possession in the face of living could speak so firmly on all aspects of life itself? This also did not dissuade Plato from returning to Syracuse twice while Dionysius still ruled the city.

Returning to the Academy of Athens, Plato sought to improve on all of the developments of the Hellenic philosophers from Miletus, Athens, Syracuse and further afar. Although some have claimed that Plato was dogmatic due to certain strong statements interwoven into these texts, the refinement of his thoughts lay atop a great synthesis of many ideas – the purposes of his dialogues reflect this multiplicity of thought.

Οὗτος πρῶτος ἐν ἐρωτήσει λόγον παρήνεγκεν, ὥς φησι Φαβωρῖνος ἐν ὀγδόῃ Παντοδαπῆς ἱστορίας. καὶ πρῶτος τὸν κατὰ τὴν ἀνάλυσιν τῆς ζητήσεως τρόπον εἰσηγήσατο Λεωδάμαντι τῷ Θασίῳ. καὶ πρῶτος ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ ἀντίποδας ὠνόμασε καὶ στοιχεῖον καὶ διαλεκτικὴν καὶ ποιότητα καὶ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τὸν προμήκη καὶ τῶν περάτων τὴν ἐπίπεδον ἐπιφάνειαν καὶ θεοῦ πρόνοιαν.

He was the first to introduce an argument in the form of a question, as Favorinus relates in the eighth book of his Miscellaneous History. He was also the first to propose to Leodamas of Thasos the method of analyzing a question. And he was the first in philosophy to name “antipodes,” “element,” “dialectic,” “quality,” as well as “the extended (dimension) of number,” “the flat surface of boundaries,” and “the providence of God.” ¹

He ascended into the realm of truth during the thirteenth year of King Philip of Macedon’s reign. Plato’s stature was such that the King of Macedon himself immediately came to visit the Academy and to pay respects. Many sanctuaries were subsequently built to the great philosopher in Athens and the Greek authors show him as being enrolled onto the Demons.

Diogenes Laertius claims Plato devised his dialogues with distinct approaches and didactic purposes, to the point where there was a general system of several categories which each dialogue could acceptably be placed into. Specific exchanges by Plato were ambiguous and can even be said to be self-refuting. Others hinged on a sense of certainty and methodologies littered with factual reasoning, and yet still others flitted between both.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Plato equates virtue with knowledge and, although relying on accurate representations of what Socrates said and did, uses Socrates as a device to show how knowledge can lead to virtue. Certain dialogues such as the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Protagoras and Gorgias demonstrate how virtue is directly teachable, something that authors such as Terence Irwin have touched upon.

Meditative and rational understanding of these concepts leads someone to greater knowledge, advancing into a higher dimension of being and knowing. From continual repetition and understanding, inner morality emerges that is separated from the sometimes brutish demands of an ego.

FORMS

Following on from the discursive elaborations of virtue, Plato is most known for his Theory of Ideas (also known as Forms). He noted from the Pythagoreans that mathematical and immaculate concepts like a circle can only be created, portrayed and in some ways even imagined imperfectly by humans. The thought of a circle can wither away or be distorted. A drawn circle is always drawn imperfectly and can succumb to time when put onto paper. Likewise, a circle fashioned from stone is never rendered as perfectly as the pure idea of what a circle is. Plato surmised the perfect circle exists in the realm of Ideas.

Plato (left) with Aristotle (right): The School of Athens, Raphael

The Pythagorean teachings demonstrated nonetheless that a perfect circle or triangle can only be accessed via using reason, a process of thinking and logical reasoning divorced from just necessarily observing the world with the senses. This led Plato to believe there must be similarly perfect Ideas for concepts such as Beauty, Justice and Fairness, of which humans in their limited world can only grasp imperfectly and intermittently in acts and reactions, description, perception and sensual data, skill, knowledge and application and so on. Any such application of the Idea in our realm is called “participation”.

The Ideas Theory was not purely about the properties of objects and abstraction, however. Beholding a mass of imperfection, underdevelopment and deviation from what he surmised once was, Plato looked at humanity carefully. He used this to illustrate a point about the limited level of Being in comparison to the Gods, who are, in a sense, the perfected Form of humanity residing in or close to the eternal Aether.

Why was this a point worth making indirectly? The idea bridged the gap between the increasingly impersonal, abstract idea of the perfect Monad created by the philosophers of Miletus and the vulgar understanding of the Gods by the masses of Antiquity who often conceived of the Gods as having entirely human dispositions. He refers to this in the Eta Virtue of Astarte:

Plato then, when asked, pointed at the Heavens and said: “The supernal realms are filled and rife with the Beauty of the Great God. In there, nothing is disharmonious, nothing is not measured, nothing is disproportionate.”

ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

The Allegory of the Cave, the most famous example Plato utilized in his philosophy, follows on from the Ideas theory. Socrates explains to Glaucon to imagine a group of cave-dwellers are chained by their ankles and necks to an inner wall for eternity, facing an outer wall. They observe shadows projected onto the outer wall by objects carried behind the inner wall by object-carriers invisible to the chained cave-dwellers and who walk along the inner wall with a fire behind them. The fire creates the shadows on the inner wall that the cave-dwellers see, yet the cave-dwellers neither see the objects nor the fire. The object-carriers also name the sounds of the objects they carry which the cave-dwellers deduce must be coming from the shadows.

Only the philosopher or divinely-inspired man exits the cave and is eventually able to comprehend the Sun, along with everything else, returning to the cave to attempt to liberate the rest. The ignorant man, however, runs back to the cave frightened and blinded by the Sun, telling the cave-dwellers that the outside world is evil and hostile.

For Plato, comprehension of the divine Ideas and to fall away from the state of the Andrapod was only made possible by meditation and educating a being; without this, being like the ignorant cave-dwellers or the individual among them spurning reality was close to an inevitability. He used the example to also impress on individuals that life without the Gods is precarious.

The Sun is equated with the "child of goodness": it illuminates and spreads light, enabling the wise to see life as it is. Goodness is likened to illuminating in the pursuit of knowledge. In addition to the Sun, there are also complex elaborations about Saturn, the star of the Sun, interwoven into this problem.

Many modern works such as the Matrix are aesthetic elaborations of this concept illustrated by Plato. Other works such as Nineteen Eighty-Four are heavily influenced, creating a universe to illustrate the adverse consequences of human-hating systems.

CULTURAL ASPECTS

Plato engages in certain criticisms of representations of the Gods at the time, finding these simplistic and lacking in a way that could be misleading. He knew that people were more able to understand plays, tales and cultural representations based on the understanding of certain states of the human mind, but he warned about the ability for these to deviate from the essence of what the Gods really are.

The Guardian class of the Republic are advised to stick to portrayals of the Gods that align with their spiritual enhancement. This has led to a misunderstanding that Plato wished to ban all forms of creativity forever, which is ridiculous.

THE MODERN CONTEXT

Furthermore, there were many secrets to his teachings. Plato himself says writing is a poor substitute for verbal instruction. Some of these, the unwritten doctrines as Aristotle notes, were only elaborated to his disciples at length and were deemed only suitable for an elect group. Others such as meditative techniques elaborated in the dialogues and in other manuals have simply been altered and written out of history, or they lie carefully obscured from view in the vaults of the enemy. Only parts of the Timaeus allude to these.

The perversion of Plato’s teachings during the downfall of Rome via the efforts of infiltrators, the fashioning of Plato as a forerunner of Christianity by the church and a further appropriation of the Platonic dialogues after their reappearance during the Renaissance was a major project of necessity to accomplish for the Christians and their sponsors.

Yet even they had to admit through the sides of their mouth that something about Plato was not ordinary:

Hunc autem Platonem, quod iam in secundo libro commemoravi, inter semideos Labeo ponit…

Now this same Plato, as I have already mentioned in my second book, is listed by Labeo among the demigods… ²