Plato and The Renaissance Essay

4. Plato focuses on the ideas of piety and holiness, virtue and wisdom, laws and justice. In the Euthphyro he is

Born in Athens in 437 B.C, Greek philosopher Plato is one of the most powerful thinkers in history. Coming from Greek aristocracy, Plato had political ambitions as a young man and appeared to follow the family tradition. However, Socrates and his dialectical method of inquiry, which was to question and answer everything to show ignorance, soon captivated Plato.

Plato’s idea that there was a perfect world of ideas affected this pieces subject and the

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Following events, which went on to take place further, established his dislike for the government form, thus resulting his propositions of a Utopia in The Republic. At a young age, Plato began to follow the great philosopher Socrates, which instilled his ultimate desire to pursue philosophy, rather than his destined profession in politics. Plato had grown close to Socrates and his teachings; this close connection was a cause to Plato’s finalizing opinions of Democracy. In 399 BCE Socrates was executed by the newly leading Democratic leaders of Athens, and was voted by a majority to be put to death. Plato turned in disgust from contemporary Athenian politics afterwards and went on to be the founder of the Academy; a gathering place, which one could consider a school, that housed great scholars and their revolutionizing thoughts on Mathematics, Philosophy, and Theoretical Astronomy. Due to the events of Plato’s life, he was able to develop the most profound and employed ideas associated with western civilization. His influence had such great impact that his principles are often used in modern-day establishments, from government forms, to fundamentals pertaining to philosophy, the impacts of socialization, as well as religion. To begin an analysis of principles, there must be an understanding of human nature and his personal thoughts regarding the topic, in having that basis of knowledge one could further understand how the basic

As the earliest philosopher from whom we have written texts, Plato is often misrepresented as merely reproducing Socratic rhetoric. In Meno, one of the first Platonic dialogues, Plato offers his own unique philosophical theory, infused with his mentor's brilliant sophistry.

Plato had typical views of ethics for an ancient Greek. Aristotle shared these views he was more specific about

philosophy. Socrates applied logical tricks in the search for the truth. Consequently, his willingness to call everything into question and his

Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, wrestled at the Olympic level, is one of the classical Greek authors, mathematicians and the founder of The Academy, the first higher learning institute in the west. In short, Plato is one of the great thinkers in history and his contributions to philosophy, ethics and politics are many and varied. One of Plato’s main philosophical ideas is based on the idea that the world

Plato was born into an aristocratic family and later became a disciple of Socrates, eventually witnessing the philosopher 's execution in 399BC, he feared for his safety and went travelling to Italy and Egypt. He returned to Athens after his travels and founded the first European university, the Academy. There, astronomy, biology, mathematics, politics and philosophy were taught, with Aristotle as the most famous student. He also compared the state and the individual, stating they both consisted of three parts: the desiring, the spirited and the rational. If they are all in harmony but ruled by the rational you have justice. He went further to construct many statements that have been quoted throughout history in reference to issues of the times, one being ‘ The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men’

The crux of this argument will focus on three of Plato’s works: Gorgias, Apology, and The Republic.

Plato was a philosopher and educator in ancient Greece. He was one of the most important thinkers and writers in the history of Western culture. Plato was born in Athens into a family that was one of the oldest and most distinguished in the city. His father Ariston died when Plato was only a child. The name Plato was a nickname meaning broad shoulders. Plato's real name was Aristocles. Plato had aspirations of becoming a politician, however these hopes were destroyed when his friend Socrates was sentenced to death in 299 B.C. Extremely hurt Plato left Athens and traveled for several years. In 387 B.C., Plato returned to Athens and founded a school of philosophy and science that became known as the Academy. Topics such as astronomy,

Growing up in Athens, Greece in around 420 B.C., Plato was born into the perfect place for a young philosophizing man such as himself. He was well educated from an early age, showing a proclivity for music, writing, and gymnastics. (Diogenes). Young Plato, much like many boys in their teenage

The Republic by Plato was a fascinating piece of literature to read. This book focuses on issues that are still very relevant to this day. That just really shows two things, how smart Plato was and also how humans haven’t changed. Over the years’ humans may have developed and advanced so much, but who we are and how we behave, think and feel hasn’t changed a bit. Prior to reading this, I believed that as time has gone on we have developed as a people, but Plato shows that the problems and issues of Ancient Greece are similar, if not the same as our modern day ones. Plato has made me aware that we have only developed on the surface, our natural desires and instincts however are something that hasn’t changed. In fact, it bares to question if we will ever change.

Plato is regarded by many experts as the first writer of political philosophy. He fashioned a distinctive view of human nature, a view that has had a crucial formative influence on all subsequent theories of human nature. Plato pointed out the distinction between a perfect ideal and its imperfect replicas, and gave the name