Plato 's View On Philosophers

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 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.

In The Republic, Plato builds around the idea of Philosopher Rulers. Even though it is not his primary point, it certainly is at the core of his discussion of the ideal state. The question that arises is, 'Why do you need ideal states which will have philosophers as rulers?' There are many layers to the

Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470-390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realities. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and the the universe was mathematically understandable. He believes that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not, exists in the everyday realm, but merely is existent in the hypothetical realm or reality.

Plato: People need to be enlightened. People may be claiming that they are enlightened but in reality, they are not. Even some of the most educated individuals are in total darkness. The reason why educated individuals are not necessarily enlightened is that education system is all about forcing concepts into the minds of the students and expecting them to believe it, memorize it and pass exams. Educational system does not allow cultivation of inner freedom. Inner freedom is what give someone an inner sight. Inner freedom enables the person to see things the way they are and not the way the books or society or peers expects one to see

However, the philosophical approach is quite the opposite in The Republic, Plato displays Socrates as the main speaker and provides an ultimate approach to how the government should be set up. This is quite the contrast from Socrates’ philosophical approach in The Apology. For example, in book 7, the philosopher/freed prisoner is the wisest person and is all knowing after he leaves the cave. “...In the knowable realm, the form of the good is the last thing to be seen, and it is reached only with difficulty. Once one has seen it...one must conclude that it is the cause of all that is correct and beautiful in anything…” (Plato, 1135) This meaning that wisdom can be reached and once it has been, a person will understand everything. This wisdom is referred to by

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 attempted to demonstrate that there was proof of a “divine goodness” by several illustrations. Such illustrations include his famous “Divided Line”, “The Simile of the Sun”, and “The Allegory of the Cave”. In these expressions, he aims to pick apart the foundation of knowledge and where it comes from. He believed that human souls could ultimately reach the highest level of reality and have a total understanding of all things. In other words, the soul who had reached the highest level of understanding no longer needed to question or perceive things, because he would recognize and comprehend “pure knowledge” or “pure goodness”. (Soccio)

Philosophy is a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom." Throughout Plato's Republic, wisdom plays an important role. According to Plato, education is wisdom. In the passage, 518d, Plato discusses the true meaning of education vicariously through Socrates. Some literary mechanisms can be found in the passage and I will show how they fit in the text and how they contribute to the main themes of Plato's Republic.

He writes, “when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then [the soul] has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and seems to have no intelligence” (Book VI, p. 25). By establishing opinion as the opposite to the ultimate good, and by definition, the ultimate evil, he criticizes the use of rhetoric and persuasion while praising to his long-winded, circuitous form of writing. By continually asking questions and telling parables, Plato avoids direct advocation of his beliefs and allows his readers to discover the truth for themselves, rather than to be coerced through eloquent language.

In my eyes Plato is describing how the society today is full of “unenlightenment” or ignorance and how we as a culture have been conformed to accepted ways and if we were to step away from these accustomed ways we would be casted out and ridiculed by our peers. According to Swapnil

It seems that Plato says that the good man is a just man. Philosopher by nature is endowed with the ability to understand what justice is and how to achieve it. However, only because philosopher has the knowledge of the true sense, does that make them just and moreover a good citizen? To figure this out we need to look carefully at the definition of each of the terms.

Plato’s view of division of labour is divided into three types of peoples’ task in life which are workers as farmers, military type and guardians. Actually, the ruling task of Plato’s Republic is the guardian’s responsible who had achieved the greatest wisdom or knowledge of good. Due to that, Plato claims that “philosopher must become kings or those now who called kings must genuinely and adequately philosophise’’ (Nussbaum1998, p.18). However, people argue about the reasons that the philosopher should rule the city, while the philosophers prefer to gain knowledge instead of power, thus they don’t seek this authority. Therefore, the argument should alter to why the philosophers are the best ruler to govern people. Indeed, Plato states

This concept is based on his belief that philosophers are the only holders of true knowledge. In Republic Plato uses Socrates in dialogue to state, “Once one has seen it (Forum of Good), however, one must conclude that it is the cause of all that is correct and beautiful in anything, that it produces both light and its source in the visible realm, and that in the intelligible realm it controls and provides truth and understanding, so that anyone who is to act sensibly in private or public must see it” (Plato 189). Plato uses Socrates to argue that the only people with true knowledge are those who have access to the Forum of Good. According to Plato, this Forum is the source of all other forums and all intelligence and knowledge so a political state must have access to the Forum in order to thrive. However, the only ones who have access to this forum are philosophers and for this reason he argues that the welfare of the state is dependent on the existence of philosophers. He furthers this argument by stating that as a result it is philosophers who are most fit to rule, thus introducing the concept of a philosopher king as the most fit form of political rule for the welfare of all. These principles, although they have been adapted to account for differences in beliefs, societies, and political structures, are still the basis of many current political

Ethics? Philosophy? What do these two words mean? Living life the right way? Always doing what parents instruct? Some people walk through the motions of life and never fully understand what living is really about—it is more than paying bills, earning an education, and having a family. By definition, philosophy is: “a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means”.1 Humankind has studied philosophy for many years trying to figure out the complex meaning of life, an example being Plato one of the greatest Greek philosophers. Philosophy can be very complicated, but life is a beautiful thing (Thesis statement).