Right Or Wrong?

Plato is a philosopher; however, in “Plato’s Republic,” Plato’s view on philosophers within society is rather unorthodox compared with others who study philosophy. This is due to Plato’s views of individuals each having different skills they are naturally good at; he states that only true philosophers will be fit to rule. All others who attempt to rule will create terrible consequences for a city. The people shun philosophers because they are lovers of knowledge and are perceived to be different from them. The majority of people in a city are not lovers of knowledge but rather lovers of beauty.

Plato believes in the necessity of the Noble Lie. In his ideal society, what is taught is determined by the guardians, a select group of people. He justifies this with the thought that when one can control how education is handled in a society, you in hand can control the citizens within your ideal society. He believes that when teaching the history of the gods, there should be an exclusion of the god’s acting human-esque and having human emotions, negative emotions especially. Plato’s teacher, Socrates, believes that a high value must be placed on truth so that citizens will not get the wrong ideas about the gods and emulate the gods’ wrongdoing. He believes that if citizens hear and

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.

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

Biographical information: Plato was one of the earliest ancient Greek philosophers who lived from 427 to 347 B.C. He was a student of Socrates, who was also a prominent Greek philosopher at that time. Socrates had a massive influence on Plato, who called him “the most upright man of that day” (The Seventh Letter). Plato adopted his philosophy and dedicated his studies to formation of a noble character. Born in Athens to a family of aristocrats, Plato attained an exceptional education, most likely taught by notable educators such as Pythagoras and Parmenides.

Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived between 428-432 B.C. He wrote mainly in dialogues, to stay true to how Socrates communicated philosophy. Plato displayed what is considered Socrates’ philosophy throughout the dialogue The Apology. In The Republic, Socrates is mainly used as a mouthpiece to communicate Plato’s philosophy. Socrates follows a philosophy best explained as “I do not know”, whereas Plato tries to find the ultimate solution to philosophical problems. In this essay, I will argue how Socrates has the best philosophical approach compared to that of Plato.

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’

In The Republic, Plato was highly influenced by Socrates' beliefs that a democracy in the Athenian society was useless. At this time Socrates had already been executed for teaching his philosophy, however Plato believed that reason alone would guide the Greeks out of their political turmoil. His theory was, philosophers should be kings to better the welfare of the government and people. Plato quotes "genuine philosophers are those whose passion it is to see the truth."(82) One bias example that Plato opposed, was using the human body at the artists disposal. What makes the artists vision of a human body perfection? Who is wise enough

“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates). These are perhaps the most famous lines written in Plato’s, “Apology”. Plato writes this wonderful and insightful book to describe his teacher, Socrates; Furthermore, Plato wants to illustrate and share with others the type of teacher that Socrates is. Socrates is a hard code to crack. He tampers with the human mind and causes even the smartest and wisest of men to question ideas that they thought were concrete. Sarcastic and almost insulting, he psychologically tears others apart. There is a socratic method that is used by this brilliant teacher to build upon ideas and dig deep into the very core of a question. He starts with macro and works his way down to micro, ensuring that even young people may understand his philosophy. In Plato’s “Republic”, Socrates portrays himself as an intriguing person as he enlightens young people, utilizes sarcasm to decompose the stature of others, and uses analogy to teach.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle 's early lives affected their careers and Greek society, and their deaths and works of literature affected today 's society. Socrates started out as a stone mason who eventually devoted most of his time to philosophy. Socrates ' works of literature reflect his world views and opinions. These opinions had a fatal consequence; he was persecuted for "corrupting the youth of Athens." Socrates was Plato 's teacher and instructor. Plato used his works of literature to show his viewpoints. In his book, The Republic, he covered a wide range of topics that included social, educational, psychological, moral and philosophical ideas. In this book and The Apology, Plato criticized Athen 's democracy for the persecution of his friend and teacher, Socrates. Plato then became the instructor of Aristotle. Through Aristotle 's life in Thrace, and his intense schooling at the Academy, he was equipped with all of the knowledge that he needed to become the wise philosopher he is known as today. Aristotle discussed some of his opinions through his book, Politics. This book mainly focused on his views of the government and society. His schooling allowed him to advance in all subjects and discover new ideas. All three of these philosophers not only had a lasting effect on Greek philosophy, but their ideas have also had a profound

There are many writers, authors, and speakers in this world that are considered among the greats, but perhaps the greatest two of western speculation are Plato and Socrates. These two hand in hand had a huge influence on American Literature and others as well. Perhaps one of the most remarkable writings of Plato, since Socrates never once himself wrote anything down, is his writing of Apology. The writings of Apology showed some of Socrates final moments, how he carried himself, and most importantly what he said. Socrates was perhaps one of the most intellectual and perceptive minds that ever lived this life, and he had many important ideas and most specifically questions. There are many important things to be derived and learned from the writings of Plato, and voice of Socrates. From Plato’s Apology I learned three important things; how to question society, how to defend oneself with poise, and most importantly, “That the unexamined life is not worth living.” according to Socrates.

With this allegory, Plato is not only stressing the idea that specialization is key to the running of the Republic, but also that philosophers were unappreciated in 420 BC Athens, and thus useless because the world would not use them and their knowledge. It also stresses the dangers of liberty and equality, as well as the unnaturalness of

Plato enunciated his theory of education in The Republic that knowledge would allow the person to be guided towards the right desires and would lead to understanding the distinction between forms and appearances with use of the allegory of the cave. He continued his point by explaining how this distinction was prevalent in the study of mathematics, which he considered to be a prerequisite for studying philosophy, and using the knowledge gained to understand complex ideas such as what justice meant. Although this belief also explained how a society was able to achieve one of the four virtues and ultimately reach harmony, it was scrutinized by fellow brilliant minds such as the sophist Thrasymachus, who challenged his theory of justice by stating that it was made to benefit the guardian class and did not attempt to make it fair for the members of the auxiliary or producer class. Plato’s teacher, Socrates, attempted to refute the sophist’s claim in regards to justice, but was unable to provide a satisfactory response to his argument meaning that it was a flawed idea.