PHILOSOPHER THINKER "PLATO":
Plato , (born 428/427, Athens, Greece—died 348/347 BC, Athens), Greek philosopher, who with his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. His family was highly distinguished; his father claimed descent from the last king of Athens, and his mother was related to Critias and Charmides, extremist leaders of the oligarchic terror of 404. Plato (whose acquired name refers to his broad forehead, and thus his range of knowledge) must have known Socrates from boyhood. After Socrates was put to death in 399, Plato fled Athens for Megara, then spent the next 12 years in travel. Upon his return, he founded the Academy, an institute of scientific and philosophical research, where Aristotle was one of his students. Building on but also departing from Socrates’ thought, he developed a profound and wide-ranging philosophical system, subsequently known as Platonism. His thought has logical, epistemological, and metaphysical aspects, but much of its underlying motivation is ethical. It is presented in his many dialogues, in most of which Socrates plays a leading role.
The dialogues also discuss politics. Some of Plato's most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic as well as in the Laws and the Statesman. Because these opinions are not spoken directly by Plato and vary between dialogues, they cannot be straightforwardly assumed as representing Plato's own views.
Socrates asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason are analogous to the castes of society.
- Productive (Workers) – the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.
- Protective (Warriors or Guardians) – those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.
- Governing (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) – those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.
According to Socrates, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honourable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant).
Plato's Central Ideas
Since the majority of Plato's work is in the form of dialogues, the reader is often left without a definite conclusion. Instead, the student of Plato's philosophy is encouraged to approach a topic in many different ways and repeatedly question the result. He would often revisit his own central ideas and provide more ways to examine and rethink the given topic. Let's look at some of the major ideas put forth by his dialogues.
In order to understand Plato's central philosophy, you have to understand the Forms. Plato believed that reality is divided into two parts: the ideal and the phenomena. The ideal is the perfect reality of existence. The phenomena are the physical world that we experience; it is a flawed echo of the perfect, ideal model that exists outside of space and time.
Plato calls the perfect ideal the Forms. Let's use a simple model: consider the chair you are sitting in. That chair is an imperfect version of the perfect idea of a chair. All chairs are different versions of this idea striving towards that perfection, though none of them will ever reach it. There is a Form for everything in existence.
PLATO LIST THREE CLASSES IN THE IDEAL SOCIETY.
They are:
- Producers or Workers: The laborers who make the goods and services in society.
- Auxiliaries: Soldiers.
- Guardians/Soldiers: Those who keep order in the society and protect it from invaders. From them is chosen the Philosopher King/Queen.