Plato (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain who Plato was and his main contributions. Also, his stages of thought and his link with Socrates.

Who was Plato?

Plato was a Greek philosopher born in Athens who lived between 427 and 347 BC. c. A disciple of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, he is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of philosophy.

He is mainly known for having been the first philosopher to present a work in a more or less systematic way. Among his most important ideas are: the theory of forms (or theory of ideas), the allegory of the cave and the famous Platonic dualism that divides the world into a sensory realm and an intelligible one.

In 387 BC c. founded the Academy, a philosophical school that lasted for 900 years and in which mathematics, medicine, rhetoric and astronomy, among other disciplines, were taught. Today the Academy is unanimously considered the first university in the West.

Plato's philosophy was compiled in different worksgenerally known as “Platonic dialogues.” This is because of the way in which they are articulated, which responds to the structure of a dialogue. In them, Platonic concepts and ideas are presented through different characters.

Divided by tradition according to the era in which they were written (youth, maturity and old age), most feature Socrates as the main character. Only the Apology of Socrateswhich presents his defense before the court that sentenced him to death, is not written in dialogue form.

Life of Plato

Plato He was born in Athens around the year 428 BC. c. and died at the age of 80, in the same city, in 348 BC. C. Son of Aristón and Perictíone, he grew up with his three brothers (Adimantus, Glaucón and Potone) and a half-brother, Antiphon, son of his mother and Pyrilampus, an old friend of Pericles. His family came from a wealthy and aristocratic class, descended from the ancient king Codro through his mother, Critias's niece.

Plato was originally called Aristoclesbut he received the nickname “Plato” for having a large physical build. According to Diogenes Laertius, the nickname was given to him by his gym teacher and translates as “he who has broad shoulders.”

Originally trained in the arts such as painting, poetry and dramabefore meeting Socrates Plato frequented Cratylus, a philosopher who introduced him to the ideas of the Heraclitean future. Aristotle maintains that the theory of ideas arises from the intersection between the Heraclitean impossibility of knowing and the Socratic search for a definition of things.

At the age of twenty he met Socrates. From that moment, and until the death of his teacher, he constantly frequented his circle, and became a disciple and close friend of the thinker. Most of Plato's works place Socrates as the main interlocutorin the role of teacher and guide of those with whom he converses, discusses and frequents. Even when the level of fidelity of the Platonic Socrates (that is, to the Socrates described by Plato) to the historical Socrates is debated, the fact that Plato was the one who knew him best and the greatest of his disciples is undeniable.

Socrates died in 399 BC. C. Plato was then 28 years old and, after the death of his teacher, he traveled to Sicily and Italy, where he came into contact with Eleatic and Pythagorean schools that would have influenced him significantly.

After his trip through Sicily, and after being sold as a slave by the tyrant Dionysus and rescued by the Cyrenaic Aniceris, Plato He returned to Athens and settled on the outskirts, where he bought a farm and founded the Academy. This functioned as a school and university as it was styled until the Middle Ages, that is, as a center for academic and religious activities, where worship of the gods was celebrated and anyone who came to train under its tutelage was instructed.

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At the Academy and for twenty years Plato had Aristotle as a disciple, considered his best and most disruptive student.

Plato died in 347 BC. C., at the age of 80in the city of Athens, after dedicating the last years of his life to teaching and training young thinkers, friends and politicians.

Plato's contributions

The theory of ideas

The theory of ideas or theory of forms is one of the most important contributions to philosophy made by Plato. Broadly speaking, it establishes a marked distinction between what is perceived through the senses and what is possible to know through the intellectwhich are the ideas or forms of things. The word “idea” comes from the Greek eidos (εἶδος) and can be translated as “form”, “aspect”, “type” or “species”, depending on who uses it.

The most exhaustive presentation of this theory is in the Parmenidesone of the Platonic works considered from the period of old age. Also A more accessible explanation appears in the Republicthrough the allegory of the cave. Whether in one or the other, the distinction is made between the visible world of the senses and the invisible or intelligible world, where ideas live.

In the visible world There are the things that we know through the senses. These things are like images or traces of the forms or ideas of things in the intelligible world, which is inaccessible through the senses.
In the intelligible world there are the ideas of which sensible objects are copies. Ideas are the object of study of dialectics as the supreme science, and sensible objects resemble them because, according to Plato (and in an unclear way), they “participate” in the ideas and resemble them in an imperfect, degraded way.

One of the greatest criticisms made of the theory of ideas was proposed by Aristotle himself, a disciple of Plato. Aristotle maintained that, although it is true that the essence of things, like their form, is what defines them, the form cannot be considered independent of things. For Aristotle, form is inseparably linked to matter, and together with it constitutes the substance.

The allegory of the cave

Myth of the cave - Plato — He *cave myth* exemplifies how the mechanism of access to knowledge works.

The allegory of the cave It is an allegory, that is, a symbolic literary representation whose function is pedagogical-philosophical. Along with the allegory of the winged chariot, it is the most important in the history of philosophy. It tells the story of certain prisoners, who were born chained inside a cave where they could only see the back wall, on which the shadows of the real world were projected.

Plato introduces the allegory of the cave at the beginning of the VII book of the Republic to explain the situation in which humans find themselves in relation to knowledge. This text describes the way in which you can grasp both the sensible world (through the senses) and also the intelligible world (through the soul, since like it, everything in the intelligible world is eternal and immortal).

According to Plato, the prisoners who inhabit the cave, chained from birth, They can only see the shadows of a campfire, hidden behind a wallreflected against the background of the cavern. These shadows are produced thanks to some men who circulate through a corridor carrying different objects. The prisoners, not knowing where the shadows come from, believe that they are the truth of things.

What the allegory of the cave maintains is that If any of the prisoners were freed and turned their gaze towards the light of the bonfire, they would face a more perfect reality.which is the cause of the reality of shadows. Once this has happened, the prisoner could escape to the outside of the cave, where he would see a more perfect world, until he was forced to look directly towards the sun. This, however, would blind him if he wanted to return to the cave and free his companions, who would do nothing but mock him and, according to Plato, would even be capable of killing him (in a clear allusion to what happened to Socrates).

Platonic dualism

Platonic dualism is a way of thinking about the whole body and soul as separate. What is characteristic of Plato is that this dualism extends to a division of the world between the perfect and the imperfect. If the perfect is that which is immortal, imperishable, eternal, immutable and necessary, the imperfect is that which is temporary, mutable and corruptible.

This partition of the world results in a sensible world and an intelligible world.. The sensible world is the imperfect world, formed by matter, to which the body is subjected. All things that exist in the sensible world are made in the manner and likeness of the perfect, represented by the forms in the intelligible world. This is related to the soul, and is the place where things similar to it live: like the soul, ideas are eternal, immutable and necessary.

From this separation the Platonic idea arises that the body is the prison of the soul and that, after the end of the body, the soul is free and perfect once again until it returns to incarnate in a different body.

Other consequences or possible readings are also observed regarding dualism, such as its implications for knowledge: according to Platonic dualism, opinion (which is the form of sensible knowledge) is opposed to episteme (which is intelligible knowledge). This way of thinking about knowledge is known as epistemological dualism.

You can also see how even deeper features of ontological dualism emerge (the dualism that explains the separation of reality into two worlds), such as the problem of participation between both worlds, or the problem of anthropological dualism, for example, which He thinks of the human being as a composite of body and soul and wonders how this is possible.

Plato's work

It is assumed that all of Plato's works survive to the present day. All of them, except the Apology of Socratesare written in dialogue form. Beyond the theme or question that concerns each one, most of the works present an explanation of the Socratic method, shown through conversations between Socrates and different interlocutors embodied in people of the time or famous thinkers of that time.

Although some are based on real events, Many of the Platonic dialogues are a fiction rehearsed by Plato with the aim of providing the necessary stage to present its different theses and fundamental ideas. Told in the form of myths or allegories, these ideas are related to the immortality of the soul (explained in the Phaedrus), the myth of Eros (presented in He Feast) the example of the slave and the reminiscence (which appears in the Menon), among others.

While it is true that these works are the set of writings published during his lifetime, they should not be considered Plato's explicit teachings. That they are narrated in the form of dialogue and through the resource of myth and allegory indicates that, in any case, what we find there is material to be interpreted. Plato, in addition to publishing his works, taught orally at the Academy, so It is considered that there is a written teaching, which appears in the dialogues, and an oral teachingwhich was possibly dedicated to exegesis (or philosophical interpretation of all his ideas), reserved for those who considered themselves his students.

Plato believed that written language was only a copy of spoken language, and that The voice was, for him, direct access to intelligence and knowledge accumulated in the soul, which was intelligible. This interpretative thesis is supported by the Phaedrusas well as in other works of Plato, such as Letter VIIwhere he states that some things cannot be expressed in words. However, the fact that Plato advocated oral teaching does not detract from the merit or philosophical prestige of all his published works, a legacy that reaches us today.

Stages of Plato's thought according to his works

Plato's philosophical work, through his dialogues, is usually divided into four major periods:

Socratic period (393-389 BC). At this stage, Plato spread some of his theses based on the teachings of Socrates. In them he addresses concepts such as lies, mercy and friendship. Some of his works published during this period were: Apology to Socrates, Crito or Duty, Ion or Poetry, Lysis or Friendship, Charmides or Wisdom and Protagoras or The Sophists.
Transition period (389-385 BC). At this stage, Plato founded the Academy, which was key to deepening and developing sciences such as mathematics and astronomy. He addressed theories based on the teachings of Socrates and Pythagoras, and developed his own concepts about the immortality of the soul, virtue and language. Some of his works published during this period were: Hippias major, Gorgias, Menexenes and Menon.
Maturity period (385-361 BC). In this stage, which was his most notable stage, Plato developed his ideas about the immortality of the soul, the Reminiscence theory (which affirmed the existence of certain innate knowledge in human beings), the Ascending dialectic theory (which consisted of the perfection of Socrates' maieutics and contemplated the cause-effect relationship of what was observed), the concept of love (which was opposed to “Platonic love”) and his political philosophy. Some of his works published during this period are: The Republic, Phaedrus, Phaedo and The banquet.
Old age period (361-347 BC). During his old age, Plato made an exhaustive review of the theory of ideas. This theory postulates a duality of reality between the sensible world (what the senses perceive), and the intelligible world (what can be understood through the intellect). Additionally, he explored concepts related to nature and medicine. Some of his works published during this period were: Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist and The politician.

References

Guthrie, W. (1988). History of Greek Philosophy, vol. IV. Plato, the man and his dialogues: first period. Gredos.
Guthrie, W. (1988). History of Greek Philosophy, vol. V. Plato, second period and the Academy. Gredos.
Guthrie, W. (1953). The Greek philosophers. From Thales to Aristotle. FCE.
Ross, W. D. (1993). Plato's Theory of Ideas. Chair.
Cordero, N. (2008). The invention of philosophy. An introduction to ancient philosophy. Byblos Publishing House.
“Plate” in Britannica.
“An introduction to theory of ideas by Plato” in Universia.
“Platón” Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.