[b]Pla[/b]to - Biography

Plato (circa 428-c. 347 BC)

Plato was born around the year 428 BCE in Athens. His father died while Plato was young, and his mother remarried to Pyrilampes, in whose house Plato would grow up. Plato's birth name was Aristocles, and he gained the nickname Platon, meaning broad, because of his broad build. His family had a history in politics, and Plato was destined to a life in keeping with this history. He studied at a gymnasium owned by Dionysios, and at the palaistra of Ariston of Argos. When he was young he studied music and poetry. According to Aristotle, Plato developed the foundations of his metaphysics and epistemology by studying the doctrines of Cratylus, and the work of Pythagoras and Parmenides. When Plato met Socrates, however, he had met his definitive teacher. As Socrates' disciple, Plato adopted his philosophy and style of debate, and directed his studies toward the question of virtue and the formation of a noble character.

Plato was in military service from 409 BC to 404 BC. When the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC he joined the Athenian oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants, one of whose leaders was his uncle Charmides. The violence of this group quickly prompted Plato to leave it. In 403 BC, when democracy was restored in Athens, he had hopes of pursuing his original goal of a political career. Socrates' execution in 399 BC had a profound effect on Plato, and was perhaps the final event that would convince him to leave Athenian politics forever.

Plato left Attica along with other friends of Socrates and traveled for the next twelve years. To all accounts it appears that he left Athens with Euclides for Megara, then went to visit Theodorus in Cyrene, moved on to study with the Pythagoreans in Italy, and finally to Egypt. During this period he studied the philosophy of his contemporaries, geometry, geology, astronomy and religion.

After 399 BC Plato began to write extensively. It is still up for debate whether he was writing before Socrates' death, and the order in which he wrote his major texts is also uncertain. However, most scholars agree to divide Plato's major work into three distinct groups. The first of these is known as the Socratic Dialogues because of how close he stays within the text to Socrates' teachings. They were probably written during the years of his travels between 399 and 387 BC. One of the texts in this group called the Apology seems to have been written shortly after Socrates' death. Other texts relegated to this group include the Crito, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Euthyphro, and Hippias Minor and Major.

Plato returned to Athens in 387 BC and, on land that had once belonged to Academos, he founded a school of learning which he called the Academy. Plato's school is often described at the first European university. Its curriculum offered subjects including astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, and philosophy. Plato hoped the Academy would provide a place where thinkers could work toward better government in the Grecian cities. He would preside over the Academy until his death.

The period from 387 to 361 BC is often called Plato's "middle" or transitional period. It is thought that he may have written the Meno, Euthydemus, Menexenus, Cratylus, Repuglic, Phaedrus, Syposium and Phaedo during this time. The major difference between these texts and his earlier works is that he tends toward grander metaphysical themes and begins to establish his own voice in philosophy. Socrates still has a presence, however, sometimes as a fictional character. In the Meno for example Plato writes of the Socratic idea that no one knowingly does wrong, and adds the new doctrine of recollection questioning whether virtue can be taught. In the Phaedo we are introduced to the Platonic doctrine of the Forms, in which Plato makes claims as to the immortality of the human soul. The middle dialogues also reveal Plato's method of hypothesis.

Plato's most influential work, The Republic, is also a part of his middle dialogues. It is a discussion of the virtues of justice, courage, wisdom, and moderation, of the individual and in society. It works with the central question of how to live a good life, asking what an ideal State would be like, and what defines a just individual. These lead to more questions regarding the education of citizens, how government should be formed, the nature of the soul, and the afterlife. The dialogue finishes by reviewing various forms of government and describing the ideal state, where only philosophers are fit to rule. The Republic covers almost every aspect of Plato's thought.

In 367 BC Plato was invited to be the personal tutor to Dionysus II, the new ruler of Syracuse. Plato accepted the invitation, but found on his arrival that the situation was not conducive for philosophy. He continued to teach the young ruler until 365 BC when Syracuse entered into war. Plato returned to Athens, and it was around this time that Plato's famous pupil Aristotle began to study at the Academy. In 361 BC Plato returned to Syracuse in response to a letter from Dion, the uncle and guardian of Dionysus II, begging him to come back. However, finding the situation even more unpleasant than his first visit, he returned to Athens almost as fast as he had come.

Back at the Academy, Plato probably spent the rest of his life writing and conversing. The way he ran the Academy and his ideas of what constitutes an educated individual have been a major influence to education theory. His work has also been influential in the areas of logic and legal philosophy. His beliefs on the importance of mathematics in education has had a lasting influence on the subject, and his insistence on accurate definitions and clear hypotheses formed the foundations for Euclid's system of mathematics.

His final years at the Academy may be the years when he wrote the "Later" dialogues, including the Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist,Statesmas,Timaeus,Critias,Philebus, and Laws. Socrates has been delegated a minor role in these texts. Plato uses these dialogues to take a closer look at his earlier metaphysical speculations. He discusses art, including dance, music, poetry, architecture and drama, and ethics in regards to immortality, the mind, and Realism. He also works with the philosophy of mathematics, politics and religion, covering such specifics as censorship, atheism, and pantheism. In the area of epistemology he discusses a priori knowledge and Rationalism. In his theory of Forms, Plato suggests that the world of ideas is constant and true, opposing it to the world we perceive through our senses, which is deceptive and changeable.

In 347 Plato died, leaving the Academy to his sister's son Speusippus. The Academy remained a model for institutions of higher learning until it was closed, in 529 CE, by the Emperor Justinian.

http://www.egs.edu/library/plato/biography/

[b]So[/b]crates

The most interesting and influential thinker in the fifth century was Socrates, whose dedication to careful reasoning transformed the entire enterprise. Since he sought genuine knowledge rather than mere victory over an opponent, Socrates employed the same logical tricks developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the pursuit of truth. Thus, his willingness to call everything into question and his determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of the nature of things make him the first clear exponent of critical philosophy.

Although he was well known during his own time for his conversational skills and public teaching, Socrates wrote nothing, so we are dependent upon his students (especially Xenophon and Plato) for any detailed knowledge of his methods and results. The trouble is that Plato was himself a philosopher who often injected his own theories into the dialogues he presented to the world as discussions between Socrates and other famous figures of the day. Nevertheless, it is usually assumed that at least the early dialogues of Plato provide a (fairly) accurate representation of Socrates himself.

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2d.htm

Aristo[b]tle[/b]

Born at Stagira in northern Greece, Aristotle was the most notable product of the educational program devised by Plato; he spent twenty years of his life studying at the Academy. When Plato died, Aristotle returned to his native Macedonia, where he is supposed to have participated in the education of Philip's son, Alexander (the Great). He came back to Athens with Alexander's approval in 335 and established his own school at the Lyceum, spending most of the rest of his life engaged there in research, teaching, and writing. His students acquired the name "peripatetics" from the master's habit of strolling about as he taught. Although the surviving works of Aristotle probably represent only a fragment of the whole, they include his investigations of an amazing range of subjects, from logic, philosophy, and ethics to physics, biology, psychology, politics, and rhetoric. Aristotle appears to have thought through his views as he wrote, returning to significant issues at different stages of his own development. The result is less a consistent system of thought than a complex record of Aristotle's thinking about many significant issues.

The aim of Aristotle's logical treatises (known collectively as the Organon) was to develop a universal method of reasoning by means of which it would be possible to learn everything there is to know about reality. Thus, the Categories proposes a scheme for the description of particular things in terms of their properties, states, and activities. On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics examine the nature of deductive inference, outlining the system of syllogistic reasoning from true propositions that later came to be known as categorical logic. Though not strictly one of the logical works, the Physics contributes to the universal method by distinguishing among the four causes which may be used to explain everything, with special concern for why things are the way they are and the apparent role of chance in the operation of the world. In other treatises, Aristotle applied this method, with its characteristic emphasis on teleological explanation, to astronomical and biological explorations of the natural world

In Metafusikh (Metaphysics) Aristotle tried to justify the entire enterprise by grounding it all in an abstract study of being qua being. Although Aristotle rejected the Platonic theory of forms, he defended his own vision of ultimate reality, including the eternal existence of substance. On The Soul uses the notion of a hylomorphic composite to provide a detailed account of the functions exhibited by living things—vegetable, animal, and human—and explains the use of sensation and reason to achieve genuine knowledge. That Aristotle was interested in more than a strictly scientific exploration of human nature is evident from the discussion of literary art (particularly tragedy) in Peri PoihtikhV (Poetics) and the methods of persuasion in the ‘RhtoreiaV (Rhetoric).

Aristotle made several efforts to explain how moral conduct contributes to the good life for human agents, including the Eqikh EudaimonhV (Eudemian Ethics) and the Magna Moralia, but the most complete surviving statement of his views on morality occurs in the Eqikh Nikomacoi (Nicomachean Ethics). There he considered the natural desire to achieve happiness, described the operation of human volition and moral deliberation, developed a theory of each virtue as the mean between vicious extremes, discussed the value of three kinds of friendship, and defended his conception of an ideal life of intellectual pursuit.

But on Aristotle's view, the lives of individual human beings are invariably linked together in a social context. In the Peri PoliV (Politics) he speculated about the origins of the state, described and assessed the relative merits of various types of government, and listed the obligations of the individual citizen. He may also have been the author of a model PoliteiaV Aqhnawn (Constitution of Athens), in which the abstract notion of constitutional government is applied to the concrete life of a particular society.

http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/aris.htm

Good-Morning Forum.

I am interested in discussing in this thread what may be learned of religious thought, strengths and weaknesses, by the ideas of great philosophers, starting with the three above.

Of the three greatest greek philosophers,Plato had most impact on christianity.


The greatest christian theologians SS Augustine and Thomas aquinas were highly influenced by his teachings

Religion is a philosophical approach to life alright.
FOR DUMMIES.

Real philosophers do not engage in 'religious superstitious' beliefs.

They use their BRAINS to ask questions and search for answers.

This actually does a fine job for me.

http://thebestidea..com/2009/11/ten-greatest-thinkers-of-all-time.html

Ten Greatest Thinkers of All Time
One of the great 20th century historians Will Durant, made in some of his assays rankings of what from his perspective were The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time. The essays are summed up in the book with the same name.



The book is a fun read, and is recommended as a reference for further study. Here I list his "Ten Greatest Thinkers of all Time". I think he is pretty close to a perfect list, but some of them might be more controversial than others - depending on your favorites:

Confucius
Plato
Aristotle
St. Thomas Aquinas
Copernicus
Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Isaac Newton
Voltaire
Immanuel Kant
Charles Darwin
The whole essay can be read under chapters published in a blog with entries for each person on the list here and here.

I'll come back with his list of The Greatest Ideas of all time.

I think you need to start with the father of them all.

Confucius!
Nothing confused about this dude at all.

chukwudi44: Of the three greatest greek philosophers,Plato had most impact on christianity.


The greatest christian theologians SS Augustine and Thomas aquinas were highly influenced by his teachings

Would that not be a contradiction?
If christianity is built on the teachings of jesus, who was god in flesh, then how could any other teaching from other non-divinely inspired mortals have had influence on christianity(the teachings of jesus/god)?

Sometime ago, in another thread, I suggested the idea that Jesus was most probably influenced by Buddhist teachings. The christians would not tolerate that idea.
Now you are claiming that the teachings of Plato influenced early christian thought.
That is a big revelation.
Would it be reasonable for me to say, in the same vein, that christianity is a branch of platonism, since it must have borrowed from platonist philosophy?

plaetton:

Would that not be a contradiction?
If christianity is built on the teachings of jesus, who was god in flesh, then how could any other teaching from other non-divinely inspired mortals have had influence on christianity(the teachings of jesus/god)?

Sometime ago, in another thread, I suggested the idea that Jesus was most probably influenced by Buddhist teachings. The christians would not tolerate that idea.
Now you are claiming that the teachings of Plato influenced early christian thought.
That is a big revelation.
Would it be reasonable for me to say, in the same vein, that christianity is a branch of platonism, since it must have borrowed from platonist philosophy?

What sort of contradiction could it be.Do you mean to tell me that christians have nothing to learn from the writings of atheists or people from other religions.No matter how we could disagree on religion,we could always find a common ground.Early christian apologists like st justin matyr resorted to philosopical arguments in several of his treatise.St Thomas Aquinas equally employed such tactics in proving the existence of God in his intellectuals squabbles with the atheists of his time

chukwudi44:

What sort of contradiction could it be.Do you mean to tell me that christians have nothing to learn from the writings of atheists or people from other religions.No matter how we could disagree on religion,we could always find a common ground.Early christian apologists like st justin matyr resorted to philosopical arguments in several of his treatise.St Thomas Aquinas equally employed such tactics in proving the existence of God in his intellectuals squabbles with the atheists of his time

Ya. But how exactly did the teachings of Plato have the most impact on christianity. Using your own words, Impact implies that it was or must have somehow fused into the body of christian thought.
If the message and teachings of Jesus was simple, straightforward and divine,what could the teachings of plato have added to it?.

The teachings of jesus, according to you christians,is superior and supercedes all mortal teachings and philosophies, and therefore could not be influenced or greatly impacted(your words) by any other. Not so?
Since Plato lived centuries before jesus, could jesus have also been influenced by platonic philosophy?

The field is called christian neoplatonism.it is not a regurgitation of all platonist teachings but rather the adoption of some platonic teachings in explaining certain christian beleifs

The field is called christian neoplatonism.it is not a regurgitation of all platonist teachings but rather the adoption of some platonic teachings in explaining certain christian beleifs

Mind you I did not say plato had the greatest impact on xtianity.what I wrote is that platonism had the greatest impact on xtianity. When compared to the works of aristotle and socrates

chukwudi44: The field is called christian neoplatonism.it is not a regurgitation of all platonist teachings but rather the adoption of some platonic teachings in explaining certain christian beleifs

I must say that is very interesting.
And I was made to believe, all this while, that the bible contained all that I needed to know about creation,life and our place in it.
Well, I learn something new everyday.

So , in other words, the early church fathers, using their own whims, determined that the teachings of jesus was insifficient and needed to be supplimented by neoplatonist thought.

But this is exactly what most non-christians argue:Mainly, that chriastianity is not a divinely crafted teachings of jesus, but an amalgam of ancient philosphies, traditions,rituals and beliefs .

How can you argue with that in light of your revelation?

plaetton:

I must say that is very interesting.
And I was made to believe, all this while, that the bible contained all that I needed to know about creation,life and our place in it.
Well, I learn something new everyday.

So , in other words, the early church fathers, using their own whims, determined that the teachings of jesus was insifficient and needed to be supplimented by neoplatonist thought.

But this is exactly what most non-christians argue:Mainly, that chriastianity is not a divinely crafted teachings of jesus, but an amalgam of ancient philosphies, traditions,rituals and beliefs .

How can you argue with that in light of your revelation?

Stop putting words into my mouth.I never told you that Jesus's teaching was not sufficient for teaching.

Plato's allegory of the cave can also be used to prove man's limited knowlege about celestial beings.Such a teaching can be used by a christian philosopher to show man's limited knowlwge about the nature of God since we only reason for what we see.That is the sort of platonism that was employed by the christian philosopers

chukwudi44:

Stop putting words into my mouth.I never told you that Jesus's teaching was not sufficient for teaching.

Plato's allegory of the cave can also be used to prove man's limited knowlege about celestial beings.Such a teaching can be used by a christian philosopher to show man's limited knowlwge about the nature of God since we only reason for what we see.That is the sort of platonism that was employed by the christian philosopers

HHHmmm!
Ok o. If you say so.

^^^^
I am just happy that you, a christian who knows his onions, agree that christianity contains or is infused with elements of some philosophical thought that do not emanate entirely from Jesus or his teachings.

Imagine how loud and how hard a non-christian would have to say the same, just to end up being ridiculed.