Plato and His Great Philosophy

Maeve Jones                                                                                                                       #2

Rhetoric 1

Plato and his great philosophy

    Plato was a great philosopher who was also the founder of the Academy in Athens, which was the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato's teacher was the well known philosopher, Socrates, and his student was Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great. Together the three philosophers laid down the foundations of Western philosophy and science. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Plato as "one of the most dazzling writers in the Western literary tradition and one of the most penetrating, wide-ranging, and influential authors in the history of philosophy."

    Plato had interests in art, literature, militarism, epistemology, politics, and education. Little is known of Plato's early life due to minimal records but what is known is that he was a modest but bright young boy who came from a aristocratic and influential family. He was said to have been born around 428/427 or 424/423 BC and in the city of Athens or Aegina. Plato was born to Ariston and Perictione, whose family always bragged and boasted about ties with the Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet, Solon. Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, who were both prominent figures in Ancient Greece.

     Plato was said to have traveled to Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene. He was said to have returned back home to Athens, Greece at the age of 40 where he then created one of the first organized schools in the western civilization and dubbed it Academus. The Academy operated until it was destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BCE. In the 5th century Neoplantonists restored it to its former glory and it remained open until AD 529.

       In Plato's later life he became entangled in politics and visited many places. One such place almost caused his death but instead simply put him into slavery. Plato was enslaved by the tyran,t Dionysius, who's brother was Plato's disciple. Luckily someone who knew Plato bought him soon after he was sold and sent him home. Plato died at the fortunate age of 80 and that was incredibly fortunate since most men died around the age of 30.