Plato’s questions remain as real for us today as they were 2500 years ago, and as human beings, we can not avoid their presence nor shirk our responsibility to attempt to answer them:
- What is Justice?
- What is Truth?
- What is Beauty?
- What kind of society should we build?
- How do we know what we know?
Plato For Beginners also covers the history of Greece as well as the life and ideas of this great philosopher and his influence over time, from early Christianity to the 20th Century. The reader learns what he meant by Truth, Beauty, and the Good. Classical dialogues such as Symposium, Phaedo, The Apology, and The Republic are all explored in the context of his time and our own.
Plato’s questions remain as real for us today as they were 2500 years ago, and as human beings, we can not avoid their presence nor shirk our responsibility to attempt to answer them:
- What is Justice?
- What is Truth?
- What is Beauty?
- What kind of society should we build?
- How do we know what we know?
Plato For Beginners also covers the history of Greece as well as the life and ideas of this great philosopher and his influence over time, from early Christianity to the 20th Century. The reader learns what he meant by Truth, Beauty, and the Good. Classical dialogues such as Symposium, Phaedo, The Apology, and The Republic are all explored in the context of his time and our own.
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Overview
Plato’s questions remain as real for us today as they were 2500 years ago, and as human beings, we can not avoid their presence nor shirk our responsibility to attempt to answer them:
- What is Justice?
- What is Truth?
- What is Beauty?
- What kind of society should we build?
- How do we know what we know?
Plato For Beginners also covers the history of Greece as well as the life and ideas of this great philosopher and his influence over time, from early Christianity to the 20th Century. The reader learns what he meant by Truth, Beauty, and the Good. Classical dialogues such as Symposium, Phaedo, The Apology, and The Republic are all explored in the context of his time and our own.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781939994189 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | For Beginners |
| Publication date: | 08/21/2007 |
| Series: | For Beginners |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 22 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
PLATO FOR BEGINNERS
By Robert Cavalier, Eric Lurio
For Beginners LLC
Copyright © 1998 Robert CavalierAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-939994-18-9
CHAPTER 1
WHO WAS PLATO?
First of all, Plato was not a god or a superman. —He was a man. —All men are mortal. — Therefore, Plato was a mortal. Flesh and blood, and let's not forget it!
More specifically, Plato was a philosopher — perhaps the greatest the world has ever known.
—Someone who deals with philosophy (a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom"). So why should we care about wisdom? In answer to that question, Aristotle, a student of Plato, once said:
"The wise man is to the ignorant as the living is to the dead."
What Does that Mean?
It means that understanding the world, ourselves, and how we know what we know ... makes our lives deeper, more meaningful — basically, BETTER!
Besides, as a species we seem to have a need to ask ...
Plato's approach to this question — and the answers he arrived at — changed the way we think about the world and our place within it.
Plato's influence has been so great that a prominent modern philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, once declared:
"The safest general characterization of the whole Western philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."
Plato was the first to write about many of the things we today take for granted:
What is truth? Justice? Beauty?
(And asking "What's it all about?" was part of the Greek way.)
Plato's answers to these and many other questions had a profound effect on the future of:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
CHAPTER 2HISTORY OF GREECE
OUR STORY BEGINS LONG, LONG AGO IN A CIVILIZATION FAR, FAR AWAY ...
Today, we tend to think of Greek art and culture as "Classical." By that we mean cool, clean lines, white marble sculpture, tapering columns — grace and restraint. In reality, Greek buildings and statues were painted in bright, garish colors.
The paint wore off over time, thus leaving us with the wrong impression. The Greeks, as we know from their writing, were actually a people torn between reason and madness, freedom and slavery, war and peace, life and death.
In the year 428 B.C., Plato was born into this world — the center of which was the important city-state ("polis") of Athens. High above the walls encircling the city was the Acropolis — the temples built to honor the gods. Foremost of all was the goddess Athena, protectress of the city. The embodiment of strength in peace, Athena ruled over this cradle of philosophy.
Athens was one of the oldest city-states in Greece. Its foundation is lost in the mists of pre-history. But by Plato's time, it had grown into the richest, most populous Greek city. Its central location and access to the sea made it the commercial and cultural center of Hellas, the Greek world.
Greece was poor in natural resources. It was dry, with few rivers. The soil was great for growing olives and grapes, but other crops grew with difficulty. The land was cut up by mountain ranges and divided by water, especially the Peloponese and the islands of the Aegean.
This physical situation encouraged the growth of small self-sufficient city-states. All shared a common language and basic culture, but sometimes little else. In fact, the Greeks seemed to enjoy fighting each other more than anyone else.
Politically, Greek city-states were organized in one of three ways:
AUTOCRACY— rule by one, king or tyrant
OLIGARCHY— rule by the few, the noble and the rich
DEMOCRACY— rule by the many, or the people as a whole
Athens was known as the birthplace of democracy. In reality, it was a three-tiered society.
The first tier consisted of all the male citizens, ranging from wealthy landowners to merchants and even including poor laborers.
The second tier consisted of free women and resident foreigners.
The third tier consisted of the large slave population.
Only the male citizens could vote in the Assembly and hold positions in the Council, which governed the city-state.
The political evolution of Athens went through many stages. At first, it was a primitive monarchy led by hereditary kings. Then, the land-owning aristocrats assumed control. The earliest experiments in democracy were the reforms of Solon, which failed because of imbalances of power and clan rivalries. They were followed by an oligarchy in which power was based on wealth. Tyrants, whose authority was based on military force, eventually seized power. They were able to rule by playing the poor against the rich.
Finally, in 510 B.C., the last tyrant, Hippias, was banished. Democracy was re-established on a sounder footing when Cleisthenes, a popular leader, called the people into a reorganized assembly.
Athenian democracy got its first real test during the Persian Wars (ca. 500-450 B.C.). In the year 480 B.C., Xerxes, the Persian king, actually succeeded in burning Athens. But the valor of the Athenian navy — manned by free citizens — destroyed the Persian forces at the battle of Salamis.
After the war, the city was rebuilt under Pericles. But this took money. The Athenians raised the necessary funds in an age-old way....
Former allies were squeezed dry. The common treasury on the holy island of Delos was looted. What had been a defensive federation of the Greeks quickly became an Athenian empire.
Then, for what may have seemed like no reason at all, a small squabble between two Greek towns erupted into a major power confrontation between Athens and her arch-rival Sparta.
Athens' former colonies quickly defected. Spartan troops marched north and actually camped just outside the city. The Athenians, for their part, were content to sit behind their protective walls and fight by sea.
As a result of the plague, Pericles and many other leaders died. The city gratefully accepted a cease-fire. It was in that year that Plato came into the world.
Plato was born into one of Athens' oldest and most aristocratic families. Boys of his class were generally educated at home by tutors. Their studies included learning to write on tablets, reading the books of Homer, and playing music. Other lessons were taught in the gymnasium. Here a boy learned to develop his body through exercise and sport. Not only would this training build character, but it would also prepare young men for military service in defense of their city-state.
CHAPTER 3THE LIFE OF SOCRATES
Who was Socrates? We know that he was born sometime in the year 469 or 470 B.C., and that he might have been the son of a midwife and a laborer. He claimed at one-time that he could trace his ancestry back to the mythic sculptor Dædalus.
We also know that Socrates never wrote down a word of philosophy in his life. What we know of his character and his thought comes from the writing of two of his students — Plato and Xenophon. Both men wrote their accounts years after the death of their mentor. Yet there can be no doubt that Socrates, more than any other man who ever lived, changed the face of philosophy forever.
And he also has to receive high marks for being one of the greatest troublemakers and busybodies in all recorded history.
It's only human nature to wonder about our origins and our place in the universe. In ancient civilizations the answer to this question had always turned around religion and fate. Gods and goddesses were responsible for the creation of the universe and often took a hand in the lives of mortals.
But in the Greek world, people began to wonder if forces other than the mysterious gods has a role in the universe. Various thinkers tried to understand the universe in purely material terms. They were called the PHYSICALISTS. In many ways they were the forerunners of today's scientists.
An important philosopher named Demosthenes simplified things. Everything, he declared, was made from tiny bits of indestructible matter bumping into each other and sticking together. He called these invisible particles "atoms."
As for Socrates, he seems to have been born curious. As a youth, he was attracted to the ideas of the Physicalists. But eventually he turned his attention away from natural science toward the problems of everyday life. Here he encountered the Sophists. These were relativists and skeptics who claimed that the only important thing in life was to get what you want — and the only way to get it was to persuade others to give it to you.
He also saw the absurdity of a position that argued that judgments about right and wrong are relative to the individual.
When a person is ill, do you hold the physician's opinion on par with the carpenter's; and when a house is to be built, do you go to a physician or to a carpenter? It seems that we DO recognize that some people have a knowledge in these matters and others don't. Why not also in moral and political matters?
Socrates believed that a knowledge of goodness, justice, beauty, and so forth was indeed possible. In fact, such a knowledge was necessary before we act (we should KNOW justice before we practice politics).
Beyond this, Socrates held the view that if we did KNOW what, for instance, "justice" really is, then we would actually BE just. People only do wrong things because they are ignorant of what the right thing really is! (One would never choose the lesser over the better.)
So it became of the utmost importance for Socrates to discover what the good life really was. He was not concerned with the nature of the universe (like the Physicalists), and he was not concerned with merely winning the argument (like the Sophists). Rather, he was concerned with human matters and with finding out the truth of those matters.
One day, around 460 B.C., the great philosopher Parmenides came to town accompanied by his pupil Zeno. Pamenides impressed Socrates with the idea of Permanence. Reality, Parmenides argued, is Unchanging.
Zeno supported his mentor's position by reducing to absurdity any assertion that motion and change really do exist.
Socrates took this method of refutation and used it in his quest for the truth. An example of it is found in Plato's Gorgias: If you say that Goodness and Pleasure are the same, then is the person who is enjoying scratching his head also a person who is living the good life? And what of "bad pleasures" (like the tyrant who enjoys killing)? If the action gives him pleasure, is it therefore good?
To this method of refutation Socrates added a search for definition.
An example of this is found in Plato's Euthyphro:
In searching for the definition of piety, Euthyphro suggests that piety is, for example, doing what Zeus does. Socrates objects by saying that we need to know WHAT PIETY IS before we can say that the things Zeus does (for instance, his rape of maidens) are indeed pious.
Socrates developed a passion for this stuff. He'd carry on a conversation with anyone and everyone. But this is not the only unique aspect of Socrates' life ...
Socrates' style and character made him one of the most interesting men in town. Short and stout, with bulging eyes and a pug nose, he made quite a sight. We hear of him "staring with wide open eyes, as his custom was," "glancing up with head lowered like a bull," and "casting his eyes sidelong."
He could not only out talk and out think everyone, he could also out fight and out drink them as well.
Socrates attracted the aristocratic youth of Athens (Plato's uncle, Critias, was among the followers). It was great fun to watch Socrates in action.
Pompous people were often put in their place by Socrates' relentless questioning. And kids could go home and try out some of these "Socratic" arguments on their bewildered parents.
Socrates quickly became the hit of the agora. All sorts of people flocked to hear him.
Word had it that his daimon, or protecting spirit, specifically prevented him from doing or saying anything wrong.
One day a sickly friend of Socrates', named Chairephon, made a journey to the Delphic Oracle — one of the most sacred temples in all of Greece. After being purified, he asked the priests to deliver to the Oracle the question: "Who was the wisest of all mortals?" The Oracle went into a trance and, speaking for the god Apollo, proclaimed:
"No one is wiser than Socrates."
Shocked and confused by the saying (he thought himself "most ignorant"), Socrates made a determined effort to find someone wiser than himself.
Although he had no trouble finding people who claimed to be wise, none could actually prove their wisdom under questioning.
It began to dawn on Socrates— "I am wiser than they in this small respect: that I know that I do not know, whereas they think they know something when they really don't."
The solution to the riddle of the Oracle is found in the dual notion of Socratic Ignorance and Socratic Wisdom.
The Ignorance is a not-knowing in the sphere of values (justice, goodness, etc.).
The Wisdom is an awareness of the ignorance.
What separated Socrates from all the others was simply the fact the he was aware of his ignorance, while they were ignorant of their ignorance. In this respect, Socrates was the "wisest" among them all.
But throughout all this, the Peloponnesian War raged on — and Socrates was in the thick of it ...
In 424 B.C., Socrates, fighting as a foot soldier, showed great courage during the Athenian defeat at Delium.
In 415 B.C., Athens saw an opportunity to expand its empire to include the Italian city of Syracuse.
A great expedition was formed under the leadership of Nicias and Alcibiades.
During the "Peace of Nicias," Athens turned her attention to tightening control of her empire. Any rebellion was harshly dealt with. For example, in the "dialogue with Melos," the generals argued that because they were stronger, they were right.
Shortly before the departure of the invading force, a sacrilege was committed (the destruction of several hermes — sacred roadside markers). When the ships had already set sail, people began to suspect that Alcibaides, in a drunken revelry, had made fun of the mystery religions and had been responsible for the broken hermes. He was recalled from the expedition, but he fled instead to Sparta (where he was welcomed until he seduced the king's wife).
Syracuse proved stronger than thought — and eventually Sparta (with Alcibiades' advice) became involved. By 413 B.C., Nicias was about to retreat when an eclipse of the moon made him think otherwise. His superstition proved fatal — the Athenians were defeated (they lost over 200 ships and 10,000 men). No one returned from the expedition — the Athenians only heard of the defeat through a conversation someone had while getting a haircut.
The defeat emboldened the colonies to revolt and Sparta to resume hostilities.
Sparta held a fort just outside Athens (Plato was now in the cavalry and was probably harassing the Spartan forces there). The instability at this time made it possible for the conservative oligarchs to rise to power. Once in power (411 B.C.), they became known as the Four Hundred. They were soon overthrown, however, when a collaboration with the Spartans was uncovered. In that same year democracy was restored.
A demagogue, Cleophon, roused the people in the false hope that Athens could once again regain its greatness. Revenge against political opponents and the old hatred of Sparta were stirred up.
In 406 B.C., however, Athens suffered a serious setback at Notium. In the winter of that year, the Athenian fleet gained a hard-won victory near Mytilene. However, severe winds and possibly negligent leadership prevented the rescue of many Athenian sailors from the wreckage.
When news of this reached Athens, a great public outcry demanded that the generals be tried and executed as a group.
It so happened that on that day Socrates was in charge of the Council, which essentially governed the city.
In preparing the business for the Assembly, he refused to go against the Athenian law that forbade mass trials. He bravely stood up against the mob in the Council of 500.
However, he was outmaneuvered, and the generals were soon tried and executed.
In 405 B.C., most of Athens' remaining soldiers found themselves and their fleet in the north near the Hellespont.
It was there that they met a great Spartan force, and within a week 170 ships were sunk and over 4,000 soldiers slain.
In the spring of 404 B.C., Athens surrendered.
The terms of surrender involved the loss of the Athenian empire and the destruction of the City walls.
The Spartans set up a Spartan governor and filled the Athenian Council with conservatives of oligarchial leanings.
On top of this, a special supreme governing body of thirty pro-Spartan oligarchs was established. Their leader, Critias, was Plato's uncle and a former follower of Socrates. (Plato remembered these days in his Seventh Letter.)
At first, Plato was pleased to see his uncle Critias take control. He hoped that the leaders would restore order after years of "mob rule" (participatory democracy).
But they soon became known as the Thirty Tyrants, and they ruled the City with terror for over a year (c. 404—403 B.C.). Many prominent citizens and resident foreigners were killed or forced into exile.
Plato became an unwilling associate of the regime.
Critias was bravely chastised by Socrates for his outrageous actions. The tyrant responded with threats.
To legitimize their murders, the Thirty Tyrants often summoned citizens to perform the duties of arrest.
One day Critias ordered Socrates and four others to arrest Leon of Salamis. Socrates refused to arrest an innocent man unjustly.
In spite of the danger to his life, Socrates returned quietly home.
Soon a revolt broke out against the Thirty Tyrants. The leaders of the democratic forces included a man called Anytus.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from PLATO FOR BEGINNERS by Robert Cavalier, Eric Lurio. Copyright © 1998 Robert Cavalier. Excerpted by permission of For Beginners LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Who was Plato?,History of Greece,
The Greek City-State — The Persian Wars — The War between Athens and Sparta — The Birth of Plato,
The life of Socrates,
The Physicalists — The Sophists — Parmenides — Socratic Method — The Delphic Oracle — The Clouds — Socrates Defends the Ten Generals — Defeat of Athens — Critias and the Thirty Tyrants — The Trial and Death of Socrates,
Plato After the Death of Socrates,
The Early Dialogues—The Theory of Forms,
The Path of Knowledge,
The Theaetetus — The Sophist,
Plato's First Trip to Italy,
The Pythagoreans — The Court of Dionysius —Pirates— Founding of the Academy,
The Path of Love,
The Phaedrus — The Symposium,
The Divided Line and the Image of the Cave,
The Republic,
Plato's Second Trip to Italy,
The Seventh Letter — Dion and the Younger Dionysius — Political Intrigues — Plato leaves Syracuse,
Plato's Cosmology,
The Timaeus,
Plato's Last Work,
The Laws,
Plato and Aristotle,