Plato: Life, Philosophy, and Impact on Justice
Plato (427-347 BC): A Philosophical Journey
Early Disillusionment: Plato’s initial hopes in aristocracy and Athenian democracy were dashed. He witnessed political turmoil, including the Tyranny of the Thirty, in which Charmides and Critias invited him to participate. Plato missed the previous political order. The fall of the tyranny briefly renewed his hopes, but he was soon disillusioned again when the restored democracy condemned his teacher, Socrates, to death for impiety.
Travels and the Founding of the Academia: After Socrates’ death, Plato sought refuge in Megara, meeting Euclid. He traveled to Egypt and southern Italy, encountering Pythagorean philosophy. Thanks to Anicérides’ generous donation, he founded the Academia, the first school of philosophy, bringing together a group of disciples.
Later Life and Legacy: At 77, Plato attempted to reconcile with Dionysus and realize his political ideal of a republic governed by philosophers. He returned to Athens to teach and died three years later.
The Importance of Justice
The unjust death of Socrates reinforced Plato’s belief in the necessity of true knowledge of justice to prevent arbitrariness and uphold integrity to oneself and one’s city.
Ethical Focus
Plato’s philosophy, like Socrates’, centers on ethics and practical concerns. The concept of justice as harmony in the soul and the city is central to Platonic thought.
The Quest for the Universal
Plato believed that realizing the ethical ideal requires continuous pursuit of universal knowledge. He developed a theory to explain how one can know the universal, or eidos, in a world of particulars.
Discovering Ideal Reality
The physical world perceived through the senses is not the only reality. True knowledge comes from understanding universal ideas, of which physical objects are mere reflections.
The Nature of Human Ideas
The soul embodies human ideals. Plato saw the perfect life as a path to rational and ethical perfection, grounded in the idea of the Good, aligning ontology with justice. Acting justly requires knowing the idea of justice itself.
The Role of Education
Plato assigned philosophers the task of guiding humans toward virtue and happiness.
The Myth of the Cave
The myth of the cave illustrates the importance of education in achieving human potential and the philosopher’s role in guiding others toward justice and the Good.
The Destiny of Life
The myth relates to human nature and the importance of education in guiding human life toward knowledge, happiness, and perfection. The human body belongs to the imperfect physical world, while the soul belongs to the perfect, intelligible world. The myth presents humans chained inside a cave, mistaking shadows for reality. The vocation is to escape the cave, enter the light, and know the true world. Happiness consists of living according to reality, the perfect, and the rational.
The Route to Knowledge
The human soul aspires to the intelligible, but the body is drawn to the sensory world and cannot ascend on its own. Overcoming the assurances of our beliefs and prejudices, which bind us, is difficult. Plato, through Socrates in Phaedo, suggests that complete release from prejudice can only be achieved with the soul’s definitive separation, namely, death.