4. A Brief Biography
• Plato was born around the
year 428 BCE in Athens.
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.
5. 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’s
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.
6. 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.
7. After 399 BC Plato began to write extensively. 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 to Socrates' teachings.
The period from 387 to 361 BC is often called Plato's "middle" or transitional
period. The major difference between these texts and his earlier works is that
he begins to establish his own voice in philosophy. 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. 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.
8. Plato 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.
9. It was around 365 BC
this time that Plato's
famous pupil Aristotle
began to study at the
Academy. 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.
11. Rhetorical Strategies
Allegory: a story in which the characters and
situations actually represent people and characters in
another context.
Dialogue: Asking questions that require simple
answers. Slowly, the questioning proceeds to elucidate
the answers to complex issues.
Clarity
Simplicity
Directness
13. THE TASK
In groups, draw a picture of Plato’s
Cave.
Label the significant aspects of the cave.
See pages 445-46
14.
15.
16. 1. Describe how the people in the cave are
situated in Plato's parable. Why can't they
move their legs or necks to take a look around?
What is the only thing they are capable of
seeing? What is their only source of light?
2. What do these prisoners trapped in the cave
believe is real?
3. How does the prisoner react when he first sees
sunlight? Why?
17. 4. What are the stages of the liberated
prisoner's experience outside the
cave?
5. What is the response of the
prisoners to the news of the man
who has escaped about the world
outside? Why?
6. Compare the perspective of the
freed prisoner with the cave
prisoners.
19. QUESTIONS
What is the How does the allegory
relationship between of the prisoners in the
Socrates and cave watching
Glaucon? Are they shadows on a wall
equal in intellectual relate to us today?
authority? Are the What shadows do we
concerned with the see, and how do they
same issues? distort our sense of
what is real?
20. QUESTIONS
Are we prisoners in If Plato is right that
the same sense that the material world is
Plato’s characters an illusion, how
are? would too great a
reliance on
materialism affect
ethical decisions?
21. QUESTIONS
What ethical In paragraph 49, Plato
questions are states that the virtue of
raised by wisdom “contains a
divine element.” What is
Plato’s
a divine element? What
Allegory? does this statement seem
to mean? Do you agree
with Plato?
22. QUESTIONS
What distinction What does Plato’s
does Plato make allegory of the cave
between the public tell us about how we
and the private? recognize the world?
Would you make
the same
distinctions (see
paras. 53-55)?
23. QUESTIONS
According to the What does the allegory
allegory, how do cave suggests about the
prisoners get free? process of
What does this suggest enlightenment or
about intellectual education?
freedom?
24. According to The Allegory of the
Cave, what is the main task of the
philosopher?
Who are the “guardians” or
philosopher-kings?
Why should philosopher-kings
rule? Do you agree?
26. HOMEWORK
• Read A World of Ideas:
• Virginia Woolf "Shakespeare’s
Sister" (761-776) )
• Post #31 Questions (TBD) for
Critical Reading: (page 776)
• Post #32 PASS
