Plato (: Republic Laws

Plato (/ˈpleɪtoʊ/;[a][1] Ancient Greek: Πλάτων[a] Plátōn, pronounced [plá.
tɔːn] in Classical Attic;

428/427 or 424/423[b] – 348/347 BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of
the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely
considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western
tradition.[2] Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire work is believed to
have survived intact for over 2,400 years.[3] Others believe that the oldest extant manuscript
dates to around AD 895, 1100 years after Plato's death. This makes it difficult to know exactly
what Plato wrote.[4][5]
Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the
foundations of Western philosophy and science.[6] Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest
general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of
footnotes to Plato."[7] In addition to being a foundational figure for Western science, philosophy,
and mathematics, Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western
religion and spirituality.[8]
Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. Plato appears
to have been the founder of Western political philosophy, with his Republic, and Laws among
other dialogues, providing some of the earliest extant treatments of political questions from a
philosophical perspective. Plato's own most decisive philosophical influences are usually thought
to have been Socrates, Parmenides, Heraclitusand Pythagoras, although few of his
predecessors' works remain extant and much of what we know about these figures today derives
from Plato himself.[9]
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. ... He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word
“philosopher” should be applied. But he was so self-conscious about how philosophy should be
conceived, and what its scope and ambitions properly are, and he so transformed the intellectual
currents with which he grappled, that the subject of philosophy, as it is often conceived—a
rigorous and systematic examination of ethical, political, metaphysical,
and epistemological issues, armed with a distinctive method—can be called his invention. Few
other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range: perhaps
only Aristotle (who studied with him), Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the
same rank
The exact time and place of Plato's birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an
aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that
he was born in Athens or Aegina[c] between 429 and 423 BC. His father was Ariston. According to
a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of
Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus.[11] Plato's mother was Perictione, whose
family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric
poet Solon.[12]Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of
the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the
end of the Peloponnesian War (404–403 BC).[13] Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione
had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a
daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his
philosophical Academy).[13] The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in
the Republic as sons of Ariston,[14] and presumably brothers of Plato, but some have argued they
were uncles.[15] But in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting
a Glaucon much younger than Plato.[16]
The traditional date of Plato's birth (428/427) is based on a dubious interpretation of Diogenes
Laertius, who says, "When [Socrates] was gone, [Plato] joined Cratylus the Heracleitean and
Hermogenes, who philosophized in the manner of Parmenides. Then, at twenty-eight,
Hermodorus says, [Plato] went to Euclides in Megara." As Debra Nails argues, "The text itself
gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very
opposite."[17] In his Seventh Letter, Plato notes that his coming of age coincided with the taking of
power by the Thirty, remarking, "But a youth under the age of twenty made himself a
laughingstock if he attempted to enter the political arena." Thus, Nails dates Plato's birth to
424/423.[18]
According to some accounts, Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed in his
purpose; then the god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and as a result, Ariston left Perictione
unmolested.[19] Another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips
while he was sleeping: an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about
philosophy.[20]
Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is
difficult.[21] Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother,[22] who had served many
times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the
democratic faction in Athens.[23] Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who
was famous for his beauty.[24] Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-
brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides.[25]
In contrast to reticence about himself, Plato often introduced his distinguished relatives into his
dialogues, or referred to them with some precision: Charmides has a dialogue named after him;
Critias speaks in both Charmides and Protagoras; and Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent
parts in the Republic.[26] These and other references suggest a considerable amount of family
pride and enable us to reconstruct Plato's family tree. According to Burnet, "the opening scene of
the Charmides is a glorification of the whole [family] connection ... Plato's dialogues are not only
a memorial to Socrates, but also the happier days of his own family."[27]

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Plato (/ˈpleɪtoʊ/;[a][1] Ancient Greek: Πλάτων[a] Plátōn, pronounced [plá.

tɔːn] in Classical Attic;

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