About Plato

Plato (Greek: ∏ λ? τ ν, English: Plato, about 427 BC-347 BC) is not only the ancient Greek philosophy, but also one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers in all western philosophy and even the whole western culture.

His original name was Aristokles, but later he was renamed Plato because of his strong body and broad forehead (in Greek, Platus means "flat and broad"). Ranked fourth in the family. Plato was nicknamed by his PE teacher.

He was born in Athens. After his parents were noble families, he received a complete education since childhood. In his early years, he loved literature, wrote poems and tragedies, and was interested in politics. After associating with Socrates around the age of 2, he was fascinated by philosophical research. In 399 BC, Socrates was tried and sentenced to death, which made him completely disappointed with the existing political system. The death of his teacher dealt a heavy blow to Plato. Like his own teacher, he opposed democratic politics and thought that a person should do what is consistent with his status. Farmers only care about farming, craftsmen only care about work, businessmen only care about business, and civilians can't participate in state affairs. Socrates' death deepened his prejudice against the civilian regime. He said, if we want to make a pair of shoes, we need to find a person with good skills, and if we get sick, we need to find a good doctor. Isn't it absurd to bid for such an important event as governing the country to anyone?

Plato didn't want to stay in Athens after his teacher died. From the age of 28 to 4, he has been roaming overseas, and has been to Egypt, Italy, Sicily and other places. He has been inspecting and propagating his political views. In 388 BC, he went to the ancient city of Syrah in Sicily, trying to persuade the rulers to establish an ideal country managed by philosophers, but his goal was not achieved. Unfortunately, he was sold as a slave on his way back, and his friends spent a lot of money to redeem him.

Plato returned to Athens in 387 BC, and founded his own school-Academie (or "Academie") near a garden and sports ground in the northwest corner of the city to commemorate the Greek hero Akkademu. The name of the Academy is related to the address of the Academy, and the location of the Academy is related to the legendary Greek hero Academus, hence its name. This is the earliest institution of higher learning in the West, hence the name of the later academic institution (Academy), which is the predecessor of universities developed in the West in the Middle Ages. The Academy existed for more than 9 years until it was closed by Justinian the Great in 529 AD. The Academy is greatly influenced by Pythagoras, and its curriculum is similar to the traditional topics of Pythagoras School, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and acoustics.

In 367 BC, Plato traveled again. At this time, the Academy had been established for more than 2 years. He went to Sicily twice in an attempt to realize his political ambitions and put his ideas into practice, but was forcibly exiled. He returned to Athens in 36 BC and continued to give lectures and write in the Academy. Until 347 BC, Plato died at the age of 8.

Plato was a student of Socrates and Aristotle was a student of Plato, who had a profound influence on ancient Greece and later western thought and civilization.

Plato's main works

Plato was quick-witted, studied extensively and wrote a lot. There are more than 4 books and 13 letters handed down in his name. Plato's main philosophical thoughts are recorded in the form of dialogue. In Plato's dialogues, there are many conversations in the name of Socrates, so it is difficult to distinguish between Socrates' thoughts and Plato's thoughts. After painstaking and meticulous textual research by later generations of scholars, 24 letters and 4 letters were identified as authentic. There are mainly:

I Epicurus, Socrates' Pleadings, Cleopatra, Phaedo

II, Ketilas, Tyatedes, Wise Man, Politician

III, Parmenides, Philippas and Dinner.

most of Plato's works are written in dialogue genre, with distinctive characters, vivid and interesting scenes, beautiful and gorgeous language, rigorous and meticulous argumentation and rich and profound content, which has achieved a high degree of unity between philosophy and literature, logic and rhetoric, and has extremely important significance and value not only in philosophy but also in literature.

Plato's thought

Plato believes that any philosophy must include a theory about nature and the universe if it is to be universal. Plato tried to grasp the eternal truth about individuals and nature, so he developed a natural philosophy that was suitable for and subordinate to his political and theological views.

Plato believes that tangible things in nature are fluid, but the "form" or "idea" that constitutes these tangible things is eternal. Plato pointed out that when we say "horse", we don't mean any horse, but any kind of horse. The meaning of "horse" itself is independent of all kinds of horses ("tangible"), and it does not exist in space and time, so it is eternal. But a specific, tangible horse that exists in the sensory world is "mobile" and will die and rot. This can be used as a preliminary explanation of Plato's theory of ideas.

Plato believes that it is impossible for us to have a real understanding of those changing and flowing things. We only have opinions or opinions about them, and the only things we can really understand are those "forms" or "ideas" that we can use our reason to understand. Therefore, Plato believes that knowledge is fixed and certain, and there can be no wrong knowledge. But opinions may be wrong.

Plato's Cave Metaphor In Plato's Republic, there is such a famous cave metaphor to explain idealism: A group of prisoners are in a cave, their hands and feet are tied, and their bodies can't turn around, so they can only turn their backs on the hole. There is a white wall in front of them, and a fire is burning behind them. On that white wall, they saw the shadow of themselves and the things between them and the fire. Because they couldn't see anything else, the prisoners would think that the shadow was the real thing. Finally, a man broke free from the shackles and groped his way out of the hole. He saw the real thing for the first time. He went back to the cave and tried to explain to others that those shadows were just illusory things and showed them the bright way. But for those prisoners, the man seemed to be more stupid than before he escaped, and declared to him that there was nothing in the world except the shadow on the wall.

Plato uses this story to tell us that "form" is actually the real thing under the sunshine, and what our sensory world can feel is just the shadow on the white wall. Our nature is dark and monotonous compared with the bright world of reason. People who don't understand philosophy can only see those shadows, while philosophers see external things in the sunshine of truth.

Plato's Republic also painted us an ideal utopia. Plato believed that the country should be ruled by philosophers. The citizens in Plato's ideal country are divided into three classes: patriots, soldiers and ordinary people. Defenders of the country are a few elites who manage the country. They can be inherited, but excellent children from other classes can also be trained as patriots, and the descendants of patriots may also be reduced to the class of ordinary people. The task of defending the country is to supervise the formulation and implementation of the code. Plato has a complete set of theories to achieve this goal. His utopia requires everyone to have his special function in society to meet the overall needs of society. But in this country, women and men have the same rights and there is complete sexual equality. The government can lie when it is in the public interest. Everyone should do his own thing and should not disturb others. Today, Plato's utopia is a terrible totalitarian country. But "the ideal country is actually the view of scientists who manage the country in the right way", Plato himself did not try to realize the state machine in the ideal country.

Plato pointed out in The Laws that a "constitutional country" is the best country after an ideal country. He also pointed out in the book that women and men should receive the same respect and training.

Plato tried to make astronomy a branch of mathematics. He believes: "Astronomy, like geometry, can be studied by asking and solving problems, regardless of the celestial boundaries." Plato thought that the beginning of the universe was an indistinguishable chaos. The development of this chaos is the result of the activities of a supernatural god. According to Plato, the universe has changed from chaos to order, and its most important feature is that the creator has formulated a rational plan for the world; The mechanical process of putting this scheme into practice is a natural event that is taken for granted.

Plato's cosmology is basically a mathematical cosmology. He imagined that there were two kinds of right triangles at the beginning of the universe, one was half of a square and the other was half of an equilateral triangle. From these triangles, four kinds of regular polyhedrons are reasonably produced, which constitute particles of four elements. Fire particles are regular tetrahedrons, gas particles are regular octahedrons, water particles are regular icosahedrons, and soil particles are cubes. The fifth regular polyhedron is a dodecahedron formed by a regular pentagon, which is the fifth element that makes up the matter in the sky and is called ether. The whole universe is a sphere, because the sphere is symmetrical and perfect, and any point on the sphere is the same. The universe is also alive and moving, and there is a soul that fills all the space. The motion of the universe is a circular motion, because circular motion is the most perfect and does not need hands or feet to push it. The quantity of each of the four elements in the universe is as follows: the ratio of fire to gas is equal to the ratio of gas to water and the ratio of water to soil. Everything can be named by a number, which is the proportion of the elements they contain.

Plato's position in the west

Compared with his student Aristotle, Plato got more respect and attention in the west. Because his works are the foundation documents of western culture. Among the schools of western philosophy, it is difficult to find one that has not absorbed his works. In later philosophers and Christian theology, Plato's thought maintained great radiation. Some historians of philosophy believe that it was not until modern times that western philosophy gradually got rid of the control of Plato's thought.

Before the 12th century, Aristotle's theory was rejected by the Holy See, and even Aristotle's works were no longer circulated in Europe. At that time, Plato's theory was dominant, because St. Augustine borrowed and transformed Plato's thought to serve theological teachings. Until the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas used Aristotle's theory to explain religious teachings and established a cumbersome and huge scholasticism. Aristotle was re-valued.

Plato in China

Plato's theory of ideas was regarded as idealistic by the Chinese people after 1949. However, his enlightenment to western philosophy is generally recognized and respected because of his outstanding personality.

what exactly is "platonic love"?

Plato and Aristotle were the most influential philosophers in ancient Greece, and among them, Plato had a great influence on future generations. Plato wrote a book in the mouth of his teacher Socrates, saying that when the mind abandons the body and yearns for the truth, then the thought is the best. When the soul is infected by the sin of the body, people's desire to pursue truth will not be satisfied.

In Europe, there has long been Platonic love called "spiritual love" by China people. This kind of love thinks that the combination of flesh is impure and dirty, and that love and lust are two opposite states. Therefore, when a person is really in love, it is completely impossible for him to think of physically combining with the object he loves.

In people's eyes today, Plato's view of love is incredible. An American scholar, on the other hand, has put forward a new view of Plato's love as understood by modern people. Ira·reiss, the president of the East-West Social Society of the United States and the author of The American Family System, believes that the spiritual love advocated by Plato actually refers to a kind of love between the same sex, that is, "homosexuality"! The ancient Greeks believed that the process of homosexuality was more spiritual communication and spiritual communication than physical communication. In ancient Greek society, where women received little education, it was difficult for men to find spiritual opponents from women. This is why Plato emphasized the love between men. Plato firmly believes that "true" love is a persistent emotion, and only time is the touchstone of love, and only extraordinary love can stand the test of time.

American sociologists also have different opinions on whether "Platonic love" is "pure love" with only spiritual intercourse, or elegant love with physical intercourse but emphasis on spiritual intercourse. But one thing is certain, that is, Plato believes that love can make people sublimate. He said that for a man who lives a noble life, it is not blood, honor, wealth, but love that guides his behavior. There is no emotion in the world so deeply rooted in people's hearts as love. If a person who is in love makes an ignominious behavior and is seen by his father, friends or anyone else, he will not be as pale as his lover.

love is undoubtedly the power to make people good and upward.