PLATO PLATOS BACKGROUND 428 347 BCE 81 years

PLATO

PLATO’S BACKGROUND • 428 -347 BCE (81 years!) • Wealthy Athenian aristocratic family • Became a student of Socrates • Founded the Academy in 387 BCE • Met Aristotle in 367 BCE • His curriculum focused heavily on instruction in philosophy • He saw all other disciplines as inferior to philosophy • His teaching style favors spoken discourse over written • This echoes Socrates • Wrote several dialogues that feature Socrates Source: Bizzell and Herzberg, 16

MIMESIS • Imitation; the representation of imitation of the real world in a work of art, literature, etc. • Imitation of another person’s words, mannerisms, actions, etc. Source: The Oxford English Dictionary

PLATO’S FORMS • There is ONE universal form for everything • One universal form for a chair • One universal form for a leaf • One universal form for justice • One universal form for love • This universal form can be applied to many different things • There are several different chairs in this room, but they are all called chair because they all have something common in their resemblance to the form chair • Forms are hierarchical: ordered from best to worst • The philosopher’s job was to discover the true forms through study, questioning, and dialogue starting with the form of The Good Source: Honderich

PLATO’S WRITINGS • Apology (of Socrates) (399 BCE) • Phaedrus (360 BCE) • The Republic (380 BCE) Source: "Works by Plato. "

PLATO’S IDEAL STATE • Not a Democracy! • Ruled by a Philosopher King • Strong emphasis on moral and virtuous behavior • Citizens would learn to be moral and virtuous through their leader • Possibility for exile • Somethings were just banned: art, literature, music Source: Plato

WORKS CITED Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Herzberg. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. 2 nd ed. , Bedford/St. Martins, 1990. Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. The Oxford English Dictionary. Plato. Republic. Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. "Works by Plato. " The Internet Classics Archive, MIT, classics. mit. edu/Browse/browse -Plato. html. Accessed 23 July 2018.