Kopspijkers # 12. Bert Vischer moet dood.

The son of wealthy and influential Athenian parents, Plato began his philosophical career as a student of Socrates. When the master died, Plato travelled to Egypt and Italy, studied with students of Pythagoras, and spent several years advising the ruling family of Syracuse. Eventually, he returned to Athens and established his own school of philosophy at the Academy. For students enrolled there, Plato tried both to pass on the heritage of a Socratic style of thinking and to guide their progress through mathematical learning to the achievement of abstract philosophical truth. The written dialogues on which his enduring reputation rests also serve both of these aims.

In his earliest literary efforts, Plato tried to convey the spirit of Socrates's teaching by presenting accurate reports of the master's conversational interactions, for which these dialogues are our primary source of information. Early dialogues are typically devoted to investigation of a single issue, about which a conclusive result is rarely achieved. Thus, the Euqufrwn (Euthyphro) raises a significant doubt about whether morally right action can be defined in terms of divine approval by pointing out a significant dilemma about any appeal to authority in defence of moral judgments. The Apologhma (Apology) offers a description of the philosophical life as Socrates presented it in his own defense before the Athenian jury. The Kritwn (Crito) uses the circumstances of Socrates's imprisonment to ask whether an individual citizen is ever justified in refusing to obey the state.

Although they continue to use the talkative Socrates as a fictional character, the middle dialogues of Plato develop, express, and defend his own, more firmly established, conclusions about central philosophical issues. Beginning with the Menwn (Meno), for example, Plato not only reports the Socratic notion that no one knowingly does wrong, but also introduces the doctrine of recollection in an attempt to discover whether or not virtue can be taught. The Faidwn (Phaedo) continues development of Platonic notions by presenting the doctrine of the Forms in support of a series of arguments that claim to demonstrate the immortality of the human soul.

The masterpiece among the middle dialogues is Plato's Politeia (Republic). It begins with a Socratic conversation about the nature of justice but proceeds directly to an extended discussion of the virtues (Gk. areth [aretê]) of justice (Gk. dikaiwsunh [dikaiôsunê]), wisdom (Gk. sofia [sophía]), courage (Gk. andreia [andreia]), and moderation (Gk. swfrosunh [sophrosúnê]) as they appear both in individual human beings and in society as a whole. This plan for the ideal society or person requires detailed accounts of human knowledge and of the kind of educational program by which it may be achieved by men and women alike, captured in a powerful image of the possibilities for human life in the allegory of the cave. The dialogue concludes with a review of various forms of government, an explicit description of the ideal state, in which only philosophers are fit to rule, and an attempt to show that justice is better than injustice. Among the other dialogues of this period are Plato's treatments of human emotion in general and of love in particular in the FaidroV (Phaedrus) and Sumposion (Symposium).

Plato's later writings often modify or completely abandon the formal structure of dialogue. They include a critical examination of the theory of forms in ParmenidhV (Parmenides), an extended discussion of the problem of knowledge in QeaithtoV (Theaetetus), cosmological speculations in TimaioV (Timaeus), and an interminable treatment of government in the unfinished LegeiV (Laws).


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Recommended Reading:
Primary sources:

Platonis opera, ed. by J. Burnet (Oxford, 1899-1906)
Plato, Complete Works, ed. by John M. Cooper and D. S Hutchinson (Hackett, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com}
The Collected Dialogues of Plato, ed. by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. (Princeton, 1961) {Order from Amazon.com}
Great Dialogues of Plato, tr. by W. H. D. Rouse (Signet, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com}
Plato, The Republic, tr. by G. M. Grube (Hackett, 1992) {Order from Amazon.com}
Plato, Laws
Secondary sources:

The Cambridge Companion to Plato, ed. by Richard Kraut (Cambridge, 1992) {Order from Amazon.com}
Bernard A. O. Williams, Plato (Routledge, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com}
R. M. Hare, Plato (Oxford, 1983) {Order from Amazon.com}
David Melling, Understanding Plato (Oxford, 1988) {Order from Amazon.com}
Feminist Interpretations of Plato, ed. by Nancy Tuana (Penn. State, 1994) {Order from Amazon.com}
Plato I: Metaphysics and Epistemology, ed. by Gregory Vlastos (Anchor, 1971)
Plato II: Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Art, Religion, ed. by Gregory Vlastos (Anchor, 1971) {Order from Amazon.com}
John M. Cooper, Reason and Emotion (Princeton, 1998) {Order from Amazon.com}
Nickolas Pappas, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the Republic (Routledge, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com}
Daryl H. Rice, Guide to Plato's Republic (Oxford, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com}
Plato's Republic: Critical Essays, ed. by Richard Kraut (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com}
Claudia Baracchi, Of Myth, Life, and War in Plato's Republic (Indiana, 2001) {Order from Amazon.com}
Nicholas White, Individual and Conflict in Greek Ethics (Oxford, 2002) {Order from Amazon.com}
Alexander Nehamas, Virtues of Authenticity (Princeton, 1998) {Order from Amazon.com}
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume XX, ed. by David Sedley (Oxford, 2001) {Order from Amazon.com}
Engendering Origins: Critical Feminist Readings in Plato and Aristotle, by Bat-Ami Bar On (SUNY, 1994) {Order from Amazon.com}
Plato's Timaeus as Cultural Icon, ed. by Gretchen J. Reydams-Schils (Notre Dame, 2002) {Order from Amazon.com}
John Sallis, Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's Timaeus (Indiana, 1999) {Order from Amazon.com}







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Additional on-line information about Plato includes:

* Exploring Plato's Dialogues, the fine source from Anthony F. Beavers.
Richard Hooker's excellent treatment.
A thorough explanation of Plato's philosophy from* Christopher S. Planeaux.
Articles in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on:
Plato by Richard Kraut.
Plato's middle period metaphysics and epistemology by Allan Silverman.
Plato's ethics by Dorothea Frede.
Plato on friendship and Eros by C. D. C. Reeve.
Plato's ethics and politics in The Republic by Eric Brown.
Plato on utopia by Chris Bobonich.
Plato on rhetoric and poetry by Charles Griswold.
Bernard Suzanne's alternative interpretation of Plato and his dialogues.
The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia at Bartleby.com.
William Turner's article in The Catholic Encyclopedia.
The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com.
Björn Christensson's brief guide to on-line work on Plato.
A literary analysis of Plato's work in The Perseus Encyclopedia.
Eric Weisstein's discussion at World of Scientific Biography.
Discussion of Plato's mathematical thought at Mathematical MacTutor.
Materials available at Bartleby.com.
The entry at Biography.com.