Plato On Justice
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Plato On Justice
Plato (428-347 BC) The Greek philosopher Plato was among the most important and
creative thinkers of the ancient world. His work set forth most of the important
problems and concepts of Western philosophy, psychology, logic, and politics,
and his influence has remained profound from ancient to modern times. Plato was
born in Athens in 428 BC. Both his parents were of distinguished Athenian
families, and his stepfather, an associate of Pericles, was an active
participant in the political and cultural life of Periclean Athens. Plato seems
as a young man to have been destined for an aristocratic political career. The
excesses of Athenian political life, however, both under the oligarchical rule
(404-403) of the so-called Thirty Tyrants and under the restored democracy, seem
to have led him to give up these ambitions. In particular, the execution (399)
of Socrates had a profound effect on his plans. The older philosopher was a
close friend of Plato's family, and Plato's writings attest to Socrates' great
influence on him. After Socrates' death Plato retired from active Athenian life
and traveled widely for a number of years. In 388 BC he journeyed to Italy and
Sicily, where he became the friend of Dionysius the Elder, ruler of Syracuse,
and his brother-in-law Dion. The following year he returned to Athens, where he
founded the Academy, an institution devoted to research and instruction in
philosophy and the sciences. Most of his life thereafter was spent in teaching
and guiding the activities of the Academy. When Dionysius died (367), Dion
invited Plato to return to Syracuse to undertake the philosophical education of
the new ruler, Dionysius the Younger. Plato went, perhaps with the hope of
founding the rule of a philosopher-king as envisioned in his work the Republic.
The visit, however, ended (366) in failure. In 361, Plato went to Syracuse
again. This visit proved even more disastrous, and he returned (360) to the
Academy. Plato died in 347 BC. Plato's published writings, of which apparently
all are preserved, consist of some 26 dramatic dialogues on philosophical and
related themes. The precise chronological ordering of the dialogues remains
unclear, but stylistic and thematic considerations suggest a rough division into
three periods. The earliest dialogues, begun after 399 BC, are seen by many
scholars as memorials to the life and teaching of Socrates. Three of them, the
Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, describe Socrates' conduct immedi...
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