2023年7月27日发(作者：)

Plato

The exact place and time of Plato's birth are not known, 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 between 429 and 423 BC. His father was Ariston. Plato's

mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the

famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. Besides Plato himself,

Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons,

Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone. The traditional date of

Plato's birth is 428/427. Plato's father appears to have died in Plato's

childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. Perictione

then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother, 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.

Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind

and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard

work and love of study". Plato must have been instructed in grammar,

music, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time.

Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian

games. Plato had also attended courses of philosophy; before meeting

Socrates, he first became acquainted with Cratylus (a disciple of Heraclitus, a prominent pre-Socratic Greek philosopher) and the

Heraclitean doctrines.

In Plato’s later life, he may have traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and

Cyrene. Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded

one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a

plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus. The Academy was

"a large enclosure of ground that was once the property of a citizen at

Athens named Academus. The Academy operated until it was destroyed

by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BC. Neoplatonists revived the Academy

in the early 5th century, and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed

by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of

Christianity. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most

prominent one being Aristotle.

Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of the

city of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato initially visited

Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysus. During this first trip

Dionysus's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's

disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato was sold into

slavery and almost faced death in Cyrene, a city at war with Athens,

before an admirer bought Plato's freedom and sent him home. After

Dionysius's death, according to Plato's Seventh Letter, Dion requested

Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysus II and guide him to become a philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but he

became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysus expelled Dion and kept

Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return

to overthrow Dionysus and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being

usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

A variety of sources have given accounts of Plato's death. One story,

based on a mutilated manuscript, suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a

young Thracian girl played the flute to him. Another tradition suggests

Plato died at a wedding feast. The account is based on Diogenes

Laertius's reference to an account by Hermippus, a third century

Alexandrian. According to Tertullian, Plato simply died in his sleep.

Unlike his beloved mentor Socrates, who wrote nothing, Plato was a

prolific writer. He produced more than two dozen dialogues that cover

nearly every topic. Their impact upon Western thought has been so great

that the twentieth-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead called the

entire history of Western philosophy “a series of footnotes to Plato.”

Nowadays, more and more people admire Plato. Plato is Classical Greek

philosopher. The most important matters in Plato's philosophy are: first,

his Utopia, which was the earliest of a long series; second, his theory of

ideas, which was a pioneer attempt to deal with the still unsolved problem

of universals; third, his arguments in favor of immortality; fourth, his

cosmogony; fifth, his conception of knowledge as reminiscence rather than perception.

Let us first describe Plato's Utopia in its broad outlines. The main

problem, as Plato perceives, is to insure that the guardians (Plato begins

by deciding that the citizens are to be divided into three classes: the

common people, the soldiers, and the guardians.) shall carry out the

intentions of the legislator. For this purpose he has various proposals,

educational, economic, biological, and religious. The first thing to

consider is education. This is divided into two parts, music and

gymnastics. As for economics: Plato proposes a thoroughgoing

communism for the guardians. Plato thought both wealth and poverty are

harmful. I come last to the theological aspect of the system.

Plato is fight

in thinking that belief in this myth could be generated in two generations.

In general, Plato's "Utopia" involved in all aspects of ideology,

philosophy, ethics, education, literature and art, politics and so on. Ideal is

to discuss the country's problems. He said that the state is larger than the

individual, the individual is to reduce the country. Have three qualities:

wisdom, courage and restraint.

The theory of Idea, which directly derived from Socrates' famous

proposition 'virtue is knowledge', was established to carry out Plato's

historic mission. Plato's Theory of Idea initiated western traditional

metaphysics and ever since then it has had great influence upon the

history of western philosophy. In the science, Plato had expounded the negative number concept, is the

one-figure number scientist. He has developed Pythagoras about the

universe harmonious thought, pointed out the heavenly body movement

the track is a circular. He unifies the astronomy and the geometry, for

afterwards established the geocentric theory to build the foundation. He

also carries on the universe and the human body analogy, deduces about

the universal nature and the structure opinion, also deduces about the

human body physiology opinion. His world big universe and the human

body universe thought as the middle ages last stage, have continuously as

popularly had the profound influence to the biology development.

Also, he is the founder of the Academy in Athens. As we mentioned,

Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western

Civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus.

The Academy was "a large enclosure of ground that was once the

property of a citizen at Athens named Academus. The Academy operated

until it was destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BC. Neoplatonists

revived the Academy in the early 5th century, and it operated until AD

529, when it was closed by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a

threat to the propagation of Christianity. Many intellectuals were

schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.

What is the most familiar with Chinese is Plato’s vision of love. Many

Chinese people advocate this kind of Platonic love, which is a permanent, the betterment of life. There are some well-known sayings, such as: The

combination of flesh is not pure, is dirty; Love and sexual passion are two

opposed status; If a person is really in love with someone, he will never

think of having sex with that person and so on.

All in all, Plato is a great man. We can learn many things from him.

前面五段是对柏拉图的介绍，从早年的出生，再到教育，再到万年的遭遇和最后的死去。

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