Plato (347-427 BC)

[muhammadsohailkhan]

Plato (347-427 BC)
Plato was born in Athen, most probably in the year 427 BC when the civilization of ancient Greece was at the zenith of glory and eminence. The ancient Greek extended their territorial boundaries covering most of the coastal regions of Mediterranean and Black Sea from Asia Minor to Marseilles and from Egypt to the mouths of Danube.
Plato belonged to royal blood of aristocracy; from his mother’s side he was related to Solan, the law giver. His original name was Aristotle but called Plato because of his sturdy body and breadth of shoulders. He made efforts to discover the eternal principles of human conduct i.e. justice, temperance and courage which alone imbibed the happiness to the individual and stability to the states, the execution of his teacher and defeat of Athens by Sparta made him to despise democracy; and in fact the turning point in Plato’s life came in 399 BC when he was twenty eight years old he held extraordinary important position as ethical leader of the young and the Athenians. He was extremely frustrated with the execution of Socrates; he turned to the life of a philosopher, he wandered abroad for twelve years in Persia, Egypt, Africa, Italy and Sicily in the hours of the disillusionment, absorbing wisdom from every source, sitting at every shrine and tasting every creedal dogmas, went to Syracuse to teach philosophy to the tyrant king Dionysius but came back quite disappointed and opened his Academy, he write nearly 36 treaties all in the form of dialogues, his method to use analogy and draw arguments out of it.
During the later tormented years of life he had enjoyed unprecedented personal recognition as a political philosopher and his Academy had become the best school of Athens. He never abandoned his belief of life, never ceased to train students to follow it and to adopt a divine system of education, idea of excellence of the rule of philosophic few and the value of mathematics as an intellectual discipline which should be permanently established for a common possession of men.
His works.
The republic finished about 386 BC deals with political philosophy, ethics, education and metaphysics.
The politicos or Statesman, finished about 380 BC deals with politics of the state functions.
The Laws, published after the death of Plato mainly deals with legal system for guiding purposes and restraining the corrupt and imperfect governments.