Western Classical Thought and Culture

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Western Classical Thought and Culture

• Plato

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1. Platos life

• Born in 428 or 427 B.C into an aristocratic
  Athenian family.
• Became a student of Socrates.
• After Socrates death, he decided to devote all
  his energies to philosophy.
• After traveling a while, he returned to Athens
  and founded a school, the Academy, the first
  university in the Western world.
• Among the most famous of his works was the
  Republic.

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2. Platos Task

• Like his teacher Socrates, Plato had an intense
  interest in ethical questions.
• Socrates fate also taught him that good people
  will not survive unless society itself is
  reformed.
• Therefore, political philosophy was also a major
  concern in Platos works.

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3. Platos writing style Dialogue

• Dialogue vs. treatise why does Plato write
  dialogues?
• Popular writing? to make his works popular
  couldnt be the only reason that Plato wrote in
  dialogues.
• a convenient format to the aim of philosophy
  final truth
• --final truth is not known, ineffable,
  context-dependent
• --dialogue record the process of struggles,
  introduce the context
• and both sides of the
  issue.

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4. The Republic

• The questions of the Republic
• The central questions What is justice? Is
  justice choiceworthy in itself or only for
  accessory advantage? What the best life and the
  best state?
• Interesting and outrageous ideas
  philosopher-king censorship of poetry and music
  equality of man and woman no private property
  and community of wives and children