Plato's achievements briefly. Plato - biography, information, personal life

Antiquity is a period in human history filled with reforms and discoveries that seriously influenced the further development of mankind. The knowledge gained in those years became a solid foundation for the development of science and technology, and ancient culture became a fertile basis for the formation of European culture.

Ancient philosophers in Raphael's painting "The School of Athens"

The basic principles of philosophy, like other sciences, were also formulated during the period of antiquity. , Archytas, Plato... These people are outstanding public figures, writers, scientists and philosophers of their time. They all contributed to the development of philosophy, and regarding Plato, the British logician and mathematician Alfred Whitehead even said that all European philosophy is, in fact, a footnote to the works of the ancient Greek.

Childhood and youth

The exact year in which the philosopher was born is unknown. There is an assumption that this happened in 428 or 427 BC. The birthday is considered to be May 21 (7th Fargelion), on this day the Greeks celebrated the birthday of the son of Zeus and the Titanide Leto - Apollo.

There is also no specific information about the exact place of birth. Most sources call Plato's hometown Athens, however, there is another option. According to him, the future philosopher was born on the island of Aegina, located in the Saronikos Gulf, and Plato’s family moved to Athens in order to give their children a good education.

By the way, not only the year and place of Plato’s birth are considered controversial. There is an opinion that in fact the philosopher’s name was Aristocles, and Plato was a nickname that the philosopher received from his pankration coach, wrestler Ariston from Argos, because of his broad shoulders (“platos” - translated from ancient Greek as “broad”). This was first mentioned by the late antique historian Diogenes Laertius.

Plato's parents belonged to the aristocratic class. The philosopher's father was a descendant of the king of Attica Codra, and his mother was a descendant of the Athenian reformer Solon. On his mother's side, Plato had two uncles - Critias and Charmides, they were both members of the group of pro-Spartan rulers "The Thirty Tyrants". In addition to Plato, Ariston and Periktiona (that was the name of his parents) had other children: sons Glaucon and Adeimantus, as well as daughter Poton.

The children received a classical musical education - this was the name of general education, which included a system of aesthetic, moral and mental education (named after the muses). Plato's teacher at that time was the pre-Socratic philosopher Cratylus, a follower of Heraclitus of Ephesus. Under his leadership, the future thinker studied literature, rhetoric, ethics, foundations of science and other disciplines.

During his studies, Plato achieved the best results in literature, fine arts and wrestling; later the philosopher participated in the Olympic and Nemean Games.

Plato's childhood and youth fell in the post-Periclean era, when cowardice, laziness and greed were widespread among the population. The situation was only intensified by the military conflict between the Delian League (under the leadership of Athens) and the Peloponnesian League (under the leadership of Sparta).

Ariston was a politician trying to improve the lives of his fellow citizens. Therefore, he wanted his son, after receiving his education, to also become a politician, but Plato himself had completely different views on the future. He tried his hand at writing, composing poems and dramas.

One day, in 408 BC, young Plato decided to take the tragedy he had written to the local theater. On the way I ran into an elderly but strong man. They struck up a conversation that turned the young man’s life upside down and also gave him the start of a new life. This man was Socrates.

Philosophy and views

The teaching of Socrates was reformist; it was strikingly different from what had come before. In his philosophy, the emphasis was shifted from the study of the world and nature to the study of man. The views and statements of Socrates impressed the young Plato, as can be judged from the latter’s works.

In 399 BC, Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death. The philosopher was accused of not honoring the gods revered by the inhabitants of the city, but instead spreading a new faith, thereby corrupting the people. Out of respect for past merits, including participation in the Peloponnesian War, Socrates was allowed to give a defense speech (on its basis Plato’s Apology of Socrates was written), and the death penalty was carried out by drinking poison from a cup.

The execution of Socrates seriously influenced Plato, arousing in him a fierce hatred of democracy. After the death of his teacher, Plato goes on a journey, the purpose of which is to meet other scientists and exchange experiences with them. Over the next ten to fifteen years, the philosopher visited Megara, Cyrene, Phenicia and Egypt. During this time, he managed to meet and communicate with Archytas of Tarentum, with other students of Socrates - Euclid and Theodore, as well as with Eastern magicians and Chaldeans. The latter forced Plato to become seriously interested in Eastern philosophy.

After long wanderings, Plato arrived in Sicily. The philosopher's plans were to create a new state, together with the local military leader Dionysius the Elder (also known as Syracuse). According to Plato, in the new state philosophers should rule, and not drink poison from a chalice while a cheering crowd shouts. But the idea was not destined to be realized - Dionysius turned out to be a tyrant who categorically did not like Plato’s ideas.

After this fiasco, the philosopher decided to return to Athens. This city forced Plato to reconsider some ideas about the ideal state. The result of these thoughts was the Academy opened in 387 BC - an educational institution in which Plato began to teach other people. This is how a new religious and philosophical union was formed.

Plato's school was named after the area where the lessons were held (a park outside Athens), and the area itself was named after the mythical hero Hekademos. At Plato's Academy, students studied mathematics, philosophy, natural science, astronomy and other sciences. Training took place through dialogues - Plato believed that this was the best method of understanding the essence of things.

The teachers and students of the Academy lived together - Plato adopted this feature from the followers of Pythagoras. Famous students of Plato were the astronomer Eudochus (who introduced Plato closer to Eastern teachings and religions) and the philosopher.

In 366 and 361 BC, Plato revisits Sicily, at the invitation of his friend Dion, the ruler of Syracuse and brother-in-law of Dionysius the Elder. Dionysius does not like this situation, which he eloquently makes clear by the murder of Dion. The death of a friend upset Plato and forced him to return back to Athens, where the philosopher continued his studies until the end of his days.

To this day, not a single original work of Plato has survived, but copies have survived. The oldest copy of the philosopher's work was found in the city of Pemja (160 km southwest of Cairo), written on Egyptian papyrus.

Plato's works form the Platonic Corpus. For the preservation of the philosopher’s collected works, we should thank the ancient Greek bibliographer Aristophanes of Byzantium. By the way, it was he who first structured Plato’s works, dividing them into trilogies.

Later, the restructuring was carried out by the philosopher Thrasyllus of Menda, the court astrologer of Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. Thrasyllus grouped Plato's works into tetralogy, a division that is still used today.

There were other attempts to structure and group the philosopher’s works. The version of the Russian antique scholar Alexei Fedorovich Losev is popular. According to Losev, Plato’s books should be divided into 4 periods: early (“Crito”, “Charmides”, etc.), transitional (“Euthydemus”, “Ion”, etc.), mature (“Timaeus”, “Republic”, etc. .) and late (“Laws” and “Post-Law”).

For a long time, only one work by Plato was available to the general public - Timaeus. The situation was corrected by the Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), who translated the rest of the philosopher’s works from ancient Greek into Latin.

Personal life

The philosopher preached the rejection of private property, as well as the community of wives, husbands and children. Therefore, it is impossible to single out one wife for Plato, just as it is impossible to accurately name his biological children.

Death

After the murder of Dion of Syracuse, in 354 BC, Plato returned to Athens, where he lived until the end of his days. In the last days of his life, Plato began work on a new book, “On the Good as Such.” The basis of the work had already been formed, Plato shared it with his students. However, it was not destined to transfer thoughts to paper.

On his birthday in the year 348 (or 347) BC, Plato left this world for natural reasons - old age. The philosopher was buried in Ceramics, not far from the Academy. The words were carved on his tombstone:

“Apollo gave birth to two sons - Aesculapius and Plato. One heals bodies, and the other heals souls.”

In memory of Plato, paintings were written and engravings were drawn (photos are available on the Internet). As a character, the philosopher appeared in films: “Blood, Voluptuousness and Death” (1948), “Socrates” (1971), “Night” (1985), “The Feast” (1989). In 2010, the last feature film to date in which Plato appears, “The Death of Socrates,” was released.

Ideas and discoveries

Plato's philosophy is based on Socrates' theory, according to which true knowledge is possible only in relation to non-subjective concepts that constitute an independent incorporeal world coexisting with the sensory world. Being is an absolute entity, eidos (ideas), not subject to space and time. Ideas in Plato's understanding are autonomous, which means that only they can be truly known. This is stated in the works of the transitional and mature period.

Plato's works Critias and Timaeus first describe the history of Atlantis, which is an ideal state.

The Cynic from Sinop (the one who lived in a barrel and walked around during the day with a lantern “in search of a man”) often argued with Plato. When Plato said that man is a two-legged animal without feathers, Diogenes slipped him a plucked chicken, calling him Plato's man. After this, the philosopher had to add the phrase “... with flat (wide) claws” to the formulation.

Plato is an opponent of passion and vivid manifestations of emotions; he believed that such behavior is base and contains a harmful principle. He expressed his opinion on the relationship between men and women in his works. This is where the term “platonic love” comes from.

To gather students for classes, Plato built a device based on a water clock that gave a signal at a given time. This is how the first alarm clock appeared.

Quotes

“Socrates is my friend, but the truth is dearer” (later this statement will turn into “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer,” the authorship of which will be attributed to Aristotle and Cervantes).
“When people are forced to choose between two evils, no one will obviously choose the greater if there is an opportunity to choose the lesser.”
“What will education be like? However, it is difficult to find a better one that has been found since ancient times. For the body it is gymnastic, for the soul it is musical.”
“In any business, the most important thing is the beginning.”
“Ignorance is difficult because the ignorant, being neither beautiful, nor good, nor reasonable, seems satisfied with himself, does not consider himself in need and does not strive for what he, in his opinion, does not need.”

A message about Plato, the ancient thinker and student of Socrates, summarized in this article.

"Plato" report

In 427 BC in Athens, the boy Aristocles was born into a noble family. His father was a descendant of the emperor, and his mother was related to Solon, a famous statesman. Thanks to his high position in society, the young man received an excellent education. He was distinguished by his diligence and hard work, for which he was named Plato at school. This nickname, meaning “broad,” became his companion for the rest of his life.

In 408 BC, Plato's father brought him to a man whose meeting changed his whole life. This man was Socrates. He told the young man that the day before he had a dream about a white swan, personifying his new talented student. Plato was so inspired by the ideas of Socrates that he decided to devote his life to philosophy. For 8 whole years the young man did not leave his teacher. In 399 BC, Socrates died and Plato left Athens for the island of Megar.

In 396 BC, the philosopher decides to leave Greece due to the fact that the Spartans completely defeated the troops of Athens. And he was an opponent of Sparta and its political system. Plato decided to visit Egypt, which was famous for its majestic architecture and engineering structures. He wanted to comprehend the ancient knowledge of the Egyptian priests. Therefore, the philosopher lived in Heliopolis for 3 whole years. From the priesthood, Plato heard legends about Atlantis and became eager to acquire new knowledge while traveling around the world. He visited Babylon, Palestine, India and Persia. After 13 years, the philosopher returns to Egypt to receive higher spiritual initiation. At the age of 49, the sage went through difficult trials and received the Highest Esoteric Teaching from the Egyptian priests.

The opening of the school by Plato

In 378 BC, the philosopher met the Pythagorean philosopher and Italian ruler Archytas. In a conversation with him, Plato became interested in the idea of an “ideal state.” In 366 BC, the sage proposed to Dionysius, king of Sicily, to rebuild the existing state system and create an ideal state. But the conversation ended in tears - the ruler sold Plato into slavery. And no one knows how the philosopher’s life would have turned out if not for his comrade-in-arms and friend Annicerides, who bought Plato from slavery.

He came to Athens in 361 BC and opened a famous philosophical school called the Academy. His students were the famous Lycurgus, Demosthenes, and Aristotle.

For the last 14 years, Plato's life was calm and measured. He died in 347 BC at the age of 80.

He loved to travel and managed to visit Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Phenicia, Egypt, and India.
Plato was an Olympic champion: he won 2 times in competitions in pankration, an ancient martial arts that combines wrestling and striking.
After opening his Academy, Plato invented an alarm clock powered by a water clock. The flowing water from the upper container compresses the air in the lower part with a fuse. When a certain pressure is applied to the fuse, it tilts back and directs compressed air into the flutist’s figure. The air passing through the flute causes a sharp sound and thus wakes the students up for practice.
During his youth, he wrote dramatic plays and poems.
The philosopher died at a wedding feast on his birthday.

We hope that the report on Plato helped you learn a lot of useful information about this ancient thinker. You can leave your story about Plato using the comment form below.

Plato (ancient Greek Πλάτων, 428 or 427 BC, Athens - 348 or 347 BC, ibid.). Ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle. Plato is the first philosopher whose works have come down to us not in short passages quoted by others, but in their entirety.

The exact date of Plato's birth is unknown. Following ancient sources, most researchers believe that Plato was born in 428-427 BC. e. in Athens or Aegina at the height of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. According to ancient tradition, his birthday is considered to be Thargelion 7 (May 21), a holiday on which, according to mythological legend, the god Apollo was born on the island of Delos.

Plato was born into a family of aristocratic origins; the family of his father, Ariston (465-424), dates back, according to legend, to the last king of Attica, Codrus, and the ancestor of Periktion, Plato’s mother, was an Athenian reformer. Also, according to Diogenes Laertius, Plato was conceived immaculately.

Periktione was the sister of Charmides and Critias, two prominent figures among the Thirty Tyrants of the short-lived oligarchic regime that followed the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War. In addition to Plato, Ariston and Periktion had three more children: two sons - Adeimantus and Glaucon, and the daughter of Poton, mother of Speusippus. According to the text of the Republic, Adamantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. However, Xenophon in his Memorabilia reports that Glaucon was younger than Plato.

Plato's first teacher was Cratylus. Around 408 BC e. Plato met and became one of his students. It is characteristic that Socrates is an invariable participant in almost all of Plato’s works, written in the form of dialogues between historical and sometimes fictional characters.

After the death of Socrates in 399 BC. e. Plato left for Megara. According to legend, he visited Cyrene and Egypt during the years 399-389. In 389 he went to Southern Italy and Sicily, where he communicated with the Pythagoreans. “Plato subsequently went to Sicily in order, with the help of Dionysius of Syracuse, to found there an ideal state in which philosophers, instead of a cup of poison, would receive the reins of government.” In 387, Plato returned to Athens, where he founded his own school, the Academy. He subsequently visited Sicily again in 366 and 361 BC. e. at the invitation of his friend and admirer Dion.

Plato's Corpus (Corpus Platonicum)- that is, a historically established body of works that since antiquity have been associated with the name of Plato and a significant part of which are dialogues - was formed over a long time. Probably, during the long process of forming the classical “collected works” of the philosopher, there were both losses and gains, which at certain moments were determined not only by the state of the manuscript tradition, but also by the level and direction of contemporary philological criticism.

The first important milestone on the path to the formation of the corpus can be considered a collection of Platonic works compiled in the 3rd century BC by the outstanding philologist of antiquity Aristophanes of Byzantium. Already by this time, works of varying volume and quality were circulating under the name of Plato, some of which were rejected by Aristophanes, while another part was placed in the collection, however, as dubious or, despite all the merits, unreliably Platonic works. The basis of the publication consisted of those works that still define the face of Plato’s corpus today.

The same Aristophanes of Byzantium probably laid the foundation for the systematization of the works of the Platonic corpus, since in his publication they were arranged in trilogies. Thus, in one trilogy the Republic, Timaeus and Critias were combined, in another - Laws, Minos and Post-Law, in the third - Crito, Phaedo and Letters, which indicates about the thematic principle of classifying works that are very far from each other in volume, structure and artistic level. Works for which there were no thematic analogues were not included in the trilogy and were arranged randomly.

The next important stage in the history of the Platonic corpus is associated with the activity of Thrasyllus (1st century AD), whose collection is essentially used by modern science. Thrasyllus combined Plato's works into tetralogies.

The current state of Plato's corpus is determined by the English edition. Stephen, an outstanding French Hellenistic philologist of the 16th century. In scientific literature, citation of Plato's texts is carried out with an indication of the pagination of this Stefanov edition, which is preserved in the margins of any newest edition of Plato's works, both in Greek and in translations, regardless of the order of their arrangement accepted in a particular edition.

It is generally accepted that Plato is one of the founders of the idealistic trend in world philosophy. In many of the philosopher’s works, the idea is conveyed that only absolute entities that preserve their existence regardless of space and time can be called being in the true sense of the word. Such absolute entities are called ideas, or eidos, in Plato's writings. In Plato's dialogue Timaeus, the main narrator comes to the position that the solution to the ontological question depends entirely on how we solve questions of the theory of knowledge. If we agree that true knowledge concerns only eternal and unchanging existence, and regarding changing and temporary there can be no true knowledge, but only opinion, then we should recognize the autonomous existence of ideas.

There are conflicting opinions among scholars about the status that Plato ascribes to ideas. It is obvious that by ideas Plato understands not just the concept of a thing, but the reason and purpose of its existence. In the dialogue “Parmenides” Plato criticizes the radical opposition between the “world of ideas” and the “world of things”. In this dialogue, a character intended to represent the historical philosopher Parmenides undertakes to prove the absurdity of the assertion that ideas exist separately from things. At many points Plato's criticism of the dualism of things and ideas is repeated in his later writings.

The result of Parmenides indicates that the question of the existence of an idea is a question of the existence of the One in general. If the one exists, it cannot remain one in the strict sense of the word. Plato researcher Tatyana Vadimovna Vasilyeva says the following about this problem: “one can remain one, and only one, one and only one, only as long as it does not exist. Once the one becomes the existing one, it ceases to be only one and becomes many. There is a contradiction here, but it is a contradiction of existence itself. Does this conclusion deny the separate existence of ideas? Under a monistic system it rejects, under a dualistic system it does not.”

In the dialogue “State” the concept of the idea of good as the highest object of knowledge is given. The very word “good” (τὸ ἀγαθόν) means not just something that is ethically assessed positively, but also ontological perfection, for example, the goodness of a particular thing, its usefulness and high quality. Good cannot be defined as pleasure, because we have to admit that there are bad pleasures. Something that only benefits us cannot be called good, because the same thing can harm others. Plato's good is “good in itself” (αὐτὸ ἀγαθόν).

Plato likens the idea of good to the Sun. In the visible world, the Sun is a necessary condition both for the fact that objects become accessible to vision and for a person to gain the ability to see objects. In exactly the same way, in the sphere of pure knowledge, the idea of good becomes a necessary condition for both the knowability of the ideas themselves and the ability of a person to know ideas. As Socrates summarizes it in the dialogue “The Republic”: “what gives truth to knowable things, and endows a person with the ability to know, this is what you consider the idea of good - the cause of knowledge and the knowability of truth.”

In Plato's philosophy there are signs dualism. Plato often contrasts the soul and body as two dissimilar entities. The body is decomposable and mortal, but the soul is eternal. According to the teachings set forth in the dialogue “The Republic,” unlike the body, which can be destroyed, nothing can prevent the soul from existing forever. If we agree that vice and wickedness cause harm to the soul, then even in this case it remains to admit that vice does not lead the soul to death, but simply perverts it and makes it ungodly. That which is incapable of perishing from any evil can be considered immortal: “since something does not perish from any of these evils - neither from one’s own nor from a stranger, then it is clear that it must certainly be something eternally existing, and since it exists eternally, it is immortal.”

Plato identifies three principles of the soul:

1. Smart start, directed towards cognition and entirely conscious activity.

2. Fierce start striving for order and overcoming difficulties. As Plato says, rage and anger are different from simple lusts and even often argue with them: “we notice how a person, overcome by lusts despite the ability to reason, scolds himself and is angry at these rapists who have settled in him. The anger of such a person becomes an ally of his mind in this feud, which seems to be going on only between two sides.” Plato notes that the violent principle is especially noticeable in a person, “when he believes that he is being treated unfairly, he boils, gets irritated and becomes an ally of what seems fair to him, and for this he is ready to endure hunger, cold and all similar torments , just to win; he will not give up his noble aspirations - either achieve his goal or die, unless he is humbled by the arguments of his own reason.”

3. Passionate beginning, expressed in the countless desires of man. In Plato’s dialogue “The Republic” it is said that the beginning “because of which a person falls in love, experiences hunger and thirst and is overwhelmed by other desires, we will call the beginning unreasonable and lustful, a close friend of all kinds of satisfaction and pleasures.”

In many of his works, Plato discusses in detail theory of the immortality of the soul. In the Phaedo, Plato presents four arguments in favor of this theory.

The first argument in favor of the immortality of the soul:

The first proof of the immortality of the soul was called “cyclical”, since it was based on the concept of mutual conditionality of any opposites. Since opposites presuppose the presence of each other - thus, the greater is possible only in the presence of the lesser, and sleep is possible only in the presence of wakefulness - thus death implies the presence of immortality. As Socrates says in this dialogue: “If everything involved in life died, and having died, remained dead and did not come to life again, is it not absolutely clear that in the end everything would become dead and life would disappear?” Since the living comes from the dead, and only the living can die, then this fact can serve as an argument in favor of the reincarnation of souls. The souls of the dead must remain in an incorruptible state, which distinguishes them from the nature of the body and presupposes the dualism of spirit and body.

The second argument in favor of the immortality of the soul:

The second argument in favor of the immortality of the soul is based on the doctrine of knowledge as recollection. There are universal concepts in the human mind, such as “beauty in itself” or “justice in itself.” These concepts point to absolute entities that exist forever. If the soul knows about them, then the soul of a person existed even before the person himself was born. The soul could not receive knowledge of immortal and eternal entities if it were not itself immortal and eternal. In connection with the first argument, the continuation of the existence of the soul even after the death of a person is proven: “Since our soul existed previously, then, entering life and being born, it arises inevitably and only from death, from a dead state. But in this case, she must certainly exist after death: after all, she will have to be born again.”

The third argument in favor of the immortality of the soul:

The third argument of the Phaedo is already connected with the proof of the heterogeneity of soul and body. The dialogue postulates the presence of two types of existence. The first includes everything visible and decomposable, the second - the formless, that is, inaccessible to the senses, and indecomposable. As is obvious, the body is something that is visible and constantly changing. Consequently, the body is complex in nature, and there is nothing simple and indecomposable in it. That is why the body is mortal. But the soul is formless and is drawn to the knowledge of eternal and unchanging things.

Further in the course of his reasoning, Socrates notes: “When the soul and body are united, nature commands the body to obey and be a slave, and the soul to rule and be a mistress. Having taken this into consideration, tell me which of them, in your opinion, is closer to the divine and which to the mortal? Don't you think that the divine was created for power and leadership, and the mortal - for submission and slavery? “Yes, it seems,” his interlocutor answers. - So what is the soul similar to? “It’s clear, Socrates: the soul is similar to the divine, and the body to the mortal.” This means that since a mortal body, with the help of, for example, embalming, is capable of remaining incorruptible for a long time, then the soul, which is involved in the divine principle, should even more so be recognized as immortal.

In his dialogue, Plato reproduces a number of counterarguments from opponents of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. So, if the soul is as Socrates depicts it in the dialogue, then it is like the shape of a jug or the tuned strings of a lyre. If you break a jug or break a lyre, then the shape of the jug will perish and the harmony of the sounds of the lyre will disappear. On the other hand, if the soul is more durable than the body, and is capable of living without it at all or being reincarnated into different bodies, then why not assume that the moment will come when the soul will wear out and finally die.

The following objections are raised against the first counterargument - the soul is not just a “mood” of the body, not its internal harmony, but something that exists before the body itself. As Alexey Fedorovich Losev summarizes the arguments presented here in favor of the immortality of the soul: “the soul is not harmony, a structure similar to that created by the lyre, but exists, as said above, before the body in the form of an essence (ουσία), called being (δ εστίν); therefore, before being a structure or mood of the body, the soul is itself, and being a soul is characteristic of all souls in exactly the same way; and since in order to tune the lyre, one must already have an idea of the desired structure, then the soul, before being the harmony of the body, should not depend on this bodily harmony and its individual moments, but, on the contrary, itself tune or detune the lyre.” .

The fourth argument in favor of the immortality of the soul:

The objection to the second counterargument represents an independent, fourth proof of the immortality of the soul. It gives a more complex teaching about opposites. Opposites are mutually exclusive. So, if a number is even, then it cannot be odd, and if something is fair, then it cannot be unfair.

If we define the soul, then it is the true reason for the existence of the body. Such a cause is called by Plato eidos or idea. Just as it is impossible to deduce from the structure of Socrates’ body the fact that he is now in prison, sentenced to death, so in any other case, corporeality itself cannot be considered the cause of human existence.

Therefore, the soul as the “idea of life” cannot be involved in anything that is opposite to life, that is, death. And this proves the immortality of the soul, an illustration of which in Plato’s Phaedo is the following dialogue between Socrates and Cebes: “What must appear in the body for it to be alive? “Soul,” said Cebes. - And it always happens like this? - How could it be otherwise? - he asked. - So, no matter what the soul takes possession of, it always brings life to it? - Yes, that's right. - Is there anything opposite to life or not? - Eat. - What is this? - Death. - But - we have already agreed on this - the soul will never accept the opposite of what it always brings in? - Without any doubts! - answered Cebes. - What happens? What do we now call something that does not accept the idea of even? - Odd. - And what does not accept justice and that which will never accept skill? - One is unskillful, the other is unfair. - Wonderful. And what will we call what will not accept death? - Immortal. - But the soul does not accept death? - No. - So the soul is immortal? “Immortal,” said Cebes.”

Plato calls dialectics the main method of knowledge, which he defines as knowledge of the very essences of things. In the dialogue “The State,” the interlocutors come to the conclusion that only those who engage in dialectics “make an attempt to reason... through reason alone, rush to the essence of any object and do not retreat until, with the help of thinking itself, he comprehends the essence of good. Thus he finds himself at the very top of the intelligible, just as another has ascended to the top of the visible.”

In the ordinary understanding, dialectics is just the art of reasoning in communication, especially during an argument. For Plato, in the ordinary meaning of the word, it was important to emphasize the moment of a comprehensive consideration of a thing.

According to ancient legends, Plato died on his birthday in 347 BC e. (in the 13th year of the reign of the Macedonian king Philip). He was buried at the Academy. According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato's real name is Aristocles (ancient Greek Αριστοκλής; literally, “best glory”). He is buried under this name. Plato - a nickname (from the Greek word "plato" - breadth), meaning "broad, broad-shouldered", given to him by Socrates for his tall stature, broad shoulders and success in wrestling. On the contrary, there are studies showing that the legend of his name "Aristocles" originated during the Hellenistic period.

Old Greek Πλάτων ; birth name Aristocles

ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle

428 or 427 - 348 or 347 BC e.

short biography

Outstanding ancient Greek idealist philosopher; his teaching represents the first classical form of objective idealism. Today it is impossible to say with certainty when he was born; most researchers give the dates 428 and 427. BC e. His homeland was Athens or Aegina; Plato was a descendant of a family of aristocrats who were directly involved in the political life of the polis. His education was typical of the nobility of the time. One of Plato's first mentors was Cratylus, a sophist close in views to Heraclitus.

Around 408 BC. e. A significant event occurred that determined the entire subsequent biography of Plato and his worldview - his acquaintance with Socrates. Under his influence, Plato stopped dreaming of a career as a politician, and, as legends say, he set fire to the tetralogy he had written in honor of the upcoming holidays. Socrates became a mentor for Plato and “settled” in all of his works, which were mostly written in the form of a dialogue between characters, mainly historical ones.

After Socrates died in 399, Plato, in the company of several friends, left for Megara, where he took part in the Corinthian War. It is known that in 387 BC. e. he visited southern Italy and Sicily and communicated with representatives of the Pythagorean school. It was for this meeting that this trip was made. His biography included visits to Kirina and Egypt.

In 387 BC. e. Plato returned to Athens, where he became the founder of his own school - the Platonic Academy (named after the mythological hero Academus). During this period of his life, he came to Syracuse (Sicily) several times, where he actively participated in local political life. So, there he met Dion, who was a close associate of Dionysius I the Elder, ruler of Syracuse. Plato arrived in Sicily for the second time in 367 BC. e., after the death of the ruler. His goal was to influence Dionysius the Younger so that he would become an “illustration” of his idea of an ideal state, which would be ruled by a just, wise king, “a philosopher on the throne.” Having been received very hospitably at first, Plato soon found himself an exile. The last trip to Sicily was undertaken in 361 BC. e. at the request of the same Dion and the Pythagoreans. However, the philosopher’s admonitions were not heard, and he himself was forcibly kept on the island, and only the help of influential persons helped him return safely to his homeland. There he ran his school until his death in 347 BC. e.

It is believed that all of Plato's works have survived to this day - in the form of a publication, the credit for the creation of which belongs to the Pythagorean Thrasyllus of Alexandria. It consists of 36 works, which, in turn, are divided into 9 tetralogies, reflecting the evolutionary path of philosophy. His works, the famous Platonic dialogues, are usually divided into 4 groups: Socratic, Platonic, Middle Platonic and late. Plato saw the idea of good as the highest idea of his teaching. He developed dialectics and outlined a branched scheme of the main stages of human existence. In particular, the work “The State” is widely known, where the philosopher shares his understanding of the ideal social structure, which is a hierarchy of ruler and wise men, officials and warriors and the third estate - artisans and peasants.

Plato's works have many literary merits, in particular, clear composition, brilliant style, interesting, sometimes unexpected content. They found many imitators; Plato's dialogues began to be considered an example of their genre and largely influenced the literature and philosophy of Europe.

Biography from Wikipedia

The exact date of Plato's birth is unknown. Following ancient sources, most researchers believe that Plato was born in 427 BC. e. in Athens or Aegina at the height of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. According to ancient tradition, his birthday is considered to be Thargelion 7 (May 21), a holiday on which, according to mythological legend, the god Apollo was born on the island of Delos.

According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato's real name is Aristocles(Ancient Greek Αριστοκλής; literally, “best glory”). The nickname Plato (from the Greek word “plato” - latitude), meaning “broad, broad-shouldered”, was given to him by the wrestler Ariston of Argos, his gymnastics teacher, for Plato’s strong build. Some believe that he was so nicknamed because of the breadth of his speech, and Neanf because of his broad forehead. On the contrary, there are studies showing that the legend of his name "Aristocles" originated in the Hellenistic period.

Plato was born into a family of aristocratic origins, the family of his father, Ariston (465-424), went back, according to legend, to the last king of Attica, Codrus, and the ancestor of his mother, Periktion, was the Athenian reformer Solon. Also, according to Diogenes Laertius, Plato was conceived immaculately.

Periktione was the sister of Charmides and Critias, two prominent figures among the Thirty Tyrants of the short-lived oligarchic regime that followed the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War. She was a writer; her works “On Harmony in a Woman” and “On Wisdom” are known. In addition to Plato, Ariston and Periktion had three more children: two sons - Adeimantus and Glaucon, and the daughter of Poton, mother of Speusippus. According to the text of the Republic, Adamantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. However, Xenophon in his Memorabilia reports that Glaucon was younger than Plato.

Plato's first teacher was Cratylus. Around 408 BC e. Plato met “the wisest of the Hellenes” Socrates, he became one of his students of philosophy; before that he studied poetry. It is characteristic that Socrates is an invariable participant in almost all of Plato’s works, written in the form of dialogues between historical and sometimes fictional characters. During the trial of Socrates, Plato was among his students who offered bail for him. After the verdict, Plato fell ill and was not present at the last conversation in prison.

After the death of Socrates in 399 BC. e. Plato, with some other students, moves to Megara, to Socrates' previous student, Euclid. There Plato devotes himself to dialectical questions about the foundations of being and knowledge. From Megara, in all likelihood, he undertakes his first journeys, between which more reliable are trips to Cyrene to the mathematician Theodore and to Egypt, the supposed center of all wisdom. There are indications of his return to Athens in 394. In 389 he went to Southern Italy and Sicily, where he communicated with the Pythagoreans. “Plato subsequently went to Sicily in order, with the help of Dionysius of Syracuse, to found an ideal state there, in which philosophers, instead of a cup of poison, would receive the reins of government.” Received well at first, the philosopher is soon sent away in dishonor and even, according to some accounts, sold into slavery, from which he is later freed. In 387 or 386, Plato returns to Athens, where he begins to gather around himself a circle of students, with whom he talks about philosophy in a suburban public garden (about a kilometer from Athens), and establishes an Academy.

In 367 or 366 BC. e., after the death of Dionysius the Elder, his son and successor Dionysius the Younger, under the influence of his uncle Dion (with whom Plato became friends during his first visit to Syracuse in Sicily), invites the philosopher, promising to become his faithful student. At first, Plato's dream of a young tyrant ruling society under the leadership of a true philosopher seems to be coming true. But Dionysius soon becomes tired of philosophical observation; after his break with Dion, he begins to have a negative attitude towards Plato and throws him out with nothing. In 361, through the Pythagorean Archytas, Dionysius the Younger again calls on Plato, promising him to make peace with Dion, and again deceives him, so that the 70-year-old Plato is forced to flee from Syracuse. It is assumed that Aristotle entered the Academy before Plato's return.

According to ancient legends, Plato died on his birthday in 347 BC. e. (13th year of the reign of the Macedonian king Philip). He was buried in the Academy. It is believed that he was buried under the name Aristocles.

Works

The Platonic Corpus (Corpus Platonicum) - that is, a historically established body of works that have been associated with the name of Plato since antiquity and a significant part of which are dialogues - was formed over a long time. Probably, during the long process of forming the classical “collected works” of the philosopher, there were both losses and gains, which at certain moments were determined not only by the state of the manuscript tradition, but also by the level and direction of contemporary philological criticism.

The next important stage in the history of the Platonic corpus is associated with the activity of Thrasyllus (1st century AD), whose collection is essentially used by modern science. His collection contains a total of 36 works, divided into 9 tetralogies (34 dialogues, Socrates's defense speech and a small collection of letters).

The current state of the Platonic corpus is determined by the publication of Henri Etienne, an outstanding French Hellenistic philologist of the 16th century. In scientific literature, citation of Plato's texts is carried out with an indication of the pagination of this Stefanov edition, which is preserved in the margins of any newest edition of Plato's works, both in Greek and in translations, regardless of the order of their arrangement accepted in a particular edition.

Chronology

According to A.F. Losev, Plato’s work can be divided into four periods. The authorship of Ion, Hippias Major, Menexenus, and Post-Law is controversial.

Early period (approximately 90s of the 4th century BC)

"Apology for Socrates"
"Criton"
"Euthyphro"
"Lakhet"
"Lysis"
"Charmides"
"Protagoras"
1st book "States"

Transition period (80s)

"Gorgias"
"Menon"
"Euthydem"
"Cratylus"
"Hippias the Lesser"
"And he"
"The Greater Hippias"
"Menexen"

Mature period (70-60s)

"Phaedo"
"Feast"
Books II-X "States"(the study of ideas)
"Theaetetus"
"Parmenides"
"Sophist"
"Politician"
"Philebus"
"Timaeus"
"Critias"

Late period

"Laws"(50s)
Post-Law(editor and probable author - Philip Opuntsky)

Plato's ontology

Basic provisions of Plato's ontology

It is generally accepted that Plato is one of the founders of the idealistic movement in world philosophy. In many of the philosopher’s works, the idea is conveyed that only absolute entities that preserve their existence regardless of space and time can be called being in the true sense of the word. Such absolute entities are called ideas, or eidos, in Plato's writings. In Plato's dialogue Timaeus, the main narrator comes to the position that the solution to the ontological question depends entirely on how we solve questions of the theory of knowledge. If we agree that true knowledge concerns only eternal and unchanging existence, and regarding changing and temporary there can be no true knowledge, but only opinion, then we should recognize the autonomous existence of ideas.

Plato's Theory of Ideas

In the dialogue “Timaeus,” Plato puts into the mouth of the narrator the following conclusions from the recognition of motionless being as the true object of knowledge. It should be recognized that there are three kinds of existence - eternal ideas, changing concrete things and the space in which things exist:

Firstly, there is an identical idea, unborn and undying, not perceiving anything into itself from anywhere and not itself entering into anything, invisible and not otherwise felt, but given over to the care of thought. Secondly, there is something similar to this idea and bearing the same name - tangible, generated, eternally moving, arising in a certain place and disappearing again from it, and it is perceived by opinion combined with sensation. Thirdly, there is another kind, namely space: it is eternal, does not accept destruction, gives an abode to the whole kind, but is itself perceived outside of sensation, through some kind of illegal inference, and it is almost impossible to believe in it.

Problems related to the theory of ideas

There are conflicting opinions among scholars about the status that Plato ascribes to ideas. It is obvious that by ideas Plato understands not just the concept of a thing, but the reason and purpose of its existence. In the dialogue “Parmenides” Plato criticizes the radical opposition between the “world of ideas” and the “world of things”. In this dialogue, a character intended to represent the historical philosopher Parmenides undertakes to prove the absurdity of the assertion that ideas exist separately from things. At many points Plato's critique of the dualism of things and ideas is repeated in Aristotle's later writings.

Idea of Good

Plato likens the idea of good to the Sun. In the visible world, the Sun is a necessary condition both for the fact that objects become accessible to vision and for a person to gain the ability to see objects. In exactly the same way, in the sphere of pure knowledge, the idea of good becomes a necessary condition for both the knowability of the ideas themselves and the ability of a person to know ideas. As Socrates summarizes it in the dialogue “The Republic”: “what gives truth to knowable things, and endows a person with the ability to know, this is what you consider the idea of good - the cause of knowledge and the knowability of truth.”

Doctrine of the soul

Dualism of soul and body

There are signs of dualism in Plato's philosophy. Plato often contrasts the soul and body as two dissimilar entities. The body is decomposable and mortal, but the soul is eternal. According to the teachings set forth in the dialogue “The Republic,” unlike the body, which can be destroyed, nothing can prevent the soul from existing forever. If we agree that vice and wickedness cause harm to the soul, then even in this case it remains to admit that vice does not lead the soul to death, but simply perverts it and makes it ungodly. That which is incapable of perishing from any evil can be considered immortal: “since something does not perish from any of these evils - neither from one’s own nor from a stranger, then it is clear that it must certainly be something eternally existing, and since it exists eternally, it is immortal.”

Three parts of the soul

In his dialogue “Phaedrus” he gives the famous image of the chariot of the soul. The following picture is drawn: “Let us liken the soul to the united force of a winged pair of teams and a charioteer. Among the gods, both horses and charioteers are all noble and descend from nobles, while among the rest they are of mixed origin. Firstly, it is our lord who rules the team, and then his horses - one is beautiful, noble and born from the same horses, and the other horse is his opposite and his ancestors are different. It is inevitable that ruling us is a difficult and tedious task.” The driver here represents the mind, the good horse the strong-willed part of the soul, and the bad horse the passionate or emotional part of the soul. In the dialogue “The Republic,” Plato examines these three components of the human psyche in more detail. Thus, he likens the rational part of the soul - the shepherd of the flock, the strong-willed or furious part of the soul - to the dogs accompanying the shepherd, helping him manage the flock, and he calls the unreasonable, passionate part of the soul a flock, the virtue of which is to obey the shepherd and the dogs. Thus, Plato identifies three principles of the soul:

1. A smart start, directed towards cognition and entirely conscious activity.

2. Furious Beginning striving for order and overcoming difficulties. As Plato says, rage and anger are different from simple lusts and even often argue with them: “we notice how a person, overcome by lusts despite the ability to reason, scolds himself and is angry at these rapists who have settled in him. The anger of such a person becomes an ally of his mind in this feud, which seems to be going on only between two sides.” Plato notes that the violent principle is especially noticeable in a person, “when he believes that he is being treated unfairly, he boils, gets irritated and becomes an ally of what seems fair to him, and for this he is ready to endure hunger, cold and all similar torments , just to win; he will not give up his noble aspirations - either achieve his goal or die, unless he is humbled by the arguments of his own reason.”

3. Passionate beginning, expressed in the countless desires of man. In Plato’s dialogue “The Republic” it is said that the beginning “because of which a person falls in love, experiences hunger and thirst and is overwhelmed by other desires, we will call the beginning unreasonable and lustful, a close friend of all kinds of satisfaction and pleasures.”

In many of his works, Plato examines in detail the theory of the immortality of the soul. In the Phaedo, Plato presents four arguments in favor of this theory.

The first argument in favor of the immortality of the soul

The second argument in favor of the immortality of the soul

The third argument in favor of the immortality of the soul

Further in the course of his argument, Plato notes: “When the soul and body are united, nature commands the body to obey and be a slave, and the soul to rule and be a mistress. Having taken this into consideration, tell me which of them, in your opinion, is closer to the divine and which to the mortal? Don't you think that the divine was created for power and leadership, and the mortal - for submission and slavery? - Yes, it seems his interlocutor answers. - So what is the soul similar to? “It’s clear, Socrates: the soul is similar to the divine, and the body to the mortal.” This means that since a mortal body, with the help of, for example, embalming, is capable of remaining incorruptible for a long time, then the soul, which is involved in the divine principle, should even more so be recognized as immortal.

The fourth argument in favor of the immortality of the soul

Therefore, the soul as the “idea of life” cannot be involved in anything that is opposite to life, that is, death. And this proves the immortality of the soul, an illustration of which in Plato’s Phaedo is the following dialogue between Socrates and Cebes: “What must appear in the body for it to be alive? - Soul, - said Kebet. - And it always happens like this? - How could it be otherwise? - he asked. - So, no matter what the soul takes possession of, it always brings life to it? - Yes, that's right. - Is there anything opposite to life or not? - Eat. - What is this? - Death. - But - we have already agreed on this - the soul will never accept the opposite of what it always brings in? - Without any doubts! - answered Kebes. - What happens? What do we now call something that does not accept the idea of even? - Odd. - And what does not accept justice and that which will never accept skill? - One is unskillful, the other is unfair. - Wonderful. And what will we call what will not accept death? - Immortal. - But the soul does not accept death? - No. - So the soul is immortal? - Immortal, - said Kebet».

The fate of a person's soul

The dialogue "Phaedrus" gives a mythological illustration depicting the existence of an immortal soul. She initially lives in the sphere of “pure being”, not involved in anything temporary and changing, contemplating pure forms, ideas or eidos. Human souls sometimes even have the opportunity to look into the “extracelestial” field of super-essential existence or the “idea of the Good,” but this is given with great difficulty and not all of them are capable of this. The souls of people, due to their imperfection, often fall from the sphere of pure forms and are forced to spend time on Earth, inhabiting one body or another.

Plato introduces ethical and religious aspects into his doctrine of the immortality of the soul. So, in particular, he mentions the possibility of posthumous punishments and rewards for the soul for its earthly accomplishments. In the dialogue “The State,” he cites a mythological tale about the posthumous fate of human souls, allegedly known from the words of a certain Pamphylian Er, who “once he was killed in a war; when ten days later they began to pick up the bodies of the already decomposed dead, they found him still whole, brought him home, and when on the twelfth day they began the burial, then, already lying on the fire, he suddenly came to life, and having come to life, he told what he saw there.”

Doctrine of knowledge

In Book VI of the Republic, Plato divides everything that is accessible to knowledge into two types: that which is perceived through the senses and that which is cognizable by the mind. The relationship between the spheres of the sensory-perceptible and the intelligible also determines the relationship between different cognitive abilities: feelings allow us to cognize (albeit unreliably) the world of things, reason allows us to see the truth.

sensory-perceptible again divided into two types - the objects themselves and their shadows and images. Faith (πίστις) correlates with the first kind, and likeness (εἰκασία) with the second. By faith we mean the ability to have direct experience. Taken together, these abilities constitute opinion(δόξα). Opinion is not knowledge in the true sense of the word, since it concerns changeable objects, as well as their images.

Sphere intelligible also divided into two types - these are ideas of things and their intelligible similarities. Ideas do not need any prerequisites for their knowledge, representing eternal and unchanging entities accessible only to reason (νόησις). The second type includes mathematical objects. According to Plato's thought, mathematicians only “dream” existence, since they use inferential concepts that require a system of axioms that are accepted without proof. The ability to produce such concepts is understanding (διάνοια). Reason and understanding together constitute thinking, and only it is capable of cognizing the essence.

Plato introduces the following proportion: as essence is related to becoming, so thinking is related to opinion; and knowledge is related to faith and reasoning is related to assimilation.

Particularly famous in the theory of knowledge is Plato’s allegory “The Myth of the Cave” (or “Parable of the Cave”).

Plato's dialectic

Plato calls dialectics the main method of knowledge, which he defines as knowledge of the very essences of things. In the dialogue “The State,” the interlocutors come to the conclusion that only those who engage in dialectics “make an attempt to reason... through reason alone, rush to the essence of any object and do not retreat until, with the help of thinking itself, he comprehends the essence of good. Thus he finds himself at the very top of the intelligible, just as another has ascended to the top of the visible.”

Political and legal doctrine of Plato

Plato's main political works are the treatises "The Republic", "Laws" and the dialogue "Politician".

Plato's most famous dialogue is The Republic. He describes a political utopia, contrasted with the cycle of real state forms.

These provisions are based on general philosophical views. According to Plato, there are two worlds: the world of ideas (eidos) and the world of things. Any thing is only a reflection of its idea; it can strive for it, but will never achieve it. A philosopher must study ideas, not things themselves. This also applies to the state; Plato describes the cycle of state forms, but they are all imperfect, if only because they exist in the world of things, while the ideal form of the polis opposes them.

Political ideas in The State

The origin of the state is quite plausible: the division of labor leads to exchange between people, and exchange is convenient if you live together. The idea of division of labor lies at the heart of Plato's utopia.

Everything is wrong in the world of ideas. The division of labor creates the need for different virtues in each profession. Initially, these are the virtues of the farmer, builder and weaver (following from Plato’s primary needs for food, home and clothing). Then, with the growth of the state-police, conflicts arise with other states, and a professional community of warriors is formed. So, there are already two classes: producers and warriors. Well, the third, rulers-philosophers, create the best laws to prevent the cycle of state forms - an analogy with the “rule of the knowledgeable” by Socrates. So Plato's political ideal is the stability of the state. For it to be stable, stability in society is required, everyone does their own work - this is fair. Inequality of classes is also normal, because the happiness of an individual does not mean anything for the happiness of the polis.

Political ideas in “Laws”

Later, Plato in his “Laws” will describe a different utopia and a different political system - an aristocratic republic or an aristocratic monarchy.

4 classes, depending on property qualifications,
5040 citizens and a very complex management system.
Personal property, money are allowed, family creation is allowed for all classes.
a significant strengthening of the controlling role of the state, strictly regulating all social relations.

Plato distinguished two types of government of aristocratic government:

Rulers are above everyone.
everyone obeys the laws.

The justice system is the guardian of the laws. And without true justice, a state ceases to be a state.

An aristocratic state can become monarchical, if among the rulers one person stands out (royal power).

If there are several rulers, then the state will be republican(aristocratic rule).

More important is the direct legislative thought of the “Laws”: since the happiness of a citizen is not a value, then for the happiness of the policy, measures of physical coercion can be applied to an individual. Thus, since the time of Plato, sanction has become an integral feature of positive law.

Ethical views

Plato’s philosophy is almost entirely permeated with ethical problems: his dialogues discuss such questions as: the nature of the highest good, its implementation in the behavioral acts of people, in the life of society. Plato’s moral worldview developed from “naive eudaimonism” (Protagoras) to the idea of absolute morality (dialogue “ Gorgias"). In the dialogues “Gorgias”, “Theaetetus”, “Phaedo”, “Republic”, Plato’s ethics receives an ascetic orientation: it requires purification of the soul, purification from worldly pleasures, from secular life full of sensual joys.

Man’s task is to rise above disorder (the imperfect sensory world) and with all the strength of the soul to strive to become like God, who does not come into contact with anything evil (“Theaetetus”); is to free the soul from everything corporeal, concentrate it on itself, on the inner world of speculation and deal only with the true and eternal (“Phaedo”). Plato is also characterized by a reconciling eudaimonic position, which is set out in the dialogues “Phileb” and “Laws” "

In all of Plato's works, the existence of eros is implied, the desire for an ideal in the highest beauty and eternal fullness of being.

Human

He saw the essence of man in his eternal and immortal soul, which enters the body at birth. She (and therefore the person) is receptive to knowledge. In this Plato saw a generic (general) difference from an animal. And at the species (particular) level, a person differs from an animal in his external features. Based on these differences, Plato formulated one of the first definitions of the essence of man.

The great ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–348 BC) was the most brilliant of the students of another great Hellenic sage -. The basis of Plato's philosophy - the doctrine of ideas - had its source in Socrates' call for true knowledge of concepts, which are not subjective (as the fashionable contemporaries of Socrates and Plato, the sophists, argued), but constitute an independent incorporeal world that exists outside the sensory world. Plato believed that real truth lies only in the world of ideas.

The great Greek philosopher Plato

The son of noble Athenian citizens Ariston and Periktiona, Plato was descended from the legendary Attic king Codrus. Many of Plato's mother's relatives were prominent politicians. His uncle, Charmides, participated in the famous aristocratic government of the "thirty tyrants". Plato's birthday - the 7th Farhelion (May 21) - fell on the date that the ancient Greeks celebrated as the birthday of the god Apollo. Many admirers of the philosopher considered him the incarnation of this deity. In Hellas, legends were told that Plato's extraordinary eloquence was given to him in infancy by the muses, who sent bees to put wonderful honey on the child's lips.