In this opportunity we bring you the plato biographycertainly one of the historical figures of the Ancient Greece that have transcended to our times. Recognized worldwide as one of the fathers of the philosophyit was much more than a great thinker. He was a man who tried to put into practice his ideas about a better society. And he was the creator of new ways of transmitting and promoting philosophical thought.
The main stage in which the plato biography it is Athensthe most advanced city condition of the Ancient Greece. There he was born in 427 BC. His childhood passed in the historical context of the last years of splendor of the democracy Athenian (well Pericles had died just in 427 BC).
In his youth, he saw the terrible war from the Peloponnese – a confrontation between Sparta Y Athens– both city states most powerful of Greece. At the young age of 21, Plato joined the circle of Socratesproducing a great change in his thought philosophical. He shared some years with his teacher. until Socrates He was sentenced to death and died in 399 BC
The sentence to Socrates certainly had a profound effect on the young man Plato. He argued that the “politics” of Athens could be so ignorant as to put to death Socrates: «our friend, the best man we knew then and the most intelligent and fair» (Phaedo118c).
In that context, Plato retired from the athens city together with others socratic philosophers. In his travels he traveled Italy, Sicily, Egypt Y Cyreneseeking to deepen their ideas. An outstanding stage of his travels was his stay in Syracuseruled by the tyrant Dionysus I. There he studied the forms of government, something that would later influence his work. The Republic.
In the year 387 a. C., Plato Return to Athensbeing forty years old. There he purchased a gym on a piece of land on the outskirts of Athens. Over time the place became known as Academyand became the center of meetings with his friends and disciples.
The Plato’s Academy could be considered the first university of Europe. It was, in fact, the first space for the intellectual and political training of young people. The most outstanding of them all was, without a doubt, Aristotle. But for Plato itself was a time of great productivity, in which he wrote some of the plays highlights of his life: the dialogues Feast, Phaedo, Republic Y Phaedrus.
Between the years 367 and 361 BC, there is a new journey in the plato biography. Go back to Syracusewith the aim of implementing in the court of Dionisio IIthe political reforms inspired by his ideals of establishing a republic. Part of this company was reported in the Letter VII.
Plato He dedicated his last years to philosophy teaching on the academy of athens. He died in 347 BC. C, but he definitely passed on to immortality thanks to his legacy for the history of mankind and the great influence it had on the thought of the later centuries.
More information:
Plato’s biography, on Wikipedia
Plato’s biography, in Kalipedia
Plato’s works, at Wikisource
Images:
The School of Athens, painting by Rafael Di Sanzio, on Wikipedia
Plato, detail of The School of Athens, by Raphael, in Kalipedia
Plato’s Academy, 1st Century Roman Mosaic, on Kalipedia