Biography of Plato

Plato was born in Athens in 427 B.C. He was a Greek philosopher who believed in war service and political ambitions. Plato was never really sympathetic to the Athenian democracy and he never fully agreed with the government either. Plato original name was Aristocles, but in his school days he received a nickname. His nickname was Platon which means broad, he got it because he had broad shoulders. Plato left Athens for a long while to explore the world. He returned to Athens in his later years.

Plato is considered one of the greatest influences on modern Western thought and one of the greatest minds in world history. Not much is known about Plato in his younger years. He was from the higher class and he was from a noble family which meant that he could have access to the best libraries and teachers in his day. Though he perfred to stay in Athens he knew a lot about the outside world from his studies. Even when he was a young boy, he wrote poetry and plays.

Plato was a student and follower of Socrates. He founded the Academy school in Athens. His works consisted mainly of dialogues. Plato was very interested in moral philosophy. Plato firmly believed that knowledge was "forgotten" at birth but later on in life it could be remembered and he saw the search for understanding as an attempt to gain knowledge. Plato believed that all substances are composed of air, earth, fire, and water. He invented a theory of vision involving three streams of light. he wanted to find or discover the truth behind things, but he believed that absolute truth could not be derived.

Plato was in his thirties when Socrates was executed. Socrates thoughts were written down by Plato since he himself wrote nothing. He was deeply troubled by the threat offered by the Sophists' thinking to the concept of authority. The Academy he had started, never became an institution that simply worked and reworked his own views. Instead independence of thoughts was encouraged. A large part of Plato's writing have survived all these years, and there not only impressive in range and scope but also for the lucidity of his writing. Plato believed that virtue was not simply a concept in which something was tangled together from characteristics of many instances of virtue in everyday life, but that it existed as a higher level than the actual material world. Plato who was one of Socrates students was there when he died. Plato wrote down the last thoughts of Socrates. He is known for displaying Socrates life since Socrates never wrote anything down. ( Freeman 268 and 269 ) ( Bauer 574 )

As Plato grew up he wanted to be politician. But after seeing the death of his dear friend Socrates, he changed his mind about what he wanted to do. He set up an Academy, which many scholars consider to be the first University of his time. The subjects taught in the University were astronomy, biological sciences, mathematics, and political science. This is where we began to use the term academy when referring to schools today. He stayed there and headed the school for the remainder of his life. Plato was a person of the relativism and scepticism of the Sophists but he focused on values rather than on physical science.Then later on in his life about when he was eighty years old he died in 347 B.C.

Freeman, Charles. The Greek Achievement. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc, 1999
Bauer, Wise, Susan. The History of the Ancient World. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007