Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 4 (Political Science)
Book Name – Western Political Thought (Shefali Jha)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. SOCRATES AND THE EUDAEMONIST AXIOM
2. THE SOCRATIC ELENCHUS
3. PLATO’S POLITICAL THEORY
4. PLATONIC RATIONALISM
5. PLATO’S LATER POLITICAL DIALOGUES
6. MOVING BEYOND PLATO
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LANGUAGE
Plato (427–347 BCE): Justice and Reason
Chapter – 2
Table of Contents
- Plato was born in 427 BCE in Athens, from one of its oldest and most distinguished families.
- These were turbulent times for Athens, especially during the Peloponnesian War, which saw mounting losses.
- Pericles, the leader of Athens, died in 429 BCE after two years of leading Athens in the war.
- Athens faced its first major defeat in 413 BCE when its fleet was destroyed at Syracuse, and was ultimately defeated by Sparta in 404 BCE.
- In 413–412 BCE and 404–403 BCE, oligarchic factions temporarily overthrew Athens’s democratic government.
- During the tyranny of the 30 in 404–403 BCE, supported by Sparta, Plato was invited to join the oligarchy because some of the 30 tyrants were his relatives.
- Plato refused to participate in the oligarchic government.
- When the democrats returned, they began a wave of revenge punishments, including the execution of Socrates in 399 BCE.
- The death of Socrates deeply shocked Plato, who revered him as the wisest man in Athens.
- After Socrates’s execution, Plato left Athens and traveled to Greece, Egypt, and Italy.
- Plato returned to Athens in 387 BCE and founded the Academy, where he taught for 20 years.
- In 367 BCE, Plato was invited to Syracuse in Italy as a political advisor but had an unhappy experience and had to flee due to the ruler, Dionysius II.
- He made another trip to Syracuse in 361 BCE, but it also ended in failure, and he again had to flee.
- Except for these trips, Plato spent most of his life in Athens, writing and teaching at the Academy.
- Plato’s life is detailed in his Seventh Letter, which offers insights into his experiences and philosophy.
- Socrates greatly influenced Plato, and Plato considered himself Socrates’s student.
- Most of Plato’s dialogues feature Socrates as the main protagonist and are written as conversations between Socrates and other notable Athenians.
- Since Socrates did not leave any writings, much of what we know about him comes from Plato’s dialogues.