Plato, Great Thinker?

I last wrote to share about Socrates:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2013/06/an-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living.html

From Socrates To Plato

Socrates never wrote anything. Everything we know about Socrates is from what others wrote about him and mostly from his student Plato. They were artistic recreation of Socrates in action. At the time Athens was the artistic and intellectual centre of the Greek world. There was political and social upheavals caused by Persian Wars and wars taught people that they depended on their own destiny not Gods. They invented philosophy as the love of wisdom as mythical explanations were not good enough and believed there were rational and logical explanation in this universe.

Socrates was acclaimed to be the noblest and wisest Athenian that ever lived but since he wrote nothing himself it was his greatest and most famous student Plato alone that we came to know Socrates. Plato was about 26-28 when Socrates was put to death. (Sometimes when you are ahead of your time and asked too many questions you can be put to death). While Plato learned many great things from Socrates he discovered on his own that mankind is born with certain kind of knowledge. Socrates' methods was to argue questions on both sides to arrive at a conclusion. This was why Socrates never gave answers to his students probably because the knowledge is already with you so you have to pull out every truth from within you. Remember that Socrates' mother was a midwife so maybe Socrates learned that he was there to deliver the baby like a midwife and not there to produce you the baby.

Plato

From Plato we learned about the physical, mental and spiritual development of individuals, the complete education of an individual. He even led us onto other topics like statesmanship, politics and the nature of justice. He believed that democracy is just a charming form of government. He felt that reality is always changing and knowledge to only the individual, not universal. From the wisdom of Socrates, Plato build on a higher world of ideals and forms that there is a higher reality of goodness and justice and if we were to live with these universal standards - that is the good life and shall lead to the ultimate truth. To the unphilosophical man, they are just at the mercy of their impressions, deceived by their own senses and are likened to prisoners in a cave and shadows on the walls became their reality.

Plato was concerned that without any respect to leadership and the law plus education for the young, the Athenian state and their ideal would surely decline and decay. His hope was for Athens to be rescued from degeneration as power and wisdom walked divergent paths and unless united by men of knowledge can they achieve nobility. Plato was both idealistic and rational. He believed that things "as they seemed to us" can be illusions that can decay and die while ideals are the perfect state of things. He argued that thoughts are vastly superior in securing the truths. He believed that someone who did something bad needs education not punishment, that we should become more real in the deepest sense and liberate ourselves with our the goal being self-realization.

"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher and philosophy begins in wonder". "If you ask what is the good of education in general the answer is easy, that education makes good men and good men act nobly". "I do to others as I would they should do to me". "Our object in the construction of the State is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class".

Plato mentioned 3 levels of pleasure - (1) sensual and physical for example sex,  (2) sensual or ecstatic such as just admiring anything beautiful like having good relationship, (3) Pleasures of the mind which is considered the highest form of pleasure example an intellectual love of a thing or person. (1) is like a soul that like to go its own way (2) is of spirit and courage from the heart that is trained, refined and directed and (3)  is like reason that lives in the brain. He spoke fondly of discovering the meaning of justice and Utopia which in Greek means "no place".

Quotes

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools because they have to say something.

Good people do not need laws to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man found among a thousand but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

He was a wise man who invented beer. (Favourite?)

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Ignorance - the root and stem of all evil.

Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Let parents bequeath their children not riches but the spirit of reverence.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

Any man can easily do harm but not every man can do good to another.

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour  and lovers of gain.

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.

Cunning is but the low mimic of wisdom.

He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.

The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Platonic


If you have known the word "platonic" as in a platonic relationship between a couple of different sex it is a purely non-sexual relationship. The word platonic actually comes from Plato. Remember, I have earlier mention about 3 levels of pleasure where the highest form of pleasure is the pleasure of the mind and where there is nothing of physical pleasure? The word platonic was first recorded in 1533 by Marsilio Ficino who was a influential philosopher (during the early Italian Renaissance) and who is a Renaissance follower of Plato.

Philosophy Is King?

Plato clearly argued that to rescue Athens from degeneration, they have to revive the sense of the community which will make them great and the only way to do it was for power and wisdom to come together to be united led by a Philosopher King. Not all powers are good unless they are noble.


In short, what is power without wisdom and nobility? Everyone wants to have power. That is easy because there are so many ways to attain power but how many people in this world has wisdom and nobility? 

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