Importance of PLATO in History and Philosophy

This lesson from a TEACHER is dedicated to Plato's importance in history, a Greek philosopher who, without a doubt, has been of great importance in philosophy, having defined the themes, together with Socrates and Aristotle, teacher and disciple respectively of the one with the broad back. Epistemology and gnosology, ontology, anthropology, psychology, cosmology and cosmogony, ethics, politics.

Later philosophy was limited to continuing with the tradition that he had started, either for or against the theories of the Athenian philosopher. Whitehead asserts that "all Western philosophy would consist of a series of footnotes from Platonic philosophy." Plato laid the foundations of the edifice of knowledge and today his thought is still valid.

If you want to know more about the importance of Plato in the history of Western thought, keep reading this article that offers you a PROFESSOR.

Index

1. Summary of the importance of Plato in philosophy
2. Plato biography: short summary
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3. Repercussion of Plato in the history of the West
4. Importance of Plato from Modernity to Today
5. Plato and political thought

Some modern thinkers consider Plato the thinker who sets the rules of the game of thought. He lays the foundations of philosophical thought and then the rest of the thinkers will discuss the issues raised by Plato.

The early Neoplatonic thinkers are Plotinus and Saint Augustine. In medieval times many Platonic thinkers were born, who have not been able to know Plato's thought, since that all his books disappeared but that through the first Platonists they spread the thought of Plato.

In the 16th century the Plato books thanks to the sages of Contastinopla. Plato's thought is back in force, until that moment Aristotle was the most widespread thinker.

Descartes is the philosopher who is committed to breaking with Greek thought and establishing a new look ahead. Despite this, Plato continues to set the rules of the game of philosophical thought.

Plato (428-347 BC) It's one of the greatest authors of all time. He is a great connoisseur of pre-Socratic philosophy, which will be used when elaborating his thought. In Plato's thought we can find the following influences pre-Socratic:

• Heraclitus. Plato will create a world totally subject to change, and therefore unknowable, just as Heraclitus's world is: the Sensible World.
• Parmenides. Plato will create a world similar, but not equal, to the Being of Parmenides: The Intelligible World. The most important difference will be that Plato will not consider the existence of a single Being, but of many different and differentiated beings (the Ideas). This will make it knowable.
• Pythagoras. The dual vision of Pythagoras, especially the conception of the soul as a prisoner of a body will be accepted by Plato.
• Socrates. The World of Ideas will be made up of universals, a concept that Plato takes from his teacher Socrates, as well as a certain ethical conception of knowledge.

We must keep in mind when understanding what is Plato's philosophical approach, what is the philosophical motivation, and what is Plato's social origin. Plato was part of the upper class of Athens, since an ancestor of his had been king of Athens. Plato hates the prevailing political system in Athens (Democracy) making the sophists and pluralists responsible for this political system. Thus, he will think that in order to change the political system, it will be necessary to create a new philosophical system that legitimizes it.

That is why we can say that the fundamental reason that drives Plato to philosophize, and the final destination of his thought, is politics: end democracy and establish an aristocratic regime; his life, and the various attempts to put into practice the postulates of his Republic, demonstrate this.

Throughout history, different thinkers have collected and adapted Platonic ideas, especially during the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The NeoplatonismIt is a philosophical current that was born in Alexandria in the third century and extends into modernity.

Next we will see who were the main representatives of Neoplatonism.

Roman Neoplatonism: Plotinus and Saint Augustine

San Agustin is he first Neoplatonic philosopher of Christianity, who assures that the ideal city of which Plato speaks, is undoubtedly a city based on Christian ideals: "The city of God." He is a staunch defender of the truths of faith, as opposed to those of reason. If there is a contradiction between the two, he says, you have to opt for the former. Philosophy was dependent on theology.

Another of the figures of enormous importance during the Hellenistic stage was Plotinus. All the information that has come from this philosopher to this day is due to his disciple Porfirio.

Medieval Neoplatonism: Duns Scotto Erigena and Saint Anselm

During the Middle Ages, many Neoplatonic thinkers arose who knew the philosophy of Plato, thanks mainly to the first Platonists of Greek, who spread his thought.

The figure of Juan Escoto Erigena that determines the existence of 4 types of different natures: Not created, creative. (God) Created, creator. (the world of ideas) Created, not creative. (the sensible world) Not created, not creative. (God, as the final cause).

St. Anselm of Canterbury he claimed, through philosophy, prove the existence of god. He defines God as "the one of whom nothing greater can be thought", and this truth is in the mind, even of those who deny his existence. Therefore, it must exist in reality (ontological argument).

Renaissance Neoplatonism: Ficcino and Pico della Mirandola

In the fourteenth century there is a return to the classics of Greece and Rome. Begins the renaissance stage and Plato, is once again the fashionable philosopher, thanks to the wise men of Constantinople, who flee after the looting, laying the foundations of the humanist movement.

Until that moment Aristotle was the philosopher par excellence, and his thought dominated throughout the Middle Ages.

We continue this review of the importance of Plato in history to talk about his influence from Modernity and to the present day.

Discards breaks definitively with Greek thought and modern philosophy starts. From there, Plato's philosophy has received great criticism, although this diminishes the importance of that of Athens in the history of Western thought.

It can be said that the whole story of the western world has its origins in the Platonic tradition, in fact, Nietzsche accuse Plato of being responsible for the decline of Western civilization.

It has laid, says the German, the theoretical basis for Christianity with its dualistic conception of the world and human being, in which the body and the earth are considered evil and the soul and the sky, are considered good ones. This has not done more than put hope in an unreal world, when the only thing that exists is the world of the earth and the body, everything that the human being has.

This is why Nietzsche wants to hammer down the entire tradition, inverting the values ​​that Plato's philosophy established.

The movie, "Divergent”, Shows the horror of establishing a political system like the one described by Plato in the Republic.

The death of Socrates was a severe blow to Plato that he did not understand as a wise and virtuous man like his teacher, he would have received such an unjust condemnation. It was clear that he had been the victim of a totally ineffective and corrupt political system. And this was precisely Plato's motivation for creating his political ideas, not only in the Republicbut throughout his entire work.

The political system in Athens at the time was the democracy. Plato hates it and assures that the blame for everything lies with the ideas of pluralist philosophers and sophists. It is therefore necessary to break with the established system and create a new, more just and legitimate one. The monarchy will be the regime you bet on the philosopher of dialogue.

Plato assures that of all forms of government, the aristocracy is the best of all. The philosopher-king, would be for the Greek, the ideal of ruler. Nobody better than a rational mind to manage the polis. In the Republic He describes his model of the ideal city-state, a city, and to put into practice this “utopian” community, he dedicated all his efforts and his life.

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