Plato and Socrates

Plato makes it clear, especially in his Apology of Socrates, that he was one of Socrates' devoted young followers. In that
dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if
he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against
him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Later, Plato is mentioned along with Crito, Critobolus, and Apollodorus as
offering to pay a fine of 30 minas on Socrates' behalf, in lieu of the death penalty proposed by Meletus (38b). In the Phaedo, the title
character lists those who were in attendance at the prison on Socrates' last day, explaining Plato's absence by saying, "Plato was ill"
(Phaedo 59b).
The relationship between Plato and Socrates is problematic, however. Aristotle, for example, attributes a different doctrine
with respect to the ideas to Plato and Socrates (Metaphysics 987b1–11), but Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. In
the Second Letter, it says, "no writing of Plato exists or ever will exist, but those now said to be his are those of a Socrates become
beautiful and new" (341c); if the Letter is Plato's, the final qualification seems to call into question the dialogues' historical fidelity. In
any case, Xenophon and Aristophanes seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates than Plato paints. Some have
called attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation for irony. [28]
The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars.

Philosophy
[edit] Recurrent Themes
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle
gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and
experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and
gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms
For more details on this topic, see Aristotle's theory of universals.
Plato often discusses the father-son relationship and the "question" of whether a father's
interest in his sons has much to do with how well his sons turn out. A boy in ancient Athens was socially
located by his family identity, and Plato often refers to his characters in terms of their paternal and
fraternal relationships. Socrates was not a family man, and saw himself as the son of his mother, who
was apparently a midwife. A divine fatalist, Socrates mocks men who spent exorbitant fees on tutors and
trainers for their sons, and repeatedly ventures the idea that good character is a gift from the gods. Crito
reminds Socrates that orphans are at the mercy of chance, but Socrates is unconcerned. In the
Theaetetus, he is found recruiting as a disciple a young man whose inheritance has been squandered. Socrates twice compares the
relationship of the older man and his boy lover to the father-son relationship (Lysis 213a, Republic 3.403b), and in the Phaedo,
Socrates' disciples, towards whom he displays more concern than his biological sons, say they will feel "fatherless" when he is gone.
Many dialogues, like these, suggest that man-boy love (which is "spiritual") is a wise man's substitute for father-son biology (which is
"bodily").
In several dialogues, Socrates floats the idea that Knowledge is a matter of recollection, and not of learning, observation, or
study.[29] He maintains this view somewhat at his own expense, because in many dialogues, Socrates complains of his forgetfulness.
Socrates is often found arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. He is quite consistent in
believing in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. More than one
dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul. The only contrast to this is
his Parmenides.
Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He
speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and
yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. In Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of
Homer that he expresses in the Republic. The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the
bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literature that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be
properly interpreted.
On politics and art, religion and science, justice and medicine, virtue and vice, crime and punishment, pleasure and pain,
rhetoric and rhapsody, human nature and sexuality, love and wisdom, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say.
[edit] Metaphysics
Main article: Platonic realism
"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the
reality of the material world. In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the common man's intuition about
what is knowable and what is real. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is
contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the Theaetetus, he says such
people are "eu a-mousoi", an expression that means literally, "happily without the muses" (Theaetetus 156a). In other words, such
people live without the divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to higher insights about reality.
Socrates's idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and
with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his allegory of
the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. The allegory of the cave (begins Republic 7.514a) is a paradoxical
analogy wherein Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible ("noeton") and that the visible world ("(h)oraton") is
the least knowable, and the most obscure. (This is exactly the opposite of what Socrates says to Euthyphro in the soothsayer's
namesake dialogue. There, Socrates tells Euthyphro that people can agree on matters of logic and science, and are divided on moral
matters, which are not so easily verifiable.)
Socrates says in the Republic that people who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good and real are living pitifully in a
den of evil and ignorance. Socrates admits that few climb out of the den, or cave of ignorance, and those who do, not only have a
terrible struggle to attain the heights, but when they go back down for a visit or to help other people up, they find themselves
objects of scorn and ridicule.
According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to
the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena
produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of
which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists (although it is not clear where) and his own
trial would be a cheap copy of it.
The allegory of the cave (often said by scholars to represent Plato's own epistemology and metaphysics) is intimately
connected to his political ideology (often said to also be Plato's own), that only people who have climbed out of the cave and cast
their eyes on a vision of goodness are fit to rule. Socrates claims that the enlightened men of society must be forced from their
divine contemplations and compelled to run the city according to their lofty insights. Thus is born the idea of the "philosopher-king",
the wise person who accepts the power thrust upon him by the people who are wise enough to choose a good master. This is the
main thesis of Socrates in the Republic, that the most wisdom the masses can muster is the wise choice of a ruler.
The word metaphysics derives from the fact that Aristotle's musings about divine reality came after ("meta") his lecture
notes on his treatise on nature ("physics"). The term is in fact applied to Aristotle's own teacher, and Plato's "metaphysics" is
understood as Socrates' division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual. The theory
has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western philosophy and religion.
[edit] Theory of Forms
Main article: Theory of Forms
The Theory of Forms typically refers to Plato's belief that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only
a shadow of the real world. Plato spoke of forms in formulating his solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to
Plato, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types and properties (that is, of universals) of things
we see all around us.
[edit] Epistemology
Main article: Platonic epistemology
Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view which informed future
developments in modern analytic epistemology. This interpretation is based on a reading of the Theaetetus wherein Plato argues
that belief is to be distinguished from knowledge on account of justification. Many years later, Edmund Gettier famously
demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. This interpretation, however, imports modern analytic
and empiricist categories onto Plato himself and is better read on its own terms than as Plato's view.
Really, in the Sophist, Statesman, Republic, and the Parmenides Plato himself associates knowledge with the apprehension
of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in Dialectic). More explicitly, Plato himself
argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. In other words, if one derives
their account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. And
opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On the other hand, if one derives their account of something by way of
the non-sensible forms, because these forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. It is only in this sense that
Plato uses the term "knowledge."
In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by
recollection. Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the
fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be present, Socrates concludes, in an eternal, non-experiential
form.
[edit] The State
Papirus Oxyrhynchus, with fragment of Plato's Republic
Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an
ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of
the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period, as well as in
the Laws and the Statesman. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that
Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases.
Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class
structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The
appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes
of society.[30]
 Productive Which represents the abdomen.(Workers) — the labourers,
carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the
"appetite" part of the soul.
 Protective Which represents the chest.(Warriors or Guardians) — those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in
the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.
 Governing Which represents the head. (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-
controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul
and are very few.
According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to
rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:
"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately
philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue
either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human
race." (Republic 473c-d)
Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom
Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with
the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. Sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to
practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these
philosopher kings.
However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the Republic is qualified by Socrates as the ideal
luxurious city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (Republic 372e). According to Socrates, the
"true" and "healthy" city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the Republic, 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen,
merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as "perfumed oils,
incense, prostitutes, and pastries", in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and
hunters, and war.
In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined
in the human body. Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the
different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not
promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher
king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has
reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act
according to wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists.
Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better - a bad
democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be a bad democracy (since
here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing many bad deeds.) This is emphasised
within the Republic as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship. [31] Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the
democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited through ailments, the tyrant. Plato's description of this event is parallel
to that of democracy within the state and the inherent problems that arise.
According to Plato, a state which is made up of different kinds of souls, will overall decline from an aristocracy (rule by the
best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and
finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant) [citation needed].
[edit] Unwritten Doctrine
For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine [32][33][34] had been considered unworthy of attention. Most of the books on Plato
seem to diminish its importance. Nevertheless the first important witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his Physics
(209 b) writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i.e. in Timaeus] of the participant is different from what he says in
his so-called unwritten teaching (ἄγραφα δόγματα)." The term ἄγραφα δόγματα literally means unwritten doctrine and it stands for
the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato which he disclosed only to his most trusted fellows and kept secret from the
public.
The reason for not revealing it to everyone is partially discussed in Phaedrus (276 c) where Plato criticizes the written
transmission of knowledge as faulty, favoring instead the spoken logos: "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and
beautiful ... will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words which cannot defend themselves by
argument and cannot teach the truth effectually." The same argument is repeated in Plato's Seventh Letter (344 c): "every serious
man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing." In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare
concerning all these writers who claim to know the subjects which I seriously study ... there does not exist, nor will there ever exist,
any treatise of mine dealing therewith." Such secrecy is necessary in order not "to expose them to unseemly and degrading
treatment" (344 d).
It is however said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to the public in his lecture On the Good (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ), in which
the Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν), the fundamental ontological principle. The content of this lecture
has been transmitted by several witnesses, among others Aristoxenus who describes the event in the following words: "Each came
expecting to learn something about the things which are generally considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical
strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful happiness. But when the mathematical demonstrations came, including numbers,
geometrical figures and astronomy, and finally the statement Good is One seemed to them, I imagine, utterly unexpected and
strange; hence some belittled the matter, while others rejected it." Simplicius quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias who states that
"according to Plato, the first principles of everything, including the Forms themselves are One and Indefinite Duality (ἡ ἀόριστος
δυάς) which he called Large and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν) ... one might also learn this from Speusippus and Xenocrates and the
others who were present at Plato's lecture on the Good"
Their account is in full agreement with Aristotle's description of Plato's metaphysical doctrine. In Metaphysics he writes:
"Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things.
Accordingly the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τ ὸ ἕν), since the numbers are
derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One" (987 b). "From this account it is clear that he only employed two
causes: that of the essence, and the material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the
cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible
things, and the One in that of the Forms - that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς), the Great and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν).
Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively the causation of good and of evil" (988 a).
The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the
neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus[35] or Ficino[36] which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact have been
directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. The first scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten
doctrine of Plato was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930.
[37]
All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica.[38]
These sources have subsequently been interpreted by scholars from the German Tübingen School such as Hans Joachim Krämer or
Thomas A. Szlezák.[39]