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History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization April 29, 2019, Week 25 Plato

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History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization April 29, 2019, Week 25 Plato History of Ancient Greece Institute for the Study of Western Civilization April 29, 2019, Week 25 Plato SaturdayMay 4, 2019 SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Plato 427-347 Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Western Civilization Greece= Universe has order (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) Israel= God the creator sustainer gives order cosmological and moral order Augustine (354 AD-430 AD) unifies the two traditions. "Quid Athenae Hierosolymis?" SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Plato 427-347 Plato (means broad shouldered, plateau, plate,) Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn, pronounced [plá.tɔːn] PLAH-tone in Classical Attic; was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle. Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western theology and spirituality. The so-called Neoplatonism of philosophers like Plotinus and Porphyry influenced Saint Augustine and thus Christianity. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Plato 427-347 Aristotle 387-322 SaturdayMay 4, 2019 The Decline of Athenian Democracy SaturdayMay 4, 2019 THE GOLDEN AGE, 480-399 BC “The period which intervened between the birth of Pericles and the death of Aristotle,” wrote Shelley, “is undoubtedly, whether considered in itself or with reference to the effect which it has produced upon the subsequent destinies of civilized man, the most memorable in the history of the world.” SaturdayMay 4, 2019 GREECE THE FIFTH CENTURY BC 528 Death of Athenian tyrant Peisistratus 525 BIRTH OF AESCHYLUS 514 Assassination of Hipparchus, brother of Athenian tyrant Hippias 510 Deposition of Athenian tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratus 507 Cleisthenes reforms the Athenian constitution 490 First Persian invasion of Greece; 490 Battle of Marathon Aeschylus and his brothers fight at Marathon. 480 Second Persian invasion of Greece; battles of Thermopylae and Salamis 479 The Persians are defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Plataea . 464 Sparta devastated by earthquake; revolt of the Spartan helots 460 democratic reform of the Athenian Areopagus Hall, 458 Aeschylus’s tragic trilogy the Oresteia first performed, at Athens 455 DEATH OF AESCHYLUS 451 Pericles proposes a law restricting access to Athenian citizenship 444 Foundation of Panhellenic colony at Thurii in south Italy 432 Completion of the new Parthenon 431 Outbreak of Peloponnesian War; 431 first performance of Euripides’ tragedy Medea 430 Pericles’ funeral oration 429 Plague begins at Athens. 427 BIRTH OF PLATO 425 Athenians score success against the Spartans at the battle of Sphacteria 413 Athenian campaign in Sicily ends in disaster 411 Oligarchic coup at Athens 399 DEATH OF SOCRATES SaturdayMay 4, 2019 THE AGE OF PERICLES, 480-429 BC SaturdayMay 4, 2019 PROTAGORAS ONE OF CLOSEST FRIENDS OF PERICLES SaturdayMay 4, 2019 SaturdayMay 4, 2019 446 BC Athenian war in Boeotia a failure (Alcibiades' father killed 446 BC Sparta invades Attica, lays waste farms towns Alcibiades Alcibiades death of Alcibiades SaturdayMay 4, 2019 So who was this handsome young 28 year old man? SaturdayMay 4, 2019 427 born to wealthy family in Athens According to Neanthes, Plato was six years younger than Isocrates, and therefore was born the same year the prominent Athenian statesman Pericles died (429 BC) Isocrates 436-338 BC). Father Plato's father Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus Mother Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon, one of the seven sages, who repealed the laws of Draco Two brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon, sister Potone mother remarries after death of father, Plato had stepbrothers. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Plato was a champion athlete, a great wrestler who won prizes at important games, and Seneca mentions the meaning of Plato's name: "His very name was given him because of his broad chest and shoulders." It was a nickname. His real name was Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς ). SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Education 420-400 Good student, hard worker Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies. Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study Father paid for the best education available.His father contributed all which was necessary to give to his son a good education, and, therefore, Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time 410 teenager Plato watching the Athenian democracy at war with Sparta. 413 Athenian campaign in Sicily ends in disaster 411 Oligarchic coup at Athens 410 teenager Plato watching the Athenian democracy fall into the hands of Oligarchy. 409 returned democracy. mob behavior. 409-399 Plato is student of Socrates. 399 death of Socrates. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 The execution of Socrates by the Athenian democracy is the definitive event of the life of Plato. He was 28. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 SOCRATES, 469-399 BC SaturdayMay 4, 2019 According to his biographers Plato and Xenophon, Socrates did not just search for the meaning of life, but the meaning of our own lives. He asked fundamental questions of human existence. What makes us happy? What makes us good? What is virtue? What is love? How should we best live our lives? Socrates saw the problems of the new world coming; and he would certainly have something to say about how we live today. As Cicero eloquently put it, "He brought philosophy down from the skies." SaturdayMay 4, 2019 born 469 in Alopeke (Athens suburb) SOCRATES father Sophroniscus stone mason mother Phaenarete. midwife married Xanthippe (shrew?) maybe late in life was 100% heterosexual and disapproved of Athenian ideas on this. rejected Alcibiades. (was having sex late in life/young children) three sons liked his wife. friends criticized (too dominant) he seemed to not mind.(he was most definitely NOT misogynist as other Greeks were. lived very simple life. few possessions, few clothes, wife must have complained about their poverty. Where did he get his money? (friends?) SaturdayMay 4, 2019 worked as stonemason (hard work) very courageous soldier (Pelo War) saves Alcibiades life active political life as per his Athenian citizenship stands alone in two critical assembly actions stands against mob driven executions. very brave stance. many enemies by 399 399 Trial, Socrates went on trial found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety "not believing in the gods of the state" and as a punishment sentenced to death, caused by the drinking of a mixture containing poison hemlock There was more to it than this; political enemies. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Socrates and Justice Socrates set his face against the entire theory and practice of retaliation and vengence (Homer, Achilles). In the Crito he lays down the five principles of his command. We should never do injustice. Therefore we should never return an injustice. We should never do evil to anyone. Therefore we should never return evil for evil. To do evil to a human being is no different from acting unjustly. Socrates was fully aware of the momentous nature of his rejection of traditional Greek morality and justice. For immediately after announcing his five principles, he adds that “few are those who believe or will believe this. And between those who do and those who don’t there can be no common ground. Each feels contempt for the other.” Johnson, Paul. Socrates (pp. 115-116). Penguin Publishing Group. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Socrates, moral relativism, moral absolutism “A just man is one who does good by his friends, certainly, but also does good to those who have harmed him, thereby seeking to convert an enemy into a friend.” This view appears in several versions, the theme always being to return evil with good. We are close here to Christ’s advice to “turn the other cheek.” Socrates says plainly in Crito, “It is never right to do wrong, or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.” It is this clear view that marks the point at which Socrates turns his back on moral relativism, in any guise or circumstances, and opts firmly for moral absolutism. If you know a thing is wrong, never do it, ever. Johnson, Paul. Socrates (p. 114). Penguin Publishing Group. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Socrates teaching in Athens Socrates 369 BC-399 BC SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Not interested in natural science Not a political theorist (Plato will create that) SaturdayMay 4, 2019 SaturdayMay 4, 2019 “I thank God,” Plato used to say, “that I was born Greek and not barbarian, freeman and not slave, man and not woman; but above all, that I was born in the age of Socrates.” SaturdayMay 4, 2019 The execution of Socrates by the Athenian democracy is the definitive event of the life of Plato. He was 28. So what to do now that the master was dead? Get out of Athens. Dangerous for Socrates associates. SaturdayMay 4, 2019 Plato was twenty-eight when the master died; and this tragic end of a quiet life left its mark on every phase of the pupil’s thought. It filled him with such a scorn of democracy, such a hatred of the mob, as even his aristocratic lineage and breeding had hardly engendered in him; it led him to a resolve that democracy must be destroyed, to be replaced by the rule of the wisest and the best.
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