Plato (429-347 BCE)

Plato had long been influenced by his friend Socrates and was deeply disturbed by the death of Socrates under the Athenian democracy. His 'early dialogues' (e.g., Euthyphro , Crito , Apology ) represent the historical Socrates, while his later dialogues develop a theory that seeks to provide answers to the kinds of questions that Socrates posed (e.g., "What is justice?"). The theory that is represented by the 'Platonic Socrates' is the famous theory of the Forms. Our competing opinions about what justice is come to a stop when we grasp with our minds (through philosophic dialectic) the one, true, abiding nature of Justice Itself -- and it is this Idea or Form of Justice that allows us to say, for example, that "this City is unjust" or that "this man is just." We can imagine that Plato's philosophy developed out of his intuition that he knew that Socrates was a good (and even beautiful) man and that Socrates had been unjustly condemned to death. An approach to Plato's central philosophical concerns might use the following dialogues:

Justification of the Life of Socrates through a Revaluation of Greek Values: The Gorgias Metaphysical Grounding of all Values: The Theory of the Forms The Path of Love ThePhaedrus The Symposium The Path of Knowledge TheTheaetetus The Sophist The Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave The Republic Political Implications of the Theory of the Forms: The Republic and the Laws

In the image of the Divided Line, Plato (combining the Parmenidian belief in Permanence and the Heraclitian sense of Change), divides the whole of Reality into the realms of Being and Becoming. The latter represents the world of changing sensations and opinions; the former the realm of eternal truths (not only of Pythagoras' mathematical formulae, but of the Forms of Values such as Justice, Beauty, and Goodness). In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato represents the human condition as it finds itself situated within the structure of the Divided Line. In this image, humans are prisoners chained and facing a wall upon which mere shadows (opinions) of justice, beauty and goodness appear. It is with great effort that some of the prisoners are able (through, for example, Socratic discourse) to 'turn around' and begin a movement upward. The 'free man' subsequently emerges from the darkness of the cave and gazes (with initial difficulty) upon the brightly lit surroundings and, eventually, upon the Sun itself (as the source of all the light).

While Plato's dialogues represent the 'drama of reason' and seek to instill in the reader an appreciation for philosophical dialectic, many of the most compelling moments come when Plato artistically represents his ideas in the forms of images, metaphors and stories. With respect to the area of ethics, one of his most persuasive stories comes at the end of the Gorgias.

See Arthur Adkins for an interpretation of Plato's revaluation of Greek values.