Plato :: essays research papers

Few definite details atomic number 18 known of Platos life. He was born in capital of Greece c. 427 BC and was the youngest male child of Ariston, of an old and wealthy family. It is claimed that his real name was Aristocles, with "Plato" (meaning "the broad") being a nickname given to him because of his wrestlers physique. He served in the last years of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, and after democracy was restored in Athens in 403 BC he hoped to enter politics. However, the realities of political life as well as the execution of his workforcetor Socrates in 399 BC hatch him to abandon this goal. After the death of Socrates, Plato left Athens and traveled in Italy, Sicily and Egypt, where he learned the function of a water clock. In Italy he came in contact with the ideas of Pythagoras, which gave him a new appreciation of mathematics. After function again in the military, he returned to Athens in 387 BC and represented his Academy, which he presided over until his death in 347 BC and which survived for nearly a one thousand years after. His works include discussions of mathematics, ethics, science and philosophy, usually in the pee of dialogues. Some of the most famous are the Republic, Phaedo, and Symposium. Famous quotations by Plato     A hero is born among a hundred, a prudent man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might non be found even among a hundred thousand men.     All men are by nature equal, made all of the same populace by one Workman and however we deceive ourselves, as erotic love unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.     Cour jump on is a kind of salvation.     Courage is knowing what not to fear.     Cunning... is but the low mime of wisdom.     Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder and dispensing a sort of eq uality to equals and unequals alike.Democracy passes into despotism. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people provide find a way around the laws. He was a wise man who invented beer.He who is of calm and happy nature will merely feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. Honesty is for the most part slight profitable than dishonesty. Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.