Biography on Plato

Plato

Plato was born in Athens, in May or December into a moderately well to do family. His father was named Ariston and his mother Perictione. His family claimed descent from the ancient Athenian kings. Plato's own real name was Aristocles. however, his nickname, Plato, originated from wrestling. Since "Plato" means broad, it is thought that it refers either to his physical appearance or to his wrestling stance or style.

Plato became a pupil of Socrates in his youth, according to his personal account he attended his master's trial but did not attend his execution. Unlike Socrates, Plato wrote down his philosophical views and left a considerable number of manuscripts. He was deeply affected by the city's treatment of Socrates and much of his early work records his memories of his teacher. It is suggested that much of his ethical writing is in pursuit of a society where similar injustices could not occur.

Plato was also deeply influenced by the pathagorians, whose notions of numerical harmony have a clear basis in Plato's notion of the forums and by Parmenides, who argued the unity of all things and was influential in Plato's conception of the soul.

Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western civilization when he was 40 years old on a plot of land in the Grove of Academe. The academy

was a large enclosure of ground which was once the property of a citizen at Athens named academus. However some say that it received its name from an ancient hero. Many scholars were schooled here, the most prominent being Aristotle.

Since Plato inherited a sizable fortune and reputation from his aristocratic family, he had plenty of time to speculate about philosophy. At first he considered becoming a politician himself, but the death of Socrates, which Plato and others believed was unjust, yet he remained a critic, best known for his firm belief in the rule of philosopher kings. Plato believed that only philosophical people could have the ability to govern fairly. His science of the mind sought to teach young men virtue and goodness in order to preserve the disrupted city of Athens. This is why Plato set up the Academy which was one of the first schools of philosophy. Through this institution, many Greek ideas were preserved and enhanced. The Academy survived until the Roman government under Justinian disbanded it in 529 A.D.

Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student Aristotle, whose