“I cannot understand these other ingenious theories of causation. If someone tells me that the reason why a given object is beautiful is that it has a gorgeous color or shape or any other such attribute, I disregard all these other explanations – I find them all confusing – and I cling simply and straightforwardly and no doubt foolishly to the explanation that the one thing that makes that object beautiful is the presence in it or association with it, in whatever way the relation comes about, of absolute beauty. I do not go so far as to insist upon the precise details – only upon the fact that it is by beauty that beautiful things are beautiful. This, I feel, is the safest answer for me or anyone else to give, and I believe that while I hold fast to this I cannot fall; it is safe for me or anyone else to answer that it is by beauty that beautiful things are beautiful.”

-Plato, Phaedo, 100d, Socrates to Cebes

Plato (/ˈpleɪtoʊ/ PLAY-toe;^[2] Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) 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 a pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle.^[a] Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality.^[5] The so-called neoplatonism of philosophers such as Plotinus and Porphyry greatly influenced Christianity through Church Fathers such as Augustine. 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.”^[6]

Plato was an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. Plato is also considered the founder of Western political philosophy. His most famous contribution is the theory of Forms known by pure reason, in which Plato presents a solution to the problem of universals known as Platonism (also ambiguously called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism). He is also the namesake of Platonic love and the Platonic solids.

His own most decisive philosophical influences are usually thought to have been, along with Socrates, the pre-Socratics Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides, although few of his predecessors’ works remain extant and much of what we know about these figures today derives from Plato himself.^[b] Unlike the work of nearly all of his contemporaries, Plato’s entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years.^[8] Although their popularity has fluctuated, Plato’s works have consistently been read and studied.^[9]

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 (except for the death penalty for homicide).^[12] Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, known as the Thirty, the brief oligarchic regime (404–403 BC), which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).^[13] According to some accounts, Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed in his purpose; then the god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and as a result, Ariston left Perictione unmolested.^[14]

The exact time and place of Plato’s birth are unknown. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina^[c] between 429 and 423 BC, not long after the start of the Peloponnesian War.^[d] The traditional date of Plato’s birth during the 87th or 88th Olympiad, 428 or 427 BC, is based on a dubious interpretation of Diogenes Laërtius, who says, “When [Socrates] was gone, [Plato] joined Cratylus the Heracleitean and Hermogenes, who philosophized in the manner of Parmenides. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, [Plato] went to Euclides in Megara.” However, as Debra Nails argues, the text does not state that Plato left for Megara immediately after joining Cratylus and Hermogenes.^[24] In his Seventh Letter, Plato notes that his coming of age coincided with the taking of power by the Thirty, remarking, “But a youth under the age of twenty made himself a laughingstock if he attempted to enter the political arena.” Thus, Nails dates Plato’s birth to 424/423.^[25]

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).^[26] Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BC as the year of Plato’s birth.^[22][23] The grammarian Apollodorus of Athens in his Chronicles argues that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad.^[19] Both the Suda and Sir Thomas Browne also claimed he was born during the 88th Olympiad.^[18][27] Another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping: an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy.^[28]

Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of the Academy).^[13] The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston,^[29] and presumably brothers of Plato, though some have argued they were uncles.^[e] In a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato.^[31]

Ariston appears to have died in Plato’s childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult.^[32] Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother’s brother,^[33] who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens.^[34] Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty.^[35] Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes’ second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides.^[36]

In contrast to his reticence about himself, Plato often introduced his distinguished relatives into his dialogues or referred to them with some precision. In addition to Adeimantus and Glaucon in the Republic, Charmides has a dialogue named after him; and Critias speaks in both Charmides and Protagoras.^[37] These and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Plato’s family tree. According to Burnet, “the opening scene of the Charmides is a glorification of the whole [family] connection … Plato’s dialogues are not only a memorial to Socrates but also the happier days of his own family.”^[38]

Name

The fact that the philosopher in his maturity called himself Platon is indisputable, but the origin of this name remains mysterious. Platon is a nickname from the adjective platýs (πλατύς) ‘broad’. Although Platon was a fairly common name (31 instances are known from Athens alone),^[39] the name does not occur in Plato’s known family line.^[40] The sources of Diogenes Laërtius account for this by claiming that his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, dubbed him “broad” on account of his chest and shoulders, or that Plato derived his name from the breadth of his eloquence, or his wide forehead.^[41][42] While recalling a moral lesson about frugal living Seneca mentions the meaning of Plato’s name: “His very name was given him because of his broad chest.”^[43]

His true name was supposedly Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς), meaning ‘best reputation’.^[f] According to Diogenes Laërtius, he was named after his grandfather, as was common in Athenian society.^[44] But there is only one inscription of an Aristocles, an early archon of Athens in 605/4 BC. There is no record of a line from Aristocles to Plato’s father, Ariston. Recently a scholar has argued that even the name Aristocles for Plato was a much later invention.^[45] However, another scholar claims that “there is good reason for not dismissing [the idea that Aristocles was Plato’s given name] as a mere invention of his biographers”, noting how prevalent that account is in our sources.^[40]

Education

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”.^[46] 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.^[47] Plato invokes Damon many times in the Republic. Plato was a wrestler, and Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian games.^[48] Plato had also attended courses of philosophy; before meeting Socrates, he first became acquainted with Cratylus and the Heraclitean doctrines.^[49]

Ambrose believed that Plato met Jeremiah in Egypt and was influenced by his ideas. Augustine initially accepted this claim, but later rejected it, arguing in The City of God that “Plato was born a hundred years after Jeremiah prophesied.”^{[50][need quotation to verify]}

Later life and death

Plato may have travelled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt, and Cyrene.^[51] Plato’s own statement was that he visited Italy and Sicily at the age of forty and was disgusted by the sensuality of life there. Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus.^[52] This land was named after Academus, an Attic hero in Greek mythology. In historic Greek times it was adorned with oriental plane and olive plantations^[53][54]

The Academy was a large enclosure of ground about six stadia (a total of between a kilometer and a half mile) outside of Athens proper. One story is that the name of the Academy comes from the ancient hero, Academus; still another story is that the name came from a supposed former owner of the plot of land, an Athenian citizen whose name was (also) Academus; while yet another account is that it was named after a member of the army of Castor and Pollux, an Arcadian named Echedemus.^[55] The Academy operated until it was destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BC. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.^[56][57]

Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of the city of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysius.^[58] During this first trip Dionysius’s brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato’s disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato almost faced death, but he was sold into slavery.^[g] Anniceris, a Cyrenaic philosopher, subsequently bought Plato’s freedom for twenty minas,^[60] and sent him home. After Dionysius’s death, according to Plato’s Seventh Letter, Dion requested Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysius II and guide him to become a philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato’s teachings, but he became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysius expelled Dion and kept Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysius and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

According to Seneca, Plato died at the age of 81 on the same day he was born.^[61] The Suda indicates that he lived to 82 years,^[18] while Neanthes claims an age of 84.^[19] A variety of sources have given accounts of his death. One story, based on a mutilated manuscript,^[62] suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a young Thracian girl played the flute to him.^[63] Another tradition suggests Plato died at a wedding feast. The account is based on Diogenes Laërtius’s reference to an account by Hermippus, a third-century Alexandrian.^[64] According to Tertullian, Plato simply died in his sleep.^[64]

Plato owned an estate at Iphistiadae, which by will he left to a certain youth named Adeimantus, presumably a younger relative, as Plato had an elder brother or uncle by this name.