Plato's Philosophy: Historical, Sociocultural, and Intellectual Context

Plato: Life and Context

Historical Context

Plato was born in Athens in 427 BC. The Greek polis, located around the Aegean Sea, occupied the continent, peninsula, islands, and extended throughout the Mediterranean, including northern Africa, the shores of Ionia, southern Italy, and Spain. Sparta and Athens were the most powerful and influential poleis.

Age of Pericles

The Medical War against the Persians occurred from 490 to 454 BC. This period saw the rise of Pericles' democracy in Athens and the supremacy of Athens through the Delian League.

Decline of Athens

The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and their allies took place between 431 and 404 BC, resulting in a Spartan victory. This was followed by the Government of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens, the return of democracy, an alliance with Sparta, and the final defeat in 362 BC. The rise of Macedonia and Hellenism followed.

Sociocultural Context

Greek society was primarily agrarian, with a strong maritime trade. Slavery was prevalent, and the city was divided into citizens, foreigners, slaves, and barbarians. Athens was a democratic society, while Sparta was militaristic. Aristocratic manners and tone were common.

Cultural Splendor

This era was marked by cultural achievements, including tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides, sculpture by Praxiteles, and classical architecture.

Philosophical Context

Key schools of thought included Rhetoric, the Sophists (Protagoras and Gorgias), mathematics (Eudoxo), and philosophy (Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum). The opposition between physis (nature) and nomos (convention) was a central theme. The search for truth (objectivism) contrasted with skepticism (relativism).

Plato's Thought

Plato was disillusioned by the politics of his time. He believed that the corruption in political life stemmed from Sophist skepticism. If there is no truth, only opinion, and all opinions are equal, then policy is based on violence or economic power. Plato sided with Socrates, who argued that reason could lead to truth, enabling science that is universal, necessary, and immutable.

While Socrates focused on morality, Plato believed that the human capacity for science extended beyond the realm of what ought to be. He sought to demonstrate how humans could obtain scientific knowledge. If science consists of universal, necessary, and immutable claims, then there must be universal, necessary, and immutable objects. Since these objects do not exist in the sensible world, they must exist in another world, the world of ideas. Thus, there are two worlds: the sensible world where humans live, and the world of ideas. The sensible world is merely a copy of the world of ideas.

How do humans access scientific knowledge if its objects are not of this world? Humans are composed of a body and a soul. The soul is spiritual, eternal, and has always lived in the world of ideas. Although it has forgotten this upon joining the body, it can remember by seeing copies of the ideas in the sensible world.

This conception of the human being also influences Plato's ethics. If the authentic human being is the rational soul, and the body is merely its prison, then humans must live rationally, with the rational soul directing the material aspects of the body: the irascible and concupiscible souls.

Plato's conception of the state reflects this. Society is grounded in human nature and is an extension of the individual human body. It is composed of three estates, each with its own duties. However, Plato believed that achieving this ideal state was nearly impossible. He also believed that individuals could only achieve virtue within a just state.