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Ariston
and Perictione, the parents of Plato, came from famous wealthy
families who had lived in
Athens
for
hundreds of years. While still a young man, Plato’s father died
and his mother remarried, her second husband was Pyrilampes, and
it was mostly in Pyrilampes' house that Plato was grew up. During
his youth, it is believed that Plato was friends with Socrates,
for Plato's mother's brother Charmides was a dear friend of
Socrates.
Plato
was in the military from 409 BC to 404 BC but his ambition was a
career in politics. In
403 BC there was a restoration of democracy at
Athens
and Plato
had great hopes that he would be able to enter politics. However,
the pressures of Athenian political life persuaded him to give up
his political ambitions. In particular, the execution of Socrates
in 399 BC deeply affected him and from then one he was finished
with politics in
Athens
.
Plato
left
Athens
after
Socrates was killed and traveled into
Egypt
,
Sicily
and
Italy
. In
Egypt
he
learned about a water clock and then later brought it into
Greece
. In
Italy
he
discovered the work of Pythagoras and came to appreciate the value
of mathematics. This was an event of great importance since from
the ideas Plato gained from the disciples of Pythagoras he formed
his idea:
...
that the reality which scientific thought is seeking must be
expressible in mathematical terms, mathematics being the most
precise and definite kind of thinking of which we are capable. The
significance of this idea for the development of science from the
first beginnings to the present day has been immense.
In
about 387 BC, on land that had belonged to Academos, a school of
learning situated in the grove of Academos was named the Academy.
Plato headed his Academy in
Athens
, an
institution dedicated to research and instruction in philosophy
and the sciences, from 387 BC until his death. He set up the
Academy because of his earlier experiences in politics. He was
disappointed with the standards set forth by those in public
office and he hoped to properly prepare, in his Academy, young men
who would become statesmen. However, giving them the values that
Plato believed in, Plato believed that these men would be able to
improve the political leadership of the cities of
Greece
.
Plato's
main contributions are in philosophy, mathematics and science.
However, it is not as easy as one might expect to discover Plato's
philosophical views. The reason for this is that Plato wrote no
systematic treatise giving his views, rather he wrote a number of
dialogues (about 30), which are written in the form of
conversations.
Plato
thought that mathematical objects were perfect forms. For example
a line is an object having length but no breadth. No matter how
thin we make a line in the world of our senses, it will not be
this perfect mathematical form, for it will always have breadth.
In the Phaedo Plato talks of objects in the real world trying to
be like their perfect forms. By this he is thinking of thinner and
thinner lines, which are tending in the limit to the mathematical
concept of a line but, of course, never reaching it.
The
instance taken there is the mathematical relation of equality, and
the contrast is drawn between the absolute equality we think of in
mathematics and the rough, approximate equality which is what we
have to be content with in dealing with objects with our senses.
Again in the Republic, one of Plato’s works, he talks of
geometrical diagrams as imperfect imitations of the perfect
mathematical objects that they represent.
Plato's
contributions to the theories of education are shown by the way
that he ran the Academy and his idea of what constitutes an
educated person. He also contributed to logic and legal
philosophy, including rhetoric.
Although
Plato made no important mathematical discoveries himself, his
belief that mathematics provides the finest training for the mind
was extremely important in the development of the subject.
Plato focused on the idea of 'proof' and insisted on
accurate definitions and clear hypotheses. This laid the
foundations for
Euclid
's
systematic approach to mathematics.
In
other mathematics Plato's name is associated to the Platonic
solids. In the Timaeus there is a mathematical construction of the
elements (earth, fire, air, and water), in which the cube,
tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron are given as the shapes
of the atoms of earth, fire, air, and water. The fifth Platonic
solid, the dodecahedron, is Plato's model for the whole universe.
Plato's
beliefs as regards the universe were that the stars, planets, Sun
and Moon move round the Earth in crystalline spheres. The sphere
of the Moon was closest to the Earth, then the sphere of the Sun,
then Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and the furthest
away was the sphere of the stars. He believed that the Moon shines
by reflected sunlight.
Plato's Academy flourished until 529 AD that then was closed down
by the Christian Emperor Justinian who claimed it was a pagan
establishment. Having
survived for 900 years, the Academy is the longest that any
university had remained in operation1.
Reference:
O'Connor,
J. J.; Robertson, E F. "Plato".
Jan. 1999 <
Go See Plato
>.
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