Life Purpose and Substance in Plato’s Philosophy

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What is life? I still remember that a friend of mine used to raise the same question when she was absolutely frustrated and even lost her passion for life after a failure in her career due to her credulity. She asked disappointedly: “What is life? Without me, what will life be?”. At that time, life, for her, was no more no less the miseries; and with a pessimistic eye, she viewed life as dark as black, whereas happy people usually view life as beautiful as pink.

She said she no longer trusted anybody because life had given her a profound lesson about trust and deceit, and it was not true that we reaped as we sowed. In fact, life might be nice for this one but might be cruel for another one.

Very often, I hear many people say: “That’s life” whenever alluding to something that never contains only joys and happiness; because, as what they think, life is virtually a battle in which everybody has to struggle for survival and self-defense, or else life will be trampling on them. Also, they say: “That’s life! In order to adapt well to it and to be successful, you should get a little of enthusiasm, a little of honesty plus a little of cunning”.

In the eyes of my little twenty-year-old sister, life is a fortune that each person, no matter how rich or poor, does possess. Since her life is her personal fortune, she has tried to use it as meaningful as possible; she may spend all summer days at an orphan home to teach the orphans how to read, how to write; she may stay for hours with our grandparents to tell them some funny stories about her life as a volunteer teacher or chatting with her friends about what she has done so far to understand the meaning of her life. As she has said: “We do not know what life means until we find out what we are meant to be in life.”

Maybe she was right, but life is not going the way we want it to; in contrary we are bound ourselves to the circle of life by the stress of existence. Although our lives are becoming boring with the same works repeated every single day: 8 hours for working, 8 hours for sleeping, 2 hours for eating, 6 hours for some miscellaneous businesses; we can’t help engaging in it because as a livelihood, we need food to survive; we need clothes to keep us warm, and we need shelters to live in.

However, life must have been more than that! As complicated as inherent attributes in a human being’s character, we never stop thinking and wondering why we were born into life; what we mean to this life; why we have to bear all sufferings; why we should battle for the ephemeral things such as fame and fortune and what we get ultimately after we die… Consequently, our lives are frequently filled up with a bunch of questions that we have fumbled for the answers.

Plato was born in Athens, Greece, in 427 B.C. and died in Athens, Greece, in 347 B.C. This time period was a couple of hundred years after the beginning of the Olympic Games and the start of alphabetic writing, and a hundred or so years before the uprising of Alexander the Great, who would conquer the known world. The center of Western civilization during these times was Athens, a city-state and a democracy. This basically means Athens supported itself and the lands around it and had a somewhat organized government.

The citizens of Athens governed the city, which is a big reason for its success. Also, Athenians were mostly intellectuals and preferred using their minds instead of their bodies. Whenever an argument came up, instead of physically fighting like many of their contemporaries would do, they discussed and debated the issue until a conclusion or agreement was found.

In the same aspect, power was not given to the greatest fighter or the strongest warrior but instead to those that could master words and provoke deeper thought. Because of this, many began to learn polemics, or the art of argument. These skilled debaters, also known as rhetoricians, would argue almost any case and teach their skills to anyone for a fee. These Sophists, as they were called, were the Western world’s first professors, more interested in practical subjects than with metaphysical thought. Sophists were the ones that indirectly began moral philosophy. They did this by challenging the views of the common people, which brought about strict examination of the moral standards that were present in that day. One of the most famous people falling into the category of a sophist is Socrates, who will be discussed later.

As one can see, the age in which Plato lived was one of intellect and retrospection. In addition to the age in which Plato lived, there were many more personal events that happened in Plato’s life. However, one must keep in mind most of these facts are assumptions or logical guesses, most of which can not be proven. These assumptions are temporarily going to be presented as fact, though they are not. Plato’s real name was Aristocles; he probably got the nickname “Plato,” which means broad shoulders, from his broad shoulders acquired through wrestling training.

Plato was the youngest son of Ariston and Perictione, who both came from wealthy families that had lived in Athens for many generations. As a young man, Plato studied under Cratylus, who was a student of Heraclitus, the philosopher that believed the most basic substance is fire and that everything is constantly changing. Plato became friends with Socrates, due mostly to the fact that Socrates was a friend of Plato’s uncle.

From the ages of about 19 to 24, Plato fought in the Peloponnesian War. Wanting to be involved in politics rather than the military, Plato retired from the War in 404 B.C. The following year, there was a restoration of democracy to Athens, which gave Plato the hope of joining the politics in Athens. However, Athens’ politics weren’t as ethically sound as Plato had hoped, and with the death of his teacher and friend Socrates in 399 B.C., Plato decided never to get involved with politics in Athens. After Socrates’ death, Plato traveled to Egypt, Sicily, and Italy.

While in Italy, Plato learned of the works of Pythagoras, which allowed Plato to better appreciate mathematics. Upon returning to Athens, Plato rejoined the military, where he received honors of bravery, and it was during this time that he began to write his dialogues. After his service, Plato founded the Academy in hopes of producing better statesmen to govern the peoples of the world and, probably, better mathematicians. Plato put much importance on mathematics, as is shown in what was written over the door of the Academy: “Let no one unversed in geometry enter here.” After this point in his life, little is known or can be guessed about concerning Plato’s experiences.

One of the most significant influences in life of Plato and the molding of Plato’s thoughts is Socrates. Most of what is known about Socrates is what is gotten out of Plato’s dialogues and by the writings of Socrates’ contemporaries because Socrates wrote nothing himself. Socrates was an excellent debater, one of the best of his times. He argued a lot, and he did it well, which were the characteristics of a true Sophist. However, the main thing that separated him from the other Sophists is that he argued not simply for the sake of arguing, but to improve the world’s view on certain issues, to do something important. He argued over the more sacred things in life, such as beauty, character, goodness, and knowledge.

The most well-known contribution of Socrates to the world is his method of breaking arguments down. This Socratic, or dialectic, the method involves continually attacking an argument with questions that refute it until it is no longer able to be refuted, which brings about a stable conclusion. This method helps to get rid of of misconceptions, which ultimately brings the person whose argument is being questioned to a better understanding of their own views on certain subjects. Socrates was a man of a character. He was not prideful or egotistical, meaning he didn’t go around arguing for the sole purpose of making others feel inferior and stupid.

He was a strong defender of justice and was very willing to risk his own self to bring about justice, as was proven by his death. To sum Socrates’ character up, one could say that he was able to properly mold his actions to fully represent his beliefs, which must have been close to the truth because of Socrates’ very analytical nature.

Plato’s beliefs and theories on the many different aspects of life are begotten from his writings. One of the most significant theories of Plato’s is the Theory of Forms. Considered by some to be just metaphysical speculation, the Theory of Forms tries to explain perception and experience in relation to what Plato calls Forms. Forms are things that do not physically exist in the world, but things that exist through physical things of the world. Plato believed everything physical in this world could be defined by the Forms that it represents. For example, a pancake could represent the forms of circularity or softness.

Plato believed Forms are eternal, as they are not limited by the physical boundaries of the things they are represented in. He also believed the Forms are unchanging, unmoving, and indivisible. Another one of Plato’s famous concepts were his two-realms concept. Plato believed that there are two realms; one realm deals with our sensory perceptions, and the other deals with the absolute truth, eternity, and perfection.

This belief is derived from Plato’s writing entitled “The Cave,” which is found in his Republic dialogue. He relates the first realm, the one in which we live, too bounded people in a cave, and the second realm to the brilliance outside the cave, stating that if we could only unbind ourselves and build up the want to, we could travel to the second realm. Another one of Plato’s theories were the Theory of the Divided Line, which contrasted true knowledge with opinion or belief. He strongly believed that true knowledge is unaffected by opinion, that there is a truth that is absolute.

References

Cherry, Kevin M. (2006) The Unity of Plato’s “Gorgias”: Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life.. Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 33 Issue 3, p. 315-318.

Drag Jr., John., (2004) Plato Learning Life Science. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, Vol. 11 Issue 4, p. 41-42.

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Life Purpose and Substance in Plato’s Philosophy

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