Platos Influence in Western Culture Essay

Plato (429-347 B. C. E) is seen by many as iodine of the greatest philosophers of the classical period, if non of all time. Coming from a pixilated Athenian family it is the belief that he followed and further flummoxed philosophical system from his mentor Socrates. His first works are seen as the most trust-worthy accounts of Socrates life, and after his death Plato would pass to develop Socrates works with the help from Platos most famous student, Aristotle.During this time Plato would develop his most famous work The Republic. This would notably, along with many of his later works, live his ideas of politics, ethics, psychology, and metaphysics into an interlinked philosophy. Platos dialogues present much of the ideas founded and developed by the trio, especially in one of his most famous dialogues, The Apology of Socrates Trial.It is from these experiences that with the help of his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle, Plato would develop the philosophical foundation s of Western culture. When asked to define the philosophical style of Plato most people would be quick to label him as a semipolitical philosopher, this is due to his views on social implication and the idea of an ideal state or regime. Plato was an elitist political thinker in the fact that he said that notwithstanding those with reason, experience and wisdom should govern.The way he put it was Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities ordain pass on no rest from evils, nor, I think, will the human race. By saying this Plato re-enforces his thought that only those with great wisdom should become leading and politicians.His belief was that cities will remain evil and tyrant until their received kings either began to think and philosophize, or philosophers were to take rule over the kingdom. Platos theory was that these new superior leaders would be seen as those who love the sight of truth. And from this they would then create a perfect city much like the one which he outlined in The Republic, which begins with the city being run by an aristocracy, whose virtue is wisdom, lacks honour and because of this gets replaced by a militant government, which had the virtue of honour but also has the vice of poverty.This too is then overthrown by an elitist group whose wealth corrects the poverty of former militant government but also brings the vice of greed. The elitists are once again replaced by an elected democracy whose vision of equality and fairness corrects the former greed but brings the mistake of to much freedom resulting in anarchy. Finally, the movement of democracy brings off the order of a tyranny, which establishes peace through cruelty and oppression.It is from this cycle of inevitable and more disturbingly logical political change that Plato disliked the idea of democracy, stating that the average person is selfish, envious and stupid, which leads democracy to be highly corruptible and can cause it to open gates to potential dictators. Democracy was seen as a government dependant on chance which for success must be mixed with competent leadership.The belief was that to run a state a government politicians compulsory expert rulers and not an average unintelligent citizen who may be elected in by accident. A political decision needs good judicial decision and because of this leaders must be carefully selected and prepared by means of extensive training. Because of this theory Plato would influence Aristotle, the English shaping and the founding fathers of America to develop a mixed republic that combines democracy, aristocracy and kingship.After the death of Socrates Plato returned to Athens and from there founded a school knows as the Academy, which is where we ge t the English word academician from and notwithstanding to this day call institutes of higher learning academies. It was around 387 B. C. E in which Plato bought land outside of Athens to set up his school of philosophy there, which many see as the Western worlds first university. The aim of this academy was to train future politicians of Greek states, and studies pore primarily on philosophy and mathematics.The academy would continue to educate for more than 900 years after its founding even surviving the Roman invasion on Greece in 146 BCE, at long last though the academy would close when the Christian Emperor Justinian closed it in 529 A. D. Later though in Florence sometime during the mid-15th century the Accademia Platonica would be formed by a group of scholars who met under the Platonic philosophy professor Marsilio Ficino, to discuss philosophy and the study of classical politics.Finally in 1926 a modern academy of Athens would be built and labelled as Greeces national academy. Staying true to its original routes to this day the academy still focuses on the study of liberal arts and science. It is from this initial establishment of his original academy that the legacy was able to pass on through hundreds of years to the point where the tradition is still alive to this date. Had it not been for Platos founding of the academy, the education process would most likely be very different than from that of which it is as we know it today.In Platos last and monthlong work entitled the Laws, he begins by asking Who is given credit for laying down the laws? As opposed to his earlier work in the Republic, which focused on what the best possible state might be like and what experiences and adjustments must be made to achieve that status, the Laws rather focuses on the idea of creating a practicable, yet ideal form of government in a much more realistic way than the former. The characters in this work deal with designing rules to run into real world problem s and human affairs.Unfortunately though, the dialogue went unfinished at 345 pages at the time of Platos death in 347 B. C. E. The incomplete work of the Laws was still able to outline many questions and themes including, divine revelation, divine law and lawgiving the character reference of intelligence in lawgiving the relations of philosophy, religion, and politics the role of music, exercise and dance in education natural law and natural well(p) just to name a few.Once again it was because of Platos teaching of his theorys and egress of his dialogues that this theory was also able to spread so quickly through Western culture and even play a role in the way we choose laws to this date. Overall it appears that without Platos influence and writings the Western world and its culture would have been drastically different from what is the current norm in society.Political structure, academic education and formation of laws would all be heavily affected to the point in which many k ey things that one would see vital in todays society may not even exist such as the use of a constitution or an academic university, since it was Plato who established and helped spread the development of such institutions. With Socrates and Aristotle, Plato not only helped develop the foundation of Western culture, but he steered it down the right path as well.