Platons Leben

Biographie

Platon (428 - 348 v. u. Z.)
Der griechische Philosoph Platon stammte aus vornehmer Familie. Längere Reisen führten ihn u. a. nach Sizilien. Er gründete in Athen seine eigene Schule, die Akademie.

Platon kannte Sokrates von früher Jugend auf und stand ihm in den letzten Jahren vor dessen Hinrichtung sehr nahe.

In fortgeschrittenem Alter reiste er noch zweimal nach Syrakus auf Sizilien (366 und 361), wo er den jungen Tyrannen Dionysios II unterrichtete. Vielleicht hoffte er, auf Sizilien seine Vorstellungen vom idealen Staat realisieren zu können.

Alle von Platon veröffentlichten Schriften sind überliefert, zudem eine Reihe von Texten, die ihm fälschlicherweise zugeschrieben worden sind. Seine Schriften sind mit Ausnahme der Apologie (Die Verteidigung des Sokrates) und einer Anzahl Briefen als Dialoge abgefaßt. In allen Dialogen (mit Ausnahme der Nomoi) tritt Sokrates auf, zumeist als derjenige, der das Gespräch leitet und das letzte Wort behält.
http://www.philosophenlexikon.de/platon.htm

Plato and Platonism
Plato (Platon, "the broad shouldered") was born at Athens in 428 or 427 B.C. He came of an aristocratic and wealthy family, although some writers represented him as having felt the stress of poverty. Doubtless he profited by the educational facilities afforded young men of his class at Athens. When about twenty years old he met Socrates, and the intercourse, which lasted eight or ten years, between master and pupil was the decisive influence in Plato's philosophical career. Before meeting Socrates he had, very likely, developed an interest in the earlier philosophers, and in schemes for the betterment of political conditions at Athens. At an early age he devoted himself to poetry. All these interests, however, were absorbed in the pursuit of wisdom to which, under the guidance of Socrates, he ardently devoted himself. After the death of Socrates he joined a group of the Socratic disciples gathered at Megara under the leadership of Euclid. Later he travelled in Egypt, Magna Graecia, and Sicily. His profit from these journeys has been exagerrated by some biographers. There can, however, be no doubt that in Italy he studied the doctrines of the Pythagoreans. His three journeys to Sicily were, apparently, to influence the older and younger Dionysius in favor of his ideal system of government. But in this he failed, incurring the enmity of the two rulers, was cast into prison, and sold as a slave. Ransomed by a friend, he returned to his school of philosophy at Athens. After his return from his third journey to Sicily, he devoted himself unremittingly to writing and teaching until his eightieth year, when, as Cicero tells us, he died in the midst of his intellectual labors ("scribens est mortuus") ("De Senect.", v, 13).
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12159a.htm

Plato
Richard Hines - hinesric@wsunix.wsu.edu
The most famous of Socrates's pupils was an aristocratic young man named Plato. After the death of Socrates, Plato carried on much of his former teacher's work and eventually founded his own school, the Academy, in 385. The Academy would become in its time the most famous school in the classical world, and its most famous pupil was Aristotle.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/PLATO.HTM

Plato
Plato, 427?-347 B.C., Greek philosopher. In 407 B.C. he became a pupil and friend of Socrates. After living for a time at the Syracuse court, Plato founded (c.387 B.C.) near Athens the most influential school of the ancient world, the Academy, where he taught until his death. His most famous pupil there was Aristotle. Plato's extant work is in the form of epistles and dialogues, divided according to the probable order of composition. The early, or Socratic, dialogues, e.g., the Apology, Meno, and Gorgias, present Socrates in conversations that illustrate his major ideas-the unity of virtue and knowledge and of virtue and happiness. They also contain Plato's moving account of the last days and death of Socrates. Plato's goal in dialogues of the middle years, e.g., the Republic, Phaedo, Symposium, and Timaeus, was to show the rational relationship between the soul, the state, and the cosmos. The later dialogues, e.g., the Laws and Parmenides, contain treatises on law, mathematics, technical philosophic problems, and natural science. Plato regarded the rational soul as immortal, and he believed in a world soul and a Demiurge, the creator of the physical world. He argued for the independent reality of Ideas, or Forms, as the immutable archetypes of all temporal phenomena and as the only guarantee of ethical standards and of objective scientific knowledge. Virtue consists in the harmony of the human soul with the universe of Ideas, which assure order, intelligence, and pattern to a world in constant flux.
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/plato/bio_plato.html

Plato wrote 26 dialogues on various philosophical themes, with Socrates as the main character in most of them. Plato's theory of knowledge is found in the Republic, particularly in his discussion of the image of the divided line and the myth of the cave. In the former, Plato distinguishes between two levels of awareness: opinion and knowledge. Claims or assertions about the physical or visible world, including both commonsense observations and the propositions of science, are opinions only. Some of these opinions are well founded; some are not; but none of them counts as genuine knowledge. The higher level of awareness is knowledge, because there reason, rather than sense experience, is involved. Reason, properly used, results in intellectual insights that are certain, and the objects of these rational insights are the abiding universals, the eternal Forms or substances that constitute the real world.

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/PLATO.HTM

Plato
Mark Johnson - gt2618a@prism.gatech.edu
Plato was a Greek who was born in 428 BC. He was taught by philosopher Socrates and acquired many of his philosophies. He met the philosopher in boyhood and through many years of teaching he developed a deep respect for him. He also wrote a lot about Socrates because of this respect that he had for him. He is also known for being the mentor of Aristotle. In 387, Plato founded the Megarian Institute of Philosophy. The school primarily focused on the areas of philosophy and sciences. Plato spent the majority of the rest of his life presiding over the academy. He was the founder of Platonism, a philosophy named for himself. He went on to be one of the most famous Greek philosophers.

Plato took many of his ideas about Rhetoric from his mentor, Socrates. Both he and Socrates felt that rhetoric is most often used for selfish reasons. This is shown through Plato's work, Gorgias Gorgias says that rhetoric is "the queen of all arts" while Socrates argues that rhetoric is simply "a knack for humoring the audience."
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/rhetoric/figures/plato.html

Platon, 428-348 av. J.-C
Platon appartient à une des plus illustres familles d'Athènes. Son nom d'Aristoclès est très tôt changé en celui de Platon (de platus, large), surnom qui lui est sans doute attribué à cause de la largeur de ses épaules ou de son front. Il étudie les lettres, les mathématiques, la musique et la gymnastique.

Sa rencontre avec Socrate, en 408, est décisive et l'amène à renoncer aux arts pour s'adonner à la philosophie, mais toute son oeuvre gardera de cette première formation une très forte imprégnation poétique. Toute sa vie, il conservera pour son premier maître une grande admiration.
http://www.bnf.fr/web-bnf/pedagos/dossitsm/b-platon.htm

Plato (c. 429-347 BC)
Plato was born in Athens of an aristocratic family. He recounts in the Seventh Letter, which, if genuine, is part of his autobiography, that the spectacle of the politics of his day brought him to the conclusion that only philosophers could be fit to rule. After the death of Socrates in 399, he travelled extensively. During this period he made his first trip to Sicily, with whose internal politics he became much entangled. He visited Sicily at least three times in all and may have been richly subsidised by Dionysius. On return from Sicily he began formal teaching at what became the Academy.
Plato is generally regarded as the inventor of the philosphical argument as we know it, and many would claim that the depth and range of his thought have never been surpassed.

http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/phil/filosofer/platon.html

Platon, biographie (Philosophia)
D'origine aristocratique, Platon chercha toute sa vie à jouer un rôle politique, d'abord direct puis indirect, comme conseiller ou législateur, soit à Athènes, soit même à l'étranger, notamment en Sicile. Activité "philosophique" et activité "politique" étaient donc naturellement indissociables chez ce citoyen d'une Athènes qui restait une démocratie autonome, chez ce disciple d'un Socrate qui passait l'essentiel de son temps à discuter avec ses concitoyens dans des lieux publics ou dans la demeure de riches particuliers. Platon n'était ni un "professeur" de philosophie, ni un écrivain qui pratiquait ce genre littéraire aujourd'hui qualifié de "philosophie", mais un Athénien qui voulait réformer la vie politique de sa cité en accordant le pouvoir non à la richesse ou à la force militaire, mais au savoir ; projet qui l'amenait à proposer un nouveau système d'éducation culminant en la contemplation des réalités véritables (Les réalités véritables sont ce que Platon nomme eidos ou idea, et que l'on traduit habituellement par Idées ou Formes intelligibles), perçues non par les sens mais par la partie la plus haute de l'âme.
http://perso.club-internet.fr/proclus/platon_bio.html

Platon
Né à Athènes en 428 av. JC, décédé à Athènes en 347 av. JC.
Dans sa jeunesse, Platon semble avoir été lancé dans une carrière politique, mais les excès de la vie politique athénienne l'ont convaincu d'abandonner ses ambitions politiques. En particulier, l'exécution de Socrate en 399 av JC l'avait profondément impressionné.

Platon quitta Athènes après la mort de son maître Socrate et il voyagea en Egypte, en Sicile et en Italie. Là il prit connaissance de l'oeuvre de Pythagore et en vint à apprécier la valeur des mathématiques. A son retour à Athènes il fonda, sur les terres qui avaient appartenu à Academos, une école qui fut appelée l'Académie. Au dessus de la porte de l'Académie était écrit:

Que nul ne pénètre s'il n'est géomètre.

Platon insista sur l'idée de 'démonstration' et la nécessité de définitions précises et d'hypothèses claires. Cela constitua la base de l'approche systématique des mathématiques par Euclide.

L'Académie de Platon prospéra jusqu'en 529 ap JC, date à laquelle elle fut fermée par l'empereur chrétien Justinien qui estimait qu'elle était un établissement payen.
http://bib1.ulb.ac.be/coursmath/bio/platon.htm