The Plato Republic

Plato, the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, was born in Athens in 428 or 427 B.C.E. to an aristocratic family. He studied under Socrates, who appears as a character in many of his dialogues. He attended Socrates' trial and that traumatic experience may have led to his attempt to design an ideal society. Following the death of Socrates he travelled widely in search of learning. After twelve years he returned to Athens and founded his Academy, one of the earliest organized schools in western civilization. Among Plato's pupils was Aristotle. Some of Plato's other influences were Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Parmenides.
Literature book the Plato Republic, Plato stand with Scorates and aritstotle as one of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition of the west. He came from a family that had long played a prominent part in athenian politics, and it would have been natural for him to follow the same course. He declined to do so, however, disguted by the violence and corruption of athenian political life, and sickened sepecially by the execution in 399 of his friend and teacher, socrates. Inspired by Socrates' inquires into the nature of ethcial standard, plato sought a cure for the ills of society not in politics but in philosphy and arrived at his fundamental and lasting conviction that those ills would never cease until philosophers became rulees or rulers philosophers.

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them

Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.[5] Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and mathematics. Plato is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

At an uncertain date in the early fourth century b.c he founded in Athens the Academy, the first permanent institution devoted to philosophical research and teaching, and the prototype of all westen universities. he travelled extensively, notably to sicily adviser to dionysius II ,ruler of syracuse.

Plato wrote over twenty philosophical diaglogues, and there are also ectant under his name thirteen letters, whose genuineness is keenly disputed. His liteary activity extended over perhaps half a century : few other writers have exploited so effectively the grace and precision, the flexibility and power, of Greek prose