Plato was born between 428 and 423 BC into an
aristocratic and influential
Athenian family; through his mother,
Perictione, he was a descendant of
Solon, a statesman credited with laying the foundations of
Athenian democracy.
Diogenes Laertius asserts that Plato is a nickname that alludes to his robust figure, and that his birth name was
Aristocles (), meaning 'best reputation', but this is widely regarded as false by modern scholarship. Plato had two brothers,
Glaucon and
Adeimantus, both of whom appear in the
Republic, and also a sister, Potone, and a half brother,
Antiphon. During Plato's childhood, Athens was involved in the
Peloponnesian War against Sparta. His older brothers,
Adeimantus and
Glaucon, distinguished themselves at the battle of Megara in 409 BC. Despite the war, Plato and his brothers, like all male citizens of Athens, received a traditional education in
gymnastics and
music. According to the ancient writers, there was a tradition that Plato's favorite employment in his youthful years was
poetry: he wrote poems,
dithyrambs at first, and afterwards
lyric poems and tragedies (a
tetralogy), but abandoned his early passion and burnt his poems when he met Socrates and turned to philosophy. There are also some epigrams attributed to Plato, but these are now thought by some scholars to be spurious.
Socrates In his youth, Plato first encountered
Socrates, who would become his teacher and greatest source of inspiration, initially in the company of other Athenian boys in the
Palaestra, such as is depicted with
Lysis and
Menexenus, who discuss philosophy with Socrates in the
Lysis, but he soon would become a member of Socrates' inner circle, meeting with Socrates and his other followers. Socrates, along with the
sophists of his day, challenged the prevailing focus of
Early Greek philosophy on Natural philosophy, and investigated questions of ethics and politics, examining the ideas of his interlocutors with a series of questioning called the
Socratic method. Socrates' immense influence on Plato is clearly borne out in Plato's dialogues: Plato never speaks in his own voice in
his dialogues; every dialogue except the
Laws features Socrates, although many dialogues, including the
Timaeus and
Statesman, feature him speaking only rarely.
Leo Strauss notes that Socrates' reputation for
irony casts doubt on whether Plato's Socrates is expressing sincere beliefs.
Xenophon's
Memorabilia and
Aristophanes's
The Clouds seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from the one Plato paints. Aristotle attributes a different doctrine with respect to Forms to Plato and Socrates. Aristotle suggests that Socrates' idea of forms can be discovered through investigation of the natural world, unlike Plato's Forms that exist beyond and outside the ordinary range of human understanding. The
Socratic problem concerns how to reconcile these various accounts. The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars.
Thirty tyrants and Trial of Socrates According to the
Seventh Letter, whose authenticity has been disputed, as Plato came of age, he imagined for himself a life in public affairs. In 404, Sparta defeated Athens at the conclusion of the Peloponessian war, leading to the election of the
Thirty Tyrants, which included two of Plato's relatives, Critias and Charmides. Plato himself was invited to join the administration, but declined, and quickly became disillusioned by the atrocities committed by the Thirty, especially when they tried to implicate Socrates in their seizure of the democratic general
Leon of Salamis for
summary execution. In 403 BC, the democracy was restored after the regrouping of the democrats in exile, who entered the city through the
Piraeus and met the forces of the Thirty at the
Battle of Munychia, where both Critias and Charmides were killed. In 401 BC the restored democrats raided
Eleusis and killed the remaining oligarchic supporters, suspecting them of hiring mercenaries. As depicted in the many dialogues that are set between 401 and 399 BC, life largely returned to normal in Athens. However,
the prosecution of Socrates by Anytus put an end to Plato's plans for a political career.
Later philosophical development After the death of Socrates, Plato remained in Athens for roughly three years.
Heraclitus and Parmenides In Athens, Plato studied with
Cratylus, a philosopher who followed the early Greek philosopher
Heraclitus, and also
Hermogenes, an
Eleatic philosopher in the tradition of
Parmenides. Heraclitus viewed all things as
continuously changing, that one cannot "step into the same river twice" due to the ever-changing waters flowing through it, and all things exist as a contraposition of opposites, while Parmenides adopted an altogether contrary vision, arguing for the idea of a changeless, eternal universe and the view that change is an illusion. Heraclitus's views are expounded by Cratylus himself in Plato's dialogue
Cratylus and deconstructed in the
Theaetetus by Socrates. Plato would go on to depict both Parmenides and Parmenides' student
Zeno in the
Parmenides, and an "Eleatic Stranger" also appears in the
Sophist and
Statesman. In roughly 396 BC, Plato left Athens and studied in
Megara with
Euclid of Megara, founder of the Megarian school of philosophy, and other Socratics.
Mathematics Around 394 BC or earlier, he returned to Athens, where, as an Athenian male of military age he would have needed to be available to serve in the
Corinthian war, which Athens participated in from 395 to 386 BC. Other than potential military service, Plato spent his time studying mathematics with
Archytas of Tarentum,
Theaetetus,
Leodamas of Thasos, and
Neocleides in the grove of
Hecademus, named after an
Attic hero in
Greek mythology, northwest of the city of
Athens, where he would later found his Academy. During this time, Plato likely began work on some of his earliest works; including the
Apology, possibly early drafts of the
Gorgias and
Republic Book I, and an early form of the
Republic books II-IV, in the form of a speech rather than a dialogue, which was ridiculed by Aristophanes in the
Ecclesiazusae in 391 BC.
Speusippus, the son of Plato's sister Potone, who took over the academy after Plato's death, joined the group in about 390 BC, and
Eudoxus of Cnidus, another early mathematician, arrived around 385 BC.
Pythagoreanism After the conclusion of the
Corinthian War, Plato travelled to southern Italy to study with
Archytas and other Pythagoreans. The influence of these Pythagoreans appears to have been significant. According to
R. M. Hare, this influence consists of three points: • The platonic Republic might be related to the idea of "a tightly organized community of like-minded thinkers", like the one established by Pythagoras in Croton. • The idea that mathematics and, generally speaking, abstract thinking is a secure basis for philosophical thinking as well as "for substantial theses in
science and
morals". • They shared a "mystical approach to the soul and its place in the material world". Pythagoras held that all things are number, and the cosmos comes from numerical principles. He introduced the concept of form as distinct from matter, and that the physical world is an imitation of an eternal mathematical world.
Later years: Syracuse and the Academy First trip to Syracuse When Plato was about 40 years old, he visited Syracuse. Many ancient sources, including the collection of
Letters attributed to Plato, tell how he became entangled with the politics of the city of
Syracuse. Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of
Dionysius, in roughly 385 BC. During this first trip Dionysius's brother-in-law,
Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato.
Foundation of the Academy in the villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in
Pompeii, around 100 BC to 100 CE After his return from Syracuse, Plato founded his philosophical school, the Academy, near the sacred olive grove of
Hecademus, in roughly 383 BC. At first, the property consisted of only a house with a garden, and during his lifetime, the work of the Academy itself likely took part in an open area for study of philosophy and mathematics. From 383 BC until about 366 BC, Plato primarily spent his time at the Academy, writing the majority of the dialogues during this time. Much like Socrates and his students had been parodied in
Aristophanes' plays
The Clouds and
The Birds, the students at the Academy seem to have been the target of their contemporaries in
Middle Comedy. A fragment from a lost play of
Epicrates depicts two students of the Academy engaged in a fierce debate over the
genus of a
pumpkin, in a parody of the Platonic conception of
diairesis.
Aristotle of Stagira, who would go on to become a philosopher as famous as Plato in his own right, arrived in 367 BC, shortly before Plato departed again for Syracuse.
Second and third trips to Syracuse After Dionysius I's death in 367 BC, Plato returned to Syracuse, likely early in 366 BC, at the request of Dion, in order to tutor
Dionysius II and guide him to become a
philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but he became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysius expelled Dion, and Plato, after trying repeatedly to reconcile the two, gave up and returned to Athens. Plato returned to Syracuse a third time in 361 BC, likely staying over the winter until 360 BC. Dionysius kept Plato against his will, forcing Plato to appeal to his friend
Archytas to intercede, at which point he returned to Athens. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysius and ruled Syracuse for a short time from 357 BC up until 354 BC, when he was usurped by
Calippus, an Athenian who Plato insists, in the Seventh Letter, had no connection with the Academy.
Final years and death After 360 BC, Plato returned to Athens, where he spent the remainder of his life. At this point, he wrote or revised some of his final works, possibly including the
Timaeus,
Critias,
Sophist,
Statesman,
Philebus, and his longest work, the
Laws, all of which exhibit similarity of language, philosophical themes, and style that indicate they were intentionally published together to present a unified viewpoint. At the time of his death, however, the
Laws was still unfinished; this work was edited by a student at the Academy,
Philip of Opus, who is also generally believed to have written the
Epinomis, an appendix to the
Laws. In 348/347 BC, Plato died and was buried in his garden in the
Academy in Athens. At the time of his death, Plato seems to have been self-sufficient, but not wealthy. A will preserved by one of the ancient biographers of Plato, which discusses his estate, does not mention the Academy, which suggests that he left a separate provision for it or possibly established an endowment. He was succeeded as the head of the Academy by
Speusippus, his nephew. == Philosophy ==