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Plato Πλάτων | |
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 | |
| Born | Aristocles 428/427BCE Athens |
| Died | 348 BCE (aged c. 75-80) Athens, Greece |
| School tradition | Platonic Academy |
| Notable students | Aristotle |
Plato was an ancient Greek idealist philosopher and dialectician most well known for his theory of forms and his dialogues whilst also proposing the abolition of private property. Plato is sometimes called a proto-fascist and as such many of his ideas have inspired fascist idealogues; this is because the supposed utopian society described in Plato's most famous work, Republic, shares similarities with a fascist society, particularly in regards to class collaborationism and eugenics, the latter of which Plato was the first advocate for.[1][2]
Life[edit | edit source]
In 428/427 BCE Plato was born to an aristocratic family in Athens. In roughly 407BCE he would meet Socrates and become a student of his, but after the death of Socrates Plato would travel to Megara followed by Cyrene and Egypt. In 389BCE he travelled to Italy and Sicily where he would meet with the students of Pythagoras. Plato would then return to Athens where he established his own school; Plato's Academy. In 367 and 361 BCE he would again visit Sicily at the request of Dionysius of Syracuse, who invited him with the intention of putting Plato's ideas into practise, this like all Plato's attempts to establish relationships with men in power predictably ended in failure. Plato would spend the remainder of his life in Athens writing and giving lectures before dying in 348 BCE.[3]
In the 390’s BCE Plato wrote: the Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Protagoras, and Book 1 of the Republic. In the 380's BCE he wrote: the Gorgias, Meno, Euthydemus, Cratylus, and Hippias Minor. In the 370's and 360's BCE he wrote: the Phaedo, Symposium, and Phaedrus; Books 2–10 of the Republic); and the Theaetetus, Parmenides, Sophist, Politi-cus, Philebus, Timaeus, and Critias. Finally in the 350's BCE Plato would write the Laws.[3]
Philosophy[edit | edit source]
Eugenics[edit | edit source]
In his work, Republic, Plato argues that all human reproduction should be controlled by the state with the identity of parents being unknown in order to produce better soldiers and philosophers, with the latter becoming "philosopher-kings." Plato proposed that the state run eugenics program be concealed from the population via a fixed lottery in which mates were assigned a marriage number in order to produce the most favourable outcome with the supposedly more desirable people being allowed to procreate with multiple people.[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ L. Bloom (1962). On the social psychology of fascism. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, vol.18 (p. 44). Berghahn Books.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Plato (375 BCE). Republic, vol. 5-6.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A. F. Losev (1979). The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: 'Plato'.