Plato Vs Socrates Essay, Research Paper

Plato vs SocratesPlato was one of the most influential and significant philosophers throughout the antient and modern world. Through his rich blood line and his years of studying under Socrates, Plato was able to develop various theories, such as the Theory of Knowledge and The Forms. Plato’s beginings originated from Socrates, whseo main focus was concentrating on what makes something what it is, and how one could take care of their soul in order to lead a good life. Later Socrates was found guilty of corrupting the youth and was put to death. This event had a profound effect on Plato, who had intended to involve himself in politics. Instead, he became an academic. The most significant political tutoring he did was when Dionysius, the ruler of Syracuse, died and left his brother-in-law in charge of his son Dionysius II. Plato agreed to try to teach Dionysius II how to be a philosopher but the young boy was hopeless, so he gave up. Plato also pondered the question of what is the ideal society, and his famous book “The Republic” is his suggested answer. He was disillusioned with Athenian democracy after what had happened to Socrates, and was impressed with Sparta, an authoritarian state which won the Peloponnesian War. However, he tried to ensure that the very best people in each generation are running the state, and he considers that the best possible training for these future leaders is a strong grounding in logic, ethics and dealing with abstract ideas.

Plato, had a rather abstract view of science and mathematics; he felt that the world we apprehend with our senses is less important than the underlying world of pure eternal forms we perceive with our reason or intellect, as opposed to our physical senses.Plato’s ultimate answer to the sort of question Socrates asked, what makes a kind of thing the kind of thing it is, was that the “form itself” does so, and that the form is something different from the thing, having an eternal existence on its own. Thus beautiful things are beautiful because they share beauty itself, and just acts are just because they partake of justice itself.