Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Plato” complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Plato

Greece : Idealist Philosopher

Birth : 428 B.C.  Death : 347 B.C.

Plato is considered the father of Western political philosophy. Plato was the pupil of the great Athenian philosopher, Socrates, and so in his philosophical thoughts he is much influenced by him. Plato was born at .a time when Greece was divided into small city states which were suffering from various evils because they were not ruled by efficient and knowledgeable rulers. Plato felt critical of this state of affairs and he now thought of preparing a philosophical scheme of an ideal state which was free from all evils and which was inhabited by ideal citizens. Plato set out his political ideas in his famous book The Republic. The Republic is written in the form of dialogues and contain such revolutionary political concepts of Plato as the Ideal State, Philosopher King, Theory of Education, Theory of Communism.

Plato wrote a large number of books, all in the form of dialogues. Of these 36 dialogues are available now. Some of the important dialogues are Laws, Statesman, Apology and Phaedras.

Plato was born about 428 B.C., in an aristocratic family of Athens. At the age of 20, plato became a pupil of Socrates and remained with him, learning his ideas till his death. The execution of his teacher, Socrates, had a profound effect on him and he left Athens in disgust. Thereafter, he toured in different parts of the world including Europe, West Asia, Sicily etc. During this period of travelling, Plato met Dionysius I, the autocratic ruler of Syracuse. Plato tried to change him according to his ideas but failed miserably. In 387 B.C., Plato returned to Athens and founded a school known as Academy for preparing ideal citizens and rulers. The subjects taught in this Academy included mathematics, ethics, geometry, politics and philosophy. For the study of philosophy, Plato considered a knowledge of geometry essential. Aristotle, the greatest pupil of Plato, joined this Academy in 367 B.C. as a student. and remained there till the death of Plato in 347 B.C.

Plato once again tried to give practical shape to his idea of Philosopher King and this time he tried to convert Dionysius II, the successor of Dionysius I. This time also he met with failure. These failures made Plato to revise his ideas. His later works Statesman and Laws show this change in Plato. Plato died in 347 B.C. teaching at his Academy.