Paragraph on “What were Plato’s dialogues?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

What were Plato’s dialogues?

Plato, who lived in Athens from about 427 BC to 347 BC, was one of the most famous philosophers of ancient Greece. Like many philosophers, he presented his arguments in the form of dialogues or conversations between people presenting first one viewpoint, then another. The reader is led towards certain conclusions through a set of reasons, but the dialogues allow objections to the conclusions to be discussed. The word dialogue comes from ancient Greek words that mean not only ‘talking between’ but also `choosing between’. Plato wanted to spread his ideas and in 387 BC he founded a school known as the Academy because it was located at the grove of Academus to the west of Athens.

Plato believed that we gain an imperfect knowledge of the world through our senses and that we must try to find universal truths, such as the logic of mathematics. A sign above the door of the Academy bore the advice ‘Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here.’