• The definite place and time of Plato’s birth are unknown• It is believed that he was born in Athens around (427 B.C.E) and that he

was born into an aristocratic and influential family his fathers name was Ariston and his mothers Perictions .(Death: around 347B.C.E)

• He is a descendent from ancient Athenian kings and was related to Critias a politician.

• His real name is actually Aristocles but was nicknamed Plato for his wrestling abilities.

• Plato received a great education as a child learning topics such as gymnastics, grammar, music and philosophy along with some other subjects.

• Plato is one of the major Philosophers in history and he studied subjects such as

• Metaphysics • Theory of forms • Epistemology • Plato Expressed most of his ideas in dialogue• Plato Believed that moral Philosophy was grater than natural

philosophy a.k.a science

• Plato was Born in 427B.C.E.• At the age of twenty Plato became a pupil of Socrates• Plato joined the military in 409 to 404 BCE• In 403 there was a lot of democracy and Plato attempted to enter politic but soon he

give up political ambitions because of personal reasons.• In 399 Socrates was executed and Plato would no longer have anything to do with

politics in Athens• Plato left Athens and traveled to Egypt, Sicily and Italy learning of the water clock in

Greece and Pythagoras mathematics in Italy.• Once again Plato entered in the military Date not found, he was mentioned for his

bravery. • Plato Create Academos or academy in 38-3897BCE• on his journeys he decided to devote the rest of his life to philosophy• he went to Syracuse in 367 BCE to tutor Dionysius2 to prevent Carthage from

Invading Sicily • Death 347B.C.E

The Academy • Plato is credited for making the first ever school of advanced

learning in western history.• The academy included a curriculum with subjects such as

astronomy, mathematics, political theory, philosophy, and biology. • The purpose of the academy was to influence the minds of the

younger generations and restore decent government into the cities of Greece

• It operated until 529 CE when it was shut down by Justinian the 1st of the Byzantium Empire because he saw it as a threat to propagation of Christianity. It was also the last stronghold of paganism in the Christian world

Influence of Socrates • Plato was a pupil of Socrates in his youth and he

tried to follow in his footsteps.• Much of Socrates ideas was told though Plato.• Because of Socrates execution traveled and

began a life of philosophy.• Many of Plato’s theory's for things such as

justices was do to the fact of Socrates death• If It was not for Socrates influence on Plato

much of his ideas and theory's would not have been achieved.

Influence of Greece • In the time of Plato there was much war going on in the

world of the Greece like the Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta between 431BCE and 404BCE

• Much of his theory's behind human thought and the consensus mind could have been sparked from his experiences in the military

Inspirations • Plato had many influences some of them include

Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Parmenides, Pythagoras , Heraclitus and Orphism

• Many of Plato’s interests in life were Art, Literature, Epistemology, justice, virtue, politics, education, family and militarism

Great Ideas• Plato believed that men and women are egual in their capacity to

understand reality and make reasonable judgements about it and they should both be granted a suitable, equal education.

• Plato stated that societies were formed for a purpose. No one working alone can provide them self with all of the genuine necessities of life so we gether together for the mutual achievement of our goals as we are more efficient when we work together as a community

• Plato’s theory of forms expresses that forms (ideas) possess the most fundamental kind of reality, and the material world known to us by sensation is not the real world but only a shadow of it that we perceive to be real

• Plato Believed that Knowledge is innate and that each soul before birth has a perfect knowledge of everything and that when we learn something it is actually just being recalled this is know as platonic epistemology.

Great ideas • Much of his Idea’s is that about reality is unenviable to those who

use their senses, and that physical reality is just shadows of the real truth there ideal or perfect forms exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves.

• Much of Plato’s theory’s reject the ideas the knowledge is found from experience, although he believes it is probable, it is not certain. These beliefs start to demise Plato towards the common individual and make it hard for people to trust him.

Art • Since Plato believed that reality was a step down from

knowledge and reality then that of art is two steps down of reality.

• This also meant that the artist was two steps down from Knowledge and that they lack genuine Knowledge of what they are doing

Plato’s Idea’s live on • At the age of sixty I young man at the age of eighteen

arrived at Plato’s Academy by the name of Aristotle• In the 3rd century the development of the theory of

Platonism from the philosopher Plotinus was inspired from Plato as we can interpret from the word (Plato-nism)

• Plato also had grate impact on Jewish thought though the work of the 1st century philosopher Philo Judaeus

Plato’s Ideas live on

• During the Renaissance, the primary focus of Plato’s in influence was in the Italian city Florence where Under the role of Marsilio Ficino, Florentine Academy study Plato’s Idea’s

• Even today in the twenty first century thinkers such as Alfred North Whitehead admirer Plato. He once said “Philosophies history is just a series of footnotes to Plato.

• The belief he had on men a women relate to today's beliefs of freedom and people’s rights

Plato the Great

• Plato’s influences throughout the history of philosophy has been monumental

• Plato’s influences extended long past his own life and, indeed never did die