Contextual Notes on Plato

Plato, modeling a basket-hat like a bro.

Biographical

• Student to teacher: Socrates-->Plato-->Aristotle
• Founding figure in Western Philosophy; also influenced other disciplines like rhetoric and mathematics
• Cicero writes of a legend wherein bees landed on Plato's lips and gave him the "augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy" (but Cicero did like to go on about things)
• Father, Ariston, died when Plato was a child, mother remarried to her uncle, an ambassador
• Plato often mentioned his family in his dialogues
• From Wikipedia, interesting take on Plato's relationship with Socrates: 

• Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. In theSecond Letter, it says, 'no writing of Plato exists or ever will exist, but those now said to be his are those of a Socrates become beautiful and new' (341c); if the Letter is Plato's, the final qualification seems to call into question the dialogues' historical fidelity. In any case, Xenophon and Aristophanesseem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from the one Plato paints. Some have called attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation for irony and the dramatic nature of the dialogue form.

• Themes
• father-son relationship
• Socrates saw knowledge as divine insight, not empirical
• contrasting knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul
• Socrates: Poetry isn't rational; inspired by muses.
• Metaphysics
• Platonism: "the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world." 
• Socrates thinks that the idea that reality can only be determined by the senses.-->To him, this is living without divine inspiration [This puts a lot of power into the hands of god(s). Is it hierarchical, as well? As in, if an individual isn't blessed by the muses, they cannot have knowledge, at least as far as Socrates is concerned? Or does it mean that individuals who accept that reality exists beyond the senses can be blessed by the muses, or are blessed by them?
• Socrates's idea embodied by the cave allegory
• Socrates: physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that the instantiate the perfect versions of themselves.
• Socrates: philosopher-king: one who has been enlightened, or walked out of the cave, is the best person to rule.
• Theory of Forms
• Epistemology
• knowlege is proportionate to the realm it comes from--so if knowlege comes from non-sensing, from the realm that is unchanging, this is real knowledge [sounds like he's giving himself an excuse to make up whatever he wants...maybe I'm reading it wrong?]
• The State
• three classes: productive, protective, governing-->reason and wisdom should govern
• The dialectic: could be a method of reasoning or a type of intuition

History and Culture (from SUNY)

• Greece was a happening place from 525 BCE t0 350 BCE
• moving from an oral to a literate culture, from foundation of religious beliefs to foundation of inventions, creations, and artistic and rational thought.
• Greece still divided into city-states, each with their own form of gvt, and even those gvts changed from time to time. but across the board, they ALL preferred some type of government--all want to avoid chaos and disorder (so tyranny was a no-go)

• The oral culture gets questioned: What they remembered of the tales they endeavored to repeat not only in the telling of the tales but also in their lives. The gods and goddesses supplied the examples, the paradigms, and the models for behavior. If the gods did it, it must be good and so I should do it as well: so went the thinking. When faced with a conflict or problem the Greeks had sought answers in the stories that they heard as they grew and which they believed were true and served as guides through life for each of them. By the time of Socrates there had grown a considerable amount of doubt about the stories. There was skepticism and outright denial as well. The tales when examined often displayed a number of troublesome features including contradictions amongst the many stories and examples of divine beings acting in a morally outrageous manner, such as involving murder, patricide, matricide, rape, theft, lies etc… The playwrights were encouraging audiences to reflect upon the tales and consider the values and morality within them. Orators were distorting the tales for personal gain and some, such as Socrates, were examining the entire basis for the moral order. 

• Mythopoetic [what a cool word]:Greeks looked to gods to determine social order, to organize society and avoid chaos. Myths were used to "explain, unify, and order experience." Myths provided "moral exemplars."
• "The physical conflicts between the two peoples who merged into the Greeks is mirrored in the tales of the deities."
• Playwrights began using the stage to question the morality and conflicts found in these myths--raising questions about the very foundations of societal order. At the same time, technological and trading developments (a) changed Greeks quality of life, and (b) introduced them to other histories and cultures. As a result--no clear answer to what a good life meant or how to make it happen.
• By the time Socrates comes around, they've basically decided that this method isn't working.

Using the Handbook

I found The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kant for a decent price at a giant chain bookstore.  I'd been looking for some way to solidify the happenstance knowledge I have of some philosophers--mostly through the theoretical readings I did for grad school.

This book looks to have some of the major philosophers and excerpts from their works arranged in a way that I like.  One of my colleagues at work, a very well-read guy who's quite encouraging and insightful, suggested I do some background research on each philosopher before jumping into the primary stuff.  I'll start researching Plato straightaway, and try to gather my thoughts here.  Meanwhile here's some info on the book.