Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period. Plato asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. Productive (Workers) - The laborers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. The ...

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Plato, Plato - Biography, Plato - Work, Plato - Themes, Plato - Form and basis, Plato - Metaphysics, Plato - Epistemology, Plato - The state, Plato - Platonic scholarship, Plato - Bibliography, Plato - By tetralogy, Plato - Stephanus pagination, Plato - Chronology, Plato - Middle Dialogues, Plato - Loeb Classical Library

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Plato, Plato - Biography, Plato - Work, Plato - Themes, Plato - Form and basis, Plato - Metaphysics, Plato - Epistemology, Plato - The state, Plato - Platonic scholarship, Plato - Bibliography, Plato - By tetralogy, Plato - Stephanus pagination, Plato - Loeb Classical Library

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Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". However, in the Byzantine Empire, the study of Plato continued. The Medieval scholastic philosophers did not have access to the works of Plato—nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from C ...

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Plato, Plato - Biography, Plato - Work, Plato - Themes, Plato - Form and basis, Plato - Metaphysics, Plato - Epistemology, Plato - The state, Plato - Platonic scholarship, Plato - Bibliography, Plato - By tetralogy, Plato - Stephanus pagination, Plato - Chronology, Plato - Middle Dialogues, Plato - Loeb Classical Library

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Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. May 21? 427 BC – ca. 347 BC) was an immensely influential classical Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens. Plato lectured extensively at the Academy, and wrote on many philosophical issues. The most important writings of Plato are his dialogues, although a handful of epigrams also survive, and some letters have come down to us under his name. It is believed that all of Plato's authen ...

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Plato - Biography Plato - Work
Plato - Themes Plato - Form and basis
Plato - Metaphysics Plato - Epistemology Plato - The state Plato - Platonic scholarship Plato - Bibliography
Plato - By tetralogy Plato - Stephanus pagination Plato - Loeb Classical Library

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Social Justice is a concept that has fascinated philosophers ever since Plato rebuked the young Sophist, Thrasymachus, for asserting that justice was whatever the strongest decided it would be. In The Republic, Plato formalized the argument that an ideal state would rest on four virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. The addition of the word social is to clearly distinguish Social Justice from the concept of justice as applied in the law — state-administered systems, which label behavio ...

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Social justice - The conceptual problem Social justice - The evolving answer Social justice - The modern concept Social justice - The basic liberties Social justice - Observations Social justice - Beliefs Social justice - Development of Catholic social teaching Social justice - Criticism Social justice - Other uses Social justice - Sources

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Alexander Nehamas is a professor of philosophy at Princeton University. He works on Greek philosophy, aesthetics, and literary theory. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1967, and completed his doctorate on Plato under Gregory Vlastos at Princeton in 1971. He taught at various universities in the United States, including the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania, before joining the Princeton faculty in 1990. He is currently the Edmund N. ...

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Alexander Nehamas - Works

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Socrates summarises the formal charges against him as follows: "Socrates is guilty of corrupting the minds of the young, and of believing in supernatural things of his own invention instead of the gods recognized by the State". However, there was another set of 'charges' against him which Socrates recognised as being more important, and dangerous, because they stemmed from years of gossip and prejudice against him and hence were unanswerable. These so called 'informal charges' Socrates puts into a legalistic form — an 'affidavit' as ...

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Apology Plato, Apology Plato - Introduction, Apology Plato - Socrates' accusers, Apology Plato - The charges against Socrates, Apology Plato - Part one, Apology Plato - The verdict, Apology Plato - Part two, Apology Plato - Part three, Apology Plato - Modes of interpretation

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Symposium Plato dialogue - Start of the discussion. Due to the excesses of the previous night's drinking, it is decided that no one will be forced to drink more than he desires and the flute-girl will be sent away, the night to be spent in conversation rather than than reveling (176). Eryximachus, spurred on by a previous discussion he had with Phaedrus, proposes that everyone give "as good a speech in praise of love (Eros) as he is capable of giving" (176e-177d). Socrates agrees, stating that the only thing ...

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Symposium Plato dialogue, Symposium Plato dialogue - Setting, Symposium Plato dialogue - Dramatis Personæ, Symposium Plato dialogue - Summary, Symposium Plato dialogue - Start of the discussion, Symposium Plato dialogue - Speeches, Symposium Plato dialogue - Conclusion, Symposium Plato dialogue - Interpretations

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Tacitus's works contain a wealth of information about his world, but details on his own life are lacking. Even his praenomen (first name) is uncertain. What little we know comes from scattered hints throughout the corpus of his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria[1]< ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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Five works ascribed to Tacitus have survived (or at least: large parts thereof). Years are approximate, and the last two (his "major" works), took probably more than a few years to write. (98) De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Julius Agricola) (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (The Germania) (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory) (105) Historiae (Histories) (117) Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals) ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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Tacitus was able to consult the official sources of the Roman state: the acta senatus (the minutes of the session of the Senate) and the acta diurna populi Romani (a collection of the acts of the government and news of the court and capital). He could read the collections of speeches by some emperors, such as Tiberius and Claudius. Generally, Tacitus was a scrupulous historian who paid careful attention to his historical works. The minor inacurracies occurring in the Annals might be due to the fact that Tacitus died befo ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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Tacitus's writings are known for their instantly deep-cutting and dense prose, seldom glossy, in contrast with the more placable style of some of his contemporaries, like Plutarch. When he describes a near-to-defeat of the Roman army in Ann. I, 63 this is one of the rare occasions where he applies some kind of gloss, but then still rather by the brevity with which he describes the end of the hostilities, than by embellishing phrases. In most of his writings he keeps to a strictly chronological ordering of his narration, with only seldom an outline of the bigger picture, as if he leaves it to the reader to co ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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From Pliny the Younger's 7th Letter (to Tacitus), §33: Auguror nec me fallit augurium, historias tuas immortales futuras.   I predict, and my predictions do not fail me, that your histories will be immortal. Tacitus is remembered first and foremost as Rome's greatest historian, the equal—if not the superior—of Thucydides, the ancient Greeks' foremost historian; the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica opined that he "ranks beyond ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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Five works ascribed to Tacitus have survived (or at least: large parts thereof). Years are approximate, and the last two (his "major" works), took probably more than a few years to write. (98) De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Julius Agricola) (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (The Germania) (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory) (105) Historiae (Histories) (117) Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals) ...

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Tacitus, Tacitus - Biography, Tacitus - Descent and place of birth, Tacitus - Public life marriage and literary career, Tacitus - Works, Tacitus - Major works, Tacitus - Minor works, Tacitus - The sources of Tacitus, Tacitus - Literary style, Tacitus - Approach to history, Tacitus - Prose style, Tacitus - Studies and reception history, Tacitus - Notes

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In Plato's Republic we are instructed that the origin of the state lies in that "natural" inequality of humanity that is embodied in the division of labour. "Well then, how will our state supply these needs? It will need a farmer, a builder, and a weaver, and also, I think, a shoemaker and one or two others to provide for our bodily needs. So that the minimum state would consist of four or five men...." (The Republ ...

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Division of labour, Division of labour - Plato, Division of labour - Xenophon, Division of labour - Sir William Petty, Division of labour - Adam Smith, Division of labour - Karl Marx, Division of labour - Durkheim, Division of labour - Von Mises and globalisation, Division of labour - Modern debates, Division of labour - US 2002 estimates for the division of labour, Division of labour - The global division of labour, Division of labour - Some useful sociological references

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Philosophy of education - Plato. Plato is the earliest important educational thinker. Education is, of course, a relatively minor part of his overall philosophical vision, but it is an important one. He saw education as the key to creating and sustaining his Republic. He advocated extreme methods: removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, with great care being taken to differentiate children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that ...

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Philosophy of education, Philosophy of education - The democratic tradition of educational philosophy, Philosophy of education - Plato, Philosophy of education - Rousseau, Philosophy of education - B.F. Skinner, Philosophy of education - Dewey, Philosophy of education - Freire, Philosophy of education - Critical responses and counter-philosophies, Philosophy of education - Hannah Arendt, Philosophy of education - Rudolf Steiner, Philosophy of education - E.D. Hirsch, Philosophy of education - Neil Postman and the Inquiry Method

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Laconophilia is a tendency, not an absolute. None of the contemporaries of the Lycurgan Constitution praised Sparta without reservations, except the Spartans themselves. Herodotus of Dorian Halicarnassus, consistently portrays the Spartans, except when actually facing battle, as rustic, hesitant, uncooperative, corrupt, and naïve. Plato had Socrates argue that a state which really followed the simple life would not need a warrior class; one which was luxurious and aggressive would need a group of philosophers, like Plato himself, to guide and deceive the guardians. Even Xenophon's encomium of the Constitution ...

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Laconophile, Laconophile - Athens, Laconophile - Philosophers, Laconophile - Mueller and the Dorians, Laconophile - Contrary views, Laconophile - Related Topics, Laconophile - Related Works

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One meaning of republicanism is the opposition to monarchies. Republic comes from the Latin word res publica and one meaning of this term is the form of government that began with the overthrow of the last tyrant known as the Roman Republic. While this government was much lauded by its contemporaries, once it was replaced with the empire, republicanism became all but nonexistent throughout Europe for several centuries. Outside of Europe, opposition to monarchy before the modern period is not generally termed republicanism. Islam, for ...

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Republicanism, Republicanism - Anti-monarchial republicanism, Republicanism - Early History, Republicanism - Modern History, Republicanism - Republicanism in political science, Republicanism - Classical antecedents, Republicanism - Civic humanism, Republicanism - Enlightenment republicanism, Republicanism - Modern republicanism

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A different interpretation of republicanism is used among political scientists. To them a republic is the rule by many and by laws while a princedom is the arbitrary rule by one. By this definition despotic states are not republics while, according to some such as Kant, constitutional monarchies can be. Kant also argues that a pure democracy is not a republic as the unrestricted rule of the majority is also a form of despotism. ...

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Republicanism, Republicanism - Anti-monarchial republicanism, Republicanism - Early History, Republicanism - Modern History, Republicanism - Republicanism in political science, Republicanism - Classical antecedents, Republicanism - Civic humanism, Republicanism - Enlightenment republicanism, Republicanism - Modern republicanism

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Conventional warfare - Formation of the state. For more details on this topic, see State#Formation_of_the_state. The state was first advocated by Plato, then found more acceptance in the consolidation of power under the Roman Catholic Church. European monarchs then gained power as the Catholic Church was stripped of temporal power and was replaced by the divine right of kings. In 1648, the powers of Europe signed the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the religious violence for purely political governance and outl ...

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Conventional warfare, Conventional warfare - History, Conventional warfare - Formation of the state, Conventional warfare - The Clausewitzian paradigm, Conventional warfare - Prevalence, Conventional warfare - Decline, Conventional warfare - Replacement

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