柏拉图的英文介绍

Plato

The exact place and time of Plato's birth are not known, but it is certain

that

he

belonged

to

an

aristocratic

and

influential

family.

Based

on

ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens

or

Aegina

between

429

and

423

BC.

His

father

was

Ariston.

Plato's

mother

was Perictione,

whose

family

boasted of

a

relationship

with the

famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. Besides Plato himself,

Ariston

and

Perictione

had

three

other

children;

these

were

two

sons,

Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone. The traditional date of

Plato's

birth

is

428/427.

Plato's

father

appears

to

have

died

in

Plato's

childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. Perictione

then

married

Pyrilampes,

her

mother's

brother,

who

had

served

many

times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles,

the leader of the democratic faction in Athens.

Apuleius

informs

us

that

Speusippus

praised

Plato's

quickness

of

mind

and modesty as a boy, and the

work

and

love

of

study

Plato

must

have

been

instructed

in

grammar,

music,

and

gymnastics

by

the

most

distinguished

teachers

of

his

time.

Dicaearchus

went

so

far

as

to

say

that

Plato

wrestled

at

the

Isthmian

games.

Plato

had

also

attended

courses

of

philosophy;

before

meeting

Socrates,

he

first

became

acquainted

with

Cratylus

(a

disciple

of

Heraclitus,

a

prominent

pre-Socratic

Greek

philosopher)

and

the

Heraclitean doctrines.

In

Plato

’

s

later

life,

he

may

have

traveled

in

Italy,

Sicily,

Egypt

and

Cyrene. Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded

one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a

plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus. The Academy was

large

enclosure

of

ground

that

was

once

the

property

of

a

citizen

at

Athens named Academus. The Academy operated until it was destroyed

by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BC. Neoplatonists revived the Academy

in the early 5th century, and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed

by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of

Christianity. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most

prominent one being Aristotle.

Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of the

city of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato initially visited

Syracuse

while

it

was

under

the

rule

of Dionysus.

During this

first

trip

Dionysus's

brother-in-law,

Dion

of

Syracuse,

became

one

of

Plato's

disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato was sold into

slavery

and

almost

faced

death

in

Cyrene,

a

city

at

war

with

Athens,

before

an

admirer

bought

Plato's

freedom

and

sent

him

home.

After

Dionysius's

death,

according

to

Plato's

Seventh

Letter,

Dion

requested

Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysus II and guide him to become a

philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but he

became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysus expelled Dion and kept

Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return

to overthrow Dionysus and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being

usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

A

variety

of

sources

have

given

accounts

of

Plato's

death.

One

story,

based on a mutilated manuscript, suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a

young

Thracian

girl

played

the

flute

to

him.

Another

tradition

suggests

Plato

died

at

a

wedding

feast.

The

account

is

based

on

Diogenes

Laertius's

reference

to

an

account

by

Hermippus,

a

third

century

Alexandrian. According to Tertullian, Plato simply died in his sleep.

Unlike

his

beloved

mentor

Socrates,

who

wrote

nothing,

Plato

was

a

prolific

writer.

He

produced

more

than

two

dozen

dialogues

that

cover

nearly every topic. Their impact upon Western thought has been so great

that the twentieth-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead called the

entire history of Western philosophy

“

a series of footnotes to Plato.

”

Nowadays, more and more people admire Plato. Plato is Classical Greek

philosopher. The most important matters in Plato's philosophy are: first,

his Utopia, which was the earliest of a long series; second, his theory of

ideas, which was a pioneer attempt to deal with the still unsolved problem

of

universals;

third,

his

arguments

in

favor

of

immortality;

fourth,

his

cosmogony;

fifth,

his

conception

of

knowledge

as

reminiscence

rather