Plato
c. 428-347 B.C.
An ancient Greek philosopher and widely believed to be a student of Socrates, Plato wrote philosophical dialogues and founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. He also taught Aristotle, his most famous pupil and the third of the great Athenian trilogy of philosophers.
Plato’s greatest contribution to political philosophy is his Republic. Written in the middle period of his dialogues, the Republic is concerned with the application of justice to the individual and the state. Plato concludes that justice is achieved for both the individual and the state when each person lives according to his natural station in life.
Accordingly, Plato finds that three classes of persons develop in the state: the Producers, who supply the economic needs of the state, the Auxiliaries, who function as the military, executive, and police element, and the Philosopher-Rulers, who rule by virtue of their knowledge of the transcendent Good.
To encourage maximum loyalty to the state, private property and the family are abolished for the two Guardian classes. While Plato’s later works, the Statesman and the Laws, are more egalitarian than the Republic, Plato’s writings continued to stand in opposition to Athenian democracy.
Plato died in 347 B.C. but his philosophical school, the Academy, continued for 1,000 years.
Photo – Public Domain: Plato
