Essay Example on Plato: Father of Western Philosophy & Redefining Virtues

Ancient Greek Philosopher Plato, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, is among the most studied and widely known philosophers of all time due to his works of Philosophy. Plato is considered to be well ahead of his time as philosophers of that day focused on tutoring the rich kids. He, on the other hand, helped redefine birth the concepts of Western Philosophy together with Socrates and Aristotle. Like many of the other ancient philosophers, Plato based his teaching on the virtues required by a person to live a life of happiness and fulfillment.

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Plato believed that a wise person should be able to use our knowledge in order to understand the reality of ethics in our lives (Szlezák, 2005). The Greek Philosopher spent a lot of his time thinking about how society should, and this wholly overturned how we think about the world. Plato's works are considered to be unsystematic; thus, it is not possible to line up his work to show he progressed.

He managed to represent the views in his works in dialogues and not once does he speak in his voice. Socrates is assumed to be the main character acting as the protagonist, asking that hard questions that are opposing traditional values and norms. This type of dialogue was named the 'Socratic Dialogues' and is thought to represent the real-life of Socrates and his views on Philosophy.

According to Plato's conception of Philosophy, there is a high possibility of philosophical wisdom being taken through the test of a critical discussion (Szlezák, 2005). A man doing what is wise and beautiful in the naked eye is not enough ground for him to be said to possessing philosophical wisdom.

Furthermore, Plato suggests that even the highest from mathematics is based on assumptions and can be subjected to philosophical criticism (Szlezák, 2005). In an account of this, it reached a point where the Socratic Dialogues underwent a transition of Plato's thoughts that were deemed more mature as compared to his earlier dialogues.

These dialogues, for example, Sophists, Philebus, and Laws represented views that criticized his previous theories proving that he was quite the Philosopher (Szlezák, 2005). Despite the many dialogues Plato wrote, The Republic was among his single most influential works where he discussed, among other dialogues, his theory of forms.

Plato believed that there was a world existing beyond the physical world. He asserts that we live in the physical realm where we can see and touch objects, but the spiritual realm is a realm of ideas and ideals that can only be comprehended through the intellect.

I relate to both Plato/MLK: the Philosopher with her "head in the clouds" as well as Pre-Socratic Philosophers/ Nietzsche: the Philosopher in the caves. I relate to "heads in clouds" because I do believe that when we pass away, we will ascend to be with God. Also, because I felt as though the cave represents the earth in which we live. Then when we pass away, our souls enter the clouds to be with God (Wilber, 2018). The quote, "The more she rises, the more she is purified" relates to the forgiveness to which God will grant us as we enter into his kingdom.

I believe in the allegory, and the cave represents the physical world we are limited to, and I firmly believe that we are sent here for a purpose. By having a goal, I do sometimes think that we need to invest more in being here and focusing on our mission and reason.

In the quote, "Behind every cave, there is another even deeper, "Plato says," This means that we may have multiple purposes set on earth for us to accomplish that we should be open-minded to before we get comfortable with only one (Wilber, 2018). As the youngest child of four, many would label me as "spoiled or strong-willed." Understandably, being the youngest allows me to gain extra assistance from my parents.

However, I had to develop a great sense of independence due to the age gap between my siblings and me. At sixteen years, due to my immigrant status, I was forced to move to another country to embark on my college career. During that time, I was forced to net-work to navigate and coordinate my new lifestyle.

Having a friendly and outgoing nature has allowed me to access the amenities offered by the government to students for cheaper undergrad education and secure a stable job. My open-minded and curious nature forced me to learn the streets of Los Angeles with just a dollar in my pocket.

Conversely, many of these strengths have become my greatest weakness. My sense of independence has made communication and reliability difficult. Many times I may need to seek assistance. However, it would be my last resort, which sadly, maybe too late. Furthermore, I have picked up plenty of traits from unforeseen friends. My outgoing nature introduced me to the motto of "enjoy life; you only live once."

Consequently, I have done it all and even placed some priorities to the side to enjoy my short time on earth. A teacher is a child's second mother, their day time parent who teaches, protects, and guides them. In my belief, a teacher should always consist of stern, demanding, and uncompromising characteristics.

A good teacher is going to require that her students are performing at their highest level possible. That will help benefit students because if a teacher does not do this, they will not succeed in their education.

Also, with this trait, teachers provide a better community. That is so because if teachers motivate and push their students, they will obtain a maximum level of education to which they will become more productive. Secondly, teachers must, at all times, provide maximum supportive, understanding, and caring attitudes towards their students since many students go through a different traumatic experience at different times.

Therefore, teachers must provide these characteristics to help their students so that they can find a way to balance their education despite their trauma. This mandatory because of several traumatic events. No matter how to severe or mild it is, it will affect students to the point where their education is jeopardized.

Lastly, 'The Republic' encompasses Plato's ideas on aesthetics, epistemology, and metaphysics; its main focus is on political philosophy and ethics. Socrates is seen to try to question the concept of common sense in the justice system upheld by Cephalus and Polemarchus.

Conclusion

However, there is a slight change of events when the whole idea of justice is dismissed by Thrasymachus, stating that our minds have been corrupted by the rulers who want to keep their subjects in check. Socrates is used as a method called elenchus that aims to question and get the full definition of justice (Frede, 2017). Thrasymachus's dismissal prompts a response from Socrates to challenge his reasoning in the rest of The Republic.

References

Frede, D. (2017). Plato's ethics: An overview (Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy). In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics/Szlezák, T. A. (2005). Reading Plato. Routledge.

Wilber, J. (2018). An introduction to Plato's theory of forms. Owlcation. https://owlcation.com/humanities/An-Introduction-to-Platos-Theory-of-Forms