Plato was born into the aristocracy of Athens, and he could very easily have risen to a position of power. But what he saw of the cut - throat, rough - and - tumble of politics disgusted him. Plato knew that a good government would never have murdered a good man like Socrates.
The tragic death of his friend and teacher spurred Plato to do something that would change things. He believed that good leaders weren't born, they had the right education. So he opened his own school. From then on, his teachings focused on one big question:
"Is there a
perfect WORLD?"
Socrates never wrote down his thoughts. Plato wanted to make sure that the great thinker was never forgotten, and so he recorded Socrates' ideas. He did this in the form of discussions between two people, often making Socrates the main voice. Plato was a gifted writer, and these dialogues were a hit with his audience. So he carried on writing them, even after he started developing his own ideas. This makes it hard to be certain where Socrates' ideas ended and Plato's began.
Socrates wanted to find unchanging truths about abstract things like goodness and justice. Plato went a step further. He thought there were unchanging truths behind all things. For example, there are many breeds of horses, but there is a definite "horseness" about them all. Plato imagined another world where there is a perfect and eternal model for everything ("horseness, "dogness", "catness", courage, justice - absolutely everything). He said that the Earth is just a world of fleeting shadows. Plato saw it as a philosopher's job to open people's eyes to this and to help them strive towards perfection.
Our world is a world of shadows, mere reflections of an ideal world.
People are like trapped prisoners who only ever see shadows. They mistake these shadows for what is real.
Plato wrote down his ideas as conversations.
Plato's ideal society would be ruled by philosophers and courageous soldiers would help to keep order.
Ordinary folk would have a fair and stable government.
Plato believed in educating women.
He believed in an eternal soul that came from the ideal world.
