Lecture Literary criticism - Lecture 2: Plato. The contents of this chapter include all of the following: Plato’s life, peloponessian war, Socrates’s death, Plato’s academy, Sophists, Sophist’s agenda, Sophist’s belifes, Socrates v/s Sophists,. | PLATO PLATO’S LIFE Born in 428 in Athens. Belonged to an aristocratic family. He had fine prospects in the public life and had political aspirations PELOPONESSIAN WAR At the end of “Peloponnesian War” two groups gained power in and 30. Plato had mixed feelings about the take over as the two groups i-e 400 and 30 had tyrannical leanings and were causing instability. SOCRATES’S DEATH Plato supported Democracy but the system proved to be less than perfect in 399 Plato’s mentor stood before a jury of 600 Athenians. The charges against him were of not recognizing the gods of the city. Also the charges included inventing of new deities. And corrupting the youth of Athens. PLATO’S ACADEMY After Socrates‘s death Plato formed an Academy in 387 where students were trained in metaphysics,epistemology,ethics,politics and natural and mathematical sciences. This Academy continued for 912 years. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR “REPUBLIC” Philosophers initially focused on | PLATO PLATO’S LIFE Born in 428 in Athens. Belonged to an aristocratic family. He had fine prospects in the public life and had political aspirations PELOPONESSIAN WAR At the end of “Peloponnesian War” two groups gained power in and 30. Plato had mixed feelings about the take over as the two groups i-e 400 and 30 had tyrannical leanings and were causing instability. SOCRATES’S DEATH Plato supported Democracy but the system proved to be less than perfect in 399 Plato’s mentor stood before a jury of 600 Athenians. The charges against him were of not recognizing the gods of the city. Also the charges included inventing of new deities. And corrupting the youth of Athens. PLATO’S ACADEMY After Socrates‘s death Plato formed an Academy in 387 where students were trained in metaphysics,epistemology,ethics,politics and natural and mathematical sciences. This Academy continued for 912 years. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR “REPUBLIC” Philosophers initially focused on the questions of natural sciences. Poets and not philosophers addressed the in use of ethics and politics. 5TH CENTURY The war between Athens and Sparta resulted & Athens was defeated which resulted in a major shift. It thrusted issues of ethics into the hands of philosophers. The growth of democracy called for a new civic virtue “The ability to speak persuasively” which became more important than war craft. SOPHISTS Due to the above mentioned reason “sophist” came into existence. They were teachers of rhetorics who were willing to teach if the student was walling and able to pay the fee. SOPHIST’S AGENDA Persuasiveness over truth. Their ideas varied. Questioned the traditional moral values. There was no right/wrong but how an action served the interest of the agent. It did not believe in objective knowledge/objective truth. SOPHIST’S BELIFES Conventional morality is unjust because it deprives the strong of their right and exploit the poor. They called immorality a virtue because .
