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Overview

Even though we live in completely different times than the birthplace of democracy, there are some things that can be learned from Ancient Greece. For instance, we have universal citizenship and they had slaves; however, our society has many branches of scientific inquiry whereas theirs didn’t even have them at all.

Plato’s ideas have influenced society for thousands of years. His insights are still relevant today, and we can learn a lot from them.

In addition, you will learn why Plato’s philosophy can help you with your thinking and acting. You will see how to not act like an unruly horse, how the wisest person in the world claims to know the least, and why you cannot google all of life’s problems.

Big Idea #1: Plato’s ideas have far outlived their time and still affect our lives today.

If you’ve ever been bored in a history or philosophy class, you might wonder what relevance Plato, an ancient Athenian philosopher who lived 2,400 years ago has to us today. Although the facts surrounding his life and times are undoubtedly different from our modern perspective – such as slavery and sexist attitudes – he raises fundamental questions about who we are and how we should live.

Plato’s writing poses a lot of questions that are very open to interpretation. In The Symposium, for example, there is discussion on the meaning of love and what it means to be in love. We still struggle with these same issues today.

Plato’s writings provide timeless questions that don’t require us to dig into the past.

Plato also explored the meaning of life by asking timeless questions and examining our own lives.

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates tries to prove that the unexamined life is not worth living. He says we should strive to have new experiences and question norms in order to find the best way to live.

Plato is a famous philosopher whose ideas have inspired generations of thinkers. We can read his works to learn about his philosophy, but that’s not necessary for us to understand its relevance today. In fact, our methods of thinking and understanding the world around us are based on Plato’s philosophy.

Big Idea #2: Plato is great not because he was right, but because he was unafraid to question our assumptions.

Since we have access to more contemporary works on the wonders of science, why should we read Plato?

Plato helped us learn by asking questions that allow people to come up with their own answers. He did this using the Socratic method, which involves asking a conversation partner questions about a subject in order to learn more about it and prompt the person to figure out his or her own conclusions.

In the Meno dialogue, Socrates helps someone who has never taken a math class answer a difficult geometrical question by asking him questions.

Law schools still use Socratic questioning to teach students. Professors ask questions about a case in order to get the class thinking about it and discovering more about arguments themselves.

Plato didn’t simply ask questions to get answers; he also questioned those who claimed they knew something. Plato had his characters provide an account of their knowledge so others could learn from them, but if they couldn’t explain it, then the author proved that they were ignorant.

For example, in The Apology, Socrates asked an expert to explain what “impiety” means. He was known as the wisest person because he would never claim to know something that he didn’t know.

Big Idea #3: Plato’s philosophy led to a transformation of ancient Athenian values that carries into the modern world.

Plato was influenced by his cultural and historical context. He didn’t just accept the values of his society, but instead questioned them. In Plato’s dialogues, he tried to understand why people did things a certain way and then changed their perspective on those actions. For example, Plato lived in an era where it was considered extraordinary for people to do great things. Instead of accepting this notion without question, however, he challenged that definition of extraordinariness by trying to figure out what made someone extraordinary.