Plato

Abstract

My task is to relate Plato’s ethical thought to its historical context. For the authors of later chapters in this book, ‘historical’ will include both the history of philosophy and other aspects or fields of history; but since, in the words of Cicero, Socrates ‘was the first [to bring philosophy away from the study of nature] and to lead it to the study of ordinary life, in order to investigate the virtues and vices and good and evil’, and I do not here propose to distinguish between Socratic and Platonic ethics, there is no history of philosophical ethics prior to Socrates and Plato to discuss.¹ In consequence, I shall begin with a sketch of the salient points of the 70 years of Greek military and political history immediately prior to Plato’s birth. These events, occurring in a context of traditional Greek values, posed some of the problems in ethics and politics which Plato addresses in his moral and political thought. Next, I shall briefly describe some important events in Athenian military and political history which occurred during Plato’s formative years, ending with the death of Socrates, the Athenian who more than any other influenced Plato’s thought. It will become apparent that Plato came to the conclusion that a change in Greek values was urgently necessary. I shall discuss the identity and nature of those who were responsible for the propagation of existing Greek values, and the character and history of those values. Having thus established the nature of the problem with which Plato was faced, I shall discuss the methods which he employed to solve it.