Philosophy of Plato.

Plato is the largest ancient Greek philosopher. His teacher was Socrates himself. Plato is the founder of the Academy - his own school of philosophy. Also note that it is he who is the founder of the idealistic direction of philosophy.

Plato's philosophy, which can not be briefly discussed, made a great contribution to the development of this science. This man was not only a fine thinker, but also a teacher who is capable of creating in students a craving for knowledge. Unlike his teacher, he left behind a lot of written works. The most important of them are:

- Apology of Socrates;

- Laws;

- The state;

- Gorgius;

- Parmelid;

- Theodon.

Many of his works are written in the form of dialogues.

Philosophy of Plato

As mentioned above, he is the founder of idealism. In his idealistic teaching, one can single out the following ideas:

- the world around me is changing all the time. It does not exist as an independent substance;

- only disembodied (pure) ideas can really exist;

- the world is nothing but a reflection of pure ideas;

- pure ideas are constant, infinite, true;

- all existing things around us are a reflection of the original ideas - that is, pure.

Plato put forward the idea of the doctrine of the triad. According to it, in the basis of all that exists are three substances: one, mind, soul.

The single in this case is the basis of any being, can not be associated with any common features. In fact, Plato's philosophy assures us that the single is the basis of all pure ideas. The One is nothing.

From the one comes the mind. It is not only separated from one, but also its opposite. It is something like the essence of all things, a generalization of all living things.

The soul, in this case, appears as a mobile substance, connecting such concepts as "one - nothing", and "mind - alive". It also connects absolutely all objects and phenomena of our world. The world and the individual have a soul. It also has things. The souls of things and living beings are particles of the world soul. They are immortal, and earthly death is just an excuse for adopting a new shell. The change of bodily shells is determined by the natural laws of the cosmos.

The philosophy of Plato often touches the doctrine of knowledge - that is, epistemology. Plato argued that pure ideas should become a subject of knowledge for the reason that the entire material world is nothing more than a reflection of them.

The philosophy of Plato very often touches the problems of the state. Let's notice, that its predecessors practically did not concern similar questions. According to Plato there are seven types of state:

- monarchy. It is based on the just power of one;

Tyranny. It is the same as the monarchy, but with an unjust power;

- aristocracy. It is connected with the just rule of a group of people;

- The oligarchy. Here power belongs to a group of people who rule unjustly;

- Democracy. Here power belongs to the majority, which rules fairly;

- Timocracy. The unjust power of the majority.

The philosophy of Plato puts forward a kind of plan for the state. In this state, all people are divided into three broad categories: workers, philosophers, and also warriors. Everyone should do something. When considering this issue, Plato often thought about private property.

Plato and Aristotle

The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle has much in common. This is not surprising, since the latter is the teacher of the first. Aristotle criticized Plato for his pure ideas, because he believed that the world is constantly changing - to consider anything can only be done taking into account the changes that have taken place around. According to Aristotle, there are only specifically defined and isolated things, and pure ideas are in fact impossible and illogical.