Plato is one of the greatest philosophers ever. He is recognized as the one who taught the most influential philosophies in history. The three treatises he produced – Crito, Phaedrus lived in the 3rd Century BC and have had wide-ranging effects on Western thought. Plato is revered not only for his great works like the Phaedrus, his Dialogues, and the Eristes, but also because of his broader views which touched on morality, metaphysics and ethics. He held that virtue is the foundation of true knowledge, that knowledge is independent of sense-perception and that knowledge is useful to humanity in its life and death.
Plato is also famous as a pupil of Socrates. Together they explored the topics of metaphysics (the physical and philosophical foundations of reality) and came to different conclusions including the existence of a god, immortality and moral truth. They discussed topics that touch on reason, objective reality, justice, obligation, friendship, dialectic arguments and political life. Following the death of Socrates, Plato continued his dialogue with Socrates, engaging in long philosophical conversations and arguments that continue to be of interest to philosophers to this day.
Plato’s idealism is his most famous concept. According to Plato, virtue is the form of happiness, virtue the form of happiness of others. His other concepts include belief in universal laws, the idea of a soulmate nature, immortality and the physical world is not as real as we imagine. Plato’s idealism is sometimes referred to by his students as his Dialectic. The term was first used by Plato himself in the ENCYPTIC LAWS (Editorial and Ethical Dialectic).
The idea of intellectual virtue is often linked to Plato’s idealism. It can be seen as a step forward in the development of philosophies like Socrates. Plato believed that virtue could be learned by testing one’s skills against the truth of others. In the Phaedrus and the Lysis he presents Socrates as an idealist who tries to live an ideal life. He is depicted as a personification of idealism because he tries to improve the conditions of his city using his mind rather than engaging in physical activity. Plato drew criticism from Socrates for this form of reasoning, because he believed that reasoning is useful only in preventing evil, and that reason was necessary for the actualization of idealism.
Plato introduces his audience to Socrates through his dialogues. His idealism is more than just an opinion; it is a detailed description of how things should really be, an overview of the history of philosophy and the methods that have been used to derive knowledge. Because of Plato’s presentation of idealism, his dialogue with Socrates is his most important work.
The Dialogues between Socrates and Plato aim to prove that virtue is not something that can be attained by studying just a few books or by engaging in self-dedication. Plato wanted everyone to have access to the ideal of virtue. The term ‘ideal’ is used here in a non-moral sense, to describe a state of harmony or balance, rather than to represent what a person sees as being desirable. This is why Plato uses the word ‘ideal’ to describe what is desirable: because a balance in nature is seen as having the characteristics of an ideal state. But unlike Socrates, Plato does not believe that desire plays a vital role in the attainment of idealism.
Socrates presents the idea of idealism as something that can be reached through education, through reasoning and through experience, though he resists the idea that this is the only way that it can be realized. It is not uncommon in Plato’s writings to find idealism being described in bodily terms – idealism being the state of being well balanced and symmethed, for example. However, the term idealism as a philosophical viewpoint is used here primarily to describe a certain way of relating to the world. In this way, Socrates introduces a form of philosophy known as dialectical idealism – where there are two main alternatives, and one can be chosen (and justified) by using logic.
The term ‘idealism’ is sometimes used in association with Stoicism, and from there it has become a popular term for a wide range of philosophies and religious attitudes. The ideas of Plato and Socrates offer the beginnings of a synthesis, whereby many of the best ideas that man has discovered so far can be combined into a consistent idealism. However, like many things in the world, idealism does not last forever, since as the thinker moves towards a more material reality, things start to blur and become less significant. Idealism is thus one among many philosophies that have come and gone over the centuries – as technology advances and expands, so do notions of what are real, and what can realistically be considered real.