PHILOSOPHER OF THE WEEK OCTOBER 14th

PLATO

The Kids Philosophy Slam now features a philosopher of the week. Included with this new offering is a brief biography and famous quotes of the featured philosopher, ideas for classroom discussions, and links to related philosopher sites! There will be a new philosopher of the week each and every week through March!

Plato (428-354 BCE)

Athens, Greece

Plato was born to a wealthy family and was a student of Socrates. After Socrates died, he wanted to make sure that Socrates was not forgotten so he wrote down Socrates’ teachings in a book called Dialogues. Plato founded the first university called the Academy, where students focused on the big question "Is there a perfect world?" Aristotle was one of his star pupils. Plato believed that are unchanging truths in all things, for example there are many breeds of horses, but there are definite things that definite "horseness about them all." He also believed that a philosopher’s job is to open people’s eyes to truth and help them strive for perfection. Plato was one of the first to teach that women should be educated so they could work towards perfection too. Plato believed that men and women had the same intellectual powers and they should receive the same education. Plato also believed in an unseen world where there existed the perfect models of all things on Earth. Plato also held true that society would remain stable and just with philosophers in power. His most noted writing is The Republic.

Classroom discussion questions.

How would Plato have answered the question: What is the meaning of life?

What is the nature of knowledge as Plato envisioned knowledge?

Can there be in reality an ideal society that Plato describes? What would this society look like?

What would our government look like today if it were run by philosophers as Plato proposed?

For more information about Plato, follow these links.

http://plato.evansville.edu/

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html

http://www.rit.edu/~flwstv/plato.html

http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plato.html

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/PLATO.HTM

http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm

http://php.iupui.edu/~cplaneau/plato_03_30.htm

 

If you have suggestions for the Philosopher of the week, please e-mail us at: info@philosophys

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