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Plato's Apology Essay

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Plato's Apology Essay
Plato is a Greek philosopher and mathematician accredited for laying foundation for modern philosophy and science (Wolfsdorf 75). He spent his early life as a writer where he focused mostly on tragedies. Plato is also accredited with introducing the first institution of higher learning in Greece. Plato was Socrates’ student and thus most of his work is based on the life and achievements of Socrates. Plato was in a position to capture major events in Socrates’ life up until Socrates was executed.
One of Plato’s main works is the “Apology. The “Apology” captures Socrates speeches at his trial where he accused of “corrupting Athen’s youth, lack of respect for gods and introducing new deities” (Leibowitz 45). In the context, Socrates does not
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Also, Plato understands that Socrates teaching and arguments are not the ultimate truth. As such, Plato is more open to criticism of his philosophy and as such, it is been argued that Plato became even more famous that his teacher. Another’s theme that arises in the “Apology” is the interconnectedness of various elements in nature. Socrates in the “Apology” portrays himself as an individual who is constant for knowledge. To him, there is nothing such as adequate knowledge and thus one should continuously improve them. In the aspiration to constantly improve oneself, it leads to overall improvement of the society. Plato, through Socrates teaching is in a position to show such interconnectedness of human action. As such, all human action should be directed towards improving the overall status of the society. The above themes provided the basis for the establishment of Platonism. This is because “the Apology” is considered Plato’s most significant works and also influenced other works. Moreover, increased emphasis of importance of virtues to guide human action and susceptibility of humans to error became central themes under Platonism. In essence, the “Apology” is seen as the foundation to other Plato works and the gradual movement from Socrates related dialogues to non Socrates related works (Brickhouse and Smith …show more content…
Under Platonic philosophy, this is simply referred to as the “good”. As such, a negative event on an individual or a region is bound to affect other individuals who are not within the vicinity (King 1028). The connection between the mind and nature also enables individuals get a better understanding of their environment. As a result, they are in a position to exploit their environment fully. The second principle is hierarchy which indicates that knowledge and other things in the environment follow “top-down” approach. In order to understand the environment an individual needs to understand the simple, intelligible information before moving to the more complex information (Gerson 34). This helps such an individual understand and also disseminate knowledge and information to others with

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