Plato is one of the most important figures in the history of philosophy, not only for the ideas that he proposed, but also for the questions that he taught generations of people to ask. His writings dealt with justice, truth, knowledge, love, education, politics, morality and the essence of reality. His dialogues are still being read more than 2,300 years after his death, because many of the problems he examined have never really gone away.Who is Plato?Plato was an Athenian philosopher . He lived c . 429/427 – 347 BCE . He was born in Athens into a fairly well-to-do family and lived in a time of extraordinary political and intellectual ferment. Athens had gone through the Peloponnesian War, political turmoil and heated debate about democracy, citizenship and the nature of good government.The philosopher who taught and intellectually stimulated Plato, Socrates, had a profound influence on Plato’s life. Socrates himself wrote nothing , and most of what we know about him is through the works of Plato and other ancient writers . In Plato’s dialogues Socrates is usually the leading voice, challenging politicians, poets, teachers and ordinary people on the subjects they claim to understand. The trial and execution of Socrates in Athens c. 399 BCE profoundly affected Plato. His own city had condemned a man who had challenged received wisdom all his life. This presented a disturbing possibility for Plato: what to do when a society cannot distinguish between real wisdom and persuasive opinion? That question would come to dominate much of his philosophy.The philosopher who started an intellectual traditionAfter Socrates’ death, Plato travelled and finally came back to Athens, where he founded the Academy, one of the most important centers of higher learning in the ancient world. It was to become the model for organised education in philosophy, and would exert an influence for centuries.Those who studied there included Aristotle, who would himself become one of history’s greatest philosophers. As a student at Plato’s Academy for some twenty years, Aristotle articulated philosophical positions that sometimes sharply departed from those of his teacher.Plato himself did not produce a typical textbook of philosophy. He wrote dialogues instead, plays of words in which characters argued out complex questions. This is an important form, for Plato rarely presents philosophy as a list of answers. Instead he makes the reader witness the process of asking.Perhaps that is one of his greatest contributions: philosophy is not simply something to learn but something to do.Plato’s beliefs and philosophyPlato’s philosophy was extensive, but several ideas were particularly influential. One of his best known theories is his Theory of Forms. Plato, generally speaking, held that the world of the senses is imperfect and always changing, whereas there are more basic, eternal realities – Forms or Ideas – which serve as standards for things like beauty, justice and goodness. Think beautiful. Beautiful things change, fade, are different. But we can speak of beauty itself, as if there were some idea behind it all, something more than any one beautiful thing. Plato used such questions to explore the difference between appearance and deeper reality.Knowledge was of equal importance to him. People often mistake confidence for knowledge. Someone can be eloquent, well-connected, or able to sway a crowd, but still be wrong. Plato believed the real wisdom was in knowing the limits of one’s knowledge.This is directly connected to the Socratic inheritance. In Plato’s Apology, Socrates appears wise because he does not know everything, but knows that he does not know what others claim to know.Plato and the Question of the Good SocietyPlato was also very interested in politics. His most famous political work, The Republic, poses a deceptively simple question: What is justice?The conversation eventually moves to an exploration of the ideal society, education, leadership and human character. Plato famously argued that philosophers are the best suited to govern, trained as they are to pursue wisdom, not power, wealth or popularity.His political ideas have been discussed, criticised and reinterpreted for centuries. But the key question sounds eerily current: Should leaders be people who know what is right, or people who are good at making others think they are right?Quote of the Day“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something,” is one of the most popular quote of Plato and a jibe on people who speak mindlessly.The first half of the saying presents wisdom as being related to purpose. A wise person does not speak just to fill the silence. Speech has a purpose . There’s something to be said, a question to be asked, an experience to be shared or an argument worth making. This does not mean that the wise should always speak in a serious tone, or that every sentence should contain deep insights. Instead, it implies that meaningful speech is preceded by thought.Thus the dialogues of Plato are framed. Socrates never accepts assertions, but asks questions. Someone may say he knows what justice, courage or virtue is, but Socrates will push him to define what he really means. The talk becomes a question of whether the words the speaker speaks come from a real understanding.In that sense, speaking well is thinking well. The second half is more severe. It describes the impulse to talk just because silence is uncomfortable. There’s a difference between having something to say and feeling the need to say something.The difference is particularly important today. Social media, 24-hour news and the constant stream of digital communication have created an environment in which everyone can respond instantly to almost everything. We can comment before we read, react before we understand and be certain before we check the facts.Plato could not have imagined social media, but his worries about the line between knowledge and opinion feel strikingly contemporary.The issue isn’t that people have opinions. Inevitable and often helpful opinions. The trouble comes when opinion pretends to be knowledge. The one who says, ” I don’t know enough about this yet ” may be more intellectually mature than the one who speaks confidently without understanding the subject.The wisdom of knowing when to remain silentSo at its deepest level the quotation is not really an attack on talkative people. It is a reflection of intellectual discipline. Word knowledge is wisdom. This means listening before responding, questioning your assumptions, separating evidence from speculation and accepting that some questions need more thought than an instant answer. This is also why the influence of Plato extends well beyond philosophy. His ideas had an impact on Western thought on education, politics, ethics, mathematics, metaphysics and the nature of knowledge. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , he was one of the most influential authors in the history of philosophy, and had a tremendous impact on the way philosophical inquiry was conceived.Perhaps the reason Plato is still relevant is that he never thought wisdom was simply having more answers. He learned to ask better. And that makes the quote even more powerful.” The wise man speaks because he has thought something out. The fool speaks because he cannot keep his mouth shut. In an age when every man has a platform and every opinion can be broadcast instantly, the advice ascribed to Plato appears less an ancient observation than a contemporary reminder: Just because you can talk doesn’t mean you have to. Sometimes the best response is to listen. To think and to know when you really have something important to say.
