Plato: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Plato wrote at the hinge of Greek intellectual life, absorbing Pythagorean mathematics, Heraclitean flux and Parmenidean being, then reshaping them through a literary form he borrowed partly from Sicilian comic mime. This mix traces the Athenian scene around him, the poets he quarrelled with, and the long Platonist afterlife from Plotinus to Augustine.

The Kynda mix for Plato

• Key Influence · On Nature (fragments) by Parmenides (c. 475 BCE). Plato names Parmenides in his dialogue titles and treats him with unique reverence, calling him 'father' in the Sophist and staging him as the young Socrates' interlocutor. The Eleatic doctrine that what truly is must be ungenerated, changeless and one underwrites the Theory of Forms, and the second half of Plato's Parmenides is a sustained wrestling with Eleatic logic about unity and being.medium: hexameter poem.title as fragments.reason ends here.ok
• Influencia Obscura · Mimes by Sophron of Syracuse (c. 400 BCE). Ancient biographers report Plato admired and kept the mimes of Sophron, short realistic sketches of ordinary Sicilian people in dialogue, and that they helped shape his own character-drawing. It is the least-known ingredient in the invention of the philosophical dialogue: Plato's cobblers, generals and drunken revellers owe as much to popular Syracusan street theatre as to Socratic argument.
• Local Roots · The Clouds by Aristophanes (423 BCE). Athens' comic stage and its philosophical circles shared the same small city. Plato has Socrates cite Aristophanes' caricature of him in the Apology as an early source of prejudice against him, yet Plato still gives Aristophanes the most famous speech in the Symposium, the myth of the divided lovers. Rival and neighbour at once, the comedian is inseparable from Plato's Athens.
• Beyond the Medium · The Iliad by Homer (c. 750 BCE). Plato quotes Homer constantly and then banishes him: Republic Books II, III and X attack the poet's gods and his mimetic hold on the soul, calling the quarrel between philosophy and poetry ancient. The critique is intimate, because Homer supplied the shared education Plato had to displace, and Plato's own myths of Er, Atlantis and the cave are poetry recaptured for philosophy.
• Peer · Memorabilia by Xenophon (c. 371 BCE). Xenophon was the other major member of the Socratic circle to write Socratic conversations, and his defence of Socrates' piety runs parallel to Plato's Apology while portraying a plainer, more practical teacher. Comparing the two is the central problem of the Socratic question, and ancient readers already noted the rivalry between the two Athenians who claimed the same master.
• From the Canon · Republic by Plato (c. 375 BCE). Ten books that move from a dinner-party question about justice to the tripartite soul, the guardians' education, the Form of the Good, the allegories of sun, line and cave, the critique of poetry and the myth of Er. It fused ethics, politics, metaphysics, psychology and aesthetics into one argument, and every later utopia, from More to Huxley, answers it.
• Key Collaborator · Metaphysics by Aristotle (c. 330 BCE). Aristotle arrived at the Academy around 367 BCE and stayed roughly twenty years until Plato's death, the longest creative partnership in Plato's life. The Metaphysics preserves our fullest report of Platonic doctrine while dismantling it, arguing that separate Forms explain nothing; Book Alpha's history of philosophy is simultaneously homage to and prosecution of his teacher.
• Legacy · Enneads by Plotinus (c. 270 CE). Plotinus taught in Rome as a self-described expositor of Plato, reading the Republic's Good and the Parmenides' One into a hierarchy of One, Intellect and Soul. Compiled by his student Porphyry, the Enneads became the form in which Plato reached late antiquity, Islamic philosophy and the Renaissance, and effectively created what we now call Neoplatonism.

What influenced Plato

• Parmenides. States Plato was influenced by Parmenides. (also via On Nature (fragments), On Nature) “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras , Heraclitus , and Parmenides” (Wikipedia)
• Socrates (-470). Establishes Plato as student and successor of Socrates. “In his youth, Plato first encountered Socrates , who would become his teacher and greatest source of inspiration” (Wikipedia)
• Heraclitus. States Plato was influenced by Heraclitus. (also via Fragments) “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras , Heraclitus , and Parmenides” (Wikipedia)
• Leodamas of Thasos. States Plato studied mathematics with Leodamas of Thasos. “Plato spent his time studying mathematics with Archytas of Tarentum , Theaetetus , Leodamas of Thasos , and Neocleides” (Wikipedia)
• The Iliad by Homer. The Iliad (Homer) — culture for Plato “He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Archytas of Tarentum. States Plato studied mathematics with Archytas of Tarentum. “Plato spent his time studying mathematics with Archytas of Tarentum , Theaetetus , Leodamas of Thasos , and Neocleides” (Wikipedia)
• Hermogenes. States Plato studied under Hermogenes. “and also Hermogenes , an Eleatic philosopher in the tradition of Parmenides” (Wikipedia)
• Euclid of Megara (-436). States Plato studied with Euclid of Megara. “Plato left Athens and studied in Megara with Euclid of Megara , founder of the Megarian school of philosophy, and other Socratics” (Wikipedia)
• Pythagoras. States Pythagoreans significantly influenced Plato. “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras , Heraclitus , and Parmenides” (Wikipedia)
• Theaetetus. States Plato studied mathematics with Theaetetus. “Plato spent his time studying mathematics with Archytas of Tarentum , Theaetetus , Leodamas of Thasos , and Neocleides” (Wikipedia)
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) — culture for Plato “Plato.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Cratylus. States Plato studied under Cratylus. “In Athens, Plato studied with Cratylus , a philosopher who followed the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus” (Wikipedia)
• Mimes by Sophron of Syracuse. Mimes (Sophron of Syracuse) — ghost for Plato “== Influence == Plato is said to have introduced Sophron's works into Athens and to have made use of them in his dialogues; according to Diogenes Laërtius, they were Plato's constant companions, and he even slept with them under his pill…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• On Nature by Philolaus. On Nature (Philolaus) — ghost for Plato “According to Plato's Phaedo, he was the instructor of Simmias and Cebes at Thebes, around the time the Phaedo takes place, in 399 BC.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• On Nature (fragments) by Parmenides. On Nature (fragments) (Parmenides) — titan for Plato “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Fragments by Heraclitus. Fragments (Heraclitus) — titan for Plato “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Fragments by Philolaus. Fragments (Philolaus) — ghost for Plato “According to Plato's Phaedo, he was the instructor of Simmias and Cebes at Thebes, around the time the Phaedo takes place, in 399 BC.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• On Nature by Parmenides. On Nature (Parmenides) — titan for Plato “He was influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.” (en.wikipedia.org)

Peers and kindred spirits

• Memorabilia by Xenophon. Memorabilia (Xenophon) — peer for Plato “Xenophon's Memorabilia and Aristophanes's The Clouds seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from the one Plato paints.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Academy. Names the Academy as Plato's founded school. “Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Cynics, and the Stoics” (Wikipedia)
• the Academy. States Plato founded the Academy. “was the founder of the Academy , a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the collection of philosophical theories that would later become known as Platonism” (Wikipedia)
• History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) — geography for Plato “Other scholars have brought to the fore the literary qualities of the History, which they see in the narrative tradition of Homer and Hesiod and as concerned with the concepts of justice and suffering found in Plato and Aristotle and que…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Clouds by Aristophanes (423). The Clouds (Aristophanes) — geography for Plato “Xenophon's Memorabilia and Aristophanes's The Clouds seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from the one Plato paints.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Metaphysics by Aristotle. Metaphysics (Aristotle) — collaborator for Plato “Along with his teacher Socrates, and his student Aristotle, Plato is a central figure in the history of Western philosophy.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Against the Sophists by Isocrates. Against the Sophists (Isocrates) — peer for Plato “"At the core of his teaching was an aristocratic notion of arete ("virtue, excellence"), which could be attained by pursuing philosophia – not so much the dialectical study of abstract subjects like epistemology and metaphysics that Plat…” (en.wikipedia.org)

Who Plato influenced

• Aristotle (-384). Plato was Aristotle's tutor. (also via Republic, Timaeus, Statesman) “Along with his teacher Socrates , and his student Aristotle , Plato is a central figure in the history of Western philosophy” (Wikipedia)
• Philip K. Dick. The article connects Dick’s thinking about reality to his reading of Plato. (also via Timaeus) “After reading the works of Plato and pondering the possibilities of metaphysical realms, he came to the conclusion that, in a certain sense, the world is not entirely real” (Wikipedia)
• Gottlob Frege (1848). States Frege was influenced by Plato's philosophy. “Plato's resurgence inspired some of the greatest advances in logic since Aristotle, primarily through Gottlob Frege , who argued for a form of Platonism regarding abstract mathematical objects” (Wikipedia)
• Maimonides. States Maimonides referenced Plato in his work. “Plato is also referenced by Jewish philosopher and Talmudic scholar Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed” (Wikipedia)
• Confessions by Augustine of Hippo (397). Confessions (Augustine of Hippo) — legacy for Plato “Augustine was not preoccupied, as Plato and Descartes were, in detailed efforts to explain the metaphysics of the soul-body union.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Socrate. Socrate sets excerpts from Plato's dialogues to music. “A chamber oratorio , it is a musical setting of excerpts from Plato's Socratic dialogues in the eclecticist philosopher and Hegel popularizer Victor Cousin 's somewhat lyrical translation.” (Wikipedia)
• Alfred North Whitehead (1861). Whitehead's famous statement on Plato's foundational influence on Western philosophy. “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” (Wikipedia)
• Dion of Syracuse (-409). States Dion of Syracuse became a disciple of Plato. “Dionysius's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse , became one of Plato's disciples” (Wikipedia)
• Enneads by Plotinus. Enneads (Plotinus) — legacy for Plato “The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the Neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Al-Farabi. States Al-Farabi was inspired by Plato's Republic. (via Republic) “Inspired by Plato's Republic, Al-Farabi extended his inquiry beyond mere political theory, proposing an ideal city governed by philosopher-kings” (Wikipedia)
• Edmund Gettier (1927). States Gettier adapted examples from Plato's Theaetetus. (via Theaetetus) “Adapting examples from Plato's Theaetetus , Edmund Gettier famously demonstrated the Gettier problem for the "justified true belief account" of knowledge” (Wikipedia)
• Leonard Bernstein. Symposium (Plato) — culture for Leonard Bernstein (via Symposium) “Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, 1957, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films, as well as three symphonies, Serenade (after Plato's …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Erik Satie. Phaedo (Plato) — culture for Erik Satie (via Phaedo) “A chamber oratorio, it is a musical setting of excerpts from Plato's Socratic dialogues in the eclecticist philosopher and Hegel popularizer Victor Cousin's somewhat lyrical translation.” (en.wikipedia.org)