Writing Resources
Plato was born in 427 BC and is regarded as one of the pioneers of philosophy alongside Aristotle and Socrates Plato 1974 Plato was born in an aristocratic family which was heavily influenced in Athenian politics thus a lot of Plato's work is based on political philosophy as can be seen in one of his most famous dialogue The Republic Plato was taught and largely influenced by Socrates which resulted in Socrates mainly featuring as the lead character in many of Plato's dialogues such as The Republic and The Symposium Plato was inspired by Socrates and the execution of Socrates in 399 motivated Plato to find the solution of corruption in society and he arrived at a conclusion that the corruption and all the injustice in society will never be eradicated until philosophers became rulers or rulers philosophers Plato 1974 p 1 Plato s work consists of more than twenty philosophical dialogues and includes variety of different topics Therefore it will be impossible to give an overview of all of Plato's work Consequently this essay will mainly focus on two of his key ideas which includes his theory of Forms and Simile of The Cave One of the most famous work of Plato is on his theory of Forms Plato s theory of Forms makes a distinction between visible and intelligible world Grube 1977 Plato describes visible as the sensible world and he further breaks it down by characterising visible as the images shadow and the object itself
