Chapter 25

CHAPTER XII

PLATO

None of the predecessors of Plato had constructed a system
of philosophy. What they had produced, and in great abun-
dance, were isolated philosophical ideas, theories, hints,
and suggestions. Plato was the first person in the history of
the world to produce a great all-embracing system of phi-
losophy, which has its ramifications in all departments of
thought and reality. In doing this, Plato laid all previous
thought under contribution. He gathered the entire harvest
of Greek philosophy. All that was best in the Pythagoreans,
the Eleatics, Heracleitus, and Socrates, reappears, transfig-
ured in the system of Plato. But it is not to be imagined,
on this account, that Plato was a mere eclectic, or a pla-
giarist, who took the best thoughts of others, and worked
them into some sort of a patch-work philosophy of his own.
He was, on the contrary, in the highest degree an original
thinker. But like all great systems of thought, that of Plato

grows out of the thought of previous thinkers. He does in-

deed appropriate the ideas of Heracleitus, Parmenides, and

Socrates. But he does not leave them as he finds them.

He takes them as the germs of a new development. They

are the foundations, below ground, upon which he builds

the palace of philosophy. In his hands, all previous thought

becomes {165} transfigured under the light of a new and

original principle.

(i.) Life and writings

The exact date of the birth of Plato is a matter of doubt.

But the date usually given, 429-7 B.C. cannot be far wrong.

He came of an aristocratic Athenian family, and was pos-

sessed of sufficient wealth to enable him to command that

leisure which was essential for a life devoted to philoso-

phy. His youth coincided with the most disastrous period

of Athenian history. After a bitter struggle, which lasted

over a quarter of a century, the Peloponnesian war ended