Philosopher, Mathematician, Astronomer, Scholar, Psychologist (427 BC – 348 BC)
Plato, the therapist of the souls, the eternal Teacher of mankind is a cosmohistorical figure of world history whose work exerted a huge influence on the human thought and spirit. Platonic philosophy is what guided humanity throughout the ages from ancient times to this day and what still determines its course in history. Together with his teacher, the immortal Socrates, and his student, the wise Aristotle, they form the holy trinity of philosophy. Plato’s life, work and legacy unveil to the human soul insuperable wisdom from a higher world co-existing with the human world which Beings from a Higher Plane inhabit. His wise predecessors Orpheus, Hesiod, Homer, Socrates and Pythagoras opened the gates of philosophy. Plato walked through them.
Plato was born in Athens. His first contact with philosophy was Socrates. Without him, there would not have been nor Plato, nor Aristotle, nor Western philosophy. Prior to that, Plato was a poet. Even though he abandoned poetry and turned to philosophy, his works contain several poetic elements, namely the Platonic myths. From Socrates, Plato discovered himself («γνῶθι σαυτόν») and his inner virtues. From that point onward, he was to continue the path of his spiritual development alone.
His spiritual journey began when he travelled to Magna Graecia to study Pythagorean philosophy and mathematics. There he became acquainted with Archytas of Tarentum, the chief Pythagorean representative at the time with whom Plato formed a strong bond of friendship. Archytas initiated Plato to the Orphic and Pythagorean mysteries. From there, Plato travelled to Egypt and Cyrene.
Upon returning to Athens, he founded the Academy, the world’s greatest spiritual center and University ever built by mankind (the first University of mankind was founded by Pythagoras and Archytas). Its goal was to attract all intellectuals from the Greek world in an effort to promote sciences and philosophy and to cultivate mathematics, a true “Pan-epistemion” (universal science). With its enormous library, it served as a storehouse of knowledge that was to be disseminated to the entire world by the Acdemy’s students. Other activites of the Academy included the development of geometry, geography, astronomy, ethics, social and political sciences, art and the classification of all animals and plants. The Academy was open to all men and women of any ethnicity who wished to carry on the torch of Platonic philosophy, provided that thet knew geometry («μηδεὶς ἀγεωμέτρητος εἰσίτω»). Most of Greece’s greatest philosophic and scientific minds of the 4th century BC were students in the Academy, namely Aristotle, Eudoxus and Xenocrates. The Academy shined as the sky’s brightest star of knowledge from the time of its foundation till 83 BC and then again from 410 until 529, when it was closed by the Emperor Justinian.
Plato is the Patriarch of Greek Meditation (Ἑλληνικὸς ΔΙΑ –Λογισμός), together with Pythagoras. He is the one who continued Pythagoras and Socrates’ work and took it farther. Plato’s books contain all the knowledge that he found after years of meditation. His masterpieces are an eternal consignment to humanity containing all the information given to him by the Divine Beings during his endoscopic flights. This information which Plato received was carefully coded inside the Platonic myths and speaks to the reader’s soul. Their demythification provides the basis of the therapy of the soul. With his philosophy, Plato aimed at the equilibrium of the mind and soul. Through the catharsis of the human soul, following careful and critical self-examination, without external intervening forces, the soul becomes awakened and healed from its monsters and traumas. Man’s soul ultimately comes into contact and unifies with the Divine, the same way as his Teachers Pythagoras, Socrates, Orpheus, Heraclitus, Democritus, Archytas and Hippocrates did. This was the way Plato approached the issues of the soul which he left to humanity to heal itself.
Plato’s books have been traditionally compiled as tetralogies. These are the following, in order by which they were originally written by Plato: Ephthyphron – Apology of Socrates – Criton – Phaedon, Cratylus – Theaetetus – Sophist – Politicus, Parmenides – Philebus – Symposium – Phaedros, Alcibiades – Alcibiades second – Hipparchus – Erastae, Theages – Harmides – Laches – Lysis, Eythydemus – Protagoras – Gorgias – Menon, Hippias major – Hippias minor – Ion – Menexenus, Cleitophon – Republic – Timaeus – Critias, Minos – Laws – Epinomis – Epistoles.
The issues which he approached regarding the soul were the following: He explored the world of ideas, the world of the souls, where do they come from, how they are born. How do they incarnate and where do they go after “death”. What are the soul’s parts and characteristics, what are the types of souls and how do they heal. His magnum opus Timaeus – Critias is the Holy Bible of Humanity. It is the main book in which Plato unravels most of his metaphysical findings including the gigantic Platonic cosmology and God and provides the first scientific explanation on the creation of the universe and the creation of the beings. In addition, it is the book in which he speaks about Atlantis, the Athenian-Atlantean war, its downfall and the rise of Athens about 11.000 years ago.
Justice is a quality of the Divine. It is the main topic of Plato’s Republic. In it, Plato describes the ideal Republic, the one that is governed by the virtuous philosopher-kings and which if ever implemented, humanity will be salvaged from its passions. This shows that Plato was involved with political philosophy but chose not to be involved with them on a practical level. It also contains metaphysical topics such as the nature and the situations of the soul. For spiritualism and politics go together in Plato’s Republic. Phaedros is the golden book of psychology. Among some of its topics include the stimulation of the soul by the Muses, rendering it able to educate other souls with hymns and myths (Hesiod, Homer) and the entire process of Greek Meditation by which the soul comes into contact with the Divine. Phaedon is yet another metaphysical book on the soul’s immortality and reincarnation. Like in the book Phaedros, the repeating symbols of the horse and the Charioteer play a central role. The critical self-examination and the definition of the Greek Meditation are the key points of Plato’s Sophist and Plato’s Theaetetus. In the latter he also presents the mathematical work of mathematician Theaetetus. Laws is the book in which Plato dwells in the depths of human nature. He discovers the divine essence of man’s soul and explains the importance of virtue. The significance of virtue is also a big topic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus. Cratylus explains the connection between the Greek language and symbolism.
Plato got involved with mathematics later in his life. He was the one who divided the world into noetic (eternal) and aesthetic (changing) and established that one could only interpret the celestial phenomena of the noetic world using a ruler and a compass. Geometry, therefore, according to Plato was the most sacred tool to research the Divine world as geometric shapes represent shapes from the world of ideas. Plato suggested that ideas are numbers. Plato highly advanced mathematics, founded Platonic stereometry (Theaetetus, Menon, Timaeus), made innovations in the fields of sequences, theory of numbers and mathematical physics (Timaeus). Except from being a philosopher and mathematician, Plato was an important theologic reformer. He used mathematics to interpret God and the creation of the world. He explained that the aesthetic world was created by the Creator God by geometry and stereometry in the image of the world of ideas. Finally, Plato was involved with ethics, epistemology, theology and of course astronomy. The theory of the World of Ideas and the Kinetic theory of the soul belong to him.
Platonic philosophy never ceased to be in the epicenter of world philosophy. During thr 2nd century BC its main representatives were Panaetius and Poseidonius of Rhodes. During the Roman era Platonic philosophy was further disseminated to the Western civilization thanks to the Roman philosophers, primarily Cicero. In the 3rd century Platonists included Plutarch, Porphyrius, Proclus, Iamblichus, Hypatia, Damascius, Plotine and the physician Galen. Even in the dark years of the Middle Ages, Platonic philosophy never stopped flourishing and inspiring. With the chief representatives of that era being Cardinal Bessarion and Georgios Gemistus – Pletho, humanity stepped out of the darkness of religion and into the light of the Renaissance thanks to their contribution, was well as the contribution of significant Greek and Italian scholars like Michael Psellos, Cozimo de Medici, Manuel Chrysoloras, Marsilio Ficino, Aldus Manutius etc., who further disseminated Plato’s philosophy to the world where it reached the hands of modern generation.
The soul of the seekers of the truth, who indulge on Plato’s wisdom will grow golden wings and will fly to the Divine Beings where it will unite with them. Πᾶσα γὰρ (ἡ ψυχὴ) τὸ πάλαι πτερωτή – Πλάτωνος Φαῖδρος (Because the entire soul is winged – Plato’s Phaedros).
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