POL 2107 Lecture 1: POL Maicher class
17 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Plato: was radical when he was alive as he is now, he is the first big philosopher. Tries to answer all questions he raises in the republic . First person to consider philosophy as an actual subject. He lived in a period of time of political unrest (general feeling of decline) Comes in at the end of greek civilization in some respects. 20 years before he was born there was war between athens and sparta, so most of his youth was spent in a period where he was forced to endure the consequences of the spartan victory. Multiple attempts at democratic govts failed, plato"s teacher socrates was killed by one democratic govt for not being religious enough and for corrupting the youth, this shaped plato"s views on society immensely. This made plato a more cautious thinker, socrates took a philosophical life so seriously that he died defending his beliefs rather than changing them.
