The Origins of Plato

Plato is believed to have been born around 428 BCE on the island of Aegina, near Athens. Originally named Aristocles, he hailed from a wealthy and politically influential family.

His lineage on his father's side is said to trace back to Codrus, the last king of Athens. His mother’s family was connected to Solon, a renowned reformer and statesman who had significantly altered Athenian society long before Plato's birth. Plato's family was so prominent that they were thought to be descendants of Poseidon, god of the sea and brother to Zeus.

Plato first gained public attention through wrestling, securing victories at the prestigious Isthmian Games. It is speculated that he adopted his pen name from his wrestling coach—“Platon” in Greek signifies broadness. This suggests that he was likely heavyset or broad-shouldered, ideal traits for a wrestler.

It’s crucial to recognize that Plato was as much an artist as he was a philosopher, despite his criticisms of artists. He dabbled in playwriting and poetry during his youth but did not achieve success. Nonetheless, his talent for crafting believable dialogue and metaphor shines through in his philosophical works, especially during a time when few philosophers wrote extensively.

In his early philosophical endeavors, Plato chronicled the dialogues of Socrates, a captivating Athenian figure who attracted many young followers, including Plato himself.

Socrates was a stone mason by trade and a participant in the Peloponnesian War, where Athens faced a devastating defeat to Sparta. In his later years, he began teaching philosophy and mentoring young men who appreciated his sharp wit. His reputation grew as he frequently challenged the accepted wisdom of various authorities in politically charged Athens.

Socrates was ultimately arrested, accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and of impiety. He was sentenced to death, a privilege afforded to Athenian citizens, which he accepted, refusing rescue from his loyal followers. Plato's account of Socrates' trial and demise, penned in his twenties, stands as one of the greatest literary works, intellectually profound and emotionally resonant.

A fable recounted by Diogenes Laërtius tells of Socrates dreaming of a swan that perched on his knees, swiftly growing feathers and taking flight while emitting a melodious cry. The next day, Plato was introduced to Socrates as a student, and the elder philosopher recognized him as the swan from his dream.

While likely apocryphal, this tale highlights how deeply intertwined the legacies of Plato and Socrates became. It is largely through Plato that we know as much as we do about Socrates, while Socrates’ influence helped shape Plato into a foundational figure in both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions.

Yet, much about Socrates remains elusive. Even Plato’s portrayals of Socrates’ thoughts conflict with those documented by Xenophon, another of Socrates’ followers. The widely accepted image of Socrates as a master of dialogue, an ironist, and a martyr for rational thought is predominantly derived from Plato’s writings.

Plato could have pursued a political career, following in his family’s footsteps. Instead, he dedicated nine years to following Socrates. Although they belonged to different generations and social strata in Athens, Plato became devoted to the eccentric older man, who was a figure of both reverence and ridicule in his city.

The dialogue format was appropriate since Socrates primarily taught through conversation. Rather than imparting knowledge directly, he employed a method of questioning that enabled his interlocutors to arrive at their own conclusions.

This dialectical approach, known as "Socratic irony," revealed rational knowledge—knowledge that, in Socrates’ view, was always present within the mind.

As for Plato, his true ideas remain uncertain, as he does not feature prominently in his dialogues and is mentioned only twice. Historians attribute many ideas from the dialogues to him—those that are most frequently and forcefully expressed.

The Socrates depicted in early dialogues like The Apology and Phaedo gives insight into the historical figure, while the Socrates of later works such as Republic likely serves as a voice for Plato’s own ideas.

These concepts are vast and profound, delving into politics, spirituality, law, mathematics, ethics, aesthetics, science, and logic. They are built upon foundational thoughts regarding the nature of the cosmos and humanity's place within it.

The Concept of Time

Plato's philosophy on time sits at the crossroads of these foundational ideas, seamlessly linking his notion of Forms with his perspective on the universe's creation.

What does Plato mean by Forms? He posited that our inhabited world is not the true reality. All material objects exhibit qualities of what he termed "Forms" or "Ideas." These Forms are timeless and exist beyond location; they are immaterial. Consequently, they are part of the real world, as they are eternal and indestructible.

Forms address what philosophers refer to as "the problem of universals." Universals are words we use to describe things, such as "black," "white," "round," or "circular." For Plato, there exists a definitive White and a perfect Circle. While the representations of these Forms in nature or human creation may be imperfect, we must still "know" the circle and the color white.

The changing aspects of the material world "participate" in Forms, which manifest in the particular objects that compose our reality. For instance, beauty is a Form that we can observe in beautiful things.

What is crucial to understand is that Forms remain unchanged; they embody "being" in its purest form. Knowledge of Forms, therefore, constitutes true knowledge. Since Forms are neither visible nor material, they can only be grasped through reason, which represents genuine understanding.

In contrast, all particular things in the material world are in a state of "becoming"—everything around us is continuously transforming. Our knowledge of this world amounts to mere opinion, as it is not anchored in anything stable or unchanging.

Thus, two parallel realms exist: the unchanging, eternal world of Forms and the mutable material world. The superior realm is apprehended through reason, while the material realm is perceived through the senses.

Time, then, is the manifestation of the material world's imperfections—it is our way of perceiving change, through movement, decay, and so on.

While the models of the entities around us are eternal, the entities themselves undergo change and decay over time. Beauty, as a Form, remains immaterial and eternal; however, beauty in any individual or object will diminish as that entity changes over time.

Creation

In Plato's later dialogue Timaeus, the connection between the two realms is clearly articulated when Timaeus—a fictional yet esteemed scientist—narrates the creation myth of the Demiurge.

Demiurge translates roughly to "craftsman." This figure is a god who brings order to a preexisting chaos. However, the Demiurge draws inspiration solely from the eternal world of Forms. The universe he crafts is a living, spherical entity that is good and everlasting, reflecting the goodness of the Demiurge.

Yet, copies can never match the original's quality. Thus, the world created by the Demiurge is an imperfect imitation of the eternal world that inspired it. This is how time emerged as a characteristic of the universe's flaws.

As Plato expresses through Timaeus:

> "But the being that served as the model was eternal, and it was impossible for [the Demiurge] to make this altogether an attribute of any created object. Nevertheless, he determined to make it a kind of moving likeness of eternity, and so in the very act of ordering the universe he created a likeness of eternity, a likeness that progresses eternally through the sequence of numbers, while eternity abides in oneness. This image of eternity is what we have come to call ‘time’."

According to Timaeus, celestial bodies delineate the passage of time, making it absolute in Plato’s framework—if time ceased, we would cease to exist.

The movements of the heavens and the changes marking night and day enable humanity and all living creatures to comprehend the unchanging laws of mathematics—the "sequence of numbers."

Time, therefore, arises from the interplay of the eternal and the changing, the immaterial and the material. Moreover, time acts as a bridge between the two parallel realms—we can grasp the timeless and unchanging world of Forms and subsequently attain knowledge of eternity through the changes registered in time. After all, as Timaeus describes, our world is an ever-moving "image of eternity."

Thus, time holds a vital role in the coherence and structure of Platonic philosophy. It embodies the manifestation of the material world's imperfections while simultaneously providing the means to comprehend the perfection of the timeless realm of Forms, ultimately leading to the source of all existence, which Plato termed "The Good."

This duality addresses the frequently posed question: "If the universe was created, when did God create it?" In Timaeus, the god created time alongside the universe itself, existing in an eternal realm devoid of time—where all time is present in a singular eternal moment.

Later scholars of monotheistic religions, such as Augustine of Hippo and Boethius, inherited Plato's cosmology and employed similar concepts to explain the world's creation. In God's domain, time does not exist—time is merely a condition of our existence.

Plato asserts in Timaeus that the material world is also "eternal," but unlike the Forms, it is subject to change and motion. Did the world itself have a beginning? Plato suggests it did, as it has a creator.

However, like many ancient Greek philosophers, Plato did not entertain the notion of creation ex nihilo. The chaos preceding the world was still something, albeit without time and seemingly devoid of space. This raises the question of how such chaos was transformed into something that occupies space and exists within time.

Plato's answer to this, if one existed, has been lost. However, Plotinus, a Roman Neoplatonist philosopher from the third century, fills in the gaps left by Plato with his refined interpretation of Platonism.

For Plotinus, creation is not a sequence of events but an eternal process. The world we inhabit has always existed, according to him, continually manifesting as an emanation through various tiers of reality.

At the core of reality is The One, which Plato referred to in Republic and elsewhere as "The Good"—the source of being. It is, in essence, indescribable, as it precedes form and comprehension. We can only recognize The One as that which renders all things intelligible.

Plato's mythological Demiurge is abstracted into the next tier of reality, which Plotinus describes as "Nous," meaning "Intellect," the image of The One that enables existence, organizing the world into being.

Following that is Soul, which shapes and orders being in the material universe, where Platonic Forms reside. At the bottom of this hierarchy is matter.

These levels of existence, while described as distinct, are present in the world at every moment. Thus, the universe has no true beginning—it is eternal, yet created.

Time has always posed challenges for philosophers and scientists. While we grasp time instinctively, it presents paradoxes and confusions upon reflection. As Augustine of Hippo famously stated, "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know."

The modern scientific understanding of time aligns with Plato's principles, as both assert that time emerged with the material universe. This may partly explain why Plato's ideas endure as plausible, especially if we view the Demiurge as metaphorical.

The Platonic philosophy of time, originating from Plato and further developed by philosophers like Plotinus and Augustine—who made Platonic time subjective—is arguably the most coherent in the history of philosophy.

Time ushers us into existence while also revealing the cosmos' perfection in which we find ourselves. It is through time that we come to understand ourselves and our place in the universe, ultimately discovering—through the inspiration offered by the universe's movement—the goodness within us, and finding, as Plato articulated, "that most excellent life offered to humankind."