Plato and The Renaissance Essay - 1810 Words

Plato (428-347 B.C.E.) is considered to be one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known. Though concerned with specific problems of his own era, Platos ideas transcend all time. Throughout the ages his works have been translated into many languages and studied by great thinkers of every region of the world. A revival of Platonic thought occurred during the Renaissance. Though Platos ideas have survived in their original forms, translators and commentators during Renaissance times often understood them in a very different way than intended. Platos ideas were ahead of their time, but he was nevertheless clearly a product of Classical Greek culture. Many of his dialogues question beliefs of and praise the Greek gods.†¦show more content†¦Plato used these as a foundation, but expanded on them to defend more specific truths through subtle reasoning and inquiry.4 He also wove Socrates concepts of ethics in to other subjects of philosophy, such as politics and me taphysics. Much has changed in the world since Platos time, and at face value it is a wonder that interest in his ideas still survives. Religion has close ties with ethics and metaphysics, and though the Romans did relatively little to change the Greek faiths, the massive shift toward Christianity led by emperor Constantine in 313 C.E. redefined the appearance of religion severely.5 Christianity proposed very different views on class systems, piety, homosexuality, and divinity. The separation of church and state in the form of emperor and pope was a new form of rule that Plato had not anticipated in his writing, and popular political leaders returned to the old custom of hereditary monarchy in later generations. The expectation of servitude by the people to the rulers became much more obvious and widespread after the death of the purist democracy, something Plato would have undoubtedly been disgusted by. Despite the changing times, Platos writing survived and was studied not jus t as a collection of historical artifacts but for their continually valid philosophical insights. It was once thought that ifShow MoreRelatedRaphael’s The School of Athens: Classical Philosophers in a Renaissance Work1159 Words   |  5 PagesThe European Renaissance was the time period after the Dark Ages. In the Renaissance, radical new ideas like humanism and individualism took foot. Also, art and science were re-embraced for the first time in Europe since classical times. 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