Plato On Justice Essays (1846 words) - Socratic Dialogues

Plato On Justice Plato (428-347 BC) The Greek philosopher Plato was among the most important and creative thinkers of the ancient world. His work set forth most of the important problems and concepts of Western philosophy, psychology, logic, and politics, and his influence has remained profound from ancient to modern times. Plato was born in Athens in 428 BC. Both his parents were of distinguished Athenian families, and his stepfather, an associate of Pericles, was an active participant in the political and cultural life of Periclean Athens. Plato seems as a young man to have been destined for an aristocratic political career. The excesses of Athenian political life, however, both under the oligarchical rule (404-403) of the so-called Thirty Tyrants and under the restored democracy, seem to have led him to give up these ambitions. In particular, the execution (399) of Socrates had a profound effect on his plans. The older philosopher was a close friend of Plato's family, and Plato's writings attest to Socrates' great influence on him. After Socrates' death Plato retired from active Athenian life and traveled widely for a number of years. In 388 BC he journeyed to Italy and Sicily, where he became the friend of Dionysius the Elder, ruler of Syracuse, and his brother-in-law Dion. The following year he returned to Athens, where he founded the Academy, an institution devoted to research and instruction in philosophy and the sciences. Most of his life thereafter was spent in teaching and guiding the activities of the Academy. When Dionysius died (367), Dion invited Plato to return to Syracuse to undertake the philosophical education of the new ruler, Dionysius the Younger. Plato went, perhaps with the hope of founding the rule of a philosopher-king as envisioned in his work the Republic. The visit, however, ended (366) in failure. In 361, Plato went to Syracuse again. This visit proved even more disastrous, and he returned (360) to the Academy. Plato died in 347 BC. Plato's published writings, of which apparently all are preserved, consist of some 26 dramatic dialogues on philosophical and related themes. The precise chronological ordering of the dialogues remains unclear, but stylistic and thematic considerations suggest a rough division into three periods. The earliest dialogues, begun after 399 BC, are seen by many scholars as memorials to the life and teaching of Socrates. Three of them, the Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, describe Socrates' conduct immediately before, during, and after his trial. The early writings include a series of short dialogues that end with no clear and definitive solution to the problems raised. Characteristically, Plato has Socrates ask questions of the form "What is X?" and insist that he wants not examples or instances of X but what it is to be X, the essential nature, or Form, of X. In the Charmides the discussion concerns the question "What is temperance?"; in the Laches, "What is courage?" in the Euthyphro, "What is holiness?" The first book of the Republic may originally have been such a dialogue, devoted to the question "What is justice?" Socrates holds that an understanding of the essential nature in each case is of primary importance, but he does not claim himself to have any such understanding. A formal mode of cross-examination called elenchus, in which the answers to questions put by Socrates are shown to result in a contradiction of the answerer's original statement, reveals the ignorance of the answerer as well. Typically, these answerers are self-professed experts (the title characters of the Gorgias and Protagoras, for example, were leading Sophists; thus their inability to provide a definition is particularly noteworthy. In the Apology, Socrates describes his mission as one of exposing this ignorance, an exposure he takes to be a necessary preliminary to true wisdom. Although the dialogues appear to end in ignorance, the dialectical structure of each work is such that a complex and subtle understanding of the concept emerges. The dialogues of the middle period were begun after the founding of the Academy. Here more openly positive doctrines begin to emerge in the discourse of Socrates. The dialogues of this period include what is widely thought to be Plato's greatest work, the Republic. Beginning with a discussion on the nature of justice, the dialogue articulates a vision of an ideal political community and the education appropriate to the rulers of such a community. Justice is revealed to be a principle of each thing performing the function most appropriate to its nature, a principle of the proper adjudication of activity and being. In political terms, this principle is embodied in a society in

Sobek, the Crocodile God of Ancient Egypt

Sobek, the Crocodile God of Ancient Egypt The Nile River may have been Egypt’s lifeblood, but it also held one of its greatest dangers: crocodiles. These giant reptiles were represented in Egypt’s pantheon, too, in the form of the god Sobek. Sobek and the Twelfth Dynasty Sobek rose to national prominence during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1786 B.C.). Pharaohs Amenemhat I and Senusret I built on the already existing worship of Sobek in Faiyum, and Senusret II constructed a pyramid at that site. Pharaoh Amenemhat III dubbed himself â€Å"beloved of Sobek of Shedet† and added splendid additions to the crocodile god’s temple there. To top it off, the first female ruler of Egypt, Sobekneferu (â€Å"the Beauty of Sobek†), hailed from this dynasty. There were even several relatively obscure rulers named Sobekhotep who made up part of the succeeding Thirteenth Dynasty. Most prominently worshiped in the Faiyum, an oasis in Upper Egypt (a.k.a. Shedet), Sobek remained a popular god throughout Egypt’s millennia-long history. Legend has it that one of Egypt’s first kings, Aha, built a temple to Sobek in the Faiyum. In the Pyramid  Texts of the Old Kingdom pharaoh Unas, Aha is referred to as the â€Å"lord of Bakhu,† one of the mountains that supported Heaven. Sobek in Greco-Roman Times Even in Greco-Roman times, Sobek was honored. In his Geography, Strabo discusses the Faiyum, of Arsinoe, a.k.a. Crocodopolis (the City of the Crocodile) and Shedet. He says: â€Å"The people in this Nome hold in very great honor the crocodile, and there is a sacred one there which is kept and fed by itself in a lake, and is tame to the priests.† The croc was also venerated around Kom Ombo- at a temple complex built by the Ptolemies  and near the city of Thebes, where there was a cemetery full of crocodile mummies. A Monster in Myth In the Pyramid Texts, Sobeks mama, Neith, is mentioned, and his attributes are discussed. The Texts state: â€Å"I am Sobek, green of plumage[†¦]I appear as Sobek, Neith’s son. I eat with my mouth, I urinate and copulate with my penis. I am lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place I like according to my mind’s fancy.† From this passage, it is clear that  Sobek was involved in fertility. In the Middle Kingdom-era Hymn to Hapy,  Sobek- who was the god of the Niles inundation- bares his teeth as the Nile floods and fertilizes Egypt. To further his monster-like demeanor, Sobek is described as having eaten Osiris. In fact, cannibalization of gods by other gods wasn’t uncommon. Crocodiles weren’t always seen as benevolent, however, they were  sometimes  thought to be messengers of  Set, god of destruction. Sobek helped Osiris’s son, Horus, when, Isis (Horus mother), cut his hands off. Re asked Sobek to retrieve them, and he did so by  inventing a fishing trap.