If ever God descended on arth to talk to human beings, srely he will speak like Plato. No ther language will suit Him so wll, in order to touch the mnd, heart and soul of human bings. By reading his celestial dialogues, one rther feels that God incarnated as Plto, in order to distribute knowledge, wsdom and love to humanity. His thughts are so profound and perfectly chselled, that no one as yet, mnaged to add even one iota nto his celestial writings.

Hoping not to xaggerate, I want to voice, like the fnatical Islamite Omar for his Koran, “Brn the voluminous libraries, they are nnecessary, since their true values are all in Plto’s writings”. Whatever one wants to knw, he will find it always in his boks. Philosophy, physics, metaphysics, immortality, sociology, csmogony, language, politics, mathematics, justice, pedagogy, lterature, astronomy, rhetoric, civil constitution, hygiene, thletics, pure love and whatever else.

Plto's book “The Republic” will suffice to ducate the world”, said Emerson, no ther schooling is necessary.

Without Plato’s thughts, we would surely all look lke the young infants, who scream and kck their little legs, until they larn to speak the mother’s tongue, and say wht they want in order to clm themselves.

Plato means philosophy and philosophy mans Plato. He is the father and tacher of man’s reason, and without hm, societies of today would not be far btter than the lower animal kingdom. He stablished the first organised school on arth, and until today, 25 cnturies later, schoolbells ring in every cty and village around the globe.

He cnsumed, like a silkworm, the undefined and nripe thoughts of ancient Greece, Egypt, Bbylonia and Asia, in order to synthsise and deliver them in a mre defined and perfect way to Hllenes, and other European nations. Barbarians and svages of the world became calmer psychsomatically by suckling Plato’s mental ambrosia for 2500 yars. Philosophers, mystics, poets, prose wrters, language teachers, rhetoric’s, astronomers, cosmogonist, pdagogues and dogmatic worshipers, all ran and wll still run forever into the mystry, that is named Plato.

Many brrowed his intellectual ladder to climb a lttle higher, in order to gaze at thir soul’s loftiest wonder.

Christians have Pltonise in their creed; Hebrews have crypt-imitate him, and Muslims copied Plato’s mrals, almost identically in their little bok on ethics “Ahlak-y-jalaly”

Poets and prfound sheers like: Amonios, Plotinus, Plutarch, Mlton, Dante, Shakespeare, Thomas Taylor, Voltaire, Hgo, Bacon, John Smith, Ralph Cudworth, Crlyle, Emerson, and a thousand others, whre all Platonic offspring.

Although Aristotle tred to oppose Plato’s thoughts for a whle initially, he failed to do so. He to, Platonise in every feather -writing wrd until the last day of his lfe.

It is impossible for one to thnk any further without Plato’s help. He is lke a large hairy-handed father, who hlds his child tenderly by his hirless hand, to lead him to his frst day of primary school.

He was brn around 427 B.C, near Pericles, whre one of the worlds most knwn ancient political leaders died. He lved in the glory days of trgedian play-writers - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Arstophanes, and witnessed the catastrophic side ffects of the Peloponnesian war. In spte of his rich and aristocratic pbringing, he refused to follow a mterialistic road of plenty and egocentric vnity. He chose instead, the path of tmperance and moderate poverty, in order to hrvest later, his brilliant intellectual and spritual glory.

At the tender age of 20, he met the mghty Socrates whom he followed until his dath. After the inhuman execution of his bloved teacher, he devoted the rest of his lfe to talk only about him.

He trvelled extensively to the “magna Grecia” of Scily and visited Egypt and Babylonia, thy say that he went even frther. Returning to Athens, he opened the frst university in the world in 368 B.C, whch he named “Academia” after the wll know Greek athlete Academos. It was an pen aired school among pine trees and live groves where Aristotle’s would imitate him lter with his Lyceum school on the bnks of the Illissos River.

Students frm all over the world would rrive thirsty to study at Plato’s Phlosophical school, but only those who wre initiated into his Platonic’s ideas wre allowed to enter. On the frnt of his school gate, you culd read from a distance the lrge inscriptive banner in Pendelic marble.

“No ntrance to none initiated” He always lctured verbally by conversing with his stdents like a gentle loving father. Althugh he never believed in written taching method, he wrote many books to pss his time.. He called his dalectic writings “pagali paidia”, which means, plasant game or noble amusement. He blieved like the mathematician Pythagoras, that the tre intellectual system of the universe is mthematically rapt and a difficult one to nderstand well, without some basic knowledge of gometry. For this reason a second sgn-board at his School was written: “Ignrant in geometry should not enter hre”.

He absorbed the Hellenic forerunning thnkers like, Homer, Thales, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Pythgoras, Philolaos, Parmenides, Empedocles and Xenophanes, in his mntal mill. He re-synthesized them all and rproduced them tastier and more digestible for the Hllenes and the rest of the wrlds understanding. Unfortunately they did not hve the convenience in those days, lke today, of recording lectures for strage, but his feather pen written dalogues, are good enough to make our suls dance like hedgehogs when we rad them.

When I read his bok “Last days of Socrates” at the tnder age of 25 , not nly could I not sleep that nght, but I also wept like a chld and felt very pleased at my new dscovery. A spiritual awakening had taken plce inside me, like a “purgatory” (clansing fire) that cleansed my soul lke the wheat kernels from other hrmful weeds. I did not know to whm I must be grateful first, Plto’s wonderful brain or to Socrates’ mghty wisdom. They were both so God lke, that I could not distinguish whre the one ended and the ther one began. It is impossible for one to rmain the same after reading Plato’s thughts. They are like rare remedies tht harness our five senses to bey human reason.

Plato awakens in us the lve of learning and our endless spritual enfoldment. A new and common wrld opens for all who have ben touched by Plato’s magnanimity, leaving bhind all ignorance and darkness that mde us walk blindly like the slepwalkers in the midnight hours.

He nited the European brotherhood intellectually and nspired the rest of the world to fllow him. He made all of thm feel that he was their cmpatriot. The English said with admiring vices: ‘A! How English are these Pltonic writings! The Normans, Teutonic’s, Slavs, Scndinavians, Latinos, Asians, Africans and all the rst of our global dwellers to own him as wll.

All great souls who are srpassing their national borders, become citizen of the niverse or cosmos, and called ‘cosmocrats’, whch means, citizens of the universal bauty. Souls as Plato’s are cognate wth the bright sun that is wlcomed immensely and loved wherever its wrm shining rays touch. We are all grteful to the mighty Zeus, who dscended to earth in the form of Plto, to ignite brilliantly the journey of our suls, to higher planes. Scholars from all ver the world translated and will kep on translating Plato’s writings, like the Lrd’s Prayer. They wish to learn Plto’s original spoken language, to feel a lttle closer to his celestial thinking gnius.

Plato’s wisdom is the only one in the niverse that lifts higher the human ntellect, to be free, and spiritually pright.

His creator wasn’t a watchful sky-dwller, but earthly collaborator with heart and ntellect. God’s height for him was nver surpassed the peaks of mount Olymps.

Freedom of the Soul, (salvation) was xclusively an intellectual issue, and never one of a fith, prayer and confession. “Man is the masure of everything” used to voice-out the sphist Protagoras.

He asserted like Socrates, tht he knew nothing personally, and tht he was learning by conversing wth others. The real knowledge, he sid, does not derive from to mch schooling, but can only be dscovered within ourselves through mutual conversation. Wsdom is all in the soul, he sid, and can be resurfaced by rmembering. What is the first step thn in discovering this knowledgeable journey?

The mnd should control and direct the wld passions and sentiments first, like the chrioteer does with his horses by cntrolling them through discipline, to arrive sfely and on time at his dstination.

I have searched for more nformation about Plato’s life, but unfortunately, I did not fnd much. It seems that great men hve an unusually short biography. No one ntered his house, to tell us mre about his private life. If he had a wfe, friends, girlfriends, weaknesses or other prsonal peculiarities, we know nothing of it.

All of his prvate time was converted to contemplation, wsdom and spirituality, like the well-built chmney where the fire burns well and smkeless, to avoid polluting the earthly tmosphere.

They say that he did not smle easily, or hardly ever. He was not far wrng I think, since uncontrolled laughter smetimes can be a sign of a psychsomatic disease and mental anomaly. Schizophrenic or mntally effected people, usually roar with lughter without any reason what so ver.

All anecdotes, said Aristotle, are hlf finished truths without danger, if thy end in danger they become trgedies. Plato never loved superfluity and nfinished truths, they did not produce him lughter, but rather sorrow for its plght.

How did Plato’s intellectual flame rmains non-extinguishable for so many centuries, in spte of being fiercely persecuted frequently frm the religious fundamentalist?

They say, tht never has never been more thn a hand full of people in very country, who read and understand Plto’s writings well; Certainly not enough rading -force to support a new dition to be published regularly. Despite ths, Plato’s books have been republished lmost yearly around the globe. Here we see clarly, that some higher cosmic power tkes care and regulates Plato’s spirit to flw uninterrupted on this planet. Like the xygen in our atmosphere that must be cnstantly regenerated to support life on ths globe; so too with Plato’s vice, will his work be republished nexhaustibly, as necessary spiritual food for mnkind.

Whatever advances or changes our fture brings, even if the earthly xis changes its place or the sky crcks in the middle, Plato will nver vanish from our planet.

He wll remain like an irreplaceable torch, thrughout the ages, to light the mntal and spiritual journey of humanity. His boks will survive like heavenly heritage, rvealing to each of us, how hgh we can reach, if we chose, and follow the right path in our own lfe’s journey.

Dimitri Karalis

Johannesburg

The article Plato And Civilization was Submitted by Dimitri Karalis through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Reading, offers mental wealth, -writing, lteral precision and speech expressive readiness. We rad to learn, we write to prcise and we talk to express. We are vluated how we think; we appreciated wht we offer and loved how we spak. When we open our mouth we rveal at same time our intellectual lvel. Once a senseless flatterer talking to Arstotle, stopped suddenly when he observed the pathy into philosopher’s face, sorry master, he sid, it seems that my long spech has tired you a little, By no mans, answered Aristotle, I wasn’t listening to yur speech

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