Plato remains the most famous philosopher in Western history, yet few people know that he started his career in the wrestling ring rather than the library. While we study his dialogues in universities today, he actually founded the very first university in the Western world. Furthermore, he invented the legend of Atlantis, which many people still believe serves as a historical fact. Prepare to step out of the cave with the student of Socrates.
Plato
His real name was likely Aristocles. His wrestling coach gave him the nickname “Platon,” which means “broad.” This referred to his broad shoulders and chest, and the name stuck with him for the rest of his life.
He won prizes as a wrestler in the Isthmian Games. Before he turned to philosophy, he trained as a competitive athlete. Ancient historians report that he possessed immense physical strength and wrestled professionally in his youth.
Pirates captured him and sold him into slavery. On his way home from Sicily, the tyrant Dionysius secretly arranged for a Spartan captain to seize him. Fortunately, a friend recognized the philosopher in the slave market and purchased his freedom so he could return to Athens.
He founded the Academy, the first university in the West. He established a school in a grove of olive trees dedicated to the hero Academus. Consequently, scholars gathered there to study mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy for nearly nine hundred years.
He hated democracy because it killed his teacher. After the democratic government of Athens executed Socrates, Plato lost all faith in the rule of the mob. Therefore, he argued in The Republic that only enlightened “Philosopher Kings” should rule the state.
He invented the story of Atlantis entirely. He described the lost civilization in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias to illustrate a philosophical point about hubris. However, later readers took the story literally, launching a search for the sunken city that continues today.
Diogenes humiliated him with a plucked chicken. When Plato defined a human as a “featherless biped,” Diogenes the Cynic plucked a chicken and brought it to the Academy. He shouted, “Behold! I have brought you a man,” which forced Plato to change his definition.
He wanted to ban poets from his ideal city. He believed that poetry and theater stirred up dangerous emotions and distracted people from the truth. Thus, he famously proposed kicking all poets out of his utopia to maintain order and reason.
He tried to turn a tyrant into a philosopher king. He traveled to Syracuse to teach the young dictator Dionysius II how to rule with wisdom. Unfortunately, the plan failed miserably, and the tyrant effectively placed Plato under house arrest.
He never speaks in his own dialogues. Although he wrote thirty-five dialogues, he almost never appears as a character in them. Instead, he uses his teacher Socrates as his mouthpiece to deliver his ideas, keeping his own voice mysterious.
He believed the soul chooses its next life. In the “Myth of Er,” he described how souls travel to the afterlife and pick their next existence before drinking from the River of Forgetfulness. This story suggests he believed in reincarnation and the immortality of the soul.
The “Allegory of the Cave” describes a movie theater. He imagined prisoners chained in a cave, watching shadows on a wall and believing they are real. Surprisingly, this ancient thought experiment perfectly predicts the modern experience of watching cinema or television screens.
His works survived almost one hundred percent intact. Unlike many ancient authors whose works vanished over time, nearly everything Plato wrote still exists today. Medieval scribes carefully copied his manuscripts, ensuring his complete philosophy reached the modern world.
He thought writing destroys memory. In the Phaedrus, he argued that relying on written text weakens the mind because people stop using their memory. Ironically, we only know about this belief because he wrote it down.
Finally, legends say he died at a wedding feast. Ancient sources claim he passed away peacefully in his sleep while attending a celebration, or possibly while listening to a flute girl play. He died at the ripe old age of eighty-one.
