{| style="float: right;" |

Region	Western philosophy
Era	Ancient philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Name	Plato (Πλάτων)
Birth date	c. 428–427 BC
Birth place	Athens
Death date	c. 348–347 BC (age approx 80)
Death place	Athens
School tradition	Platonism
Main interests	Rhetoric, art, literature, epistemology, justice, virtue, politics, education, family, militarism
Influences	Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Orphism
Influenced	Most of subsequent western philosophy, including Aristotle, Augustine, Neoplatonism, Cicero, Plutarch, Stoicism, Anselm, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Mill, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Gadamer, Imam Khomeini, Russell and countless other philosophers and theologians
Notable ideas	Platonic realism }}

|} Plato (; Greek: , ''Plátōn'', "broad"; 424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. In the words of A. N. Whitehead:

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.

Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts. Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and mathematics.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Birth and family[link]

The exact place and time of Plato's birth are not known, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BC. His father was Ariston. According to a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus. Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War (404–403 BC). Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy). According to the ''Republic'', Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.

The traditional date of Plato's birth (428/427) is based on a dubious interpretation of Diogenes Laertius, who says, "When [Socrates] was gone, [Plato] joined Cratylus the Heracleitean and Hermogenes, who philosophized in the manner of Parmenides. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, [Plato] went to Euclides in Megara." As Debra Nails argues, "The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite." In his Seventh Letter Plato notes that his coming of age coincided with the taking of power by the Thirty, remarking, "But a youth under the age of twenty made himself a laughingstock if he attempted to enter the political arena." Thus Nails dates Plato's birth to 424/423.

According to some accounts, Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed in his purpose; then the god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and as a result, Ariston left Perictione unmolested. Another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping: an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy.

Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens. Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in ''Parmenides''.

In contrast to his reticence about himself, Plato often introduced his distinguished relatives into his dialogues, or referred to them with some precision: Charmides has a dialogue named after him; Critias speaks in both ''Charmides'' and ''Protagoras''; and Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent parts in the ''Republic''. These and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Plato's family tree. According to Burnet, "the opening scene of the ''Charmides'' is a glorification of the whole [family] connection ... Plato's dialogues are not only a memorial to Socrates, but also the happier days of his own family."

Name[link]

According to Diogenes Laërtius, the philosopher was named ''Aristocles'' after his grandfather, but his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, dubbed him "Platon", meaning "broad," on account of his robust figure. According to the sources mentioned by Diogenes (all dating from the Alexandrian period), Plato derived his name from the breadth (''platytês'') of his eloquence, or else because he was very wide (''platýs'') across the forehead. In the 21st century some scholars disputed Diogenes, and argued that the legend about his name being ''Aristocles'' originated in the Hellenistic age.'''

Education[link]

Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study". Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his time. Dicaearchus went so far as to say that Plato wrestled at the Isthmian games. Plato had also attended courses of philosophy; before meeting Socrates, he first became acquainted with Cratylus (a disciple of Heraclitus, a prominent pre-Socratic Greek philosopher) and the Heraclitean doctrines.

Plato and Socrates[link]

The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Plato makes it clear in his ''Apology of Socrates'', that he was a devoted young follower. In that dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Later, Plato is mentioned along with Crito, Critobolus, and Apollodorus as offering to pay a fine of 30 minas on Socrates' behalf, in lieu of the death penalty proposed by Meletus (38b). In the ''Phaedo'', the title character lists those who were in attendance at the prison on Socrates' last day, explaining Plato's absence by saying, "Plato was ill" (''Phaedo'' 59b).

Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. In the ''Second Letter'', it says, "no writing of Plato exists or ever will exist, but those now said to be his are those of a Socrates become beautiful and new" (341c); if the Letter is Plato's, the final qualification seems to call into question the dialogues' historical fidelity. In any case, Xenophon and Aristophanes seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates than Plato paints. Some have called attention to the problem of taking Plato's Socrates to be his mouthpiece, given Socrates' reputation for irony and the dramatic nature of the dialogue form

Aristotle attributes a different doctrine with respect to the ideas to Plato and Socrates (''Metaphysics'' 987b1–11). Putting it in a nutshell, Aristotle merely suggests that his idea of forms can be discovered through investigation of the natural world, unlike Plato's Forms that exist beyond and outside the ordinary range of human understanding.

Later life[link]

Plato may have traveled in Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene. Said to have returned to Athens at the age of forty, Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western Civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus. The Academy was "a large enclosure of ground that was once the property of a citizen at Athens named Academus (some, however, say that it received its name from an ancient hero). The Academy operated until it was destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 84 BC. Neoplatonists revived the Academy in the early 5th century, and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of Christianity. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.

Throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of the city of Syracuse. According to Diogenes Laertius, Plato initially visited Syracuse while it was under the rule of Dionysus. During this first trip Dionysus's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse, became one of Plato's disciples, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato was sold into slavery and almost faced death in Cyrene, a city at war with Athens, before an admirer bought Plato's freedom and sent him home. After Dionysius's death, according to Plato's ''Seventh Letter'', Dion requested Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysus II and guide him to become a philosopher king. Dionysius II seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but he became suspicious of Dion, his uncle. Dionysus expelled Dion and kept Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse. Dion would return to overthrow Dionysus and ruled Syracuse for a short time before being usurped by Calippus, a fellow disciple of Plato.

Death[link]

A variety of sources have given accounts of Plato's death. One story, based on a mutilated manuscript, suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a young Thracian girl played the flute to him. Another tradition suggests Plato died at a wedding feast. The account is based on Diogenes Laertius's reference to an account by Hermippus, a third century Alexandrian. According to Tertullian, Plato simply died in his sleep. He maintains this view somewhat at his own expense, because in many dialogues, Socrates complains of his forgetfulness. Socrates is often found arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. In many middle period dialogues, such as the ''Phaedo'', ''Republic'' and ''Phaedrus'' Plato advocates a belief in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. More than one dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul.

Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the ''Phaedrus ''(265a–c), and yet in the ''''Republic'''' wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. In ''Ion'', Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the ''Republic''. The dialogue ''Ion'' suggests that Homer's ''Iliad'' functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literature that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.

On politics and art, religion and science, justice and medicine, virtue and vice, crime and punishment, pleasure and pain, rhetoric and rhapsody, human nature and sexuality, love and wisdom, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say.

Metaphysics[link]

"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world. In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the ''Theaetetus'', he says such people are "eu a-mousoi", an expression that means literally, "happily without the muses" (''Theaetetus'' 156a). In other words, such people live without the divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to higher insights about reality.

Socrates's idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his allegory of the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. The allegory of the cave (begins ''Republic'' 7.514a) is a paradoxical analogy wherein Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible ("noeton") and that the visible world ("(h)oraton") is the least knowable, and the most obscure.

Socrates says in the ''Republic'' that people who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good and real are living pitifully in a den of evil and ignorance. Socrates admits that few climb out of the den, or cave of ignorance, and those who do, not only have a terrible struggle to attain the heights, but when they go back down for a visit or to help other people up, they find themselves objects of scorn and ridicule.

According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists (although it is not clear where) and his own trial would be a cheap copy of it.

The allegory of the cave (often said by scholars to represent Plato's own epistemology and metaphysics) is intimately connected to his political ideology (often said to also be Plato's own), that only people who have climbed out of the cave and cast their eyes on a vision of goodness are fit to rule. Socrates claims that the enlightened men of society must be forced from their divine contemplations and be compelled to run the city according to their lofty insights. Thus is born the idea of the "philosopher-king", the wise person who accepts the power thrust upon him by the people who are wise enough to choose a good master. This is the main thesis of Socrates in the ''Republic'', that the most wisdom the masses can muster is the wise choice of a ruler.

The word metaphysics derives from the fact that Aristotle's musings about divine reality came after ("meta") his lecture notes on his treatise on nature ("physics"). The term is in fact applied to Aristotle's own teacher, and Plato's "metaphysics" is understood as Socrates' division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual. The theory has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western philosophy and religion.

Theory of Forms[link]

The Theory of Forms () typically refers to the belief expressed by Socrates in some of Plato's dialogues, that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image or copy of the real world. Socrates spoke of forms in formulating a solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to Socrates, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and see around us, that can only be perceived by reason (); (that is, they are universals). In other words, Socrates sometimes seems to recognise two worlds: the apparent world, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of forms, which may be a cause of what is apparent.

Epistemology[link]

Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view that informed future developments in modern analytic epistemology. This interpretation is based on a reading of the ''Theaetetus'' wherein Plato argues that belief is to be distinguished from knowledge on account of justification. Many years later, Edmund Gettier famously demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. This interpretation, however, imports modern analytic and empiricist categories onto Plato himself and is better read on its own terms than as Plato's view.

Really, in the ''Sophist'', ''Statesman'', ''Republic'', and the ''Parmenides'' Plato himself associates knowledge with the apprehension of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in Dialectic). More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the ''Timaeus'' that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. In other words, if one derives one's account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. And opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On the other hand, if one derives one's account of something by way of the non-sensible forms, because these forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. It is only in this sense that Plato uses the term "knowledge".

In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by recollection. Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be present, Socrates concludes, in an eternal, non-experiential form.

The state[link]

Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the ''Republic'' during his middle period, as well as in the ''Laws'' and the ''Statesman''. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases.

Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes of society.

''Productive'', which represents the abdomen. (Workers) — the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.

''Protective'', which represents the chest. (Warriors or Guardians) — those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.

''Governing'', which represents the head. (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.

According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:

: "Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (''Republic'' 473c-d)

Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (''Republic'' 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. According to him, sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the ''Republic'' then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings.

However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the ''Republic'' is qualified by Socrates as the ideal ''luxurious'' city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (''Republic'' 372e). According to Socrates, the "true" and "healthy" city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the ''Republic'', 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as "perfumed oils, incense, prostitutes, and pastries", in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and hunters, and war.

In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body. Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act according to wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists.

Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better—a bad democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be a bad democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing many bad deeds.) This is emphasised within the ''Republic'' as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship. Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited through ailments, the tyrant. Plato's description of this event is parallel to that of democracy within the state and the inherent problems that arise.

According to Plato, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant). Aristocracy is the form of government (''politeia'') advocated in Plato's ''Republic''. This regime is ruled by a philosopher king, and thus is grounded on wisdom and reason. The aristocratic state, and the man whose nature corresponds to it, are the objects of Plato's analyses throughout much of the ''Republic'', as opposed to the other four types of states/men, who are discussed later in his work. In Book VIII, Plato states in order the other four imperfect societies with a description of the state's structure and individual character. In timocracy the ruling class is made up primarily of those with a warrior-like character. In his description, Plato has Sparta in mind. Oligarchy is made up of a society in which wealth is the criterion of merit and the wealthy are in control. In democracy, the state bears resemblance to ancient Athens with traits such as equality of political opportunity and freedom for the individual to do as he likes. Democracy then degenerates into tyranny from the conflict of rich and poor. It is characterized by an undisciplined society existing in chaos, where the tyrant rises as popular champion leading to the formation of his private army and the growth of oppression.

Unwritten doctrines[link]

For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine had been controversial. Many modern books on Plato seem to diminish its importance; nevertheless the first important witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his ''Physics'' (209 b) writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i.e. in ''Timaeus''] of the participant is different from what he says in his so-called ''unwritten teachings'' (ἄγραφα δόγματα)." The term ''ἄγραφα δόγματα'' literally means ''unwritten doctrines'' and it stands for the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato, which he disclosed only orally, and some say only to his most trusted fellows, and which he may have kept secret from the public. The importance of the unwritten doctrines does not seem to have been seriously questioned before the 19th century.

A reason for not revealing it to everyone is partially discussed in Phaedrus (276 c) where Plato criticizes the written transmission of knowledge as faulty, favoring instead the spoken logos: "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and beautiful ... will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words, which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot teach the truth effectually." The same argument is repeated in Plato's ''Seventh Letter'' (344 c): "every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing." In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare concerning all these writers who claim to know the subjects that I seriously study ... there does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any treatise of mine dealing therewith." Such secrecy is necessary in order not "to expose them to unseemly and degrading treatment" (344 d).

It is however said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to the public in his lecture ''On the Good'' (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ), in which the Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν), the fundamental ontological principle. The content of this lecture has been transmitted by several witnesses, among others Aristoxenus who describes the event in the following words: "Each came expecting to learn something about the things that are generally considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful happiness. But when the mathematical demonstrations came, including numbers, geometrical figures and astronomy, and finally the statement Good is One seemed to them, I imagine, utterly unexpected and strange; hence some belittled the matter, while others rejected it." Simplicius quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias who states that "according to Plato, the first principles of everything, including the Forms themselves are One and Indefinite Duality (ἡ ἀόριστος δυάς), which he called Large and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν) ... one might also learn this from Speusippus and Xenocrates and the others who were present at Plato's lecture on the Good"

Their account is in full agreement with Aristotle's description of Plato's metaphysical doctrine. In ''Metaphysics'' he writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τὸ ἕν), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One" (987 b). "From this account it is clear that he only employed two causes: that of the essence, and the material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible things, and the One in that of the Forms - that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς), the Great and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν). Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively the causation of good and of evil" (988 a).

The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus or Ficino which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. A modern scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten doctrine of Plato was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930. All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as ''Testimonia Platonica''. These sources have subsequently been interpreted by scholars from the German ''Tübingen School'' such as Hans Joachim Krämer or Thomas A. Szlezák.

Dialectic [link]

The role of dialectic in Plato's thought is contested but there are two main interpretations; a type of reasoning and a method of intuition. Simon Blackburn adopts the first, saying that Plato's dialectic is “the process of eliciting the truth by means of questions aimed at opening out what is already implicitly known, or at exposing the contradictions and muddles of an opponent’s position.” Karl Popper, on the other hand, claims that dialectic is the art of intuition for "visualising the divine originals, the Forms or Ideas, of unveiling the Great Mystery behind the common man's everyday world of appearances."

Thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have traditionally been ascribed to Plato, though modern scholarship doubts the authenticity of at least some of these. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.

The usual system for making unique references to sections of the text by Plato derives from a 16th century edition of Plato's works by Henricus Stephanus. An overview of Plato's writings according to this system can be found in the Stephanus pagination article.

One tradition regarding the arrangement of Plato's texts is according to tetralogies. This scheme is ascribed by Diogenes Laertius to an ancient scholar and court astrologer to Tiberius named Thrasyllus.

In the list below, works by Plato are marked (1) if there is no consensus among scholars as to whether Plato is the author, and (2) if most scholars agree that Plato is ''not'' the author of the work. Unmarked works are assumed to have been written by Plato.

The remaining works were transmitted under Plato's name, most of them already considered spurious in antiquity, and so were not included by Thrasyllus in his tetralogical arrangement. These works are labelled as ''Notheuomenoi'' ("spurious") or ''Apocrypha''.

''Axiochus'' (2), ''Definitions'' (2), ''Demodocus'' (2), ''Epigrams'' (2), ''Eryxias'' (2), ''Halcyon'' (2), ''On Justice'' (2), ''On Virtue'' (2), ''Sisyphus'' (2).

Composition of the dialogues [link]

No one knows the exact order Plato's dialogues were written in, nor the extent to which some might have been later revised and rewritten.

Lewis Campbell was the first to make exhaustive use of stylometry to prove objectively that the ''Critias'', ''Timaeus'', ''Laws'', ''Philebus'', ''Sophist'', and ''Statesman'' were all clustered together as a group, while the ''Parmenides'', ''Phaedrus'', ''Republic'', and ''Theaetetus'' belong to a separate group, which must be earlier (given Aristotle's statement in his ''Politics'' that the ''Laws'' was written after the ''Republic''; cf. Diogenes Laertius ''Lives'' 3.37). What is remarkable about Campbell's conclusions is that, in spite of all the stylometric studies that have been conducted since his time, perhaps the only chronological fact about Plato's works that can now be said to be ''proven'' by stylometry is the fact that ''Critias'', ''Timaeus'', ''Laws'', ''Philebus'', ''Sophist'', and ''Statesman'' are the latest of Plato's dialogues, the others earlier.

Increasingly in the most recent Plato scholarship, writers are skeptical of the notion that the order of Plato's writings can be established with any precision, though Plato's works are still often characterized as falling at least roughly into three groups. The following represents one relatively common such division. It should, however, be kept in mind that many of the positions in the ordering are still highly disputed, and also that the very notion that Plato's dialogues can or should be "ordered" is by no means universally accepted.

Among those who classify the dialogues into periods of composition, Socrates figures in all of the "early dialogues" and they are considered the most faithful representations of the historical Socrates. They include ''The Apology of Socrates'', ''Charmides'', ''Crito'', ''Euthyphro'', ''Ion'', ''Laches'', ''Less Hippias'', ''Lysis'', ''Menexenus'', and ''Protagoras'' (often considered one of the last of the "early dialogues"). Three dialogues are often considered "transitional" or "pre-middle": ''Euthydemus'', ''Gorgias'', and ''Meno''.

Whereas those classified as "early dialogues" often conclude in aporia, the so-called "middle dialogues" provide more clearly stated positive teachings that are often ascribed to Plato such as the theory of forms. These dialogues include ''Cratylus'', ''Phaedo'', ''Phaedrus'', ''Republic'', ''Symposium'', ''Parmenides'', and ''Theaetetus''. Proponents of dividing the dialogues into periods often consider the ''Parmenides'' and ''Theaetetus'' to come late in this period and be transitional to the next, as they seem to treat the theory of forms critically (''Parmenides'') or not at all (''Theaetetus'').

The remaining dialogues are classified as "late" and are generally agreed to be difficult and challenging pieces of philosophy. This grouping is the only one proven by stylometric analysis. While looked to for Plato's "mature" answers to the questions posed by his earlier works, those answers are difficult to discern. Some scholars say that the theory of forms is absent from the late dialogues, its having been refuted in the ''Parmenides'', but there isn't total consensus that the ''Parmenides'' actually refutes the theory of forms. The so-called "late dialogues" include ''Critias'', ''Laws'', ''Philebus'', ''Sophist'', ''Statesman'', and ''Timaeus''.

Narration of the dialogues[link]

Plato never presents himself as a participant in any of the dialogues, and with the exception of the ''Apology'', there is no suggestion that he heard any of the dialogues firsthand. Some dialogues have no narrator but have a pure "dramatic" form (examples: ''Meno'', ''Gorgias'', ''Phaedrus'', ''Crito'', ''Euthyphro''), some dialogues are narrated by Socrates, wherein he speaks in first person (examples: ''Lysis'', ''Charmides'', ''Republic''). One dialogue, ''Protagoras'', begins in dramatic form but quickly proceeds to Socrates' narration of a conversation he had previously with the sophist for whom the dialogue is named; this narration continues uninterrupted till the dialogue's end. Two dialogues ''Phaedo'' and ''Symposium'' also begin in dramatic form but then proceed to virtually uninterrupted narration by followers of Socrates. ''Phaedo'', an account of Socrates' final conversation and hemlock drinking, is narrated by Phaedo to Echecrates in a foreign city not long after the execution took place. The ''Symposium'' is narrated by Apollodorus, a Socratic disciple, apparently to Glaucon. Apollodorus assures his listener that he is recounting the story, which took place when he himself was an infant, not from his own memory, but as remembered by Aristodemus, who told him the story years ago.

The ''Theaetetus'' is a peculiar case: a dialogue in dramatic form imbedded within another dialogue in dramatic form. In the beginning of the ''Theaetetus'' (142c-143b), Euclides says that he compiled the conversation from notes he took based on what Socrates told him of his conversation with the title character. The rest of the ''Theaetetus'' is presented as a "book" written in dramatic form and read by one of Euclides' slaves (143c). Some scholars take this as an indication that Plato had by this date wearied of the narrated form. With the exception of the ''Theaetetus'', Plato gives no explicit indication as to how these orally transmitted conversations came to be written down.

Trial of Socrates[link]

The trial of Socrates is the central, unifying event of the great Platonic dialogues. Because of this, Plato's ''Apology'' is perhaps the most often read of the dialogues. In the ''Apology'', Socrates tries to dismiss rumors that he is a sophist and defends himself against charges of disbelief in the gods and corruption of the young. Socrates insists that long-standing slander will be the real cause of his demise, and says the legal charges are essentially false. Socrates famously denies being wise, and explains how his life as a philosopher was launched by the Oracle at Delphi. He says that his quest to resolve the riddle of the oracle put him at odds with his fellow man, and that this is the reason he has been mistaken for a menace to the city-state of Athens.

If Plato's important dialogues do not refer to Socrates' execution explicitly, they allude to it, or use characters or themes that play a part in it. Five dialogues foreshadow the trial: In the ''Theaetetus'' (210d) and the ''Euthyphro'' (2a–b) Socrates tells people that he is about to face corruption charges. In the ''Meno'' (94e–95a), one of the men who brings legal charges against Socrates, Anytus, warns him about the trouble he may get into if he does not stop criticizing important people. In the ''Gorgias'', Socrates says that his trial will be like a doctor prosecuted by a cook who asks a jury of children to choose between the doctor's bitter medicine and the cook's tasty treats (521e–522a). In the ''Republic'' (7.517e), Socrates explains why an enlightened man (presumably himself) will stumble in a courtroom situation. The ''Apology'' is Socrates' defense speech, and the ''Crito'' and ''Phaedo'' take place in prison after the conviction. In the ''Protagoras'', Socrates is a guest at the home of Callias, son of Hipponicus, a man whom Socrates disparages in the ''Apology'' as having wasted a great amount of money on sophists' fees.

Unity and diversity of the dialogues[link]

Two other important dialogues, the ''Symposium'' and the ''Phaedrus'', are linked to the main storyline by characters. In the ''Apology'' (19b, c), Socrates says Aristophanes slandered him in a comic play, and blames him for causing his bad reputation, and ultimately, his death. In the ''Symposium'', the two of them are drinking together with other friends. The character Phaedrus is linked to the main story line by character (Phaedrus is also a participant in the ''Symposium'' and the ''Protagoras'') and by theme (the philosopher as divine emissary, etc.) The ''Protagoras'' is also strongly linked to the ''Symposium'' by characters: all of the formal speakers at the ''Symposium'' (with the exception of Aristophanes) are present at the home of Callias in that dialogue. Charmides and his guardian Critias are present for the discussion in the ''Protagoras''. Examples of characters crossing between dialogues can be further multiplied. The ''Protagoras'' contains the largest gathering of Socratic associates.

In the dialogues Plato is most celebrated and admired for, Socrates is concerned with human and political virtue, has a distinctive personality, and friends and enemies who "travel" with him from dialogue to dialogue. This is not to say that Socrates is consistent: a man who is his friend in one dialogue may be an adversary or subject of his mockery in another. For example, Socrates praises the wisdom of Euthyphro many times in the ''Cratylus'', but makes him look like a fool in the ''Euthyphro''. He disparages sophists generally, and Prodicus specifically in the ''Apology'', whom he also slyly jabs in the ''Cratylus'' for charging the hefty fee of fifty drachmas for a course on language and grammar. However, Socrates tells Theaetetus in his namesake dialogue that he admires Prodicus and has directed many pupils to him. Socrates' ideas are also not consistent within or between or among dialogues.

Platonic scholarship[link]

Although their popularity has fluctuated over the years, the works of Plato have never been without readers since the time they were written. Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". However, in the Byzantine Empire, the study of Plato continued.

The Medieval scholastic philosophers did not have access to the works of Plato, nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from Constantinople in the century of its fall, by George Gemistos Plethon. It is believed that Plethon passed a copy of the Dialogues to Cosimo de' Medici when in 1438 the Council of Ferrara, called to unify the Greek and Latin Churches, was adjourned to Florence, where Plethon then lectured on the relation and differences of Plato and Aristotle, and fired Cosimo with his enthusiasm. Medieval scholars knew of Plato only through translations into Latin from the translations into Arabic by Persian and Arab scholars. These scholars not only translated the texts of the ancients, but expanded them by writing extensive commentaries and interpretations on Plato's and Aristotle's works (see Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes).

Only in the Renaissance, with the general resurgence of interest in classical civilization, did knowledge of Plato's philosophy become widespread again in the West. Many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with Scholasticism and fostered the flowering of the Renaissance, with the support of the Plato-inspired Lorenzo de Medici, saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. By the 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's.

Notable Western philosophers have continued to draw upon Plato's work since that time. Plato's influence has been especially strong in mathematics and the sciences. He helped to distinguish between pure and applied mathematics by widening the gap between "arithmetic", now called number theory and "logistic", now called arithmetic. He regarded logistic as appropriate for business men and men of war who "must learn the art of numbers or he will not know how to array his troops," while arithmetic was appropriate for philosophers "because he has to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being." Plato's resurgence further inspired some of the greatest advances in logic since Aristotle, primarily through Gottlob Frege and his followers Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church, and Alfred Tarski; the last of these summarised his approach by reversing the customary paraphrase of Aristotle's famous declaration of sedition from the Academy (''Nicomachean Ethics'' 1096a15), from ''Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas'' ("Plato is a friend, but truth is a greater friend") to ''Inimicus Plato sed magis inimica falsitas'' ("Plato is an enemy, but falsehood is a greater enemy"). Albert Einstein drew on Plato's understanding of an immutable reality that underlies the flux of appearances for his objections to the probabilistic picture of the physical universe propounded by Niels Bohr in his interpretation of quantum mechanics. Conversely, thinkers that diverged from ontological models and moral ideals in their own philosophy, have tended to disparage Platonism from more or less informed perspectives. Thus Friedrich Nietzsche attacked Plato's moral and political theories, Martin Heidegger argued against Plato's alleged obfuscation of ''Being'', and Karl Popper argued in ''The Open Society and Its Enemies'' (1945) that Plato's alleged proposal for a government system in the ''Republic'' was prototypically totalitarian. Leo Strauss is considered by some as the prime thinker involved in the recovery of Platonic thought in its more political, and less metaphysical, form. Deeply influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger, Strauss nonetheless rejects their condemnation of Plato and looks to the dialogues for a solution to what all three thinkers acknowledge as 'the crisis of the West.'

Textual sources and history[link]

The texts of Plato as received today apparently represent the complete written philosophical work of Plato and are generally good by the standards of textual criticism. No modern edition of Plato in the original Greek represents a single source, but rather it is reconstructed from multiple sources which are compared with each other. These sources are medieval manuscripts written on vellum (mainly from 9th-13th century AD Byzantium), papyri (mainly from late antiquity in Egypt), and from the independent ''testimonia'' of other authors who quote various segments of the works (which come from a variety of sources). The text as presented is usually not much different than what appears in the Byzantine manuscripts, and papyri and testimonia just confirm the manuscript tradition. In some editions however the readings in the papyri or testimonia are favoured in some places by the editing critic of the text.

In the first century AD, Thrasyllus of Mendes had compiled and published the works of Plato in the original Greek, both genuine and spurious. While it has not survived to the present day, all the extant medieval Greek manuscripts are based on his edition.

The oldest surviving complete manuscript for many of the dialogues is the Clarke Plato (Codex Oxoniensis Clarkianus 39, or Codex Boleianus MS E.D. Clarke 39), which was written in Constantinople in 895 and acquired by Oxford University in 1809. The Clarke is given the siglum ''B'' in modern editions. ''B'' contains the first six tetralogies and is described internally as being written by "John the Calligrapher" on behalf of Arethas of Caesarea. It appears to have undergone corrections by Arethas himself. For the last two tetralogies and the apocrypha, the oldest surviving complete manuscript is Codex Parisinus graecus 1807, designated ''A'', which was written nearly contemporaneously to ''B'', circa 900 AD. ''A'' probably had an initial volume containing the first 7 tetralogies which is now lost, but of which a copy was made, Codex Venetus append. class. 4, 1, which has the siglum ''T''. The oldest manuscript for the seventh tetralogy is Codex Vindobonensis 54. suppl. phil. Gr. 7, with siglum ''W'', with a supposed date in the twelfth century. In total there are fifty-one such Byzantine manuscripts known, while others may yet be found.

To help establish the text, the older evidence of papyri and the independent evidence of the testimony of commentators and other authors (i.e, those who quote and refer to an old text of Plato which is so longer extant) are also used. Many papyri which contain fragments of Plato's texts are among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The 2003 Oxford Classical Texts edition by Slings even cites the Coptic translation of a fragment of the ''Republic'' in the Nag Hammadi library as evidence. Important authors for testimony include Olympiodorus the Younger, Plutarch, Proclus, Iamblichus, Eusebius, and Stobaeus.

During the early Renaissance, the Greek language and, along with it, Plato's texts were reintroduced to Western Europe by Byzantine scholars. In 1483 there was published a Latin edition of Plato's complete works translated by Marsilio Ficino at the behest of Cosimo de' Medici. Cosimo had been influenced toward studying Plato by the many Byzantine Platonists in Florence during his day, including George Gemistus Plethon. Henri Estienne's edition, including parallel Greek and Latin, was published in 1578. It was this edition which established Stephanus pagination, still in use today.

Modern editions[link]

The Oxford Classical Texts offers the current standard complete Greek text of Plato's complete works. In five volumes edited by John Burnet, its first edition was published 1900-1907, and it is still available from the publisher, having last been printed in 1993. The second edition is still in progress with only the first volume, printed in 1995, and the ''Republic'', printed in 2003, available. The ''Cambridge Greek and Latin Texts'' and ''Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries'' series includes Greek editions of the ''Protagoras'', ''Symposium'', ''Phaedrus'', ''Alcibiades'', and ''Clitophon'', with English philological, literary, and, to an extent, philosophical commentary. One distinguished edition of the Greek text is E. R. Dodds' of the ''Gorgias'', which includes extensive English commentary.

The modern standard complete English edition is the 1997 Hackett ''Plato, Complete Works'', edited by John M. Cooper. For many of these translations Hackett offers separate volumes which include more by way of commentary, notes, and introductory material. There is also the ''Clarendon Plato Series'' by Oxford University Press which offers English translations and thorough philosophical commentary by leading scholars on a few of Plato's works, including John McDowell's version of the Theaetetus. Cornell University Press has also begun the ''Agora'' series of English translations of classical and medieval philosophical texts, including a few of Plato's.

Criticism[link]

Carl Sagan said of Plato: "Science and mathematics were to be removed from the hands of the merchants and the artisans. This tendency found its most effective advocate in a follower of Pythagoras named Plato." and: "He (Plato) believed that ideas were far more real than the natural world. He advised the astronomers not to waste their time observing the stars and planets. It was better, he believed, just to think about them. Plato expressed hostility to observation and experiment. He taught contempt for the real world and disdain for the practical application of scientific knowledge. Plato's followers succeeded in extinguishing the light of science and experiment that had been kindled by Democritus and the other Ionians."

See also[link]

Cambridge Platonists

List of speakers in Plato's dialogues

Plato's tripartite theory of soul

Platonic Academy

Platonic love

Platonic realism

Proclus (The Platonic successor)

Seventh Letter (Plato)

Socrates

Notes[link]

According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death. If we accept Neanthes' version, Plato was younger than Isocrates by six years, and therefore he was born in the second year of the 87th Olympiad, the year Pericles died (429 BC). According to the ''Suda,'' Plato was born in Aegina in the 88th Olympiad amid the preliminaries of the Peloponnesian war, and he lived 82 years. Sir Thomas Browne also believes that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad. Renaissance Platonists celebrated Plato's birth on November 7. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff estimates that Plato was born when Diotimos was archon eponymous, namely between July 29 428 BC and July 24 427 BC. Greek philologist Ioannis Kalitsounakis believes that the philosopher was born on May 26 or 27 427 BC, while Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BC as year of Plato's birth. For her part, Debra Nails asserts that the philosopher was born in 424/423 BC.

b. Diogenes Laertius mentions that Plato "was born, according to some writers, in Aegina in the house of Phidiades the son of Thales". Diogenes mentions as one of his sources the ''Universal History'' of Favorinus. According to Favorinus, Ariston, Plato's family, and his family were sent by Athens to settle as cleruchs (colonists retaining their Athenian citizenship), on the island of Aegina, from which they were expelled by the Spartans after Plato's birth there. Nails points out, however, that there is no record of any Spartan expulsion of Athenians from Aegina between 431-411 BC. On the other hand, at the Peace of Nicias, Aegina was silently left under Athens' control, and it was not until the summer of 411 that the Spartans overran the island. Therefore, Nails concludes that "perhaps Ariston was a cleruch, perhaps he went to Aegina in 431, and perhaps Plato was born on Aegina, but none of this enables a precise dating of Ariston's death (or Plato's birth). Aegina is regarded as Plato's place of birth by Suda as well.

c. ''Plato'' was a common name, of which 31 instances are known at Athens alone.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Primary sources (Greek and Roman)[link]

Secondary sources[link]

Further reading[link]

Allen, R. E. (2006). ''Studies in Plato's Metaphysics II''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-18-6

Ambuel, David (2006). ''Image and Paradigm in Plato's Sophist''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-004-9

Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). ''Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments'', Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-4843-5

Cadame, Claude (1999). ''Indigenous and Modern Perspectives on Tribal Initiation Rites: Education According to Plato'', pp. 278–312, in Padilla, Mark William (editor), "Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece: Literature, Religion, Society", Bucknell University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8387-5418-X

Corlett, J. Angelo (2005). ''Interpreting Plato's Dialogues''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-02-5

Derrida, Jacques (1972). ''La dissémination'', Paris: Seuil. (esp. cap.: ''La Pharmacie de Platon'', 69-199) ISBN 2-02-001958-2

Fine, Gail (2000). ''Plato 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology'' Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-875206-7

Guthrie, W. K. C. (1986). ''A History of Greek Philosophy (Plato - The Man & His Dialogues - Earlier Period)'', Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31101-2

Guthrie, W. K. C. (1986). ''A History of Greek Philosophy (Later Plato & the Academy)'' Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-31102-0

Havelock, Eric (2005). ''Preface to Plato (History of the Greek Mind)'', Belknap Press, ISBN 0-674-69906-8

Irwin, Terence (1995). ''Plato's Ethics'', Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-508645-7

Lilar, Suzanne (1954), Journal de l'analogiste, Paris, Éditions Julliard; Reedited 1979, Paris, Grasset. Foreword by Julien Gracq

Lilar, Suzanne (1963), ''Le couple'', Paris, Grasset. Translated as ''Aspects of Love in Western Society'' in 1965, with a foreword by Jonathan Griffin London, Thames and Hudson.

Lilar, Suzanne (1967) ''A propos de Sartre et de l'amour '', Paris, Grasset.

Miller, Mitchell (2004). ''The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-16-2

Mohr, Richard D. (2006). ''God and Forms in Plato - and other Essays in Plato's Metaphysics''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-01-8

Moore, Edward (2007). ''Plato''. Philosophy Insights Series. Tirril, Humanities-Ebooks. ISBN 978-1-84760-047-9

Nightingale, Andrea Wilson. (1995). "Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy", Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-48264-X

Sayre, Kenneth M. (2006). ''Plato's Late Ontology: A Riddle Resolved''. Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-09-4

Seung, T. K. (1996). ''Plato Rediscovered: Human Value and Social Order''. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-8112-2

Taylor, A. E. (2001). ''Plato: The Man and His Work'', Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-41605-4

Vlastos, Gregory (1981). ''Platonic Studies'', Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-10021-7

Vlastos, Gregory (2006). ''Plato's Universe - with a new Introducution by Luc Brisson'', Parmenides Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930972-13-1

Zuckert, Catherine (2009). ''Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues'', The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-99335-5

Oxford University Press publishes scholarly editions of Plato's Greek texts in the ''Oxford Classical Texts'' series, and some translations in the ''Clarendon Plato Series''.

Harvard University Press publishes the hardbound series ''Loeb Classical Library'', containing Plato's works in Greek, with English translations on facing pages.

Thomas Taylor has translated Plato's complete works.

''Aspects of antiquity: Discoveries and Controversies'' by M.I. Finley, issued 1969 by The Viking Press, Inc.

''Interpreting Plato: The Dialogues as Drama'' by James A. Arieti, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8476-7662-5

External links[link]

Works available on-line:

- Greek & English hyperlinked text

*Works of Plato (Jowett, 1892)

**Spurious and doubtful works at Project Gutenberg

*Plato complete works, annotated and searchable, at ELPENOR

*Euthyphro LibriVox recording

*Ion LibriVox recording

The Apology of Socrates , LibriVox recording

*Quick Links to Plato's Dialogues (English, Greek, French, Spanish)

*The Dialogues of Plato -5 vols (mp3) tr. by B. Jowett at archive.org

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

*Plato

*Plato's Ethics

*Friendship and Eros

*Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology

*Plato on Utopia

*Rhetoric and Poetry

Other Articles:

*Excerpt from W.K.C. Guthrie, ''A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. IV, Plato: the man and his dialogues, earlier period'', Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 8-38

*Website on Plato and his works: Plato and his dialogues by Bernard Suzanne

*Reflections on Reality and its Reflection: comparison of Plato and Bergson; do forms exist?

*"Plato and Totalitarianism: A Documentary Study"

Online library "Vox Philosophiae"

Comprehensive Research Materials:

*Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues

Other sources:

Interview with Mario Vegetti on Plato's political thought. The interview, available in full on video, both in Italian and English, is included in the series Multi-Media Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences.

Category:420s BC births Category:340s BC deaths Category:4th-century BC Greek people Category:4th-century BC philosophers Category:4th-century BC poets Category:Academic philosophers Category:Ancient Athenian philosophers Category:Ancient Greek philosophers Category:Ancient Greek physicists Category:Ancient Greeks sold as slaves Category:Ancient Syracuse Category:Attic Greek writers Category:Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology Category:Ontologists Category:Philosophers of language Category:Philosophers of law * * Category:Political philosophers Category:Pupils of Socrates Category:Philosophers of education

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region	Western philosophy
era	20th century philosophy
name	Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
birth date	May 18, 1872
birth place	Trellech, Monmouthshire, UK
death date	February 02, 1970
death place	Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, UK
school tradition	Analytic philosophy
main interests
Influences	MillPeanoFregeSantayanaLeibnizHumeLockeWittgensteinSpinozaWhitehead
Influenced	WittgensteinAyerCarnapGödelPopperQuineChomskyAustinKripkeSchlickTarskiWaismannDavidsonEddingtonTuringVuilleminMcDowellKumarAlbert Ellis
notable ideas	Analytic philosophyLogical atomismtheory of descriptionsknowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by descriptionRussell's paradoxRussell's teapot
signature	BetrandRussell Autograph.jpg ‎ }}

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Britain.

Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 20th century. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his friend Ludwig Wittgenstein, and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. He co-authored, with A. N. Whitehead, ''Principia Mathematica'', an attempt to ground mathematics on logic. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy." His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.

Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed free trade and anti-imperialism and went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticised Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the United States of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament.

A prolific commentator on religion, Russell—along with others such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche—advanced a "new school of thought" that Greg Epstein calls "antagonistic atheism", which was "the view that religion was a thing of the past and ought to be brought hastily toward a point of declining influence". In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."

Biography[link]

Ancestry[link]

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy. His paternal grandfather, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, was the third son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, and had twice been asked by Queen Victoria to form a government, serving her as Prime Minister in the 1840s and 1860s. The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power and the peerage with the rise of the Tudor dynasty. They established themselves as one of Britain's leading Whig families, and participated in every great political event from the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536–40 to the Glorious Revolution in 1688–89 and the Great Reform Act in 1832.

Russell's mother, Katharine Louisa (1844–1874), was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley, and the sister of Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle. Kate and Rosalind's mother was one of the founders of Girton College, Cambridge.

Russell's parents were radical for their times. Russell's father, Viscount Amberley, was an atheist and consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous. John Russell's atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell's secular godfather. Mill died the year after Russell's birth, but his writings had a great effect on Russell's life.

Childhood and adolescence[link]

Russell had two siblings: Frank (nearly seven years older than Bertrand), and Rachel (four years older). In June 1874 Russell's mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachel's death. In January 1876, his father died of bronchitis following a long period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian grandparents, who lived at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. His grandfather, who had been Prime Minister, died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the Countess Russell (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russell's childhood and youth.

The countess was from a Scottish Presbyterian family, and successfully petitioned the Court of Chancery to set aside a provision in Amberley's will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Despite her religious conservatism, she held progressive views in other areas (accepting Darwinism and supporting Irish Home Rule), and her influence on Bertrand Russell's outlook on social justice and standing up for principle remained with him throughout his life—her favourite Bible verse, 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil' (Exodus 23:2), became his motto. The atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression, and formality; Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings.

Russell's adolescence was very lonely, and he often contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in religion and mathematics, and that only the wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide. He was educated at home by a series of tutors. His brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which transformed Russell's life.

During these formative years he also discovered the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his autobiography, he writes: "I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy." Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of Christian religious dogma, and by 18 had decided to discard the last of it.

University and first marriage[link]

Russell won a scholarship to read for the Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, and commenced his studies there in 1890. He became acquainted with the younger George Edward Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles. He quickly distinguished himself in mathematics and philosophy, graduating as a high Wrangler in 1893 and becoming a Fellow in the latter in 1895.

Russell first met the American Quaker Alys Pearsall Smith when he was 17 years old. He became a friend of the Pearsall Smith family—they knew him primarily as 'Lord John's grandson' and enjoyed showing him off—and travelled with them to the continent; it was in their company that Russell visited the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and was able to climb the Eiffel Tower soon after it was completed.

He soon fell in love with the puritanical, high-minded Alys, who was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, and, contrary to his grandmother's wishes, married her on 13 December 1894. Their marriage began to fall apart in 1901 when it occurred to Russell, while he was cycling, that he no longer loved her. She asked him if he loved her and he replied that he didn't. Russell also disliked Alys's mother, finding her controlling and cruel. It was to be a hollow shell of a marriage and they finally divorced in 1921, after a lengthy period of separation. During this period, Russell had passionate (and often simultaneous) affairs with a number of women, including Lady Ottoline Morrell and the actress Lady Constance Malleson.

Early career[link]

Russell began his published work in 1896 with ''German Social Democracy'', a study in politics that was an early indication of a lifelong interest in political and social theory. In 1896 he taught German social democracy at the London School of Economics, where he also lectured on the science of power in the autumn of 1937. He was a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

He now started an intensive study of the foundations of mathematics at Trinity, during which he discovered Russell's paradox, which challenged the foundations of set theory. In 1903 he published his first important book on mathematical logic, ''The Principles of Mathematics'', showing that mathematics could be deduced from a very small number of principles, a work which contributed significantly to the cause of logicism.

In 1905 he wrote the essay "On Denoting", which was published in the philosophical journal ''Mind''. Russell became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908. The first of three volumes of ''Principia Mathematica'', written with Whitehead, was published in 1910, which, along with the earlier ''The Principles of Mathematics'', soon made Russell world famous in his field.

In 1910 he became a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, where he was approached by the Austrian engineering student Ludwig Wittgenstein, who became his PhD student. Russell viewed Wittgenstein as a genius and a successor who would continue his work on logic. He spent hours dealing with Wittgenstein's various phobias and his frequent bouts of despair. This was often a drain on Russell's energy, but Russell continued to be fascinated by him and encouraged his academic development, including the publication of Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' in 1922. Russell delivered his lectures on Logical Atomism, his version of these ideas, in 1918, before the end of the First World War. Wittgenstein was still a prisoner of war.

First World War[link]

During the First World War, Russell was one of the very few people to engage in active pacifist activities, and in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act.

He was charged a fine of £100, which he refused to pay, hoping that he would be sent to prison, However, his books were sold at auction to raise the money. The books were bought by friends; he later treasured his copy of the King James Bible that was stamped "Confiscated by Cambridge Police."

Russell was released from prison in September 1918. He was reinstated in 1919, resigned in 1920, was Tarner Lecturer 1926, and became a Fellow again 1944–1949. A later conviction for publicly lecturing against inviting the US to enter the war on Britain's side resulted in six months' imprisonment in Brixton prison (see ''Bertrand Russell's views on society'').

Between the wars and second marriage[link]

In August 1920 Russell travelled to Russia as part of an official delegation sent by the British government to investigate the effects of the Russian Revolution. He met Vladimir Lenin and had an hour-long conversation with him. In his autobiography, he mentions that he found Lenin rather disappointing, sensing an "impish cruelty" in him and comparing him to "an opinionated professor". He cruised down the Volga on a steamship. Russell's lover, Dora Black, visited Russia independently at the same time—she was enthusiastic about the revolution, but Russell's experiences destroyed his previous tentative support for it. He wrote a book ''The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism'' about his experiences on this trip, taken with a group of 24 others from Britain, all of whom came home thinking well of the regime, despite Russell's attempts to change their minds. For example, he told them that he heard shots fired in the middle of the night and was sure these were clandestine executions, but the others maintained that it was only cars backfiring.

Russell subsequently lectured in Beijing on philosophy for one year, accompanied by Dora. He went there with optimism and hope, as China was then on a new path. Other scholars present in China at the time included Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate Indian poet. While in China, Russell became gravely ill with pneumonia, and incorrect reports of his death were published in the Japanese press. When the couple visited Japan on their return journey, Dora notified the world that "Mr. Bertrand Russell, having died according to the Japanese press, is unable to give interviews to Japanese journalists." The press, not appreciating the sarcasm, were not amused.

Dora was six months pregnant when the couple returned to England on 26 August 1921. Russell arranged a hasty divorce from Alys, marrying Dora six days after the divorce was finalised, on 27 September 1921. Their children were John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell, born on 16 November 1921, and Katharine Jane Russell (now Lady Katharine Tait), born on 29 December 1923. Russell supported himself during this time by writing popular books explaining matters of physics, ethics, and education to the layman. Some have suggested that at this point he had an affair with Vivienne Haigh-Wood, first wife of T. S. Eliot.

Together with Dora, he founded the experimental Beacon Hill School in 1927. The school was run from a succession of different locations, including its original premises at the Russells' residence, Telegraph House, near Harting, West Sussex. On 8 July 1930 Dora gave birth to her third child, a daughter, Harriet Ruth. After he left the school in 1932, Dora continued it until 1943.

Upon the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell. He once said that his title was primarily useful for securing hotel rooms.

Russell's marriage to Dora grew increasingly tenuous, and it reached a breaking point over her having two children with an American journalist, Griffin Barry. They separated in 1932 and finally divorced. On 18 January 1936, Russell married his third wife, an Oxford undergraduate named Patricia ("Peter") Spence, who had been his children's governess since 1930. Russell and Peter had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democratic party.

During the 1930s, Russell became a close friend and collaborator of V.K. Krishna Menon, then secretary of the India League, the foremost lobby for Indian independence in Great Britain.

Second World War[link]

Russell opposed rearmament against Nazi Germany, but in 1940 changed his view that avoiding a full scale world war was more important than defeating Hitler. He concluded that Adolf Hitler taking over all of Europe would be a permanent threat to democracy. In 1943, he adopted a stance toward large-scale warfare, "Relative Political Pacifism": war was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils.

Before the Second World War, Russell taught at the University of Chicago, later moving on to Los Angeles to lecture at the UCLA Department of Philosophy. He was appointed professor at the City College of New York in 1940, but after a public outcry, the appointment was annulled by a court judgement: his opinions (especially those relating to sexual morality, detailed in ''Marriage and Morals'' ten years earlier) made him "morally unfit" to teach at the college. The protest was started by the mother of a student who would not have been eligible for his graduate-level course in mathematical logic. Many intellectuals, led by John Dewey, protested against his treatment. Albert Einstein's often-quoted aphorism that "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds ... " originated in his open letter in support of Russell, during this time. Dewey and Horace M. Kallen edited a collection of articles on the CCNY affair in ''The Bertrand Russell Case''. He soon joined the Barnes Foundation, lecturing to a varied audience on the history of philosophy; these lectures formed the basis of ''A History of Western Philosophy''. His relationship with the eccentric Albert C. Barnes soon soured, and he returned to Britain in 1944 to rejoin the faculty of Trinity College.

Later life[link]

During the 1940s and 1950s, Russell participated in many broadcasts over the BBC, particularly The Brains Trust and the Third Programme, on various topical and philosophical subjects. By this time Russell was world famous outside of academic circles, frequently the subject or author of magazine and newspaper articles, and was called upon to offer opinions on a wide variety of subjects, even mundane ones. En route to one of his lectures in Trondheim, Russell was one of 24 survivors (among a total of 43 passengers) in an aeroplane crash in Hommelvik in October 1948. He said he owed his life to smoking since the people who drowned were in the non-smoking part of the plane. ''A History of Western Philosophy'' (1945) became a best-seller, and provided Russell with a steady income for the remainder of his life.

In a speech in 1948, Russell said that if the USSR's aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before it possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West's victory would come more swiftly and with fewer casualties than if there were atom bombs on both sides. At that time, only the United States possessed an atomic bomb, and the USSR was pursuing an extremely aggressive policy towards the countries in Eastern Europe which it was absorbing into its sphere of influence. Many understood Russell's comments to mean that Russell approved of a first strike in a war with the USSR, including Nigel Lawson, who was present when Russell spoke. Others, including Griffin, who obtained a transcript of the speech, have argued that he was merely explaining the usefulness of America's atomic arsenal in deterring the USSR from continuing its domination of Eastern Europe.

In 1948, Russell was invited by the BBC to deliver the inaugural Reith Lectures—what was to become an annual series of lectures, still broadcast by the BBC. His series of six broadcasts, titled ''Authority and the Individual'', explored themes such as the role of individual initiative in the development of a community and the role of state control in a progressive society. Russell continued to write about philosophy. He wrote a foreword to ''Words and Things'' by Ernest Gellner, which was highly critical of the later thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and of Ordinary language philosophy. Gilbert Ryle refused to have the book reviewed in the philosophical journal ''Mind'', which caused Russell to respond via ''The Times''. The result was a month-long correspondence in ''The Times'' between the supporters and detractors of ordinary language philosophy, which was only ended when the paper published an editorial critical of both sides but agreeing with the opponents of ordinary language philosophy.

In the King's Birthday Honours of 9 June 1949, Russell was awarded the Order of Merit, and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. When he was given the Order of Merit, King George VI was affable but slightly embarrassed at decorating a former jailbird, saying that "You have sometimes behaved in a manner that would not do if generally adopted." Russell merely smiled, but afterwards claimed that the reply "That's right, just like your brother" immediately came to mind.

In 1952 Russell was divorced by Spence, with whom he had been very unhappy. Conrad, Russell's son by Spence, did not see his father between the time of the divorce and 1968 (at which time his decision to meet his father caused a permanent breach with his mother).

Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, soon after the divorce, on 15 December 1952. They had known each other since 1925, and Edith had taught English at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, sharing a house for 20 years with Russell's old friend Lucy Donnelly. Edith remained with him until his death, and, by all accounts, their marriage was a happy, close, and loving one. Russell's eldest son, John, suffered from serious mental illness, which was the source of ongoing disputes between Russell and John's mother, Russell's former wife, Dora. John's wife Susan was also mentally ill, and eventually Russell and Edith became the legal guardians of their three daughters (two of whom were later found to have schizophrenia).

In 1962 Russell played a public role in the Cuban Missile Crisis: in an exchange of telegrams with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev assured him that the Soviet government would not be reckless. Russell also wrote to President Kennedy, who returned his telegram unopened.

According to historian Peter Knight, after the John F. Kennedy assassination, Russell, "prompted by the emerging work of the lawyer Mark Lane in the US ... rallied support from other noteworthy and left-leaning compatriots to form a ''Who Killed Kennedy Committee'' in June 1964, members of which included Michael Foot MP, the wife of Tony Benn MP, the publisher Victor Gollancz, the writers John Arden and J. B. Priestley, and the Oxford history professor Hugh Trevor-Roper. Russell published a highly critical article weeks before the Warren Commission Report was published, setting forth ''16 Questions on the Assassination'' and equating the Oswald case with the Dreyfus affair of late 19th century France, in which the state wrongly convicted an innocent man. Russell also criticized the American press for failing to heed any voices critical of the official version.

Political causes[link]

Russell spent the 1950s and 1960s engaged in various political causes, primarily related to nuclear disarmament and opposing the Vietnam war (see also Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal). The 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto was a document calling for nuclear disarmament and was signed by 11 of the most prominent nuclear physicists and intellectuals of the time. He wrote a great many letters to world leaders during this period. He was in contact with Lionel Rogosin while the latter was filming his anti-war film ''Good Times, Wonderful Times'' in the 1960s. He became a hero to many of the youthful members of the New Left. In early 1963, in particular, Russell became increasingly vocal about his disapproval of what he felt to be the US government's near-genocidal policies in South Vietnam. In 1963 he became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with the freedom of the individual in society. In October 1965 he tore up his Labour Party card because he suspected the party was going to send soldiers to support the US in the Vietnam War.

Final years and death[link]

Russell published his three-volume autobiography in 1967, 1968, and 1969. On 23 November 1969 he wrote to ''The Times'' newspaper saying that the preparation for show trials in Czechoslovakia was "highly alarming". The same month, he appealed to Secretary General U Thant of the United Nations to support an international war crimes commission to investigate alleged torture and genocide by the US in South Vietnam. The following month, he protested to Alexei Kosygin over the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Writers Union.

On 31 January 1970 Russell issued a statement which condemned Israeli aggression in the Middle East and called for Israeli withdrawal from the Israeli-occupied territories. This was Russell's final political statement or act. It was read out at the International Conference of Parliamentarians in Cairo on 3 February 1970, the day after his death.

Russell died of influenza on 2 February 1970 at his home, Plas Penrhyn, in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire, Wales. His body was cremated in Colwyn Bay on 5 February 1970. In accordance with his will, there was no religious ceremony; his ashes were scattered over the Welsh mountains later that year.

In 1980 a memorial to Russell was commissioned by a committee including the philosopher A. J. Ayer. It consists of a bust of Russell in Red Lion Square in London sculpted by Marcelle Quinton.

Titles and honours from birth[link]

Russell held throughout his life the following styles and honours:

from birth until 1908: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell

from 1908 until 1931: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, FRS

from 1931 until 1949: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, FRS

from 1949 until death: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS

Views[link]

Views on philosophy[link]

Russell is generally credited with being one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He was deeply impressed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), and wrote on every major area of philosophy except aesthetics. He was particularly prolific in the field of metaphysics, the logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, ethics and epistemology. When Brand Blanshard asked Russell why he didn't write on aesthetics, Russell replied that he didn't know anything about it, "but that is not a very good excuse, for my friends tell me it has not deterred me from writing on other subjects."

Views on religion[link]

Russell described himself both as an agnostic and an atheist. For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world. He was a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association and President of Cardiff Humanists until his death.

Views on society[link]

Political and social activism occupied much of Russell's time for most of his life, which makes his prodigious and seminal writing on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects all the more remarkable. Russell remained politically active almost to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes. He was noted for saying "No one can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God."

Russell determined man to be "the product of causes ... his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms, that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand ... "

Selected works[link]

Selected bibliography of Russell's books[link]

This is a selected bibliography of Russell's books in English sorted by year of first publication.

1896. ''German Social Democracy''. London: Longmans, Green.

1897. ''An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1900. ''A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1903. ''The Principles of Mathematics'', Cambridge University Press.

1905. ''On Denoting'', Mind, vol. 14. ISSN: 00264425. Basil Blackwell.

1910. ''Philosophical Essays''. London: Longmans, Green.

1910–1913. ''Principia Mathematica">Principia Mathematica'' (with Alfred North Whitehead). 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1912. The Problems of Philosophy''">''The Problems of Philosophy''. London: Williams and Norgate.

1914. ''Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy''. Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing.

1916. ''Why Men Fight''. New York: The Century Co.

1916. ''Justice in War-time''. Chicago: Open Court.

1917. ''Political Ideals''. New York: The Century Co.

1918. ''Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays''. London: Longmans, Green.

1918. ''Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1919. ''Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy''. London: George Allen & Unwin. (ISBN 0-415-09604-9 for Routledge paperback) (''Copy at Archive.org'').

1920. ''The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1921. ''The Analysis of Mind''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1922. ''The Problem of China''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1923. ''The Prospects of Industrial Civilization'', in collaboration with Dora Russell. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1923. ''The ABC of Atoms'', London: Kegan Paul. Trench, Trubner.

1924. ''Icarus; or, The Future of Science''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1925. ''The ABC of Relativity''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1925. ''What I Believe''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1926. ''On Education, Especially in Early Childhood''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1927. ''The Analysis of Matter''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1927. ''An Outline of Philosophy''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1927. ''Why I Am Not a Christian">Why I Am Not a Christian''. London: Watts.

1927. ''Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell''. New York: Modern Library.

1928. ''Sceptical Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1929. ''Marriage and Morals''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1930. The Conquest of Happiness. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1931. ''The Scientific Outlook''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1932. ''Education and the Social Order'', London: George Allen & Unwin.

1934. ''Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1935. ''In Praise of Idleness''. London: George Allen & Unwin. (on refusal of work)

1935. ''Religion and Science''. London: Thornton Butterworth.

1936. ''Which Way to Peace?''. London: Jonathan Cape.

1937. ''The Amberley Papers: The Letters and Diaries of Lord and Lady Amberley'', with Patricia Russell, 2 vols., London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press.

1938. ''Power: A New Social Analysis''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1940. ''An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

1945. A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''">''A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''. New York: Simon and Schuster.

1948. ''Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1949. ''Authority and the Individual''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1950. ''Unpopular Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1951. ''New Hopes for a Changing World''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1952. ''The Impact of Science on Society''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1953. ''Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1954. ''Human Society in Ethics and Politics''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1954. ''Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1956. ''Portraits from Memory and Other Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1956. ''Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950'', edited by Robert C. Marsh. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1957. ''Why I Am Not A Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects'', edited by Paul Edwards. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1958. ''Understanding History and Other Essays''. New York: Philosophical Library.

1959. ''Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1959. ''My Philosophical Development">My Philosophical Development''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1959. ''Wisdom of the West'', edited by Paul Foulkes. London: Macdonald.

1960. ''Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind'', Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company.

1961. ''The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell'', edited by R.E. Egner and L.E. Denonn. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1961. ''Fact and Fiction''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1961. ''Has Man a Future?'', London: George Allen & Unwin.

1963. ''Essays in Skepticism''. New York: Philosophical Library.

1963. ''Unarmed Victory''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1965. ''On the Philosophy of Science'', edited by Charles A. Fritz, Jr. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

1967. ''Russell's Peace Appeals'', edited by Tsutomu Makino and Kazuteru Hitaka. Japan: Eichosha's New Current Books.

1967. ''War Crimes in Vietnam''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1951–1969. ''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'', 3 vols.. London: George Allen & Unwin. Vol 2 1956

1969. ''Dear Bertrand Russell... A Selection of his Correspondence with the General Public 1950–1968'', edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles, and letters to the editor. His works can be found in anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably ''The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell'', which McMaster University began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University possess over 30,000 of his letters.

See also[link]

Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club

Notes[link]

Additional references[link]

Russell[link]

1900, ''Sur la logique des relations avec des applications à la théorie des séries'', ''Rivista di matematica 7'': 115–148.

1901, ''On the Notion of Order'', ''Mind (n.s.) 10'': 35–51.

1902, (with Alfred North Whitehead), ''On Cardinal Numbers'', ''American Journal of Mathematics 23'': 367–384.

1948, BBC Reith Lectures: Authority and the Individual A series of six radio lectures broadcast on the BBC Home Service in December 1948.

Secondary references[link]

John Newsome Crossley. ''A Note on Cantor's Theorem and Russell's Paradox'', ''Australian Journal of Philosophy 51'': 70–71.

Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. ''The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940''. Princeton University Press.

''Bertrand Russell: A Political Life'' by Alan Ryan 1981

Books about Russell's philosophy[link]

''Bertrand Russell: Critical Assessments'', edited by A. D. Irvine, 4 volumes, London: Routledge, 1999. Consists of essays on Russell's work by many distinguished philosophers.

''Bertrand Russell'', by John Slater, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1994.

''Bertrand Russell's Ethics''. by Michael K. Potter, Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. A clear and accessible explanation of Russell's moral philosophy.

''The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell'', edited by P.A. Schilpp, Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University, 1944.

''Russell'', by A. J. Ayer, London: Fontana, 1972. ISBN 0-00-632965-9. A lucid summary exposition of Russell's thought.

''The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem'', by Celia Green. Oxford: Oxford Forum, 2003. ISBN 0-9536772-1-4 Contains a sympathetic analysis of Russell's views on causality.

''Russell's Idealist Apprenticeship'', by Nicholas Griffin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Biographical books[link]

''Bertrand Russell: Philosopher and Humanist'', by John Lewis (1968)

''Bertrand Russell'', by A. J. Ayer (1972), reprint ed. 1988: ISBN 0-226-03343-0

''The Life of Bertrand Russell'', by Ronald W. Clark (1975) ISBN 0-394-49059-2

''Bertrand Russell and His World'', by Ronald W. Clark (1981) ISBN 0-500-13070-1

''Bertrand Russell: Mathematics: Dreams and Nightmares'' by Ray Monk (1997) ISBN 0-75380-190-6

'' Bertrand Russell: 1872–1920 The Spirit of Solitude'' by Ray Monk (1997) ISBN 0-09-973131-2

''Bertrand Russell: 1921–1970 The Ghost of Madness'' by Ray Monk (2001) ISBN 0-09-927275-X

''Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth'' by Apostolos Doxiadis, and Christos Papadimitriou (2009)

Further reading[link]

Bertrand Russell. 1967–1969, ''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'', 3 volumes, London: George Allen & Unwin.

Wallechinsky, David & Irving Wallace. 1975–1981, "Famous Marriages Bertrand Russell & Alla Pearsall Smith, Part 1" & "Part 3", on "Alys" Pearsall Smith, webpage content from ''The People's Almanac'', webpages: Part 1 & Part 3 (accessed 8 November 2008).

Russell B, (1944) "My Mental Development", in Schilpp, Paul Arturn "The Philosophy of Betrand Russell", New York, Tudorm 1951, pp 3–20

External links[link]

;Other writings available online

"A Free Man's Worship" (1903)

"The Elements of Ethics" (1910)

War and Non-Resistance (1915)

The War and Non-Resistance — A Rejoinder to Professor Perry (1915)

The Ethics of War (1915)

''Justice in Wartime'' (1917)

''Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel'' (1917)

"Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?" 1930

''Legitimacy Versus Industrialism 1814–1848'' (1935)

"Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" (1947)

"Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind" (1950)

"What Desires Are Politically Important?" (1950)

''An Outline of Philosophy'' (1951)

''Is There a God?'' (1952)

''The Scientific Outlook'' (1954)

"16 Questions on the Assassination" (of President Kennedy) (1964)

;Audio

Works by Bertrand Russell in audio format from LibriVox

Sound clips of Bertrand Russell speaking

;Other

Pembroke Lodge — childhood home and museum

The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

Bertrand Russell in Japan

Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

The Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University

Resource list

The First Reith Lecture given by Russell (Real Audio)

Nobel Prize

Bertrand Russell at 100 Welsh Heroes

Key Participants: Bertrand Russell — ''Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement: A Documentary History''

PM@100: LOGIC FROM 1910 TO 1927 Conference at the Bertrand Russell Research Centre (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada), to be held on 21–24 May 2010, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Principia Mathematica.

Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin (2011–present)(Kris Notaro and David Blitz)

Category:1872 births Category:1970 deaths Category:20th-century mathematicians Category:20th-century philosophers Category:Academics of the London School of Economics Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Analytic philosophers Category:Anti–Vietnam War activists Category:Atheist philosophers Category:Atheism activists Category:British anti–nuclear weapons activists Category:English pacifists Category:English logicians Category:English prisoners and detainees Category:British republicans Category:British Nobel laureates Category:Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club Category:Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Category:Critics of work and the work ethic Category:Deaths from influenza Category:Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Category:Epistemologists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Free love advocates Category:English atheists Category:English historians of philosophy Category:Infectious disease deaths in Wales Category:Kalinga Prize recipients Category:LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom Category:Male feminists Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Nobel laureates in Literature Category:Ontologists Category:People from Monmouthshire Category:Philosophers of language Category:Philosophers of mathematics Bertrand Russell Category:Set theorists Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Utilitarians Category:Western writers about Soviet Russia Category:World federalists Category:British humanists Category:English sceptics Category:Linguistic turn Category:De Morgan Medallists Category:19th-century philosophers Category:19th-century mathematicians

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