The most mysterious figure in history. He never left any words, but he is one of the most influential figures in European thought. This is not entirely because he ended his life dramatically later.

We can learn about Socrates' life mainly through Plato's works. Plato was a student of Socrates and later became one of the greatest philosophers of all time.

Plato wrote several dialogues and discussed philosophy with similar drama dialogues. Socrates was the main character and spokesman.

Because Plato expounds his philosophy through Socrates' mouth in the book, we can't be sure whether Socrates' words in the dialogue are really Socrates' words. So it is not easy to distinguish Socrates' theory from Plato's philosophy.

For Plato, the death of Socrates proved the conflict between today's society and the ideal society. The first thing Plato did after becoming a philosopher was to publish Socrates' confession to the jury.

As for Plato, we think that all his important works should be preserved. Besides Socrates' apology, Plato wrote many letters and at least 35 philosophical dialogues. These works have survived to this day, partly because Plato established a philosophy school in a forest not far from Athens. It is named after the legendary Greek Academy of Heroes. Therefore, this school is called "Academy" or "Academy" (since then, thousands of academies have been established all over the world, and "Academy" and "discipline" will be mentioned later).

The subjects taught in Plato's Academy include philosophy, mathematics and physical education. But it is not correct to say "professor", because Plato's academy also teaches in a vivid way of dialogue, so it is no accident that Plato writes in the form of dialogue.

Then Plato appeared. He not only cares about the eternal things in nature, but also cares about the eternal things related to human morality and society

For Plato, these two problems are two sides of a whole. He tried to grasp the eternal "truth" about individuals.

Frankly speaking, this is the reason why there are philosophers in the world. We need philosophers, not because they can choose a beauty queen for us or tell us the lowest price of tomatoes today. This is also the reason why they are often unpopular. Philosophers always try to avoid this hot topic with no eternal value and try to attract people's attention to things that are always "true", "good" and "beautiful".

Plato believes that all tangible things in nature are "flowing", so there is no "matter" that cannot be decomposed. Everything that belongs to the "material world" must be made of some kind of material. This substance will be eroded by time, but the "mold" or "form" of making these things is eternal.

Plato thinks that everything we see in the natural world around us can be compared to soap bubbles, because everything that exists in the sensory world will never change. We know that everyone and every animal will die sooner or later, and they will rot and decompose. Even a piece of marble will change and gradually decompose. The high city of Greece is gradually collapsing, which is really a very bad thing. But there is nothing we can do. Plato's point of view is that it is impossible for us to have a real understanding of those ever-changing things. We can only have opinions or opinions on specific things that belong to the sensory world. What we really understand is only what we can understand with reason.

Plato thinks that mathematics is a very attractive subject, because the state of mathematics will never change, so it is also a state that people can really understand.

In short, we can only have vague and inaccurate ideas about what our senses feel, but we can really understand what we understand with reason. The sum of the internal angles of a triangle must be 180 degrees, which is eternal. Similarly, even if the horses in the sensory world are lame, the "rational" horses will still have sound limbs.

Plato's theory is almost like this, but it is not all.

Plato also believed that the soul existed before it entered the body (it lay on the top of the cupboard with all the cookie molds). However, once the soul wakes up in a body, it forgets all the perfect patterns. Then, a wonderful process began. When man discovered various forms of nature, some vague memories began to disturb his soul. He saw a horse, but it was an imperfect horse. As soon as the soul saw this horse, it vaguely remembered the perfect "horse" it had seen in the rational world, and at the same time felt a desire to return to its original field. Plato called this desire eros, which means "love". At this time, the soul experienced "a desire to return to the source." Since then, the body and the whole sensory world have been imperfect and insignificant to it. The soul longs to fly on the wings of love.

What I want to emphasize is that what Plato described here is an ideal life course, because not everyone will release his soul and let it embark on the journey of returning to the rational world. Most people are obsessed with the "reflection" of the perfect rational world. They saw one horse after another, but never saw the image of "perfect horse" based on these horses. They just rushed into the kitchen and took gingerbread man away.

In Plato's conception, the state should be composed of three parts, just like the human body. Just as a person has a head, a chest and a belly, a country should also have rulers, warriors and craftsmen (such as farmers). Plato obviously refers to Greek medicine here. Just as a healthy and harmonious person knows balance and moderation, the characteristic of a "virtuous" country is that every citizen understands his role in the whole country.

Plato's political philosophy, like his other philosophies, has the characteristics of rationalism. If a country wants to be on the right track, it must be ruled by reason. Just as the human body is ruled by the brain, so society must be ruled by philosophers.

Plato's utopia is somewhat similar to India's class hereditary system. Everyone has its special function in society to meet the needs of the whole society. In fact, before Plato was born, Indian society had been divided into three social groups: the ruling class (or monk class), the samurai class and the working class. For modern people, Plato's ideal country can be regarded as a totalitarian country. However, it is worth mentioning that he believes that women can govern the country as effectively as men for a simple reason: rulers govern the country with reason, while Plato believes that women will have the same rational thinking ability as men as long as they are trained like men and do not need to have children and stay at home. In Plato's ideal country, neither rulers nor soldiers can enjoy family life. Private property is also prohibited. At the same time, because the responsibility of raising children is extremely important, it cannot be borne by individuals, but must be borne by the government (Plato was the first philosopher to advocate the establishment of public nurseries and full-time education).

After several major political setbacks, Plato wrote this law. In the book, he described the "constitutional country" as the best country after the ideal country. This time, he thinks that those who are in a superior position can own personal property and family life, so women's freedom is more restricted. However, he said that if a country does not educate and train its female nationals, it is like a person only exercising his right arm.

To sum up, we can say that in his time, Plato's view of women was quite positive. He pointed out in the dialogue of "Drinking" that part of Socrates' philosophical views came from a priestess named Diotima, which was a great honor for women.