Pocos se atreverían a afirmar que Platón sea el único padre de la filosofía, pero eso es lo que se defiende
en este libro, siguiendo la línea del filósofo inglés Alfred North Whitehead cuando afirmó que «la historia de
la filosofía occidental no es más que una serie de notas al pie de página de Platón». Pese a todo, se sabe
muy poco del hombre que fue Platón, y no se ha escrito ninguna biografía merecedora de tal nombre en los
últimos siglos. Robin Waterfield asume el reto de redactar la tan necesaria biografía y traza un vívido retrato
que, sin renunciar al rigor académico, nos aclara cuánto se sabe de la acaudalada familia del filósofo, de sus
amigos y sus posibles amores, y de sus relaciones políticas en una Atenas en plena guerra del Peloponeso,
una ciudad que bullía en ideas y atraía a estudiantes de todo el mundo griego en busca de los conocimientos
que regalaban o vendían sofistas, pitagóricos y la embrionaria Academia de Platón. Una perfecta introducción
al hombre y su tiempo, una biografía que no solo ilumina una nueva perspectiva sobre el filósofo, sino que
anima a la lectura de sus obras.
Considered by many to be the most important philosopher ever, Plato was born into a well-to-do family in wartime Athens at the end of the fifth century BCE. He finally decided to go into politics, but became disillusioned, especially after the Athenians condemned his teacher, Socrates, to death. He began teaching in his twenties and later founded the Academy, the world's first higher-educational research and teaching establishment. Eventually, he returned to practical politics and spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to create a constitution for Syracuse in Sicily that would reflect and perpetuate some of his political ideals. The attempts failed, and Plato's disappointment can be traced in some of his later political works.
In his lifetime and after, Plato was considered almost divine. This led to the invention of many tall tales about him-both by those who adored him and his detractors. In this first ever full-length portrait of Plato, Robin Waterfield steers a judicious course among these stories, debunking some while accepting the kernels of truth in others. He explains why Plato chose to write dialogues rather than treatises and gives an overview of the subject matter of all of Plato's books. Clearly and engagingly written throughout, Plato of Athens is the perfect introduction to the man and his work.
Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and the first Western philosophers developed theories of the world which express simultaneously their sense of wonder and their intuition that the world should be comprehensible. But their enterprise was by no means limited to this proto-scientific task. Through, for instance, Heraclitus's enigmatic sayings, the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles, and Zeno's paradoxes, the Western world was introduced to metaphysics, rationalist theology, ethics, and logic, by thinkers who often seem to be mystics or shamans as much as philosophers or scientists in the modern mold. And out of the Sophists' reflections on human beings and their place in the world arose and interest in language, and in political, moral, and social philosophy.
This volume contains a translation of all the most important fragments of the Presocratics and Sophists, and of the most informative testimonia from ancient sources, supplemented by lucid commentary.
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