Is Plato still alive?

Is Plato still alive?

 By: Hasnain Ahmed Abro

Who was Plato? What were his ideas? What are its modern day relevance? And most importantly, is Plato still alive? All of these questions could only be answered when one understands Plato and his legacy. Plato was a post-Socratic philosopher. A remarkable one, founder of Platonic school of thought, and he wrote numerous full-length books on philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and much more. 

 "To Plato, justice was only for minority of ruling class at the expense of majority. He made these two airtight compartments and placed ruling class and ruled inside them"

 A guy named Alfred North Whitehead famously said that all of western philosophy, subsequently after Plato, consists of a series of footnotes to him. Now that’s something huge. But what was his philosophy? To make this comprehensive, his philosophy was based on idealism. Although, idealism itself is a hydra but we call Plato’s idealism as Platonic idealism. Plato was of the view that apart from our world, a perfect world existed. A world where concepts of justice, morality and beauty were perfect. That world was different from our materialistic world and he also gave us a sneak peek of that world through his work “Republic”. Now close your eyes and think for a moment what the deepest desire of a human being is? What has mankind yearned for centuries? Immortality? Yes. However, it is not possible. Yet, one tend to become immortal in a limited time by being father to someone, a son or through any other form. Now, the father, the son or any other form are human being, matter, but the name and the feelings attached to it are abstract. 

Same goes for concept of justice, morality, freedom and others. Thus, to achieve these notional qualities and to perfect them was Plato’s idealism. And, to make the materialistic world perfect, he presented his blue print through his ideal-state. 

"Yet again, the world needs another Plato but a different one, and with a different kind of idealism that actually benefits people. That actually believe in notional concepts of justice, equality and others"

Now, does his ideas hold modern-day relevance? Well, in my opinion, No! To make it more understandable, one may take the following example: Plato identified all trees as one. He thought of them as similar. However, trees are different. There is difference of branches, leaves, bark, trunk and roots. We cannot confine all trees into a specific set. Same goes for people. To Plato, justice was only for minority of ruling class at the expense of majority. He made these two airtight compartments and placed ruling class and ruled inside them. Moreover, some people call Plato the first feminist but in actual, he reduced their status to a mere animal. By calling for communism of family, he completely backtracks from core concepts of ethics and morality. He prioritized women’s productive rights over reproductive. Whatever little freedom he gave women could only be exercised by those belonging to elite class. It is his thoughts that align with ‘Survival of the fittest’ that allow eugenicists like Toby Young to comment that helping COVID19 infected people is a waste of tax-payer’s money. To add more, one may also find similarities between Platonic idealism and fascism: rule of minority, Plato’s Hellenistic belief and fascist’s ultra-nationalism and much more.

Is Plato still alive? Yes! His legacy is strong and his thoughts live on. But, the world does not need Platonic idealism—eugenicists and fascists are its example. And just to be clear, one cannot blame Plato for his thoughts as they were masterpiece in his cultural and temporal settings. Yet again, the world needs another Plato but a different one, and with a different kind of idealism that actually benefits people. That actually believe in notional concepts of justice, equality and others. It is not a sin to believe in idealism, in fact, it has proven to be a catalyst for positive social change. 

For example, the lawyer’s movement in Pakistan had not been successful if the people did not believe in independence of judiciary. The modern democratic states had not existed if the people did not believe in equality. Feminism had not taken its roots if the women did not believe in their freedom. Currently, as The Economist March 2020 magazine cover said that the Earth is closed due to COVID19, the world needs idealism. The world needs to huddle up and decide the future course of history. 

~Hasnain Ahmed Abro
The writer is a Civil engineer and loves to read and write about philosophy, mysticism, and world politics. 

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