Socrates and Plato. Zhebelev S.

Socrates and Plato met in 408 BC. And they did not part until Socrates' death. At the age of 20, Plato, a talented young man, was preparing to participate in a poetic competition as the author of the tragedy and accidentally witnessed the conversation of Socrates before the theater. He was so shocked by what he burned his poems and decided to devote himself exclusively by philosophy.

It is well known that Socrates thought had a strong impact on Plato's philosophy, but to figure out what this influence was and to what extent it manifests itself In Platonic dialogs, the task is not easy. At different times, various points of view were put forward on this issue. According to one of them, one should not look for differences between Plato and Socrates, since the main provisions of Platonism are borrowed from the teachings of the Pythagoreans thanks to the philosophy of Socrates. It is assumed that Socrates himself, taking the concept of ideas from the Pythagoreans, included the ideas of metaphysical and moral realities. In other words, the philosophical thought of Socrates is entirely expressed in the dialogs of Plato and is their only content.

in this collection two works of historians of antiquity are presented: S.A. Zhebeleva (1867-1941), the famous Russian and Soviet philologist-classic, and V. Windelbanda (1848-1915), the German identity philosopher.