Three Facts of Plato
Although we know more about Plato than we do about most of his contemporaries, many of the details of his biography and bibliography are still uncertain. No detailed accounts of his life by his contemporaries have survived. Most of the biographical information we have about Plato was compiled by people who lived several hundred years after he died. The three definite facts we have are some elements of Plato's biography and bibliography, and some of the things Plato says about Socrates.
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Evidence and Degrees of Certainty
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Knowledge about people who died more than 2,000 years ago can rarely be divided into information that's absolutely true and pure speculation. Instead, scholars assemble many pieces of evidence to reconstruct ideas and events with varying degrees of certainty. Both biographical and bibliographical information about Plato are a mixture of fact and speculation.
Because Plato wrote exclusively in dialogue form, it is difficult to make certain claims about his beliefs; Plato never tells us in his own voice whether he supports the positions advanced by his characters, and the characters themselves often explore a variety of different positions and come to no fixed conclusions by the end of the dialogues.
Biographical Facts
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Plato was born between 429 and 427 B.C. Plato's father was named Ariston and his mother either Perictione or Potone. Both parents were from extremely wealthy and influential Athenian families. Plato had two brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, and a sister, Potone. Ariston died when Plato was relatively young and his mother then married Pyrilampes.
Plato was a follower of the philosopher Socrates, who figures as a prominent character in Plato's dialogues. After Socrates' death in 399 B.C., Plato left Athens and traveled to Megara and perhaps to other areas, but details of his travels are uncertain. He eventually returned to Athens and founded a school located in the grove of Academus just outside Athens. Except for one or two trips to Sicily, he remained in Athens until his death in 347 B.C. After Plato's death, Speusippus, the son of Plato's sister Potone, succeeded Plato as head of the Academy. The Academy continued as a school until Emperor Justinian closed it in 529 A.D.
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Bibliographical Facts and Theories
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We know that we possess all dialogues written by Plato because no dialogues described as authentically Platonic in ancient sources have not survived to the present. Although the authenticity of many dialogues is undisputed, several mentioned differ slightly from clearly authentic dialogues in theme or style, including Alcibiades I, Hippias Major, Theages, and Cleitophon. The authenticity of these dialogues is still actively debated.
Thirteen letters attributed to Plato have survived. Hellenistic Greek sophists and their students wrote letters in the voice of famous people as rhetorical exercises. These imitations often found their way into letter collections, and it is often difficult to determine which letters are authentic. Of the Platonic letters, some scholars consider Epistles II, III, and VII possibly authentic, but others do not.
The relative and absolute dates of composition of the Platonic dialogues have also been debated among scholars continuously since the first century. Although some dialogues have a clear dramatic sequence, even the early-middle-late scheme of assigning the dialogues to periods in Plato's life is still at best only a credible hypothesis rather than fact supported by firm evidence.
Historicity of the Dialogues
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Many of Plato's dialogues have a dramatic setting before Plato's birth date. While Plato is mentioned as having been in the audience during Socrates' trial, in the beginning of Phaedo, Plato has a character remark that Plato himself, being ill, was not present at the conversation the dialogue records. Plato's accounts of Socrates and other historical figures sometimes agree with accounts found in other sources like Xenophon and sometimes do not. Although scholars still actively debate the accuracy of many specific elements of the dialogues, especially the character of Socrates, the consensus is that Plato freely mixes historical fact with with invented material to make philosophical points.
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