Read Online The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World by Daniel J. Boorstin - Free Book Online
Authors: Daniel J. Boorstin
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that Plato himself did not “lecture” from a manuscript. Plato’s famous lecture on “the Good,” supposed to be the best summary of his own philosophy, survives in diverse versions by hearers—Aristotle, Xenocrates, and Heraclides of Ponticus, who published their notes. But no manuscript by Plato himself has survived.
What might Plato have done with the last twenty years of his life, if he had not been seduced into a Sicilian adventure? The death of Dionysius I of Syracuse in 367 gave Plato his tempting opportunity. As annually elected dictator and generalissimo, Dionysius I had ruled Syracuse for thirty-eight years. Plato’s first visit to Sicily had introduced him to the Pythagorean communities that flourished there, pursuing a tradition quite different from that of the pioneer Ionian scientists. A charismatic personality, Pythagoras (born about 580 B.C.) of Samos had settled in southern Italy about 525 B.C. There he founded a school that had the appeal of a religion. Among other mystic dogmas he taught the transmigration of souls, and even claimed to remember his own earlier incarnations. Pythagoras saw the world organized around the aesthetic of numbers—for him the only reality. Having discovered the mathematical basis of musical intervals, Pythagoras had elaborated a cosmology of mathematical order. None of Pythagoras’ writings survived and, unlike Socrates, he never had the good luck to attract a recording disciple. But some of his themes lived on in Plato’s dialogues. And the overseas communities in Magna Graecia in southern Italy and Sicily tempted Plato with the opportunity he never had in Athens.
When Dionysius I died in 367 B.C. he was succeeded by his son, Dionysius II. This young man of weak character and little education was not up to the challenge of the expanding Carthaginians. Plato’s favorite pupil, the young man’s uncle Dion, now became ruling regent. “He thought it essential,” Plato records, “that I should come to Syracuse by all manner of means and with the utmost possible speed to be his partner in these plans, remembering in his own case how readily intercourse with me had produced in him a longing for the noblest and best life.” But Dion’s party of young men fed Plato’s misgivings, “for young men are quick in forming desires which often take directions conflicting with one another.” “Lest I might some day appear to myself wholly and solely a mere man of words,” Plato decided to dare the Syracusan morass. “If ever anyone was to try to carry out in practice my ideas about laws and constitutions, now was the time.” With the enthusiastic aid of Dion, he needed only to persuade the new dictator of Syracuse.
Dionysius II proved even weaker than Plato had feared. After Plato had been in Syracuse only four months, intriguers at the court persuaded the insecure young tyrant that Dion was plotting to seize the throne. Dion was put out to sea in a small boat. Dionysius II feared being discredited by the departure of Plato and imprisoned him in the Syracusan acropolis. The young tyrant, though he became attached to Plato, refused to learn the lessons that might have made him a successful philosopher-king. Still Plato’s influence at court appeared when the study of geometry became fashionable. Defeated by court intrigues and Dionysius II’s weakness, Plato finally gave up his effort to educate the young ruler and was allowed to return to Athens.
This was not yet the end of the Sicilian adventure. Dionysius II kept in touch with Plato. Even after the young tyrant seized Dion’s property and forced his wife to make a dynastic marriage, Plato did not give up hope. Surprisingly, he responded to still another invitation, and returned again to advise Dionysius in 361 B.C. This trip was not entirely fruitless, for Plato did actually make a draft of a constitution for a federation of overseas Greek cities. A year later, when his life was threatened by Dion’s enemies,
What might Plato have done with the last twenty years of his life, if he had not been seduced into a Sicilian adventure? The death of Dionysius I of Syracuse in 367 gave Plato his tempting opportunity. As annually elected dictator and generalissimo, Dionysius I had ruled Syracuse for thirty-eight years. Plato’s first visit to Sicily had introduced him to the Pythagorean communities that flourished there, pursuing a tradition quite different from that of the pioneer Ionian scientists. A charismatic personality, Pythagoras (born about 580 B.C.) of Samos had settled in southern Italy about 525 B.C. There he founded a school that had the appeal of a religion. Among other mystic dogmas he taught the transmigration of souls, and even claimed to remember his own earlier incarnations. Pythagoras saw the world organized around the aesthetic of numbers—for him the only reality. Having discovered the mathematical basis of musical intervals, Pythagoras had elaborated a cosmology of mathematical order. None of Pythagoras’ writings survived and, unlike Socrates, he never had the good luck to attract a recording disciple. But some of his themes lived on in Plato’s dialogues. And the overseas communities in Magna Graecia in southern Italy and Sicily tempted Plato with the opportunity he never had in Athens.
When Dionysius I died in 367 B.C. he was succeeded by his son, Dionysius II. This young man of weak character and little education was not up to the challenge of the expanding Carthaginians. Plato’s favorite pupil, the young man’s uncle Dion, now became ruling regent. “He thought it essential,” Plato records, “that I should come to Syracuse by all manner of means and with the utmost possible speed to be his partner in these plans, remembering in his own case how readily intercourse with me had produced in him a longing for the noblest and best life.” But Dion’s party of young men fed Plato’s misgivings, “for young men are quick in forming desires which often take directions conflicting with one another.” “Lest I might some day appear to myself wholly and solely a mere man of words,” Plato decided to dare the Syracusan morass. “If ever anyone was to try to carry out in practice my ideas about laws and constitutions, now was the time.” With the enthusiastic aid of Dion, he needed only to persuade the new dictator of Syracuse.
Dionysius II proved even weaker than Plato had feared. After Plato had been in Syracuse only four months, intriguers at the court persuaded the insecure young tyrant that Dion was plotting to seize the throne. Dion was put out to sea in a small boat. Dionysius II feared being discredited by the departure of Plato and imprisoned him in the Syracusan acropolis. The young tyrant, though he became attached to Plato, refused to learn the lessons that might have made him a successful philosopher-king. Still Plato’s influence at court appeared when the study of geometry became fashionable. Defeated by court intrigues and Dionysius II’s weakness, Plato finally gave up his effort to educate the young ruler and was allowed to return to Athens.
This was not yet the end of the Sicilian adventure. Dionysius II kept in touch with Plato. Even after the young tyrant seized Dion’s property and forced his wife to make a dynastic marriage, Plato did not give up hope. Surprisingly, he responded to still another invitation, and returned again to advise Dionysius in 361 B.C. This trip was not entirely fruitless, for Plato did actually make a draft of a constitution for a federation of overseas Greek cities. A year later, when his life was threatened by Dion’s enemies,
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