plato is one of the most famous
philosophers
of all time he represented the
philosophy of ancient greece
belonging to its classical period he was
born into an aristocratic and
influential family in athens where he
founded the academy the first
institution of higher learning in the
entire western world
along with his mentor socrates and his
student aristotle
plato is one of the most influential
individuals in the entire history of
humankind
it can even be said that he is one of
the pillars of western civilization
his philosophy is often referenced as
platonic idealism
and his biggest contribution is the
theory of forms or doctrine of ideas
which asserts that the physical world is
not the real world
instead ultimate reality exists beyond
our physical world
in the world of ideas plato was not only
a prominent figure of philosophy
but also of religion and spirituality
so-called neoplatonism deeply
influencing christian theology
plato invented the written dialogue and
dialectic form of philosophy
some of his most famous books are the
republic
the symposium the apology of socrates
allegory of the cave and the dialogues
of plato
in which the main character is socrates
who influenced plato's philosophy
to a great extent his entire work
has survived for more than 2 400 years
and has remained very popular the entire
time
like his mentor plato was a practical
philosopher
and there are many life lessons to learn
from his philosophy
to help you understand his philosophy
and how it can be applied to your daily
life
here are nine life lessons from the
philosophy
of plato number one
conquer yourself plato says
the first and greatest victory is to
conquer yourself
to be conquered by yourself is of all
things most
shameful and vile plato believed that
conquering yourself
is the greatest victory having a deep
impact in your life
to conquer yourself means according to
plato to not let your instincts and
desires dictate your actions
in his life plato has seen many
athenians taking irrational decisions
being driven by their passions and
desires and not
by good judgment one example is
described in the dialogue between
socrates and phaedras in which they talk
about a man who murdered his wife's
lover erathosthanes
although some passions are positive and
plato through socrates confirmed that
life's greatest blessings flow from the
madness of love
many of our passions are damaging and in
plato's view
the more we diminish our worst passions
the better
if you don't control yourself your
worldly passions and desires will blind
you
making you take irrational decisions
jeopardizing your future
you might get temporary satisfaction by
following your heart's desires and
impulses
but you'll suffer in the long term
before doing anything
ask yourself whether or not what you
intend to do
is beneficial to your life and to the
lives of others you care about
for example if you're a smoker and you
know smoking is detrimental to your
health in the long
run but you can't quit it means you're
not able to conquer yourself
your impulses make you buy and smoke
cigarettes every day
you lost the battle over yourself and
according to plato
this is the most shameful and vile thing
to regain control over your life to
reconquer yourself
you need to do everything you can to
resist the temptation
to buy new cigarettes there are many
methods to give up smoking
for some people nicotine gums and
patches help take the edge off gradually
for others the only way that works is
going cold turkey
and stopping entirely immediately
whatever works for you make a plan and
implement it in order to conquer
yourself
number two being angry solves
nothing according to plato
there are two things a person should
never be angry
at what they can help and what they
cannot
anger is a negative emotion which we
should avoid
it's much better to use reason and
calmly evaluate a situation
instead of getting angry and damaging
your relationships
by using reason you evaluate the problem
more objectively
when you use reason to analyze a
situation
you rise up to a superior level the
level of ideas
and you can come closer to the truth of
that situation
there are two types of problems in life
those which you can solve
and those which you can't regarding the
problems you can solve
there's nothing to get angry about just
make a plan to find the solution
implement it and go with it if the
problem cannot be solved
then the only thing you can do is to
accept it
and adjust your life accordingly for
example
if you have a small business and you
find out that your accountant has stolen
a lot of money from you
look at the situation and ask yourself
is there a way i can solve this problem
you might come up with the idea that you
can report the theft to the police
get him arrested and have him face a
court of law
but if you don't have enough written
evidence to prove the accountant stole
from you
and he refuses to return the money
you're left with just one
option to fire him never talk to him
again
and try to avoid similar people in
future
therefore when you're confronted with a
problem and you've exhausted
every possible solution don't waste time
and energy being angry
just accept the situation and move on
number three choose the people you spend
time with
wisely to quote plato
people are like dirt they can either
nourish you and help you grow as a
person
or they can stunt your growth and make
you wilt and die
spending his life in the public arena
being born into an aristocratic and
influential family descending from the
king of athens
codrus plato was a popular individual
with many acquaintances and friends
he rightly understood the tremendous
influence
other people can have on us a bad
alliance can destroy your life
a good alliance can lead you to the
greatest peaks of success
therefore there are few things as
important as the skill of choosing the
people
you spend time with you might think that
you don't have much control over this
for example when you have a job where
you meet the same people over and over
again
it's not in your power to choose who'll
be fired or employed
being in a long-term relationship one
can feel pressured to stick around
even when they mistreat and don't
respect you
similarly you cannot choose your
relatives yet for many of us it's a
given that you have a duty to keep in
touch with them and visit them
at least during the holidays but you
might be wrong
it is in your power to leave a job where
you don't like the people or culture
you can almost always find a better job
with a higher quality of people
or you can start your own business and
hire only people you like
equally it might be daunting but your
partner doesn't own you
and you can always leave and start again
no matter what
nor is it mandatory to meet with your
relatives with whom you don't have
anything in common beyond blood
we have more power to choose the people
we spend time with
than we think if we don't choose them
carefully their influence will affect
our lives in negative ways
a bad boss will diminish your
self-confidence and make you doubt your
abilities
a bad spouse can make you feel insecure
and insignificant
bad relatives can make you stressed and
miserable
by contrast a good boss will make you
feel like your skills are improving
daily
a good spouse will make you feel
attractive and loved
good relatives will make you feel like
you're a part of the family
respected and loved number four
find your other half the words of plato
each of us then is a matching half of a
human whole
and each of us is always seeking the
half that matches him
plato wrote that initially people had
four legs
four arms and a single head with two
faces
having a quasi-spherical shape and no
sex
they were androgynous but because they
started to become
very powerful zeus got angry and split
people in half to diminish their
strengths
since then people have felt incomplete
and they're always searching for their
other half
to complete them thus plato was the
first philosopher
to discuss the concept of a soulmate
aristophanes who is known as the father
of comedy in his speech from plato's
symposium
gave a detailed explanation of why
people in love
say they feel whole when they found
their partner
the love they feel for each other is not
only a physical attraction
led by the desire to physically reunite
to become a whole
it's something deeper also in
aristophanes speech
homosexuals are explained as people who
are split in half
but both halves happen to be the same
gender
in ancient greek society homosexuality
was generally seen in a favorable way
he also claims that when a person truly
finds their other half
that they never want to be separated
from them ever again
to apply this teaching in our own lives
we should never stop searching for our
soulmate
until we feel that we found somebody
from whom we never want to be separated
again
and we don't feel any desire to be
unfaithful to
as a checklist you can use the following
they're your best friend you have a
sense of calm and
ease around them you feel at home when
you're together
you have extreme empathy and respect for
them
you agree on the most important things
you share
similar life goals and you can be
totally yourself in their presence
you just want to be around each other if
they check
all these boxes chances are
you've found your soulmate number five
get involved in politics
plato notes one of the penalties for
refusing to participate
in politics is that you end up being
governed by your inferiors
although athens was the first democracy
in the world
plato never liked democracy when
socrates died after being imprisoned for
corrupting the youth of athens with his
philosophical wisdom
plato was deeply saddened concluding
that democracy is
antithetical to philosophy plato
described his distaste for democracy
with this analogy
imagine a ship where the owner is the
strongest man on the ship
but doesn't know how to sail there are
other sailors on board
but they're quarreling with each other
without coming to a conclusion
and then there's a navigator who knows
the direction but doesn't have any
desire for leadership
in plato's metaphor the owner is a
common citizen
the strongest the most powerful but
ultimately clueless
sailors are the politicians who keep
quarreling without coming to any
conclusion
and the navigator is the philosopher the
most
knowledgeable person but has no will to
take control of the situation
he identified that the real problem with
democracy
is that it gives equal chances to people
who are not equal in skills and
knowledge
and thus produces poor leaders who make
poor decisions that can destroy the
state
it was of the opinion that society
should be composed of three groups
first the plebs the most inferior then
the
soldiers to keep the society under
control and then
the rulers who should always be
philosophers
the lower classes should have no say
whatsoever in how the state was to run
and whether the philosophers the most
knowledgeable people at that time
should become the rulers although
athenian democracy is different from
modern democracy
plato's criticism of democracy remains
relevant even today
especially regarding the fact that in a
democracy the opinion of a less informed
and less educated person
weighs the same as the opinion of a
highly educated and informed person
if the educated and informed don't get
involved in politics
then the political roles will be taken
up by the remaining populace
and that can ruin a country so if you
have the reputation of a good citizen
and you have many years of professional
experience proving over those years that
you're a good leader
and capable of managing complex projects
you might consider running for mayor or
the equivalent in your community
be it a small town or bigger city
having achieved several accomplishments
in your life and knowing yourself as a
capable person
you should consider that it's your
responsibility to join the area of
politics
don't refrain from public life otherwise
you increase the chances of being
governed by people less capable than you
but more popular democracy offers great
opportunities for each of us
but it has its flaws in order to avoid
important roles being filled by the less
capable of us
the most capable should step up try to
be more popular
and take the responsibility of a
governing position
number six learn to be a follower
then a master plato tells us
he who is not a good servant will not be
a good master as a teacher in charge of
conducting the prestigious school he
himself founded
the academy plato knew that to be a
great teacher
you first need to be a great student
something that applies to any job to
reach a managerial position
first you need to be highly experienced
at the job you plan to manage
leadership roles are usually earned
through hard work and dedication
people must first proof their skills
demonstrate their knowledge before
they're put in charge of other staff
of course in the modern world there are
many exceptions where managerial
positions are awarded
without the appropriate skill set or
experience
but in an egalitarian less corrupted
society
it's through hard work and dedication
that one gets a leadership
position for example if you work in an
industrial company as a general worker
you can acquire a leadership position
if you prove every day that you're very
reliable
can work autonomously always fulfill
your obligations
you're polite but tough in your work and
you keep yourself and your colleagues
accountable
if this describes you an occasion may
well arise for a promotion
for example your manager leaving the
company or changing roles
your employers might select you if
you've proven to be the best follower
thus to be a master one must learn to be
a great
follower number seven
be content with little nato teaches us
the greatest wealth is to live content
with little
according to plato if you have a roof
over your head
food in your mouth and you can walk to
work you're wealthy enough
any excess of these will not make you
happier
too often we're chasing the material
things in life
but these things will not make us
happier plato was a wealthy individual
but he understood that it's not the
richness that made him happy
sometimes only when you're rich do you
really understand that money doesn't
bring lasting happiness
being happy with little will assure you
happiness
therefore it's very important to
cultivate gratitude
to bless everything we have in our lives
no matter how
insignificant it may appear for example
if you live in a studio in a poor
neighborhood be content that you have
shelter
be grateful for the bed you sleep in for
the window through which you see the
morning sun
be happy to live in a neighborhood where
you can find anything you need
the supermarket the pharmacy and so on
don't be resentful of people with a lot
of money living in expensive villas and
having expensive cars
their wealth is only apparent it's
impossible to know
how happy they really are they might
have vast debts and financial
commitments
a miserable family life or suffer from
drug abuse
you with your little happy family living
in a tiny house
and using the subway to go to work might
actually be
much happier than those seemingly
wealthier people
as long as you learn to be grateful for
every little thing and you have shelter
enough food and you're able to walk and
work
your happiness is assured you have
enough wealth
in your life number eight
be in charge of your own happiness
as we learn from plato the man who makes
everything that leads to happiness
depend upon himself
and not upon other men has adopted
the very best plan for living happily
plato was not a hedonist he didn't
believe that the pursuit of pleasure is
the most important thing in life
rather he was interested in knowing the
true essence of reality
emphasizing the importance of wisdom
moderation
and hard work however he acknowledged
the importance of living a happy life
which he thought is a life lived in
moderation and in which your happiness
does not depend on
other people but on yourself if you make
your life depend on somebody or
something else for example
you say to yourself i'll be happy when i
marry this or that person or
i'll be happy when i get rich and famous
then you're dooming yourself to live an
anxious life in which you'll always be
afraid of losing the person you love
or not attaining the material success
you wish for
if by contrast you construct your
happiness based on a set of routines
which
makes you happy on a daily basis you
won't experience the extreme ups and
downs of life
you'll have a peaceful and much happier
life than other people on average
to apply this teaching to your life make
a list of every activity which makes you
happy
for example walking in the park with
your dog or
going hiking in nature close to where
you live listening to music while
cleaning the house
going to a museum reading great books
every day and so on
after making this list make sure you
check each activity
every week making your happiness
independent of what happens in your
personal relationships or
in your career will secure a safety net
for your emotional well-being
and will help you avoid having too many
low moments
in your life number nine
work hard to accomplish great things
in our final quote from plato for this
video he says
i never did anything worth doing by
accident
nor did any of my inventions come by
accident
they came by work
although he was a promoter of living a
simple life and being content with
little
during his lifetime plato was a
hard-working individual
he believed that it's important to
contribute to society as much as you can
as long as your work is not motivated by
ambition for ambition's sake
during his lifetime plato accomplished a
great number of things
he was the innovator of written dialogue
and dialectic forms in philosophy
and he's considered the founder of
western political philosophy
being one of the most famous thinkers in
the entire history of humankind
it would have been impossible for him to
achieve all of this without working hard
usually nothing worth doing can be done
easily
you can't get a great sense of
accomplishment by doing trivial things
like binge watching tv
endlessly scrolling through social media
or partying with your friends
the things you're proud of the things
that are worth doing
those take plenty of planning and no
small amount of effort
to apply plato's lesson in our lives we
need to focus more on challenging
projects
and work hard to accomplish great things
with these projects
for example imagine you have a stable
job as a delivery driver but you find it
repetitive
monotonous and unfulfilling in order to
feel some satisfaction in your life
you might decide to start a new project
for example
learning a new skill or language by
signing up for online classes
or joining a community group such as a
theater company or choir
all of which can open you up to new
opportunities and ideas you'd never
considered before
hard work when doubled by great planning
will lead to great rewards
and satisfaction
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