Plato
428-348 BC · Classical Athens · Household name
Plato wrote the dialogues that founded Western philosophy. The circle drawn on a page borrows from a perfect Circle nobody has ever seen, and everything visible works that way for him, a shadow of something changeless. Book after book his Socrates argues that a soul can be schooled out of mere opinion and up to the original, the Good, the Beautiful and the Just, and that only those who make that climb should govern.
Signature
The position Plato is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Universals
- strongly leans Realism
- Government
- Epistocracy
Positions on the 18 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (21 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (100 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Describable (31 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- strongly leans Objective (96 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Universals
- strongly leans Realism (0 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (13 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (85 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- strongly leans Vertical (8 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (20 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (92 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (96 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (70 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- strongly leans Illiberalism (8 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- mildly leans Means (63 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- mildly between Uncertain and Certain (45 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- mildly leans Local (31 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
2 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Plato refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Other
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Epistocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Wisdom / Virtue
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Apokatastasis
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Eidetic Intuition / Idealism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Pure Reason / Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Demiurgic
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Block Universe
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- State Socialism / Distributism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Rational Expertise / Wisdom
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Dialectical Sublation
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Reincarnation / Ascent of the Soul
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine / Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?