ABSTRACT
Life. Plato was born in Athens around 427 Bc and died there in 347 Bc. An aristocrat by birth, he was related, on his mother's side, to Solon, the lawmaker. Following family tradition, Plato originally planned to enter politics. But things turned out differently. The Athenian democracy had lost the war against Sparta and ‘the Thirty Tyrants’ had taken over. They were in turn replaced by a new representative government — the same government that sentenced Socrates to death in 399 Bc. This presumably sickened Plato of Athenian politics and its abuses. Instead he became interested in the reconstruction of politics. Plato carried on Socrates' attempt to refute theoretically the Sophists' relativism, which Plato viewed as part of the political decline. Setting out to establish the principles on which a healthy political system could be built, he expounded the ideal state. Plato thus turned from the politics of the day to a reflection on what politics is and should be.
