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Plato's work falls roughly into four periods.<ref>This section relies almost entirely on Reza Negarestani's lectures on Plato, which are available here: | Plato's work falls roughly into four periods.<ref>This section relies almost entirely on Reza Negarestani's lectures on Plato, which are available here: | ||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNPzvth5F5U&list=PL2NulH_zOHESDHy3gkdmC-UHu6mWAjQsD&pp=iAQB</ref> In his '''early''' work, he tries to emulate Socrates. He employs the Socratic method of interrogation to undermine and annihilate contemporary dogma. Typical of this period is '''Euthyphro''', a short dialogue in which Piety is shown to be a tautology: ''are acts holy because they are loved by the gods, or are they loved by the gods because they are holy''? No satisfying answer here emerges | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNPzvth5F5U&list=PL2NulH_zOHESDHy3gkdmC-UHu6mWAjQsD&pp=iAQB</ref> In his '''early''' work, he tries to emulate Socrates. He employs the Socratic method of interrogation to undermine and annihilate contemporary dogma. Typical of this period is '''Euthyphro''', a short dialogue in which Piety is shown to be a tautology: ''are acts holy because they are loved by the gods, or are they loved by the gods because they are holy''? No satisfying answer here emerges - and this is typical of the early Plato - it is the same with '''Lysis''', a dialogue on friendship which ends with the admission that "we have not as yet been able to discover what we mean by a friend." | ||
In his '''middle''' period Plato attempts to go beyond Socrates, and begins to posit his own principle, the Good, as opposed to earlier work in which he remained almost entirely critical. This is the Plato of the '''Republic''', with its two-world ontology, the doctrine of forms, and the Good. In a letter written toward the end of his life, he called this the most vulgar of his works. '''Theaetetus''' forms something of an '''intermediary''' phase, in which he begins to question the doctrine of forms as laid out in the Republic. | In his '''middle''' period Plato attempts to go beyond Socrates, and begins to posit his own principle, the Good, as opposed to earlier work in which he remained almost entirely critical. This is the Plato of the '''Republic''', with its two-world ontology, the doctrine of forms, and the Good. In a letter written toward the end of his life, he called this the most vulgar of his works. '''Theaetetus''' forms something of an '''intermediary''' phase, in which he begins to question the doctrine of forms as laid out in the Republic. | ||