EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND CONTRIBUTION OF PLATO TO THE FIELD OF EDUCATION

Plato was a poet and mystic, as well as a philosopher and dialectician combining, in a rare degree, great powers of logical analysis and abstract thought with wonderful poetic imagination and deep mystical feeling. His character was noble he was an aristocrat by birth and by temperament, an uncompromising idealist, hostile to everything base and vulgar. Plato was born between 424 and 423 B.C.E. Both of his parents came from the Greek aristocracy. Plato’s father, Ariston, descended from the kings of Athens and Messenia. His mother, Perictione, is said to be related to the 6th century B.C.E. Greek statesman Solon. Plato had three siblings, two brothers, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a sister Potone. As per popular sources, his father is believed to have died when Plato was very young. Eventually, his mother married Pyrilampes, an ambassador to the Persian court several times. Plato grew up in the household of six children which included a stepbrother, a sister, two brothers and a half-brother. According to Diogenes, Plato was named after his grandfather Aristocles following the tradition of the naming the eldest son after the grandfather.

KEYWORDS; Education, philosophy, implication, teaching