couple of minutes it got up and began to push its way back through the hedge the
same way it had come in. Sophie followed with the brown envelope in her hand. She
crawled through the dense thicket and was soon outside the garden.
Hermes had already started to run toward the edge of the woods, and Sophie
followed a few yards behind. Twice the dog turned around and growled, but Sophie
was not to be deterred.
This time she was determined to find the philosopher—even if it meant running
all the way to Athens.
The dog ran faster and suddenly turned off down a narrow path. Sophie chased
him, but after a few minutes he turned and faced her, barking like a watchdog. Sophie
still refused to give up, taking the opportunity to lessen the distance between them.
Hermes turned and raced down the path. Sophie realized that she would never
catch up with him. She stood quite still for what seemed like an eternity, listening to
him running farther and farther away. Then all was silent.
She sat down on a tree stump by a little clearing in the woods. She still had the
brown envelope in her hand. She opened it, drew out several typewritten pages, and
began to read:
PLATO’S ACADEMY
Thank you for the pleasant time we spent together, Sophie. In Athens, I
mean. So now I have at least introduced myself. And since I have also
introduced Plato, we might as well begin without further ado.
Plato (428-347 B.C.) was twenty-nine years old when Socrates drank
the hemlock. He had been a pupil of Socrates for some time and had followed
his trial very closely. The fact that Athens could condemn its noblest citizen to
death did more than make a profound impression on him. It was to shape the
course of his entire philosophic endeavor.
To Plato, the death of Socrates was a striking example of the conflict
that can exist between society as it really is and the true or ideal society.
Plato’s first deed as a philosopher was to publish Socrates’ Apology, an
account of his plea to the large jury.
As you will no doubt recall, Socrates never wrote anything down,
although many of the pre-Socratics did. The problem is that hardly any of their
written material remains. But in the case of Plato, we believe that all his
principal works have been preserved. (In addition to Socrates’ Apology, Plato
wrote a collection of Epistles and about twenty-five philosophical Dialogues.)
That we have these works today is due not least to the fact that Plato set up
his own school of philosophy in a grove not far from Athens, named after the
legendary Greek hero Academus. The school was therefore known as the
Academy. (Since then, many thousands of “academies” have been
established all over the world. We still speak of “academics” and “academic
subjects.”)
The subjects taught at Plato’s Academy were philosophy, mathematics,
and gymnastics—although perhaps “taught” is hardly the right word. Lively
discourse was considered most important at Plato’s Academy. So it was not
purely by chance that Plato’s writings took the form of dialogues.