Talk:Plato

Semi-protected edit request on 29 July 2023

In the biography section it says 'The exact time and place of Plato's birth are unknown.' twice. Remove one of them. Williamormous (talk) 09:10, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

 Done —Sirdog (talk) 09:16, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Plato's "Real Name = Aristocles"

The article as it currently stands reads

Plato (or Platon) was a pen name derived, apparently, from the nickname given to him by his wrestling coach – allegedly a reference to his physical broadness. According to Alexander of Miletus quoted by Diogenes of Sinope his actual name was Aristocles, son of Ariston, of the deme Collytus (Collytus being a district of Athens).

I find two issues with this.

Firstly, the citation for Plato's "real name" being Aristocles is not Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic philosopher. Diogenes the Cynic was a younger contemporary of Plato and as a result could not possibly have quoted the work of Alexander Polyhistor, who lived over three centuries later (flourished in the 1st Century BC). Rather the quotation of Alexander comes from Diogenes Laertius (Vitae Philosophorum III. 4) who wrote in the 3rd century AD.

Secondly—and this is the main point of this suggested edit—the line "Plato was a pen name ... [for] Aristocles" is presented as brute fact, when it is has been hotly debated by Plato scholars for over a century. Notopoulos 1939 (cited with approval by Tarán 1984 p. 75 and Nails 2002 p. 243) argued against the notion that Plato was a pseudonym for Aristocles. Waterfield 2023 also refers to the tradition that his supposedly real name was Aristocles as "nonsense" (p. 8). The main consideration which tells against this tradition is this.

There are examples of nicknames being given to certain individuals in Ancient Greece. The orator Demosthenes was called Βάταλος, "stammerer"; the poet Dionysius was called Χαλχοῦς, "golden". Perhaps most famously the poet Teisias was nicknamed Stesichorus (Στησίχορος), the name by which we often refer to him, on account of being the first to set up choruses (στῆσαι, χόρος). However, in these cases we find absolutely no parallel for these names in the prosopographia—inscriptions of names for common, ordinary people—which has survived. They seem to be well and truly "one-off" nicknames for those particular individuals. That is not the same for the name Πλάτων, of which we have over fifty parallels in the name lists in Athens and throughout the Greek world, including at least two which predate Plato. That is highly suggestive that Πλάτων was not a nickname particular to Plato but simply a regular Athenian personal name given at birth. We even know of another Plato, a comic poet, contemporaneous with the philosopher, and have some preserved fragments of his.

Finally, Aelian (Varia Historia IV. 9-13) preserves a story that Plato was once talking to some strangers in Olympia and introduced himself only as "Plato". Later, they came to visit him in Athens and asked him to introduce them to the famous Plato, the philosopher. At this point he revealed that he was the famous Plato they wanted to meet. Now, that story can only make sense if Plato was a common name, or at least if the name "Plato" would not have uniquely picked out our Plato. This dovetails back to the point about the fifty or so propsopographic parallels: the tradition that "Plato" was really a pen-name for Aristocles is tied up in stories about how the name "Plato" was linked to characteristics peculiar to him (broad shoulders from wrestling, or broad style). However, are we then meant to think that the other fifty Plato-s which we know of also had the same broad shoulders or writing style? If not, why were they called Πλάτων. The obvious answer is that there is no reason for their being called Πλάτων just as there is no reason for our Plato being called Πλάτων. That was just a common name.

What most likely happened was later authors, based on the strong Athenian tradition of naming male children after their grandfathers, decided that Plato's real name was Aristocles, the name of his grandfather. In their eagerness they ignored the fact that traditionally the papponym was given to the eldest son and that Plato was actually the youngest (his older brothers being Glaucon and Adeimantus). Interestingly, the story that his name was given to him by a wrestling coach called Ariston probably represents the garbled truth. Plato's name was given to him by an Ariston, but not a wrestling coach who saw how wide his shoulders were, but by his own father, Ariston.

I think it would better reflect the position of Plato scholars to modify the language around the report of the Aristocles-name. Something to the effect of "Alexander Polyhistor, quoted by Diogenes Laertius, claims that Plato's real name was Aristocles, the name of his grandfather, and that "Plato" was a nickname given to him on account of his broad shoulders, but the truth of this report has been disputed by scholars".

Scifiphichipsi (talk) 00:15, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Agreed. I have added the info to the section on his name. I propose removing Aristocles from the lede. cagliost (talk) 19:49, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

I have rewritten the section, and will soon update the lede if there are no objections.

One recent source which believes that Plato was not his original name is David Sedley: "Plato's Cratylus". Sedley makes a strange argument. He accepts or assumes that the philosopher was born Aristocles. However he dismisses the explanations of Diogenes' sources, that the name sounded like "Platos" so had something to do with breadth. He offers a new explanation, the influence of Cratylus, that "Cratylus was someone who was liable to tell you that your given name was not your real name." Sedley offers no further evidence. cagliost (talk) 13:37, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm concerned about WP:PROPORTION. Shouldn't this be just a sentence in the "Biography" section with a footnote to preserve the research currently displayed in "Name"? Or could it at least be moved down in the article in a way that complies with the MOS?

Cheers, Patrick (talk) 16:08, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 6 November 2023

Change " He was known to have worn earrings and finger rings during his youth to stand out and make himself look distinguished.[12]" to " He was known to have worn earrings and finger rings during his youth as a sign of his noble descent.[12]"

This is what is said in the source listed: "When he (Plato) died he left many gardens, two slaves, one cup, a writing tablet (perhaps "dish, plate"); also an earring which he had worn (lit. "put") in his ear during his youth as a sign of the nobility of his descent." Makeshift Sprout (talk) 02:59, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

 Already done someone beat me to it. M.Bitton (talk) 22:23, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Era

I am striking this because, although it is the right call for this article, it is something I raised at the same time on the Aristotle article talk, and folks should not be expected to have the exact same conversation on the same issue in multiple places.

My bad, sorry to you all, sincere apologies, and best regards, Patrick J. Welsh (talk) 16:09, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

The current academic norm in philosophy, as elsewhere, is use BCE/CE rather than BC/AD. The article should be changed to reflect the practice of these high-quality sources. For instance, just online, see both[1] and [2].

Also, it is contextually inappropriate to place ancient figures on a timeline expressed in the language of a religion that did not yet exist.

More generally, although Wikipedia policy is agnostic on this decision, it makes sense to use non-exclusionary language when possible.

Further discussion can be found here. I am also placing a note on Wikipedia:WikiProject_Philosophy.

Cheers, Patrick J. Welsh (talk) 19:45, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Cherry picking sources that happen to use BCE/CE rather than BC/AD does not equate to a "current academic norm", but even if BCE/CE were the academic norm, this does not translate to a valid reason to employ them on Wikipedia. We do not have a guideline specifically encouraging the use of euphemisms that may be considered academic norms, but we do have a guideline WP:COMMONNAME which prefers using terminology most commonly used, as determined by "prevalence in a significant majority of independent, reliable, English-language sources". BC/AD are commonly used, and arguably are more generally understood by the population at large; this Ngram data shows BC/AD as more prevalent. The are also the terms that arose organically as part of the slow, cumulative development of the year numbering system of the Julian and Gregorian calendars, whereas BCE/CE were created specifically as an alternative to the pre-existing organic terms because of Before Christ/Anno Domini's perceived religious offensiveness; Wikipedia is not censored for terms deemeed to be "offensive" to religious sensibilities or otherwise. Also, saying that it is "contextually inappropriate to place ancient figures on a timeline expressed in the language of a religion that did not yet exist" is no more a convincing argument than saying we shouldn't write the article using Modern English since it "didn't exist yet", or even BCE/CE since they didn't exist yet either. It is no more "contextually inappropriate" to use BC/AD on Plato as it would be to use Wednesday (a term meaning Woden's Day) or January (a term meaning month of Janus), terms that are also "in the language of a religion". English Wikipedia uses various standards such as Modern English, Arabic numerals, and the Gregorian calendar (which employs BC/AD as part of its year numbering system); there is no more "exclusion" in using BC/AD than there is using any other Western, English-language standard. In terms of a desire to not use "non-exclusionary language", I would argue that "Common Era" is more exclusionary than Anno Domini because it makes an explicit POV declaration that the Christian-derived Gregorian calendar year numbering system should be the "Common" era, to the exclusion of all others, rather than BC/AD which are simply the Gregorian calendar's organically-determined English-language demarcation terms tied directly to the objective reason for which the era begins 2,023 years ago. — Crumpled Fire • contribs • 20:22, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Plato's other occupation

Dear @William M. Connolley, I would like to ask why you have removed the mention of Plato's other occupation as an athlete in the lead. Even after adding a citation to my claim, you removed it under the edit summary of "re-rm the athlete silliness". I don't exactly see what's so "silly" about my edit, so I don't understand your justification for removing it. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:19, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for checking in about this on the talk page. However, I support the decision not to include this in the lead. Even though it is true, it is not what Plato is known for. (See WP:LEAD.)

Cheers, Patrick J. Welsh (talk) 17:46, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Ah, I see now. Thank you for explaining this to me. I'll refrain from re-adding the occupation to the lead in that case. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:52, 13 April 2024 (UTC)