Plato- My First Love of the Love of Wisdom by Alma

Plato- My First Love of the Love of Wisdom by Alma - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Plato was an important figure in the development of philosophy especially in the western world. I would have chosen Socrates, but all that we know of him are writings by Plato. Thus during dinner conversation I can gain valuable wisdom from someone who helped lay the foundations for philosophy in the ancient western world.
Scientists and great thinkers like da Vinci, Einstein, Tesla, Descartes, Newton etc. would be far too advanced in thought for me to comprehend them. So I thought of someone in the direction of philosophy- the love of wisdom. Now the first historical figure that came to mind was Buddha. Buddha’s nine virtues provide valuable subjects of meditation such as having higher knowledge or being well spoken. Yet I could not help but question whether I would truly be able to understand all the wisdom of Buddha. I am not simple-minded no, but I still remain ignorant about many subjects.
Confucius, Lao Tzu, Nietzsche, Kant, and Hegel were all good candidates as well. However, though they have all changed my perception of the world I live in, I felt no one in particular of them dominated over the others. So I went with Plato/Socrates not because their ideas were necessarily better or more insightful but because Plato first sparked my interest in philosophy. It seems silly to feel a personal connection to someone who died over 2350 years ago, but Plato was sort of my ‘first love’ of philosophy.
His developments of the use of dialogue and the dialectic in philosophy helped to make philosophy more approachable to everyone. With this emphasis on discourse, discussing political philosophy over dinner would be easy. In addition to his influence on western philosophy, Plato made a huge impact on western science and mathematics and western spirituality and religion. His contributions provide many topics for discussion over a lavish meal of lamb Kleftiko, moussaka, horiatiki (salad), and Galaktoboureko custard for dessert. Of course perhaps Plato would prefer something different than Greek food. I know he would like wine to accompany his meal because most Greek philosophers loved to drink, but seeing as I’m under 21 I cannot recommend him any wines.
His work, the Republic would come up in conversation and I would question him on his theory of the Forms and his Divided line. We would talk of truth and what that means and how it related to knowledge and wisdom. We would ask how knowledge and wisdom are different and question the limits of human knowledge. I would ask him whether anybody could really be a philosopher king, or queen. The relationship between faith and reason, the existence of god or gods, our human perception of reality, the morality of human beings all would be discussed over a long meal. Asking, “what could I gain?” from this dinner should be replaced with “what could I not gain?”.
Any of the other people I have mentioned would be great to have to dinner. Yet Plato’s mind was the first I really started to poke around in when I first picked up the Republic four years ago. At the time I did not even read the whole book, I read the whole book this last autumn, but that spark led me to be able to expand and put into precise words the life questions I had always suspected. Right and wrong, democracy v. equality v. liberty, human nature, my world-view had come under careful scrutiny by myself for the first time and have continued to be carefully scrutinized since then. I have always been someone to question and throughout my life, I will continue to reach for mechanisms to properly ask questions whether they be big or small. In addition, I will search for solutions only when appropriate, because if there is one thing I learned from reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy it is that sometimes the question is more important than the answer.