Review article

Is Pharos Established by Plato's Ideas?

Mislav Kukoč ; Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Split, Croatia

Abstract

The basic motive of Plato's philosophy is practical and political: to improve a political system and to establish the best state.
Plato repeatedly emphasized this not only in his philosophical writings, but in his actions as well, extensively reported in his autobiographical Seventh Letter. All three of his trips to Sicily were motivated solely by the intention to improve the political regime in Syracuse. Syracuse, the most technologically advanced Greek polis of that time, indulged in the vices of the rampant consumer society ruled by the morally problematic tyrannical government. During Plato's first visit to the Syracusan court of Dionysius the Elder, colonists from Paros on the Aegean Sea sailed to the island of Hvar. Indigenous inhabitants confronted them with the support of their Illyrian brothers from the mainland. Greek immigrants turned to Dionysius, who sent a fleet which defeated the Illyrians. After that the colonists built Pharos - the first Greek polis in this region. In his Laws, Plato gives precise instructions on how to build and establish Magnesia - a new polis on the island of Crete. Had those Plato’s ideas been used for the simultaneous organization of Pharos on Hvar?

Keywords

Plato; Dionysius the Elder; Syracuse; Paros; Pharos; Hora Pharoi

Hrčak ID:

82313

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/82313

Publication date:

29.3.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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