Plato Essays: Making them a Meaningful Exercise in Philosophy

Plato and his writings form an important part of Greek philosophy on which Western philosophy is based. As a consequence, Plato essays are a frequent academic exercise that students have to undertake.

The writing of Plato essays is not an easy task. This is because of the depth of philosophy involved in the works of Plato. Plato was a disciple of Socrates and his works reverberate with Greek thought at the height of its philosophical development. His works are wide-ranging and penetrating. These works try to explain the transition of an individual from a narrow personal frame of mind to a universal one. These essays are therefore a meaningful exercise to the student in understanding the self.

Making Plato Essays a Meaningful self-exercise in philosophy

• When undertaking a Plato essay do not rely on free essays available on the Internet or copying and pasting. Write the essay through your own efforts.
• For writing the essay it is essential that at least the works relevant to the essay are read.
• The reading of the works of Plato, for a Plato essay, should be undertaken with the attitude to understand it.
• During the reading of the works of Plato, for a Plato essay, make notes of the important points that are striking. Use these points in the essay.
• It is useful to read the works of reputed academicians’ analysis of the works of Plato. This will widen the perspectives in a Plato essay.
• Reflect on what has been acquired through the readings of the works of Plato. This will not only assist in enhancing the quality of a Plato essay, but also cause you to evaluate yourself.

Explain. In short: explaineverything. It should be possible for an intelligent peerwho hasn’t studied philosophy to fully understand your essay without needingread the authors you’re writing about. So, for example: if you use a technical termor mention a concept that has particular significance for an author, make sureyou clearly define/explain it; similarly, for any argument or position you discuss,you must clearly explain it to your reader. This is partly because good academicwriting should be explicit and easily understood, but this is not the only or eventhe main reason. Rather, your ability to explain the ideas you’re discussing - clearly, precisely, and succinctly - is one of the principal things you're being as-sessed on. You might well know, say, what a categorical imperative is, but youneed toshowthat you know it and how precisely you know it. Explaining evensmall, simple ideas well is a lot harder than you might think; don’t underestimatehow important it is, and how much work it takes.

Justify. Assume that for every claim you make, the reader is asking 'why shouldI believe that?' In a philosophy essay, there should always be an excellent an-swer to this question. You should consider this to be, above all else, your aimwhen writing an essay. The worst thing you can do is to make bold assertionswithout defending them, and the second worst is to make bold assertions and de-fend them weakly. Note that this includes interpretive claims: if you write 'Platobelieves that p', you need to show your reader, perhaps by giving a supportingquote, that this is indeed something Plato believes.

Use the opportunity of Plato essays as a self-exercise in philosophy.

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