One of us, Plato is one of us!

In high school it is increasingly difficult to get students' attention. Many times it depends on the teachers (and I fall into this category), other times on the students' lack of motivation. Motivation itself is in fact one of the great absences of high school in recent years.

How to do? A universal recipe does not exist, my way is to try to make kids understand that what they do in class has an authentic value for life, for self-building. Difficult challenge because most of them consider school as an obligation or - worse - a reality totally divorced from life. Seeing how things are going, I can't say they're wrong, but I can't say they're right either. We certainly need to start again from the motivations: from those of the students, from mine and from those of the philosophers and historical figures we meet in the programmes.

Among the most significant examples there is certainly Plato. Before being a philosopher, Plato is a man who experienced first-hand the effects of injustice: the condemnation of Socrates, his best friend. After this very painful event, Plato decides to dedicate his entire existence to the search for justice through philosophy. A personal event that becomes a reason for living: Plato saw his teacher and friend die following false accusations and a trial in which injustice was disguised as justice. In an irrational reversal of reality, the Athenians brought a trial that was correct in form but unjust in substance. This is the underlying cause of Socrates' drama: a political class incapable of operating with justice because it is ignorant of goodness. A confusion that generates civil strife and unspeakable suffering.

By the way, let us be guided by Plato himself who, in Letter VII, presents us with the heart of the motivation of his entire philosophy: «When I was young I too had the experience that many have shared. As soon as I became master of my destiny, I thought I would turn to political activity. [...] Considering my young age, my state of mind should not be surprising: I was convinced that [the Thirty Tyrants, ed.] would bring the State from a condition of illegality to one of justice". Typical youthful idealism, but it's a pity that «the text of the laws, and even the customs were becoming corrupted at an impressive rate, to the point that someone like me, initially full of enthusiasm for commitment to politics, now, looking at it and seeing her completely in disarray, he finally became dizzy." A paradoxical situation: confusion reached unprecedented levels, so much so that it became the norm to exchange injustice for justice. In the meantime, the government in Athens had also changed, but this did not mean that the dominion of injustice was lost: Socrates himself - for Plato "the most just man of the time" - was the victim of a political system that had to defend freedom and participation. Hence Plato's conclusion: «Only from it [philosophy] comes the criterion for discerning the right as a whole, both on a public and private level. Evils, therefore, would never have left humanity until a generation of true and sincere philosophers had risen to the top positions of the State, or until the ruling class in the States, through some divine intervention, had itself devoted itself to philosophy".

Hence the entire development of Platonic thought: from the doctrine of Ideas, to the birth of the just city, from the myth of the cave to love [...] everything is functional, linked by a red thread which is to eliminate confusion, to know the good and justice. Investigating one's soul, understanding one's generation and presence in the world, overcoming disappointments, finding a way to tell the world that we exist, overcoming events that have affected us for better or for worse. Even just dealing with yourself and your life. Upon closer inspection we can find in the biography of philosophers or protagonists of history (and many other disciplines) very human motivations that led them to take their steps. If not all of us are called to lead peoples or to write monumental philosophical works, we are all called to orient our lives in the direction of a meaning and meaning that gives value to what we experience. Discovering that even the greatest characters are moved by human motivations, close to ours, can help us discover how they operated and reacted, making them closer and more sympathetic to us. In short: Plato is one of us!

Renato Bonomo

NP Giugno Luglio 2023