My favorite philosopher - Essay Example

Full My Favorite Philosopher Philosophers gain the respect and admiration of people around the world and have long been important in the developments we are now enjoying. If there have been no philosophers during the ancient times, probably, we would still be in the dark groping for how we should improve our lives and still be in the dark ages of technology. What we are enjoying this moment are all thanks to the people who have been passionate enough to pursue their love for knowledge and wisdom.

There are a lot of philosophers that I could name in this paper but to me, Plato stands out among them and is considered to be my favorite. Being born in a wealthy and powerful Athenians (Kemerling), he purposed to make wise use of such advantages in addition to his wit. For generations, many people have been witnessed who were endowed with money but have grown to squander their gifts. However, it was not so with Plato and that is just one thing I admire about him. Plato had been a student to Socrates, a well-known Athenian philosopher.

To his being a student, I could say that he had been among those who did his responsibilities well. The knowledge that was passed on to him was not only recognized in his future life as a teacher himself but was embraced and lived to a full worth emulating. He is to the very sense of the word, a true philosopher worthy of being called such. Thinking could have been one of the very tasks he had been doing to the end of his life for indeed he did not just influence the branches of Science and Mathematics but even the sociological and political aspect of human beings.

One of my favorite sayings from the master is this, "until philosophers are kings, or the king and princes of this world have the spirit and the power of philosophy, cities will never have rest from their evils nor the human race and then only will our states behold the light of day”. Of course I strongly agree with him on this thought because leaders should be thinkers. They should not be easily swayed by what are told of them nor what they externally see but they should be able to read the minds of people around them and the reasons why things happen in such and such a manner.

They should study and analyze what they are supposed to do in reigning over the people to give better lives, to help them improve their way of living and to govern them in justice and wisdom. A leader can never do so when he is weak, not only on the physical aspect but more so, on the mental aspect of his life. If the leader does not feed his mind with understanding, he can never rule in wisdom and then in the futility of his leadership, hopeless citizens will turn their back on him and result to chaos.

Although the political ideas of Plato have been more expressed on the latter part of his life, they have greatly influenced this realm of our leaders worldwide. If we look around and read world history, we can see the very truth behind the aforementioned idea of the philosopher. This could be one of the reasons why he became one of the greatest if not the greatest of the philosophers. His thoughts convey truths in our everyday lives and attack the very people who deserve the words. Of course one could say these have been put on so harshly but it is expected that leaders should rise above the ordinary.

Reference Kemerling, Garth. Plato. 2006. philosophypages.com. web. 29 June, 2011.