... a philosopher's theory one needs to have some knowledge of the philosopher's background, namely Plato and Descartes in this question. It is widely accepted that Plato, the Greek philosopher, was born in 428-7 B.C. and died at the age of eighty or eighty-one at 348-7 B.C. Little can be known about Plato's early life. According to Diogenes, whose testimony is notoriously unreliable, Plato's parents were Ariston and Perictione Both sides of the family claimed to trace their ancestry back to Poseidon. We can be confident that Plato also had two older brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, and a sister, Potone, by the same parents. After Ariston's death, Plato's mother married her uncle, Pyrilampes with whom she had another son, Antiphon, Plato's half-brother. Plato was born into one of the wealthiest and top political families in Athens. Their political activities, however, are not seen as laudable ones by historians. 'One of Plato's uncles (Charmides) ...

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