A Visit to the Site of Plato’s Academy

From the evidence of the Dialogues, it is clear that Plato had read the long-lost works of pre-Socratic thinkers like Heraclitus (“On Nature”) and Anaxagoras (“Nous”), and texts by the Eleatic thinkers like Parmenides. What is striking is the wholly geometric nature of the design of the Academy, which my new friend, Mr. Staikos, thinks was due to the influence of the Pythagorean school that Plato encountered on his trips to Sicily and that had been revived by Archytas of Taras, a friend of Plato’s and some say the model for the philosopher king described in the Republic. It is an idea, in accordance with Plato’s theory of the forms, but also the Pythagorean view that ultimate reality is expressed by number.

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