Platońska wizja starości. Przedstawienie osób w podeszłym wieku w Politei i Prawach Platona. (The Platonic vision of the old age. The depiction of the people of advanced age in the Plato’s Republic and Laws)

Abstract

Plato who is an excellent expert of the human nature, makes the subject of his interest the old age and the life of the people of advanced age as well. The reflection on the fate of the old people is not the main subject of deliberation in the Plato’s dialogues but appears mainly in the context of the social and political conception of the ideal state. The issues connected with the life and function of the old people in social structures are the subject of the discussion e.g. in the Laws. Plato presents not only his theoretical deliberation about the old age but also makes the old men the interlocutors in his dialogues to depict the portrait of the members of the oldest social group and to portrait their attitude to life and the passing of time. Cephalus who resigned himself to his fate in the Republic, three old men who make an effort to enact the just code of laws in the Platonic Laws, or old Socrates, who in the Crito and Phaedo waits for the death penalty, faithful to his ideals to the end of his days. These are only a few examples of the elderly people, presented by philosopher, who become embedded in the memory of the readers of the Platonic dialogues. The aim of this article is to provide the answers to the questions, how is the old age perceived by Plato and what social role the elderly people fulfill in his idealisticconception of the state. I will also consider the way in which Plato portrayed the old people who were the main characters in the Republic and Laws.