Plato
Discover Plato — the Athenian philosopher who founded the Academy, developed the Theory of Forms, and wrote the dialogues that defined Western philosophy.
Plato (c. 428–348 BCE) stands alongside his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle as one of the three foundational figures of Western philosophy. His influence on subsequent thought — in philosophy, political theory, theology, mathematics, and education — is so vast that the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead famously characterized all of Western philosophy as 'footnotes to Plato.'
Plato's philosophical method was the dialogue — dramatic conversations, usually featuring Socrates, that explore fundamental questions through dialectical argument. Through these dialogues, Plato developed his Theory of Forms: the idea that the physical world we perceive is merely a shadow of a higher reality of perfect, eternal, unchanging Forms. The Form of the Good, for Plato, was the ultimate reality — the source of truth, beauty, and moral value.
Plato's Republic, perhaps the most influential work of political philosophy ever written, imagines an ideal city governed by philosopher-kings trained in mathematics, dialectic, and moral reasoning. While the specific proposals seem authoritarian by modern standards, the underlying argument — that governance requires wisdom, not just popularity or military strength — remains profoundly relevant. Plato's founding of the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of higher learning, established a model of philosophical education that persists in modified form to this day.