Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher (428/423 – 348/347 BC)

Born to wealthy parents in Athens, Greece, Plato was a student of Socrates (who did not write) and, later, became the teacher of Aristotle. Plato started a university in Athens called the Academy where he taught. Plato wrote about many ideas in philosophy that are still talked about today, including political philosophy and the philosophy of language. One modern scholar, Alfred North Whitehead, said that all European philosophy since Plato is a series of footnotes to his works.

Plato
Roman copy of a portrait bust c. 370 BC
Born	428/427 or 424/423 BC Athens, Greece
Died	348 BC (aged c. 75-76 or 79-80) Athens, Greece
Notable work	Euthyphro Apology Crito Phaedo Meno Protagoras Gorgias Symposium Phaedrus Parmenides Theaetetus Republic Timaeus Laws
Era	Ancient Greek philosophy
School	Platonic Academy
Notable students	Aristotle
Main interests	Epistemology, Metaphysics Political philosophy
Notable ideas	Allegory of the cave Cardinal virtues Form of the Good Theory of forms Divisions of the soul Platonic love Platonic solids

Plato wrote his books in the form of conversations called dialogues. In a dialogue, two or more people talk about ideas and sometimes disagree over them. The Laws is Plato's longest dialogue and probably his last.

 

Socrates is usually the main person in Plato's dialogues. Often, Socrates talks with people and tries to see if they believe anything that is illogical. Because of this, some people become angry with Socrates and try to kill him. In Plato's Apology, Socrates is put on trial by these people and is eventually sentenced to death by drinking poison.

Plato is famous for developing the theory of forms. This theory says that everything in our world is imperfect but corresponds to a perfect version of itself that exists in another realm.

For example, there are wooden chairs, metal chairs, square chairs, big chairs, small chairs, etc. All the chairs we can ever sit in, according to Plato, are imperfect versions of the perfect form of “chairness,” the ideal chair. The same is true of every other object our senses can perceive: it is imperfect but corresponds to a perfect version of itself.

One simple way to think about Plato's theory is with numbers. The difference between "chairness" and a regular chair is similar to the difference between the number five and having five apples, oranges, pears, etc.

In other words, Plato thought that the world we live in is just a shadow of the real, "intelligible realm," which only a few people will ever understand. He thought that all perfect forms come from perfection itself, which he called "the good.”

People who study Plato argue about whether Socrates really said the same things that Plato makes him say, or whether Plato just used Socrates as a character to make the ideas he was talking about seem more important.

There are many dialogues that were written by Plato. This list includes those he probably did write:

• Platonic realism
• Platonic solid