Plato
427-347 BC | Athens, Greece
The broad-shouldered wrestler who became the architect of Western philosophy. Student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, Plato founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. His dialogues explored the nature of reality, knowledge, justice, beauty, and the soul. Through the Theory of Forms, he taught that the physical world is but a shadow of a higher, eternal realm of perfect ideals. Every philosophical debate since has been, as Whitehead noted, merely "footnotes to Plato."
Plato's Dialogues
Click to explore his works"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
- Attributed to Plato
"The measure of a man is what he does with power."
- The Republic
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
- Attributed to Plato
"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."
- The Republic
"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
- Symposium