Plato

About the author

Born in Classical Athens around 428 BC, Plato is widely regarded as the foundational thinker of the Western philosophical tradition. A student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, he founded the Academy in Athens and pioneered the literary dialogue and dialectic as philosophical forms. His Theory of Forms, which addresses the problem of universals, remains his most celebrated contribution.

Through Platonism and its offshoot Neoplatonism, his influence extended into Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thought. Remarkably, his complete works are believed to have survived — prompting Whitehead's famous remark that Western philosophy is essentially a series of footnotes to Plato.