Plato
Plato ( ;
Greek: Πλάτων), born
Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς; – 348 BC), was an
ancient Greek philosopher of the
Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in
Western philosophy and an innovator of the written
dialogue and
dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both
theoretical philosophy and
practical philosophy, and was the founder of the
Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in
Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as
Platonism.
Plato's most famous contribution is the
theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the
problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers
Pythagoras,
Heraclitus, and
Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.|Brickhouse & Smith.}}
Along with his teacher
Socrates, and
Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the
history of philosophy.a rigorous and systematic examination of
ethical, political,
metaphysical, and
epistemological issues, armed with a distinctive methodcan be called his invention."}} Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 yearsunlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through
Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both
Christian and
Islamic philosophy. In modern times,
Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of
footnotes to Plato."
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