The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Plato

c. 429 – 347 BCE

Student of Socrates and founder of the Academy, whose dialogues range across ethics, politics, knowledge and reality, and introduce the theory of Forms.

Marble head of a bearded man with a furrowed brow
Roman marble copy of a portrait by the sculptor Silanion, made around 370 BCE. Capitoline Museums, Rome.Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen · CC BY 2.5 · See the original

Plato wrote dialogues rather than treatises, most of them with Socrates as the main speaker. Across them he developed the view that the changing world we perceive is less real than eternal, unchanging Forms — such as Justice or the Good — which can be known only through reason. In the Republic he connects this to a picture of the just soul and the just city, famously ruled by philosopher-kings.

Around 387 BCE he founded the Academy in Athens, where Aristotle studied for twenty years.

Tradition
Western
Region
Athens
Schools
Platonism

Key works

  • Republic (Politeia)
  • Symposium
  • Phaedo

Sources

  1. Richard Kraut, Plato, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy