Summary |
Plato (ca. 427-347 B.C.E.) was an Athenian philosopher who is widely recognized among the most
important philosophers of the Western world.
Plato can be plausibly credited with the invention of philosophy as we
understand it today – the rational, rigorous, and systematic study of
fundamental questions concerning ethics, politics, psychology, theology,
epistemology, and metaphysics. He wrote primarily
in dialogue form. Among his most
influential views are a commitment to the distinction between changeless,
eternal forms and changeable, observable ordinary objects, the immortality of
the soul, the distinction between knowledge and true belief and the view that
knowledge is in some way recollection, that philosophers should be rulers and
rulers philosophers, and that justice is in some way welcomed for its own sake. He was a follower of Socrates, significantly
influenced Aristotle, the Stoics, the Academic skeptics, Plotinus, among others,
and founded the Academy, perhaps the first institution of higher learning in
the west. |