Plato

Plato (PLAY-toh; Ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn; c. 428–347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, widely regarded as the foundational thinker of Western philosophy. He created the literary dialogue and dialectic as philosophical forms, shaped nearly every branch of theoretical and practical philosophy, and established the Academy—a school in Athens where he taught the collection of ideas later called Platonism. His most famous idea is the Theory of Forms (or Ideas), which addresses what is now known as the problem of universals. Pre-Socratic thinkers like Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides influenced him, though much of what we know about them comes from Plato himself. Alongside his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle, he is central to Western philosophy. Remarkably, his complete works have survived for over 2,400 years, unlike nearly all of his contemporaries. Their popularity has shifted over time, but they have always been read and studied. Through Neoplatonism, an offshoot of Platonism, he also shaped Christian, Jewish, and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said that the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

**Life**

Plato was born between 428 and 423 BC into an aristocratic, influential Athenian family. Through his mother, Perictione, he was a descendant of Solon, the statesman credited with laying the groundwork for Athenian democracy. Diogenes Laertius claims that Plato was a nickname referring to his sturdy build, and that his birth name was Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς), meaning “best reputation,” but modern scholars widely reject this. He had two brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, who both appear in the *Republic*, as well as a sister, Potone, and a half-brother, Antiphon. During his childhood, Athens fought the Peloponnesian War against Sparta. His older brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, distinguished themselves at the Battle of Megara in 409 BC. Despite the war, Plato and his brothers, like all male Athenian citizens, received a traditional education in gymnastics and music. Ancient writers report a tradition that as a youth Plato loved poetry: he first wrote dithyrambs, then lyric poems and tragedies (a tetralogy), but abandoned this early passion and burned his poems after meeting Socrates, turning instead to philosophy. Some epigrams are attributed to him, but many scholars now consider them spurious.

**Socrates**

In his youth, Plato first encountered Socrates, who would become his teacher and greatest inspiration. This happened initially among other Athenian boys in the Palaestra, as depicted in the *Lysis* with Lysis and Menexenus, but he soon joined Socrates’ inner circle. Socrates, along with the sophists of his day, challenged the earlier focus of Greek philosophy on natural philosophy, instead investigating ethics and politics by questioning his interlocutors in a method now called the Socratic method. Socrates’ immense influence on Plato is clear in the dialogues: Plato never speaks in his own voice, and Socrates appears in every dialogue except the *Laws*, though in some—like the *Timaeus* and *Statesman*—he speaks only rarely. Leo Strauss notes that Socrates’ reputation for irony casts doubt on whether Plato’s Socrates expresses sincere beliefs. Xenophon’s *Memorabilia* and Aristophanes’ *The Clouds* present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from Plato’s. Aristotle attributes a different doctrine of Forms to Plato and to Socrates. Aristotle suggests that Socrates’ idea of forms can be discovered through studying the natural world, unlike Plato’s Forms, which exist beyond ordinary human understanding. The Socratic problem involves reconciling these various accounts, and the precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains debated among scholars.

**Thirty Tyrants and Trial of Socrates**

According to the *Seventh Letter* (whose authenticity is disputed), as Plato came of age, he imagined a life in public affairs. In 404, Sparta defeated Athens, ending the Peloponnesian War, and the Thirty Tyrants were elected. This group included two of Plato’s relatives, Critias and Charmides. Plato was invited to join the administration but declined, quickly becoming disillusioned by the Thirty’s atrocities—especially when they tried to implicate Socrates in the seizure of the democratic general Leon of Salamis for summary execution. In 403 BC, democracy was restored after exiled democrats regrouped, entered the city through the Piraeus, and met the Thirty’s forces at the Battle of Munychia, where both Critias and Charmides were killed. In 401 BC, the restored democrats raided Eleusis and killed the remaining oligarchic supporters, suspecting them of hiring mercenaries. As depicted in many dialogues set between 401 and 399 BC, life in Athens largely returned to normal. However, the prosecution of Socrates by Anytus ended Plato’s plans for a political career.

**Later Philosophical Development**

After Socrates’ death, Plato remained in Athens for roughly three years.

**Heraclitus and Parmenides**

In Athens, Plato studied with Cratylus, a follower of the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and also with Hermogenes, an Eleatic.