Plato Quotes

the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy

Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece, and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire oeuvre (body of work) is believed to have survived intact for over 2400 years, and he is arguably one of the greatest writers, if not the greatest writer, in the entire Western canon (a body of books and, more broadly, music and art that have been traditionally accepted by Western scholars as the most important and influential in shaping Western culture).