Plato
Plato (429-347 BC). Greek philosopher. Disillusioned with politics, he became a fervent disciple of Socrates, who influenced his early writings. After the death of Socrates he travelled widely. Having returned to Athens in 387, he set up his Academy to prepare young men for public life through the study of mathematics and philosophy. He explained his teaching in the form of dramatic dialogues and while the earlier dialogues ?express the philosophy of Socrates, the later ones use Socrates as a mouthpiece for Plato’s own ideas. The most famous of the Platonic dialogues is the Republic, in which he put forward his idea of the perfect state, where children would be selected and trained for a specific role in the state. In 367 he attempted to establish an ideal state at Syracuse, but he was unsuccessful.
“The safest general characterization of the European tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929)”
