After surviving artwork
Plato
c. 428–348 BCE
PhilosophyPoliticsMetaphysicsAncient Greek
Athenian philosopher who turned the conversations of Socrates into written dialogues and founded the Academy.
After surviving artwork. Based on the Roman herm copies of a lost Greek portrait; the resemblance to the living man is unknown.
Why they still matter
Almost every later argument about knowledge, justice and reality begins by agreeing or disagreeing with Plato.
The world they thought in
Wrote in the decades after Athens lost the Peloponnesian War and executed his teacher.
What they wrote
Apologyc. 399–390 BCERead it here
Socrates' defence speech at his trial, and his refusal to plead.
Republicc. 375 BCERead it here
Builds a city in argument in order to see what justice is.
Symposiumc. 385 BCERead it here
A drinking party in which each guest speaks on the nature of love.
Phaedoc. 380 BCERead it here
Socrates' last day, and four arguments that the soul does not end.
Menoc. 385 BCERead it here
Can virtue be taught, and can anyone learn what they do not already know?
Timaeusc. 360 BCERead it here
An account of how the cosmos was ordered, and of what mathematics has to do with it.
The questions they worked on
Wisdom
What is it to know that you do not know?
Records Socrates' claim that knowing one's ignorance is the only wisdom he has.
Justice
What does a just arrangement of people look like?
The Republic asks what justice is by building a city to see it.
Reality
What is actually there behind appearances?
The soul
What is the thing that thinks, and does it end?
The Phaedo argues for the soul's survival, and is honest that the argument may fail.
Political philosophy
Who should rule, and why would anyone accept it?
Theory of Forms
Are abstract things more real than physical ones?
Where the thinking travelled
Each link says what kind of link it is. A documented influence and a much later echo are not the same claim, and are never presented as one.
SocratesDocumented influence
Plato's teacher, and the speaker in nearly all of his dialogues.
One demonstrably read, studied under or answered the other.
AristotleDocumented influence
Aristotle studied at the Academy for twenty years, then disagreed in writing.
One demonstrably read, studied under or answered the other.
NeoplatonismIntellectual lineage
Plotinus and later Alexandrian teachers built a system Plato never stated.
A tradition carried the ideas forward over generations.
DescartesLater echo
Descartes revives the priority of mind over sense without inheriting Plato's Forms.
A much later restatement, not an inheritance.
KantConceptual kinship
Kant separates appearance from the thing in itself — a different argument to a similar shape.
Different arguments arriving at a similar shape.
Modern philosophy of consciousnessConceptual kinship
The question of what a mind is remains open in the terms Plato set.
Different arguments arriving at a similar shape.
PythagorasIntellectual lineage
Mathematical order as the key to reality reaches Plato through Pythagorean circles.
A tradition carried the ideas forward over generations.
EpicurusDirect disagreement
Epicurus rejects immaterial Forms and an immortal soul outright.
Written against each other.
Take this further
Ponderers is the historical layer. A rabbit hole brings the same question into what people are arguing about now.