Plato

**Amanda=)**  __**PLATO** 429-347 B.C.E.__ Plato was the son of wealthy and influential Athenian parents. He began his philosophic career as a student of Socrates. After Socrates died, Plato travelled to Egypt and Italy to study with the students of Pythagoras. He eventually returned to Athens and established his own philosophy school, The Academy, in 385. Plato went on to carry out much of his former teacher's work.

The fundamental aspect of Plato's thought is the theory of "ideas" or "forms." The questions he raises are so profound and the ways he tackles them are so suggestive and provocative that readers of nearly every period have been influenced by him in some way, and in virtually every age there have been philosophers who call themselves Platonists in some respects.



 The most famous of Plato's dialogues is an immense dialogue called The Republic. It is one of the single most influential works in Western philosophy. It essentially deals with the central problem of how to live a good life. This is shaped into these parallel questions: what would an ideal State be like, and what is a just individual? Then the dialogue covers just about every aspect of Plato's thought. Some of the central aspects of Platonic thought were what the nature of justice is; the nature of an ideal republic; the allegory of the cave and the divided line, both of which explain Plato's theory of forms.

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