Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-browed") (428/427 BC[a] – 348/347 BC), whose original name was Aristocles, was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks –succeeding Socrates and preceding Aristotle– who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.

Plato's Quotes

Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates, and to have been as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.

Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Interestingly, although there is little question that Plato lectured at the Academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. Aristotle's mention of Plato, for example, suggests a number of lectures that took place on various philosophical subjects (such as The Good), but there is no suggestion that Plato lectured from or in accordance with his own dialogues, as a modern-day instructor of philosophy might with a particular textbook [citation needed]. In any event, the dialogues have since Plato's time been used to teach a range of subjects, mostly including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.