- Lived:
- c. 428–348 BCE · Athens
- Tradition:
- Classical Greek; founder of the Academy and of systematic Western philosophy
- The Big Idea:
- Behind the shifting, imperfect things our senses show us stands a realm of perfect, unchanging patterns — the Forms — and knowledge, justice, and even love are a climb toward them.
- In their words:
- "Until philosophers rule as kings, or those now called kings genuinely and adequately philosophize, cities will have no rest from evils."
- If you remember one thing:
- Western philosophy has been called "a series of footnotes to Plato" — twenty-four centuries later, we are still answering his questions.