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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| era = [[Ancient Greek philosophy]]
| image = Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377.jpg
| caption = Roman copy of a portrait [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] {{circa|370&nbsp;BC}}
| name = Plato
| birth_date = 428/427 or 424/423 BC
| birth_place = [[Classical Athens|Athens]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]]
| death_date = 348 BC (aged {{circa|75-76 or 79-80}})
| death_place = Athens, Greece
| school_tradition = [[Platonic Academy]]
| notable_students = [[Aristotle]]
| main_interests =
[[Platonic epistemology|Epistemology]], [[Metaphysics]]<br/>
[[Plato's political philosophy|Political philosophy]]
| notable_works =
{{Flatlist}}
* ''[[Euthyphro]]''
* ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]''
* ''[[Crito]]''
* ''[[Phaedo]]''
* ''[[Meno]]''
* ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]''
* ''[[Gorgias (dialogue)|Gorgias]]''
* ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]''
* ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]''
* ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]''
* ''[[Theaetetus (dialogue)|Theaetetus]]''
* ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]''
* ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]''
* ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]''
{{Endflatlist}}
| notable_ideas =
[[Allegory of the cave]] <br/>
[[Cardinal virtues]] <br/>
[[Form of the Good]] <br/>
[[Theory of forms]] <br/>
[[Plato's theory of soul|Divisions of the soul]] <br/>
[[Platonic love]] <br/>
[[Platonic solids]] <br/>
}}

'''Plato''' ({{nowrap|{{circa}} 427 –}} {{nowrap| 347 BC}}) was one of the most important [[philosopher]]s of all time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2024-02-11|title=Plato {{!}} Life, Philosophy, & Works {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato|access-date=2024-03-17|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Citation|last=Kraut|first=Richard|title=Plato|date=2022|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/plato/|work=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Spring 2022|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2024-03-17}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Mathematics: From Algebra to Algorithms, Adventures in Numbers|last=Willers|first=Michael|publisher=New Burlington Books|year=2021|isbn=978-1-80242-020-3|location=London, UK|pages=50-51}}</ref> Born to wealthy parents in [[Athens]], [[Greece]],<ref name=":1" /> Plato was a student of [[Socrates]]<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> (who did not write) and, later, became the teacher of [[Aristotle]].<ref name=":0" /> Plato started a university in Athens called the [[Academy]] where he taught.<ref name=":1" /> Plato wrote about many ideas in philosophy that are still talked about today, including [[political philosophy]] and the [[philosophy of language]].<ref name=":0" /> One modern scholar, [[Alfred North Whitehead]], said that all [[Europe|European]] philosophy since Plato is a series of [[footnotes]] to his works.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alfred North Whitehead - Wikiquote|url=https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead|access-date=2024-03-17|website=en.wikiquote.org|language=en}}</ref>

==Dialogues==
Plato wrote his books in the form of conversations called [[dialogue]]s. In a dialogue, two or more people talk about ideas and sometimes disagree over them. The ''[[Laws (Plato)|Laws]]'' is Plato's longest dialogue and probably his last.<ref>{{cite book|title=Plato's Laws: A Critical Guide|url=https://archive.org/details/platoslawscritic00bobo|last=Bobonich|first=Christopher|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-88463-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/platoslawscritic00bobo/page/n10 1]}}</ref>
[[File:Plato-raphael.jpg|thumb|Plato pointing upwards in [[Raphael]]'s painting [[The School of Athens]] in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]]. Plato's pointing is sometimes thought to [[wikt:symbolize|symbolize]] Plato's theory of forms, which exist in another realm.]]
Socrates is usually the main person in Plato's dialogues. Often, Socrates talks with people and tries to see if they believe anything that is [[logic|illogical]].<ref name=":3" /> Because of this, some people became angry with Socrates and tried to kill him. In Plato's [[Apology]], Socrates is put on trial by these people and is eventually [[Sentence (law)|sentenced]] to death by drinking [[poison]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Apology, by Plato|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1656/1656-h/1656-h.htm|access-date=2024-03-18|website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

==Theory of Forms==
Plato is famous for developing the [[theory of forms]]. This theory says that everything in our world is imperfect but [[wikt:correspond|corresponds]] to a perfect version of itself that exists in another [[wikt:realm|realm]].<ref name=":2" />   

For example, there are wooden [[Chair|chairs]], metal chairs, square chairs, big chairs, small chairs, etc. All the chairs we can ever sit in, according to Plato, are imperfect versions of the perfect form of “chairness,” the ideal chair. The same is true of every other object our senses can [[wikt:perceive|perceive]]: it is imperfect but corresponds to a perfect version of itself.  

One simple way to think about Plato's theory is with numbers. The difference between "chairness" and a regular chair is similar to the difference between the number five and having five apples, oranges, pears, etc.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mathematics: From Algebra to Algorithms, Adventures in Numbers|last=Willers|first=Michael|publisher=New Burlington Books|year=2021|isbn=978-1-80242-020-3|location=London, UK|pages=42-43, 50-51}}</ref>   

In other words, Plato thought that the world we live in is just a shadow of the real, "intelligible realm," which only a few people will ever understand. He thought that all perfect forms come from perfection itself, which he called "the good.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Republic|last=Plato|publisher=Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.|year=2004|isbn=978-0-87220-736-3|location=United States of America|pages=204-205}}</ref>

== Plato vs. Socrates ==
People who study Plato argue about whether Socrates really said the same things that Plato makes him say, or whether Plato just used Socrates as a character to make the ideas he was talking about seem more important.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Early Socratic Dialogues|url=https://archive.org/details/liang.earlysocraticdia0000unse|last=Plato|publisher=Penguin Group|year=2005|isbn=978-0-140-45503-8|location=Great Britain|pages=[https://archive.org/details/liang.earlysocraticdia0000unse/page/13 13]-36}}</ref>

== Works by Plato ==
There are many dialogues that were written by Plato. This list includes those he probably did write:
{|
| valign=top |
*[[Apology of Socrates|''Apology'']]
*[[Charmides (Plato)|''Charmides'']]
*[[Cratylus (Plato)|''Cratylus'']]
*[[Critias (Plato)|''Critias'']]
*[[Crito (Plato)|''Crito'']]
*''[[Epigrams]]''
*''[[Euthydemus]]'' {{ns|7}} {{ns|4}}
| valign=top |
*''[[Euthyphro]]''
*[[Gorgias (Plato)|''Gorgias'']]
*[[Ion (Plato)|''Ion'']]
*''[[Laches]]''
*[[Laws (Plato)|''Laws'']]
*''[[Lesser Hippias]]''
*[[Letters (Plato)|''Letters'']] {{ns|11}} {{ns|9}}
| valign=top |
*''Lysis''
*''[[Menexenus]]''
*''[[Meno]]''
*[[Parmenides (Plato)|''Parmenides'']]
*''[[Phaedo]]''
*[[Phaedrus (Plato)|''Phaedrus'']]
*''[[Philebus]]'' {{ns|7}} {{ns|4}}
| valign=top |
*[[Protagoras (dialogue)|''Protagoras'']]
*''[[The Republic]]''
*[[Sophist (Plato)|''Sophist'']]
*[[Statesman (Plato)|''Statesman'']]
*[[Symposium (Plato)|''Symposium'']]
*''[[Theaetetus]]''
*[[Timaeus (Plato)|''Timaeus'']]
|}

== Related pages ==
*[[Platonic realism]]
*[[Platonic solid]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:427 BC births]]
[[Category:340s BC deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:Slavers]]