Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was an Athenian philosopher during the classical period in ancient Greece. The founder of the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the western world and of the Platonic school of thought.

He is widely considered a pivotal figure in the history of ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle.

He was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy and considered the founder of Western political philosophy.

Unlike the work of nearly all of his contemporaries, Plato’s entire body of work is considered to have survived to the present day, widely read for 2400 years.