Inspired by Socrates, Plato was an extremely influential classical Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens from 427-347 BC, and wrote philosophy solely in the form of dialogues, many of which involved Socrates as a character. Interestingly, we get much of the information on Socrates from these dialogues, but it is debated how true this information is because of the fact that Plato based the character off of Socrates personality but didn’t actually tell us about his life. 

One of Plato’s most forward questions was wanting to learn the essence and form of different things. An example of this might be, what makes a dog a dog? Because some are small, some are big, and they are different in many ways. In other words, whatever an individual thing shares in common with something that shares its name, is its form. Like Socrates, Plato was concerned with questions of morals and believed that philosophers were only people who tried to find the forms of things. Continuing, he stated that forms are unchanging and eternal, and what is perfect and true. 

Remarkably, Plato established the first academy in Athens and offered the first detailed formation in Western thought of themes that would persist and be developed further by later philosophers. He believed that the “good life” was the true development of man’s personality as a rational and moral being, the right cultivation of his soul, and the general harmonious well-being of life. However, Plato did oppose atheism, relativism, hedonism, and materialism. 

His most famous work “The Republic” was of course a dialogue involving Socrates, where he raised the question: “What is Justice?” it should be pursued regardless of its consequences, even if it means you are punished for being a good person. Plato asserted that the soul has three parts: rational, courageous, and spirited or appetitive. Rational is the highest element of the soul, and is portrayed as a charioteer, with the spirited and appetitive elements as horses. The spirited element is the natural ally of reason, though shared by animals. Appetitive is a friend of riot and insolence. The spirited horse is good and loves honor and temperance, but the appetitive horse is bad, unruly, and follows passion. After this discussion, Plato asserted that the ideal state should be modeled after the ideal soul.