Plato of Athens - The most famous ancient Greek philosopher (427 BC-347 BC)
Plato was a pupil of Socrates, and he merged ideas from his teacher's understanding of human reasoning into his own system of metaphysics, along with natural and ethical theology. He famously used the analogy of "Plato's Cave" to convey this mindset. This implied that seeing the shadows of flames on a cave wall was only human perception, not genuine knowledge (actually viewing and understanding the fire itself). He advocated looking for deeper significance and employing philosophical thought to properly comprehend the real world.
Plato established the Academy, the first higher education institution, as well as the Platonist school of philosophy. He is one of the very few Greek philosophers from antiquity whose written works have nearly all survived.
The Republic, one of Plato's most well-known writings, addresses justice and attempts to clarify what makes a fair individual and a good city-state. It takes into account the ideas of good and evil as they relate to the body and the soul. The Republic also presents a perfect/utopian society and contrasts four political systems: tyranny, democracy, oligarchy, and timocracy. Plato combined diverse facets of political philosophy, metaphysics, and ethics to produce a philosophy that was organized, significant, and practical. As a foundational work of philosophy, it is still often taught today.
By asserting that absolute, non-physical thoughts are more real than the actual world, Plato also made a philosophical contribution with his theory of Forms.
