Plato

Plato was a fifth century B.C. Greek philosopher in Athens, who was the student of Socrates, and who attempted to preserve his teaching. Plato was the teacher of Aristotle. A large number of his writings have survived to the present day. Plato is best known for the style of his writing, known as the Platonic dialogues. His writings present dialogues or conversations between people, one of whom is often Socrates, about the large questions of the purpose of human life, the role of the human in the world, and the nature and order of the world. The dialogues are notable because they do not contain direct teaching. Rather they are records of probing conversations that leave it to the reader to draw conclusions and derive his or her own answers.

Plato introduced the notion of "forms" in the universe. In brief, the forms are ideals of everything...