Plato

One of the most famous and most respected of the Classical Greek philosophers, Plato is the author (editor?) of the Four Dialogues. He was a pupil of Socrates, and wrote the Dialogues in part as a literary monument to his teacher, a memorialization of Socrates' ideas, the spiritual perspective that gave rise to those ideas, and the methods Socrates used to impart those ideas to others (methods that Plato incorporated into his own teaching - see "Objects/Places - The Socratic Method"). Over the centuries, however, scholarship has come to question how much of "The Dialogues" is in fact a representation of Socrates' thinking and how much is Plato putting words and/or ideas into his mentor's mouth, perhaps to give them more weight and/or credibility. The lasting impact of "The Dialogues" on philosophy through the centuries remains considerable, whatever the truth of their content may be...