Plato
Philosopher · c. 428-348 BC · Philosophy, stage 3: Meet the thinkers
Used Socrates as a character to argue that true knowledge comes from reason and applies to an unchanging realm of forms beyond the physical world.
Overview
Plato studied under Socrates in Athens and wrote almost all of his surviving work as dialogues, using Socrates as the lead character in a way that makes it genuinely hard to separate Plato's own views from his teacher's. His theory of forms holds that physical things are imperfect copies of perfect, unchanging forms that reason alone, not the senses, can grasp. The Republic, his best-known work, uses the question of justice in an individual person to build an entire theory of an ideal state, including his famous allegory of the cave. New readers often start with a shorter dialogue like the Apology, Plato's account of Socrates' trial, before tackling the length and range of The Republic.
Where to start reading
The Republic c. 375 BC
A long dialogue on justice that builds an ideal city-state to answer the question of what justice is in a single person, including the allegory of the cave.
The Apology c. 399 BC
Plato's account of Socrates' defense speech at his trial for corrupting the youth of Athens, a short and accessible entry point into the dialogues.
The Symposium c. 385 BC
A dialogue set at a drinking party where guests each give a speech in praise of love, building toward Socrates' account of love as a ladder toward the form of Beauty itself.
