Plato

The most comprehensive statement of Plato’s mature philosophical views appears in Πολιτεια (The Republic), an extended treatment of the most fundamental principles for the conduct of human life. Using the character “Socrates” as a fictional spokesman, Plato considers the nature and value of justice and the other virtues as they appear both in the structure of society as a whole and in the personality of an individual human being. This naturally leads to discussions of human nature, the achievement of knowledge, the distinction between appearance and reality, the components of an effective education, and the foundations of morality.

Plato believed that we are born with all of our knowledge already inside us, simply waiting to be rediscovered. This concept that knowledge is innate is known as Nativism. Aristotle, a student of Plato, believed in Philosophical Empiricism, or the belief that all knowledge is acquired through experience.

The Laws, Plato’s longest dialogue, has for centuries been recognized as the most comprehensive exposition of the practical consequences of his philosophy, a necessary corrective to the more visionary and utopian Republic.

It is widely accepted that Plato, the Athenian philosopher, was died at the age of eighty or eighty-one at 348-7 B.C.E. just after the birth of Alexander the Great.