Plato: The Complete Works

Plato was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was one of the most important Western philosophers, exerting influence on virtually every figure in philosophy after him. His dialogue The Republic was known as the first comprehensive work on political philosophy. Plato also had enormous contribution on ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. His student, Aristotle, was also an extremely influential philosopher and the tutor of Alexander the Great of Macedonia.