Plato

Greek philosopher of the Classical period, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, and founder of the Academy in Athens (c. 387 BCE) — the institution that would shape Western philosophy for nine hundred years. Born around 428/427 BCE into an aristocratic Athenian family, Plato came of age in a city traumatized by the Peloponnesian War, and was deeply marked by the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 BCE. From the establishment of the Academy onward, he wrote the dialogues that have been read continuously for two and a half millennia — the Apology, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Meno, Republic, Theaetetus, Timaeus, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus, Laws, and dozens of others — through which he developed the Theory of Forms, the tripartite soul, the cardinal virtues, the philosopher-king, the allegory of the cave, the chariot of the soul, and the doctrine of recollection. Whitehead's quip that 'all of Western philosophy is footnotes to Plato' is, if anything, an understatement. He died in Athens around 348/347 BCE.