You’ve heard the name. Maybe it conjures up an image of a bearded man in a toga gesturing dramatically toward the heavens—or just your Philosophy 101 syllabus gathering dust. But Plato wasn’t just a long-winded thinker scribbling in a cave. He was a firestarter of Western philosophy, a literary dramatist, and the founder of the first university in the Western world. Without Plato, our thoughts on reality, love, politics, and even what counts as knowledge would be entirely different. So let’s put on our metaphorical tunics and meet the man who’s been shaping your mind without your permission.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy Athenian family with political clout and a taste for poetry. Though he dabbled in politics early on, his world changed after he met Socrates—a man so committed to questioning everything that he was eventually executed for it. Plato became Socrates' greatest student, and when his mentor died, Plato did what any grief-stricken genius might: he wrote dialogues where Socrates lived on forever, always asking pesky questions. It’s a bit like writing fan fiction for your favorite fallen hero, only instead of dragons or romances, it’s about the nature of justice and the immortality of the soul.
One of Plato’s most famous contributions is the Theory of Forms—the idea that the world we perceive is just a shadow of a higher, truer reality. Think of it this way: your Instagram feed is the shadow. The real you—the one not distorted by Valencia filters and duck lips—exists somewhere beyond the screen, in perfect clarity. In his allegory of the cave, Plato suggests that most of us are like prisoners watching shadows on a wall, mistaking illusions for truth. It’s only through philosophical reasoning that we can break free and see the light. (Insert Matrix reference here.)
Plato was also a pioneer in thinking about how societies should be organized. In The Republic, he outlines a vision where the best rulers are philosopher-kings—people wise enough to know what’s good and selfless enough to pursue it. It’s idealistic, sure, but it’s also eerily relevant when you look at today’s political landscape and wonder if anyone’s actually thought things through. He even questioned democracy itself, worrying that letting anyone vote might not lead to the wisest outcomes. Sound familiar?
His impact didn’t end with lofty thoughts. Plato founded The Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world, and trained another big name you might’ve heard of: Aristotle. It was the ancient version of mentoring the next Steve Jobs. Plato’s writing style, too, was something special. He didn’t preach—he performed. His dialogues were dramatic, character-driven, and occasionally humorous. In a sense, Plato was the original Socratic influencer, dropping truth bombs and rhetorical zingers with flair.
In a world obsessed with TikTok takes and soundbites, Plato invites us to do something radical: think slowly. To question what we assume is real. To aim not for popularity, but for truth. He wasn’t perfect (see: some rather rigid ideas about who should breed), but his willingness to interrogate everything, even the foundations of thought itself, is why we still return to him over two millennia later.