The traditional date of Plato's birth during the 87th or 88th Olympiad, 428 or 427 BC, is based on a dubious interpretation of Diogenes Laërtius, who says, "When was gone, joined Cratylus the Heracleitean and Hermogenes, who philosophized in the manner of Parmenides. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BC, not long after the start of the Peloponnesian War. The exact time and place of Plato's birth are unknown. According to some accounts, Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed in his purpose then the god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and as a result, Ariston left Perictione unmolested. Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, known as the Thirty, the brief oligarchic regime (404–403 BC), which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon, one of the seven sages, who repealed the laws of Draco (except for the death penalty for homicide). Through his mother, Plato was related to Solon. Although their popularity has fluctuated, Plato's works have consistently been read and studied. Unlike the work of nearly all of his contemporaries, Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. His own most decisive philosophical influences are usually thought to have been, along with Socrates, the pre-Socratics Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides, although few of his predecessors' works remain extant and much of what we know about these figures today derives from Plato himself. He is also the namesake of Platonic love and the Platonic solids. His most famous contribution is the theory of Forms known by pure reason, in which Plato presents a solution to the problem of universals known as Platonism (also ambiguously called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism). Plato is also considered the founder of Western political philosophy. Plato was an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy.
Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." The so-called neoplatonism of philosophers, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, greatly influenced Christianity through Church Fathers such as Augustine. He has often been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality. Plato is widely considered a pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
He is said, for example, to have publicly masturbated in the Agora.Plato ( / ˈ p l eɪ t oʊ/ PLAY-toe Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He apparently made a show of his contempt for the system of rewards and punishments with which societies sustain such conventions, by openly defying them. Diogenes (404?–323 BC) is the philosopher who famously lived in a barrel, and made fun not only of Plato’s pretensions at having penetrated the mysteries of the universe, but of the conventions of normal life in the Athens of his time.
However, the later dialogues feature an invented Socrates, who arguably becomes merely a mouthpiece for Plato’s own opinions. As in the Protagoras, the early dialogues are thought to be fictionalized accounts of genuine encounters between the real Socrates and a wide spectrum of debating partners, ranging from Parmenides, who instructs him on the nature of being and not-being, to Euthyphro, who is no competition at all. All of his written work is believed to survive, nearly all of which is in dialogue style with Socrates as the leading speaker. He founded the Academy to maintain the philosophical tradition of Socrates (470–399 BC?) of whom he was a fervent admirer. Plato (429–347 BC?) was a scion of the aristocratic elite of ancient Athens.