ABSTRACT
Plato is generally regarded as the father of philosophy. Plato was born in Athens of an aristocratic family whose ancestors went back to Solon, the first legislator of Athenian democracy. His education included the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, the Sophists, and above all his master teacher Socrates. When Plato’s Socrates, in Plato’s early dialogues, raised these questions with Athenian leaders and with sophists, he found out that they thought they knew the answers, but the answers they gave could not withstand Socrates’ questions and arguments. In his dramatic masterpiece, the Symposium, Plato presents a dinner party of famous Athenians who make some remarkable speeches about Eros, the god of love, and love itself. Plato’s methods have also been extremely influential. The Socratic Method of questioning and testing our assumptions is almost universally practised in classrooms. Plato believed that human reason can discover the nature of the universe.
