ABSTRACT
Plato was born in Athens in 427 BC of an aristocratic family. Plato received a good education; his early interests included athletics, painting, and poetry. Aristotle said that he was familiar with the philosophy of Heraclitus through contact with Cratylus, an extreme follower of Heraclitus. Plato was primarily interested in ethics and politics, which are two sides of one concern, that is, human behavior in its personal and social aspects. His metaphysics and epistemology supported his ethical and political views. The influence of Socrates upon Plato is hard to determine, although the traditional view is that his emphasis on universals and ethical concerns came from Socrates. Xenophon speaks of Socrates' concern about matters of ethics, but he does not show him seeking universal definitions of the virtues. Several aspects of Plato's metaphysics apply to his aesthetic theories. Beauty is cited in several dialogues as having its essential being in a form.
