Plato
Platoof Athens, c.429–347 BC, descended from wealthy and influential Athenian families on both sides. His own family, like many, was divided by the disastrous political consequences of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). His stepfather Pyrilampes was a democrat and friend of Pericles, but two of his uncles, Critias and Charmides, became members of the Thirty Tyrants (see democracy, Athenian). At some point Plato renounced ambition for a public career, devoting his life to philosophy. The major philosophical influence on his life was Socrates, but in three important respects Plato turned away from the example of Socrates. He rejected marriage and the family duty of producing citizen sons; he founded a philosophical school, the Academy; and he produced large quantities of written philosophical works (as well as the shadowy ‘unwritten doctrines’...
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