Philosopher · Antiquity
Plato
c. 428–348 BC · Platonism
Pagan philosopher; the Fathers called him the one who came nearest to Christian truth.
Athenian pupil of Socrates and founder of the Academy. He taught that the changing things of sense are images of eternal, intelligible Forms, crowned by the Form of the Good; that the soul is immortal and knows by recollection; and that justice in the soul and in the city consists in reason ruling desire.
Why he matters: Through Augustine, Dionysius and the Greek Fathers, Plato gave Christian theology its vocabulary for participation, the divine ideas, the soul's ascent and the primacy of the Good. Every Christian Platonism and every Christian correction of Platonism begins here.
Where to be careful
His doctrines of the soul's pre-existence, transmigration and the body as prison were rejected by the Church (against Origenism, 543), and the Republic's communal ownership of wives and children is incompatible with the natural law.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.