Plato
From ResearchID.org
Plato was born in Athens in 428 B.C. to an aristocratic and highly prominent family at a time when Athens was a major democratic trading and military power rich in culture with literature, sculpture, the Festival of Dionysus; tragedies and comedies, artisanry and thriving marketplaces. As a student of Socrates, Plato was highly influenced by the Pythagoreans who revered mathematics and reason and proposed the idea of reincarnation and moral responsibility. One of Plato's chief doctrines is that of the immortality of the soul--an ontological theme present in both his metaphysical and epistemological schemas as well. Dialectic, common sense dialogue through syllogistic reasoning, Plato thought, enables the human mind to attain or grasp ultimate knowledge and hence "see" the Forms. Syllogistic conclusions one makes are like a dim light from the soul or recollection of things contained in the soul. Plato writes in his dialogue entitled Meno "The soul knows all things because it has lived many lives." Plato completed most of his major works at the age of forty and about this time founded the Academy.
