Aristocles was born in 427 B.C., and later given the nickname Plato (meaning "the broad," apparently owing both to the size of his intellect and his girth). To call him the son of aristocracy is to understate the case. His family traced themselves to Poseidon, god of the sea, and Solon the lawgiver. When your ancestors rule most of the surface of the planet and the laws of all mankind, you're under pressure to make something of yourself. And Plato did.

As the story goes, he was twenty years old, dark and handsome, when he met Socrates. Immediately he changed his life's ambition to philosophy. So much for family expectations. But no one knew the historic significance of this decision, least of all Plato.

Sparta defeated Athens in 404 B.C. Plato left his conquered hometown, disillusioned and bitter. For several years he wandered across Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Egypt, meditating constantly on the thought of Socrates. He finally returned home to take up the work of his former teacher, founding the first great philosophical school in Western history. This school was named the Academy (for the grove of trees under which it met; does this make them shade tree philosophers?)-hence "academics" today. Plato spent the rest of his life at his school, active in teaching and writing to his death in 348 B.C.

His writings have all been preserved, but little of his oral teaching was recorded. His writing reads like dialogue, however, as it is in the form of conversations between Socrates and others. His literary skills were considerable, but not systematic.

One of the great struggles in understanding Plato is the existence of apparent philosophical contradictions recorded in these dialogues. The other is in knowing when Plato is preserving the ideas of Socrates and when he is putting his own thoughts in Socrates' literary mouth. While questions remain about some of his ideas, no doubt remains about his influence.