by Brett and Kate McKay

From antiquity to the modern day, society has been having a “Great Conversation” about the big ideas of life.

What is love? What is courage? Does Truth exist? If so, how do you access it?

You can find attempts at answering these questions throughout the great works of Western philosophy, theology, and literature.

Every conversation has a person who breaks the ice and starts the discussion, and the Great Conversation in the West is no different.

Its initiator was Plato: Ancient Greek. Student of Socrates. Founder of the Academy of Athens. Primogenitor of Western culture.

As Alfred Whitehead put it so succinctly, all philosophy — all Western thought — is just “a footnote to Plato.”

Many of the big questions that we’re still grappling with today originated with Plato. And these lines of inquiry concern not just the ethical and political, but even questions cosmologists and physicists are still trying to figure out, like the nature of reality. Over 2,000 years ago, Plato was plumbing those very same issues.

Thus, to understand the world today, every modern citizen needs to have a basic understanding of this man who lived a couple millennia back. For that reason, we offer this relatively short, accessible primer on Plato and his philosophy. While it is not exhaustive by design, it will allow those not familiar with him to gain a basic grasp of his big ideas, and enable them to better engage in the Great Conversation as it continues to unfold. … read more here