Plato

Plato (428-348 BC) is the fountainhead of Western philosophy — as Alfred North Whitehead wrote, all subsequent thought is "a series of footnotes to Plato." His dialogues include The Republic, the Symposium, the Meno, and the Phaedo, forming the most widely read philosophical canon in the Western world. The Theory of Forms argues that the physical world is a shadow of a perfect realm of ideal abstractions, while the allegory of the cave remains the most powerful metaphor for the limits of human perception ever devised. He founded the Academy around 387 BC, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world, which operated for over 900 years. His political philosophy in The Republic — a just city governed by philosopher-kings — has been called both the first utopia and the first blueprint for totalitarianism.