Plato vs Socrates
How do Plato and Socrates compare? Here is a side-by-side look at their lives, achievements and historical impact.
| Plato | Socrates | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifespan | 428 BC – 348 BC | 470 BC – 399 BC |
| Born | Athens, Greece | Athens, Greece |
| Occupation | Philosopher | Philosopher |
| Known for | Theory of Forms, The Academy, The Republic, Platonic dialogues | Socratic method, The examined life, Founding Western philosophy |
| Fields | Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics | Ethics, Epistemology |
| Influence score | 96/100 | 95/100 |
Plato
Plato was a Greek philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens, wrote the foundational dialogues of Western philosophy, and developed the influential theory of Forms.
Full biography →Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as a founder of Western philosophy, famous for the Socratic method of questioning and for his trial and execution in Athens.
Full biography →You Might Also Compare
Aristotle
98Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.
Why His student at the Academy for nearly twenty years.
Immanuel Kant
94Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, one of the most influential thinkers in history, who reconciled rationalism and empiricism and transformed ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.
Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics & metaphysics
Zeno of Citium
86Zeno of Citium was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism, teaching that virtue and reason are the path to a good life, in lectures given at the Painted Porch (Stoa) in Athens.
Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics
Aristotle
98Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.
Why Inherited the Socratic ethical focus through Plato.
Zeno of Citium
86Zeno of Citium was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism, teaching that virtue and reason are the path to a good life, in lectures given at the Painted Porch (Stoa) in Athens.
Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics
Immanuel Kant
94Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, one of the most influential thinkers in history, who reconciled rationalism and empiricism and transformed ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.
Why Also a philosopher · Worked in ethics & epistemology