western political thinkers plato,aristotle

Plato was an influential philosopher and scholar in political realm who lived between 427 and 347 BC. He was a student of Socrates and later made the first known "university," called the Academy. He has immense contribution in political theories. His best work is The Republic, and his best known concept is the Theory of Forms. The Theory of Forms states that, while experience is changing and illusory, ideal forms are static and real. Plato advanced Parmenides theory that both experience and forms are real. Aristotle and Socrates also began their philosophical thought from Parmenides, who was known as Parmenides of Elea and lived between 510 and 440 BC.

Plato developed such dissimilar areas of philosophy as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. He had profound influence on Western philosophy. It is affirmed in the famous remark of Alfred North Whitehead: "the safest characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. He was also the ideal political philosopher whose ideas had a thoughtful impact on subsequent political theory. His greatest impact