Figure of Plato. 12,4 cm.

Plato was a classical Greek philosopher, and an influential figure in Western philosophy. He was a disciple of Socrates, and founded the Academy of Athens, the first institution of higher education in the Western world. Together with Socrates and his most famous disciple, Aristotle, they helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.  Alfred North Whitehead once observed: “the safest general characterisation of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”.