Platos belief that the Forms explain the way the world is vs Aristotles belief that teleology along w/ the claim that the world is arranged in the the best possible way.

Plato the great Greek classical philosopher lived between c .427 and c .347 BC . Plato together with his mentor , Socrates , and Aristotle (384-322 BC ) are credited with helping lay the foundations of Western philosophy . Plato was a student of Socrates and the unjust death of Socrates by execution is thought to have profoundly affected influenced him . Plato would later write in his dialogues the teachings of Socrates Besides philosophizing , Plato was also a mathematician who helped show the distinction between pure and applied mathematics . Plato also founded what is thought to be the

first institution of higher learning in Western world , the Academy , in Athens

Plato was a sophisticated writer and this is evident in the dialogues The dialogues have continued to be used to teach philosophy , logic rhetoric and mathematics . Indeed Plato 's philosophy has influenced so many , but not necessarily likeminded individuals and they include Plato 's student and his greatest critic , Aristotle , Plotinus , Philo , St Augustine , Avicenna , St . Bonaventure , Hegel , to name just but a few . The Christian Church was highly inspired and informed by Platonism . The Cambridge Platonists were so named because of the indelible mark Plato had left in their scholarly lives . Some other philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche together with his followers would attack Plato teachings . The list is endless . Plato wielded so much influence and this drove Alfred North Whitehead to observe famously : All Western philosophy consists of footnotes of Plato

At the heart of Platonism is the theory of forms , which will you...