The Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347) is usually called a pupil of Socrates
but his ideas are no less inspired by Parmenides.
Plato accepted the world of the phenomena as a mere shadow of the real world of the ideas.
When we observe a horse
we recognize what it is because our soul remembers the idea of the horse
from the time before our birth. In Plato's political philosophy
only wise men who understand the dual nature of reality are fit to rule the country.
He made three voyages to Syracuse to
establish his ideal state, both times without lasting results.
Plato's hypothesis that our soul was once in a better place and now lives in a fallen world made it easy to combine platonic philosophy and Christianity
which accounts for the popularity of Platonism in Late Antiquity.
One element, however, was not acceptable: the idea of platonic love - a homosexual relation with pedagogical aspects.
