The Great Philosophers

The dialogues of Plato are analyzed in this program by Cambridge philosophy professor Miles Burnyeat. Seeing Plato's ideas initially as extensions of those of his teacher, Socrates, Burnyeat explains the development and content of Plato's original; doctrines of knowledge as virtue, the immortality and tripartite division of the soul, and the theory of forms (ideas). Plato's political philosophy is discussed within the context of the notion of the ideal state—a political utopia ruled by philosopher kings.