Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

I suggest, as humbly as I can, that these are the three greatest philosophers of all time. I am not influenced by their antiquity in this assessment. I am convinced that if they were living now, teaching the same ideas as they did then, they would still be at the top of modern philosophy. These are ideas that deeply affected every great thinker. Their greatness has been untouched by time and has only been strengthened by the passage of twenty-five centuries.

It is impossible to cover in the limited space of this article, or even in the space of a whole book, the work of these three men. I am going to provide only a few basics, which could become, to interested readers, a point of departure toward a more detailed study.

Socrates (c. 470–399 BC)

Greek philosopher, widely recognized as one of the founders of Western philosophy. Socrates did not write any texts and our knowledge of his thought comes from various disciples and scholars, including Plato, Aristotle and Xenophon, a military leader, philosopher, historian, and disciple of Socrates. Everything that we know about Socrates must be thought of as interpretations of the writings of these and other authors.

Socrates died by poison which he was forced to take on the accusation of failing to acknowledge the official gods and for corrupting the Athenian…