Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Stained Glass. by Hans Levendig (lev&dig fotografie)

Three Ancient Greek Philosophers in Stained Glass (photography and digital editing) Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are undoubtedly the most influential Western philosophers there have been. Plato was Socrates' student and Aristotle was Plato's student. They mutually influenced, supported and also contradicted each other. Socrates (Athens, c. 470/469 BC, 399 BC there, or Sokrates (Ancient Greek:Σωκράτης) was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. He is considered one of the founders of Western philosophy, although he left no writings of his own. He became known through the accounts of his students, especially those of Plato and Xenophon, and through the plays of his contemporary, Aristophanes. Plato (Ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn; Athens, c. 427 BC - there, 347 BC) was a Greek philosopher and writer. A pupil of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, Plato is one of the influential thinkers in Western philosophy and was the founder of the Athenian Akademeia, the first institution of higher learning in the West. He wrote dialogues on various topics and with his Theory of Ideas became the patriarch of metaphysical realism, in which visible reality consists of imperfect reflections of universals existing in an upper world.

Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (Stageira, 384 BC - Chalkis, 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and scholar who, with Socrates and Plato, is considered one of the most influential classical philosophers in the Western tradition. He was a member of Plato's philosophical Akademeia and his influence is therefore present in Aristotle's work.