Plato wrote profusely, and his ideas are intelligent, well argued, and powerful. His works form the backbone of so many subjects: epistemology, aesthetics, metaphysics, politics, and psychology. Plato also influenced Christianity, which in turn became a new kind of religion altogether. Nothing in life can be treated in isolation. Behind every idea, person, discovery, invention, or project is a hidden network of conditions that gave rise to it. This is never truer than in academia. As Isaac Newton famously said, we are all just "standing on the shoulders of Giants." Philosophy is the same. Almost all its notable thinkers read, debated, and bounced ideas around with their contemporaries. Aristotle was a response to (and taught by) Plato, Chinese legalism was a critique of Confucianism, David
