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Full Idea
The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
Gist of Idea
European philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato
Source
Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929], p.39)
A Reaction
Outsiders think this is a ridiculous remark, but readers of Plato can only be struck by what a wonderful tribute Whitehead has come up with. I would say that at least 80% of this database deals with problems which were discussed at length by Plato.
| 13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
| 21336 | Crates lived in poverty, and treated his whole life as a joke [Crates of Thebes, by Plutarch] |
| 2913 | Thucydides was the perfect anti-platonist sophist [Nietzsche] |
| 7719 | European philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato [Whitehead] |
| 23889 | Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style [Weil] |
| 12046 | Plato was the first philosopher who was concerned to systematize his ideas [Annas] |