Professor Edith Hall

His student Plato founded the first, what, we would recognise as a university. Although it did no science, it was only humanities and maths for the academy at some point in the very early 4th century BC. So this is a community of like-minded people, people who were rich enough and intellectually enough to want to spend their time discussing philosophical ideas.

And these dialogues almost certainly result from actual lecture courses that he gave, or at least seminars, discussions in the academy, and the philosophical history, the history of ancient philosophies really kicks off at the academy. It's actually eclipsed, in my view, by the Lyceum of Aristotle.

And these dialogues almost certainly result from actual lecture courses that he gave, or at least seminars, discussions in the academy, and the philosophical history, the history of ancient philosophies really kicks off at the academy. It's actually eclipsed, in my view, by the Lyceum of Aristotle.

And these dialogues almost certainly result from actual lecture courses that he gave, or at least seminars, discussions in the academy, and the philosophical history, the history of ancient philosophies really kicks off at the academy. It's actually eclipsed, in my view, by the Lyceum of Aristotle.

Aristotle is one of Plato's students, and he finds the Lyceum, and that's bigger and better for several reasons, one of which is that it did science material science, physics, biology, zoology, cosmology, as well as philosophy, the humanities subjects.

Aristotle is one of Plato's students, and he finds the Lyceum, and that's bigger and better for several reasons, one of which is that it did science material science, physics, biology, zoology, cosmology, as well as philosophy, the humanities subjects.

Aristotle is one of Plato's students, and he finds the Lyceum, and that's bigger and better for several reasons, one of which is that it did science material science, physics, biology, zoology, cosmology, as well as philosophy, the humanities subjects.

So we're just at the dawn, actually, of the ancient schools of philosophy, which were to go on for another 900 years until the schools were closed down by the Christian emperors.

So we're just at the dawn, actually, of the ancient schools of philosophy, which were to go on for another 900 years until the schools were closed down by the Christian emperors.

So we're just at the dawn, actually, of the ancient schools of philosophy, which were to go on for another 900 years until the schools were closed down by the Christian emperors.

These two dialogues form a pair, but they're also direct sequels to Plato's greatest work, The Republic. Now, The Republic is a dialogue set in the very late 5th century, and it discusses, basically, from a theoretical point of view, what would the ideal constitution of a city look like if you're a Platonic philosopher? What would it look like?

These two dialogues form a pair, but they're also direct sequels to Plato's greatest work, The Republic. Now, The Republic is a dialogue set in the very late 5th century, and it discusses, basically, from a theoretical point of view, what would the ideal constitution of a city look like if you're a Platonic philosopher? What would it look like?

These two dialogues form a pair, but they're also direct sequels to Plato's greatest work, The Republic. Now, The Republic is a dialogue set in the very late 5th century, and it discusses, basically, from a theoretical point of view, what would the ideal constitution of a city look like if you're a Platonic philosopher? What would it look like?

It's idealistic, it's a conjectural, it's hypothetical. The next day, we're told, some of the guys who were present at that dialogue and some who weren't met up for another day of festival, because this all takes place during a great Athenian festival, and decided what they needed to do on the suggestion of Socrates is think harder about this place.

It's idealistic, it's a conjectural, it's hypothetical. The next day, we're told, some of the guys who were present at that dialogue and some who weren't met up for another day of festival, because this all takes place during a great Athenian festival, and decided what they needed to do on the suggestion of Socrates is think harder about this place.

It's idealistic, it's a conjectural, it's hypothetical. The next day, we're told, some of the guys who were present at that dialogue and some who weren't met up for another day of festival, because this all takes place during a great Athenian festival, and decided what they needed to do on the suggestion of Socrates is think harder about this place.

This is called Kallipolis, which means the beautiful city, which so far in the discussion in the Republic has only existed as a hypothesis. We're going to try and see whether we can give a real concrete example of it.

This is called Kallipolis, which means the beautiful city, which so far in the discussion in the Republic has only existed as a hypothesis. We're going to try and see whether we can give a real concrete example of it.

This is called Kallipolis, which means the beautiful city, which so far in the discussion in the Republic has only existed as a hypothesis. We're going to try and see whether we can give a real concrete example of it.

And it turns out that Critias, who's one of the guys at this general symposium, knows a story of a real Kallipolis that existed all these thousand years ago, 98,000 years ago before that. And he says, well, actually, we don't need to be hypothetical anymore because I was told a story about a real place that existed.