The Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man. It is Plato’s best-known work and has proven to be one of the most intellectually and historically influential works of philosophy and political theory. The participants discuss the theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the roles of the philosopher and of poetry in society. Plato was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.