The famed English philosopher and mathemati- cian Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) would quip that the history of Western philosophy is but “a series of footnotes to Plato.” Certainly, Plato advanced the ideas of the Pythagoreans—those of mathematics and of logical inquiry—that have shaped Western civilization’s continued focus on science. We can see the roots of cognitive psychology in Plato, and many of the individuals in his nativism and rationalism.
Plato created a dualism that divided the human into a body, which was material and imperfect, and a mind (soul), which contained pure knowledge. Furthermore, for Plato the rational soul was immor- tal. In time, the mysticism of early Christianity was combined with such Platonic philosophy and assimilated into religious dogma. When Aristotle’s writings were rediscovered centuries later, they were also carefully modified and reconciled with various religions.