Plato of Athens (c 429-347 BC) is the earliest European thinker whose thoughts on politics survive to any great extent. His work, contained in The Republic , the Statesman , the Laws and the unfinished Critias , amongst other works, has made major contributions to the agenda of Western Political thought and its content. [In The Republic , Plato's preoccupation was the concept of the just individual and the just state.] His view that intellect and...