evidence: Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, was a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. Writing during the mid-4th century, BCE, he founded an academy in Athens, Greece. His philosophical writings are primarily in the form of dialogues (the form became known as the "Socratic dialogue"), where truths are revealed by a series of questions and inferences based on the questions and their responses. In simplified terms, he believed that abstract ideas and truths exist in a place beyond the material objects of the world. The term "platonic" has come to mean pure or lofty. In Books III and X of the Republic, Plato addresses the problem of poets. He deduces that they are imitators of the world, and therefore far from the truth: "the tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth." The other dangers of poets are that they corrupt youth and incite the passions instead of the faculties of reason. The poet, "with his words and phrases," is able to convince listeners that he knows what he speaks of: "such is the sweet influence which melody and rhythm by nature have." [...] Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.