Plato

About Plato

Plato, a towering figure in Western philosophy spanning from -427 to -347, remains highly ranked by the Historical Popularity Index at #15 due to his foundational contributions to ethics, metaphysics, and political theory. As a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, his dialogues—such as *The Republic*—established enduring questions about justice, reality, and the ideal state, profoundly shaping subsequent intellectual history across millennia and cultures.

In the digital age of 2025, Plato commands approximately 1.6 million annualized Wikipedia views, positioning his online attention at roughly a 1x match relative to his massive historical importance. This suggests a baseline level of sustained interest, yet it presents a striking contrast when compared to figures like Julius Caesar, who ranks significantly lower in historical importance at #32 but garners 3.4 million views. Perhaps even more illustrative is the comparison with Gautama Buddha, ranked just #2 historically, yet receiving only 411K views online—demonstrating a significant relative under-attention for one of history's most important teachers.

Plato's current online trajectory shows a slight cooling; his annualized Year-over-Year change is a modest decrease of -17.7%, and the Q1 versus Q3 momentum reading shows a further -5% contraction, suggesting that the foundational philosophical tradition he established is experiencing a small but measurable decline in current internet engagement.