Why is Karl Marx important? Karl Marx was a German writer and philosopher who lived from 1818 to 1883. He saw that people were not equal; that emperors and nobles held power over the majority of people in many countries such as Russia, and that many employers grew rich through the exploitation of their workers. Marx wanted to change things to make all people equal. He helped to found the ideas...

Why did Socrates take poison? Socrates was the teacher of Plato and left no writings of his own. We know of him only through the writings of others, principally Plato. Socrates did not claim to possess great  knowledge but questioned the opinions of others, showing them often to be without any logical basis. In this way, he hoped to arrive at true knowledge. He believed that goodness comes from wisdom and...

What were Plato’s dialogues?   Plato, who lived in Athens from about 427 BC to 347 BC, was one of the most famous philosophers of ancient Greece. Like many philosophers, he presented his arguments in the form of dialogues or conversations between people presenting first one viewpoint, then another. The reader is led towards certain conclusions through a set of reasons, but the dialogues allow objections to the conclusions to be...