Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the "big three" Greek philosophers

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Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the "big three" Greek philosophers, forming a legendary teacher-student lineage

: Socrates taught Plato, and Plato taught Aristotle, establishing foundational ideas in Western thought on ethics, politics, logic, and reality, with Socrates known for questioning (Socratic method), Plato for his Theory of Forms (ideal realities), and Aristotle for systematic logic, science, and practical ethics (Golden Mean). 

Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE)

• Known For: The Socratic Method—a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue to stimulate critical thinking and draw out ideas/underlying presumptions.
• Key Idea: "Virtue is knowledge"; believed an unexamined life is not worth living.
• Legacy: Wrote nothing down; we know him through Plato's dialogues; executed by Athens for impiety. 

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Plato (c. 428–348 BCE)

• Known For: Founding the Academy in Athens, writing extensive dialogues featuring Socrates, and developing political theory (e.g., The Republic).
• Key Idea: Theory of Forms—the physical world is a shadow of a higher, perfect realm of eternal Forms (Ideas).
• Legacy: His writings systematized philosophy; a major influence on Western philosophy and politics. 

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Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

• Known For: Tutoring Alexander the Great, founding the Lyceum, and creating foundational works in logic (syllogisms), biology, physics, ethics, and politics.
• Key Idea: Emphasized empirical observation and logic (the "Golden Mean" for ethics); believed reality is found in the physical world, not just ideas.
• Legacy: Encyclopedic scope of work; established formal logic and the basis for many sciences. 

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The Connection
This trio represents a pivotal intellectual lineage: Socrates' questioning paved the way for Plato's idealism, which Aristotle then synthesized with empirical science and practical ethics, laying the groundwork for much of Western philosophy and science. 

• Of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who is generally considered the better ...

  His student Plato, was a prolific and voluminous Writer whereby he produced numerous "Dialogues"-(with Socrates as the Protagonist...

  

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Greek Philosophers - National Geographic Education

Plato (428/427–348/347 B.C.E.) studied ethics, virtue, justice, and other ideas relating to human behavior. Following in Socrates'

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Socrates, Plato & Aristotle in 3 Minutes | Greek Philosophy Made ...

and Aristotle was Plato's disciple they lived between 459 BC to 322 BC roughly around 150 160 years. and they formed the bedrock o...

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Thinking is the talking of the Soul with itself-Plato

I like the way this feels and it feels true of all of us. You can imagine the first man building the first fire after thinking about this for some time. You can also imagine the first man (or woman) building the first carwheel out of a section of rough hewn log from a tree. All these breakthroughs in human history have brought us to today for good and for ill. I was reading about the 4 Roman Swords found near the Dead Sea in Caves and how the wooden and leather scabbards for those swords still existed today because of the dryness of the deserts there. It's pretty amazing to find swords from 1900 years ago any way you look at it with them and their scabbards pretty much intact. The Romans preferred a short sword then rather than a longer one or a rapier which is smaller around than your little finger. Each era preferred different weapons from the Scottish Claymore which is a really huge sword to the daggers that Cleopatra wore on her person to defend herself from attack and rape.

But, "Thinking is the Talking of the Soul with Itself" makes a lot of sense to me.