Plato and Aristotle were early philosophers relative to us, but they were also the product of a long oral tradition that Plato was able to take and transform in

Plato and Aristotle were early philosophers relative to us, but they were also the product of a long oral tradition that Plato was able to take and transform into what we now consider philosophy. We have fairly complete records of their work, but only limited fragments and secondary references to those that came before them in comparison. Even the catch-all term "pre-Socratics" highlights this difference. That alone would account for some portion of Plato's influence, but that does a great disservice to his work. In every sense of the word, it was revolutionary. The word "great" gets bandied around a lot, and this article seems to struggle with it, but if you consider it in terms of influence, then Plato's position/ranking is unassailable. Nearly every western philosopher since has been influenced--directly or indirectly--by Plato's legacy. Just as you can't read Plotinus without a thorough understanding of Plato, even today there's an implicit assumption in philosophy that you have a pretty decent familiarity with Platonism. Plato's legacy isn't just one of ideas; it rightly includes the very field of philosophy as we understand it today. For that reason alone, he is considered a titan of the field.