Plato was a philosopher.
Plato . Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries , Plato 's entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years . ... He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word `` philosopher '' should be applied . But he was so self-conscious about how philosophy should be conceived , and what its scope and ambitions properly are , and he so transformed the intellectual currents with which he grappled , that the subject of philosophy , as it is often conceived -- a rigorous and systematic examination of ethical , political , metaphysical , and epistemological issues , armed with a distinctive method -- can be called his invention .