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Although a relatively obscure figure in his own lifetime, his ideas began to exert a major
influence on workers' movements shortly after his death, especially with the Russian
Revolution of 1917. Despite the numerous debates among Marxists (and among political
philosophers in general) over how to interpret Marx's writings and how to apply his concepts
to current events and conditions, there are few parts of the world which have not
been significantly touched by Marx's ideas over the course of the 20th Century.
Plato was the founder of the famous Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher
learning in the western world. The philosophical school which he developed at the Academy
was known as Platonism (and its later off-shoot, Neo-Platonism).
His ideas and original thought have informed almost every philosophical movement since,
and he continues to challenge and influence philosophy (in both
the Analytic and Continental Philosophy camps) to this day.