Socratic dialogue is a genre of prose literary works developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC, preserved today in the dialogues of Plato in which characters discuss moral and philosophical problems, illustrating a version of the Socratic method. Socrates is often the main character. This edition contains the Later dialogues (written in the period between 361 and his death in 347) consisting of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, all written by Plato. Plato (circa 424-348 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.