Georg Anton Friedrich Ast

In 1805, he became professor of classical literature in the University of Landshut, where he remained until 1826, when it was transferred to Munich.

[1] In recognition of his work, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences made him a member and aulic councillor.

He is known principally for his work during the last twenty-five years of his life on the dialogues of Plato.

[1] Distrusting tradition, he took a few of the finest dialogues as his standard, and from internal evidence denounced as spurious not only those generally admitted to be so (Epinomis, Minos, Theages, Rivales, Clitophon, Hipparchus, Eryxias, Letters and Definitions), but also the Meno, Euthydemus, Charmides, Lysis, Laches, First and Second Alcibiades, Hippias Major and Minor, Ion, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and even (against Aristotle's explicit assertion) The Laws.

In his works on aesthetics he combined the views of Schelling with those of Winckelmann, Lessing, Kant, Herder, Schiller and others.