Platonism is thephilosophy ofPlato andphilosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato.[1] Platonism has had a profound effect onWestern thought. At the most fundamental level, Platonism affirms the existence ofabstract objects, which are asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite ofnominalism.[1] This can apply toproperties,types,propositions,meanings,numbers,sets,truth values, and so on (seeabstract object theory). Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called Platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "Platonism" and "nominalism" also have established senses in the history of philosophy. They denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object.[2]
In a narrower sense, the term might indicate the doctrine ofPlatonic realism, a form of mysticism[citation needed]. The central concept of Platonism, a distinction essential to theTheory of Forms, is the distinction between the reality which is perceptible but unintelligible, associated with the flux ofHeraclitus and studied by the likes of physicalscience, and the reality which is imperceptible but intelligible, associated with the unchanging being ofParmenides and studied by the likes ofmathematics.Geometry was the main motivation of Plato, and this also shows the influence ofPythagoras. The Forms are typically described in dialogues such as thePhaedo,Symposium andRepublic as perfectarchetypes of which objects in the everyday world are imperfect copies.Aristotle'sThird Man Argument is its most famous criticism in antiquity.
In theRepublic the highest form is identified as theForm of the Good, the source of all other Forms, which could be known by reason. In theSophist, a later work, the Formsbeing,sameness anddifference are listed among the primordial "Great Kinds". Plato establishedthe academy, and in the 3rd century BC,Arcesilaus adoptedacademic skepticism, which became a central tenet of the school until 90 BC whenAntiochus addedStoic elements, rejected skepticism, and began a period known asMiddle Platonism.
In the 3rd century AD,Plotinus added additional mystical elements, establishingNeoplatonism, in which the summit of existence was the One or the Good, the source of all things; in virtue and meditation the soul had the power to elevate itself to attain union with the One. Many Platonic notions were adopted by theChristian church which understood Plato's Forms as God's thoughts (a position also known as divine conceptualism), while Neoplatonism became a major influence onChristian mysticism in the West throughSaint Augustine,Doctor of the Catholic Church, who was heavily influenced by Plotinus'Enneads,[3] and in turn were foundations for the whole ofWestern Christian thought.[4] Many ideas of Plato were incorporated by theRoman Catholic Church.[5]
The primary concept is theTheory of Forms. The only true being is founded upon the forms, the eternal, unchangeable, perfect types, of which particular objects of moral and responsible sense are imperfect copies. The multitude of objects of sense, being involved in perpetual change, are thereby deprived of all genuine existence.[6] The number of the forms is defined by the number of universal concepts which can be derived from the particular objects of sense.[6] The following excerpt may be representative of Plato's middle period metaphysics and epistemology:
[Socrates:] "Since the beautiful is opposite of the ugly, they are two."
[Glaucon:] "Of course." "And since they are two, each is one?" "I grant that also." "And the same account is true of the just and unjust, the good and the bad, and all the forms. Each of them is itself one, but because they manifest themselves everywhere in association with actions, bodies, and one another, each of them appears to be many." "That's right." "So, I draw this distinction: On one side are those you just now called lovers of sights, lovers of crafts, and practical people; on the other side are those we are now arguing about and whom one would alone call philosophers." "How do you mean?" "The lovers of sights and sounds like beautiful sounds, colors, shapes, and everything fashioned out of them, but their thought is unable to see and embrace the nature of the beautiful itself." "That's for sure." "In fact, there are very few people who would be able to reach the beautiful itself and see it by itself. Isn't that so?" "Certainly." "What about someone who believes in beautiful things, but doesn't believe in the beautiful itself and isn't able to follow anyone who could lead him to the knowledge of it? Don't you think he is living in a dream rather than a wakened state? Isn't this dreaming: whether asleep or awake,to think that a likeness is not a likeness but rather the thing itself that it is like?" "I certainly think that someone who does that is dreaming." "But someone who, to take the opposite case, believes in the beautiful itself, can see both it and the things that participate in it and doesn't believe that the participants are it or that it itself is the participants—is he living in a dream or is he awake? "He's very much awake."
(Republic Bk. V, 475e-476d, translation G. M. A. Grube)
Book VI of theRepublic identifies the highest form as theForm of the Good, the cause of all otherIdeas, and that on which the being and knowing of all other Forms is contingent. Conceptions derived from the impressions of sense can never give us the knowledge of true being, i.e., of the forms.[6] It can only be obtained by thesoul's activity within itself, apart from the troubles and disturbances of sense; that is to say, by the exercise ofreason.[6]Dialectic, as the instrument in this process, leading us to knowledge of the forms, and finally to the highest form of the Good, is the first of sciences.[6] LaterNeoplatonism, beginning withPlotinus, identified the Good of theRepublic with thetranscendent,absolute One[7] of the first hypothesis of theParmenides (137c-142a).
Platonistethics is based on theForm of the Good.Virtue isknowledge, the recognition of the supreme form of the good.[6] And, since in thiscognition, the three parts of the soul, which are reason, spirit, and appetite, all have their share, we get the three virtues, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation.[6] The bond which unites the other virtues is the virtue of Justice, by which each part of the soul is confined to the performance of its proper function.[6]
Platonism had a profound effect onWestern thought. In many interpretations of theTimaeus Platonism,[8] likeAristotelianism, poses aneternaluniverse, as opposed to the nearbyJudaic tradition that the universe had been created in historical time, with its continuoushistory recorded. Unlike Aristotelianism, Platonism describesidea as prior tomatter and identifies theperson with thesoul. Many Platonic notions secured a permanent place in Christianity.[9]
At the heart of Plato's philosophy is the theory of the soul. Francis Cornford described the twin pillars of Platonism as being the theory of the Forms, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.[10] Indeed, Plato was the first person in the history of philosophy to believe that the soul was both the source of life and the mind.[11] In Plato's dialogues, the soul plays many disparate roles. Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in theLaws andPhaedrus) in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving oneself; the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of moral properties (i.e., when I am virtuous, it is my soul that is virtuous as opposed to, say, my body). The soul is also the mind: it is that which thinks in us.
This casual oscillation between different roles of the soul is seen in many dialogues. First of all, in theRepublic:
Is there any function of the soul that you could not accomplish with anything else, such as taking care of something (epimeleisthai), ruling, and deliberating, and other such things? Could we correctly assign these things to anything besides the soul, and say that they are characteristic (idia) of it?
No, to nothing else.
What about living? Will we deny that this is a function of the soul?
ThePhaedo most famously caused problems to scholars who were trying to make sense of this aspect of Plato's theory of the soul, such as Broadie[13] and Dorothea Frede.[14]
More-recent scholarship has overturned this accusation arguing that part of the novelty of Plato's theory of the soul is that it was the first to unite the different features and powers of the soul that became commonplace in later ancient and medieval philosophy.[11] For Plato, the soul moves things by means of its thoughts, as one scholar puts it, and accordingly, the soul is both a mover (i.e., the principle of life, where life is conceived of asself-motion) and a thinker.[11]
Platonism was originally expressed in thedialogues of Plato, in which the figure ofSocrates is used to expound certain doctrines, that may or may not be similar to the thought of the historicalSocrates, Plato's master. Plato delivered his lectures at the Platonic Academy, a precinct containing a sacred grove outside the walls ofAthens. The school continued there long after Plato's death. There were three periods: the Old, Middle, and New Academy. The chief figures in the Old Academy wereSpeusippus (Plato's nephew), who succeeded him as the head of the school (until 339 BC), andXenocrates (until 313 BC). Both of them sought to fusePythagorean speculations onnumber with Plato's theory of forms.
Many Western churchmen, includingAugustine of Hippo, have been influenced by Platonism.
In the third century,Plotinus recast Plato's system, establishingNeoplatonism, in which Middle Platonism was fused withmysticism. At the summit of existence standsthe One or the Good, as the source of all things.[16] It generates from itself, as if from the reflection of its own being, reason, thenous, wherein is contained the infinite store of ideas.[16] Theworld-soul, the copy of thenous, is generated by and contained in it, as thenous is in the One, and, by informing matter in itself nonexistent, constitutes bodies whose existence is contained in the world-soul.[16] Nature therefore is a whole, endowed with life and soul. Soul, being chained to matter, longs to escape from the bondage of the body and return to its original source.[16] In virtue and philosophical thought it has the power to elevate itself above the reason into a state of ecstasy, where it can behold, or ascend to, that one good primary Being whom reason cannot know.[16] To attain this union with the Good, orthe One is the true function of human beings.[16]
Plotinus' disciple,Porphyry, followed byIamblichus, developed the system in conscious opposition toChristianity—even as many influential early Christian writers took inspiration from it in their conceptions of monotheistic theology. The Platonic Academy was re-established during this period; its most renowned head wasProclus (died 485), a celebrated commentator on Plato's writings. The academy persisted until Roman emperorJustinian closed it in 529.
Platonism was considered authoritative in theMiddle Ages.[9] Platonism also influenced both Eastern and Westernmysticism.[9][18] Meanwhile, Platonism influenced various philosophers.[9] WhileAristotle became more influential thanPlato in the 13th century,St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy was still in certain respects fundamentally Platonic.[9]
TheRenaissance also saw a renewed interest in Platonic thought, including more interest in Plato himself.[9] In 16th-, 17th-, and 19th-centuryEngland, Plato's ideas influenced many religious thinkers including theCambridge Platonists.[9] OrthodoxProtestantism in continentalEurope, however, distrusts natural reason and has often been critical of Platonism.[9]An issue in the reception of Plato in early modern Europe was how to deal with the same-sex elements of his corpus.[19]
Christoplatonism is a term used to refer to adualism opined by Plato, which holdsspirit is good butmatter is evil,[20] which influenced someChristian churches, though the Bible's teaching directly contradicts this philosophy and thus it receives constant criticism from many teachers in the Christian Church today. According to theMethodist Church,Christoplatonism directly "contradicts the Biblical record of God calling everything Hecreated good."[20]
Apart from historical Platonism originating from thinkers such as Plato and Plotinus, we also encounter the theory ofabstract objects in the modern sense.
Platonism is the view that there exist such things as abstract objects — where an abstract object is an object that does not exist in space or time and which is therefore entirely non-physical and non-mental. Platonism in this sense is a contemporary view.[21]
Most contemporary Platonists trace their views to those ofGottlob Frege.
Thismodern Platonism has been endorsed in one way or another at one time or another by numerous philosophers, such asBernard Bolzano, who argue for anti-psychologism. Plato's works have been decisively influential for 20th century philosophers such asAlfred North Whitehead and hisProcess Philosophy; and for the critical realism and metaphysics ofNicolai Hartmann.
Platonism has not only influenced the tenets of Christianity[28] andIslam that are today classified as 'orthodox' teachings, but also thegnostic or esoteric 'heterodox' traditions of these religions that circulated in the ancient world, such as the former major world religionManichaeism,[29][30]Mandaeism,[31] andHermeticism. ThroughEuropean Renaissance scholarship on Hermeticism and direct Platonic philosophy (among other esoteric and philosophical scholarship of the time, such asJewish magic and mysticism andIslamic alchemy), themagic andalchemy of the period represents a culmination of several permutations of Platonic philosophy.
Julius Evola incorporated Platonic metaphysics into his vision ofRoman pagan revival, aligning with his Traditionalist critique of modernity.Arturo Reghini, an Italian esotericist and collaborator of Evola, also promoted Neoplatonic ideas in his efforts to reviveancient Roman religion.[32]
^ab" Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "platonism" and "nominalism" have established senses in the history of philosophy, where they denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object. In this connection, it is essential to bear in mind that modern platonists (with a small 'p') need not accept any of the doctrines of Plato, just as modern nominalists need not accept the doctrines of medievalNominalists.""Abstract Objects"Archived 2013-12-02 at theWayback Machine, Gideon Rosen, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
^Rosen, Gideon (2012),"Abstract Objects", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved2023-09-29
^O'ConnellSJ, RJ,The Enneads and St Augustine's Vision of Happiness. Vigiliae Christianae 17 (1963) 129–164 (JSTOR)
^Pelikan, Jaroslav.The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine.Vol 1:The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100–600; Pelikan, Jaroslav.The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine.Vol 3:The Growth of Mediaeval Theology 600–1300, section, "The Augustinian Synthesis".
The G. K. Chesterton Collection II [65 Books]. Catholic Way Publishing. 2014.ISBN9781783792108.Plato in some sense anticipated the Catholic realism, as attacked by the heretical nominalism, by insisting on the equally fundamental fact that ideas are realities; that ideas exist just as men exist.
Peter Stanford (2010).Catholicism: An Introduction: A comprehensive guide to the history, beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith. Hachette UK.ISBN9781444131031.Both Aristotle and Plato were crucial in shaping Catholic thinking
Between Past and Future. Penguin. 2006.ISBN9781101662656.To the extent that the Catholic Church incorporated Greek philosophy into the structure of its doctrines and dogmatic beliefs
^abcdefghOskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 481
^Brenk, Frederick (January 2016)."Pagan Monotheism and Pagan Cult"."Theism" and Related Categories in the Study of Ancient Religions. SCS/AIA Annual Meeting. Vol. 75.Philadelphia:Society for Classical Studies (University of Pennsylvania).Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved14 October 2020.Historical authors generally refer to "the divine" (to theion) or "the supernatural" (to daimonion) rather than simply "God." [...] TheStoics, believed in a God identifiable with thelogos orhegemonikon (reason or leading principle) of the universe and downgraded thetraditional gods, who even disappear during the conflagration (ekpyrosis). Yet, the Stoics apparently did not practice a cult to this God.Middle andLater Platonists, who spoke of a supreme God, in philosophical discourse, generally speak of this God, not the gods, as responsible for the creation and providence of the universe. They, too, however, do not seem to have directly practiced a religious cult to their God.
^cf. Proclus' commentary on theTimaeus; Cornford 1937
^abcdefghij"Platonism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
^Cornford, Francis (1941).The Republic of Plato. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxv.
^abcCampbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul".The Southern Journal of Philosophy.59: 523–544.
^Plato,Republic, Book 1, 353d. Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.
^Broadie, Sarah. 2001. “Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308. Quotation from page 301.
^Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo 102a–107a".Phronesis, 23.1: 27–41. Quotation from page 38.
^abcdefOskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, page 484
^Armstrong, A. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge, 1970.
^Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
^Reeser, Todd W. 2016. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
^abRobin Russell (6 April 2009)."Heavenly minded: It's time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors". UM Portal. Archived fromthe original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved10 March 2011.Greek philosophers—who believed that spirit is good but matter is evil—also influenced the church, says Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven (Tyndale, 2004). He coined the term "Christoplatonism" to describe that kind of dualism, which directly contradicts God's biblical record calling everything he created "good."
^abcdefghBalaguer, Mark (2016),"Platonism in Metaphysics", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,archived from the original on 2022-06-18, retrieved2022-07-10.
^Linsky, B., andZalta, E., 1995, "Naturalized Platonism vs. Platonized Naturalism",The Journal of Philosophy,92(10): 525–555.
^Van Inwagen, Peter (2009). "God and Other Uncreated Things", in Kevin Timpe & Eleonore Stump (eds.), Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump. Routledge.
^Alfred Schramm,Meinongian Issues in Contemporary Italian Philosophy, Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 28.
^Peter Graf Kielmansegg, Horst Mewes, Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt (eds.),Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Émigrés and American Political Thought After World War II, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 97: "Many commentators think that [Strauss's] exposition of the true Platonist was meant as a self-description of Strauss."
^Doering, E. Jane, and Eric O. Springsted, eds. (2004)The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 29.
^Sean Bowden,Badiou and Philosophy, Edinburgh University Press, 2012, p. 63.
^Hampton, Alexander J. B.; Kenney, John Peter, eds. (2021).Christian Platonism: a history. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-108-49198-3.
^Corrigan, Kevin; Rasimus, Tuomas (2013).Gnosticism, Platonism and the late ancient world: essays in honour of John D. Turner. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-90-04-22383-7.
^Nasoraia, Brikha H. S. (2021). Trompf, Garry (ed.).The Mandaean gnostic religion: worship practice and deep thought. Studies in world religions. New Delhi: Sterling.ISBN978-81-950824-1-4.
^Giudice, Christian.Occult Imperium: Arturo Reghini, Roman Traditionalism, and the Anti-Modern Reaction in Fascist Italy. Oxford University Press, 2022. ISBN 978-0197610244.
