Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Platonism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Platonism, rendered as a proper noun, is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems
considered closely derived from it. In narrower usage, platonism, rendered as a common noun (with a lower
case "p" subject to sentence case), refers to the philosophy that affirms the existence of abstract objects, which
are asserted to "exist" in a "third realm" distinct both from the sensible external world and from the internal
world of consciousness, and is the opposite of nominalism.[1] Lower case "platonists" need not accept any of
the doctrines of Plato.[1]
In a narrower sense, the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism. The central concept of Platonism,
a distinction essential to the Theory of Forms, is the distinction between the reality which is perceptible but
unintelligible, and the reality which is imperceptible but intelligible. The forms are typically described in
dialogues such as the Phaedo, Symposium and Republic as transcendent perfect archetypes of which objects in
the everyday world are imperfect copies.
In the Republic the highest form is identified as the Form of the Good, the source of all other forms, which
could be known by reason. In the Sophist, a later work, the forms being, sameness and difference are listed
among the primordial "Great Kinds". In the 3rd century BC, Arcesilaus adopted skepticism, which became a
central tenet of the school until 90 BC when Antiochus added Stoic elements, rejected skepticism, and began a
period known as Middle Platonism.
In the 3rd century AD, Plotinus added mystical elements, establishing Neoplatonism, 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. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought, and many
Platonic notions were adopted by the Christian church which understood Plato's forms as God's thoughts, while
Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian mysticism, in the West through St Augustine, Doctor of
the Catholic Church whose Christian writings were heavily influenced by Plotinus' Enneads,[2] and in turn were
foundations for the whole of Western Christian thought.[3]
Contents
1 Philosophy
2 History
2.1 The Academy
2.2 Middle Platonism
2.3 Neoplatonism
2.4 Christianity and Platonism
3 Modern Platonism
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Philosophy
The primary concept is the Theory 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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 1/6
6/10/2017 Platonism - Wikipedia
existence.[4] The number of the forms is defined by the number of universal concepts which can be derived
from the particular objects of sense.[4] 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."
Book VI of the Republic identifies the highest form as the Form of the Good, the cause of all other Ideas, 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.[4] It can only be obtained
by the soul's activity within itself, apart from the troubles and disturbances of sense; that is to say, by the
exercise of reason.[4] 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.[4] Later Neoplatonism, beginning with Plotinus,
identified the Good of the Republic with the so-called transcendent, absolute One of the first hypothesis of the
Parmenides (137c-142a).
Platonist ethics is based on the Form of the Good. Virtue is knowledge, the recognition of the supreme form of
the good.[4] And, since in this cognition, 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.[4] 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.[4]
Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. In many interpretations of the Timaeus Platonism,[5] like
Aristotelianism, poses an eternal universe, as opposed to the nearby Judaic tradition that the universe had been
created in historical time, with its continuous history recorded. Unlike Aristotelianism, Platonism describes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 2/6
6/10/2017 Platonism - Wikipedia
idea as prior to matter and identifies the person with the soul. Many Platonic notions secured a permanent place
in Christianity.[6]
History
The Academy
Around 266 BC, Arcesilaus became head of the Academy. This phase,
known as the Middle Academy, strongly emphasized Academic skepticism. It was characterized by its attacks
on the Stoics and their assertion of the certainty of truth and our knowledge of it. The New Academy began
with Carneades in 155 BC, the fourth head in succession from Arcesilaus. It was still largely skeptical, denying
the possibility of knowing an absolute truth; both Arcesilaus and Carneades believed that they were
maintaining a genuine tenet of Plato.
Middle Platonism
Around 90 BC, Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism, making way for the period known as Middle
Platonism, in which Platonism was fused with certain Peripatetic and many Stoic dogmas. In Middle Platonism,
the Platonic Forms were not transcendent but immanent to rational minds, and the physical world was a living,
ensouled being, the World-Soul. Pre-eminence in this period belongs to Plutarch. The eclectic nature of
Platonism during this time is shown by its incorporation into Pythagoreanism (Numenius of Apamea) and into
Jewish philosophy (Philo of Alexandria).
Neoplatonism
In the third century, Plotinus recast Plato's system, establishing Neoplatonism, in which Middle Platonism was
fused with mysticism. At the summit of existence stands the One or the Good, as the source of all things.[7] It
generates from itself, as if from the reflection of its own being, reason, the nous, - wherein is contained the
infinite store of ideas.[7] The world-soul, the copy of the nous, is generated by and contained in it, as the nous is
in the One, and, by informing matter in itself nonexistent, constitutes bodies whose existence is contained in the
world-soul.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7] To attain this union with the Good, or God, is the true
function of human beings.[7]
Plotinus' disciple, Porphyry, followed by Iamblichus, developed the system in conscious opposition to
Christianity. The Platonic Academy was re-established during this period; its most renowned head was Proclus
(died 485), a celebrated commentator on Plato's writings. The Academy persisted until Roman emperor
Justinian closed it in 529.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 3/6
6/10/2017 Platonism - Wikipedia
Modern Platonism
Apart from historical Platonism originating from thinkers such as Plato himself, Numenius, Plotinus, Augustine
and Proclus, we also encounter the theory of abstract 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.[12]
This modern Platonism (sometimes rendered "platonism," with a lower-case p, to distinguish it from the ancient
schools) has been endorsed in one way or another at one time or another by numerous philosophers (mostly
Austrian Realists[13] and analytic philosophers taking a particular interest in the philosophy and foundations of
logic and mathematics), including Bernard Bolzano, Gottlob Frege, Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, Alonzo
Church, Kurt Gdel, W. V. O. Quine, Hilary Putnam, George Bealer and Edward Zalta . Modern Platonism
recognizes a range of objects, including numbers, sets, truth values, properties, types, propositions and
meanings.
In the recent Continental tradition, prominent philosophers interested in Platonism (in the sense of Platonic
thought) include Leo Strauss, Simone Weil and Alain Badiou.
See also
List of ancient Platonists
Plato
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 4/6
6/10/2017 Platonism - Wikipedia
Plato's Republic
Timaeus (dialogue)
Khra
Harold F. Cherniss, scholar of Plato's relation to Aristotle
Plato's unwritten doctrines, debates over Plato's esotericism
References
1. " Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called platonists; those who
deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. This terminology is lamentable, since these words
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. However, the contemporary senses of these terms are now
established, and so the reader should be aware of them. 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 the medieval Nominalists." - "Abstract Objects", Gideon
Rosen, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), [1] (htt
p://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/abstract-objects/)
2. O'Connell SJ, RJ, The Enneads and St Augustine's Vision of Happiness. Vigiliae Christianae 17 (1963)
129-164 (JSTOR)
3. 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"
4. Oskar Seyffert, (1894), Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, page 481
5. cf. Proclus' commentary on the Timaeus; Cornford 1937
6. "Platonism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford
University Press. 2005
7. Oskar Seyffert, (1894), Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, page 484
8. Armstrong, A. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy,
Cambridge, 1970.
9. Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1983.
10. Reeser, Todd W. 2016. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11. Robin Russell (6 April 2009). "Heavenly minded: It's time to get our eschatology right, say scholars,
authors" (http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101). UM Portal. Retrieved 10 March 2011. "Greek
philosopherswho believed that spirit is good but matter is evilalso 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 the biblical record of God calling everything he created "good.""
12. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/platonism/
13. Gestalt Theory: Official Journal of the Society for Gestalt Theory and Its Applications (GTA), 22,
Steinkopff, 2000, p. 94: "Attention has varied between Continental Phenomenology (late Husserl,
Merleau-Ponty) and Austrian Realism (Brentano, Meinong, Benussi, early Husserl)".
Further reading
Ackermann, C. The Christian Element in Plato and the Platonic philosophy. Translated by Asbury
Samuel Ralph. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1861.
Cassirer, Ernst. The Platonic Renaissance in England. Translated by James P. Pettegrove. Edinburgh:
Nelson, 1953.
Kristeller, Paul Oskar, "Renaissance Platonism." In Renaissance Thought: the Classic, Scholastic, and
Humanistic Strains. New York: Harper, 1961.
Walker, Daniel Pickering. The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the
Eighteenth Century. London: Duckworth, 1972.
External links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 5/6
6/10/2017 Platonism - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism 6/6