This book presents a comprehensive study into Plato's theological doctrines, offering an important re-valuation of the status of Plato's gods and the relation between metaphysics and theology according to Plato. Starting from an examination of Plato's views of religion and the relation between religion and morality, Gerd Van Riel investigates Plato's innovative ways of speaking about the gods. This theology displays a number of diverging tendencies - viewing the gods as perfect moral actors, as cosmological principles or as celestial bodies whilst remaining true to traditional anthropomorphic representations. Plato's views are shown to be unified by the emphasis on the goodness of the gods in both their cosmological and their moral functions. Van Riel shows that recent interpretations of Plato's theology are thoroughly metaphysical, starting from aristotelian patterns. A new reading of the basic texts leads to the conclusion that in Plato the gods aren't metaphysical principles but souls who transmit the metaphysical order to sensible reality. The metaphysical principles play the role of a fated order to which the gods have to comply. This book will be invaluable to readers interested in philosophical theology and intellectual history.

Challenges the idea that Plato is a secular thinker, exploring the interaction of philosophy and Greek religion in the dialogues.

Friedrich Solmsen’s book is a thorough exploration of Plato's ideas about God and religion. Solmsen focuses on Plato’s theology primarily as it is presented in Book 10 of the Laws, a work previously neglected as a source of Plato's conception of religion because of its problematic place within fifth-century discussions of new legal provisions concerning offences against the gods. The author, by way of introduction, outlines the role religion had played in the old Greek city-states, emphasizing the fact that there had been no religion of a nonpolitical character, and describes the way the old religion had been destroyed by the "Enlightenment" of the fifth century. Solmsen then traces the development of Plato's religious ideas, addressing such topics as Plato as the expurgator and reformer; his theological approach; the philosophy of movement; and the role of the Soul as the source of all movement. Plato's later religious philosophy, Solmsen shows, is marked by a more lenient attitude towards popular and poetic religion. He characterizes Plato's later thinking on religion, as disclosed in Book 10 of the Laws, as a revival of the old idea of a city religion. The content of this new Civic Religion, however, would be remodeled in accordance with Plato's own theological conceptions. Solmsen calls this attitude both archaic and Hellenistic. As to the Hellenistic element, the author points to the influence of the mystery cults and of Persian religion, the latter revealing itself most clearly in Plato's conception of the two antagonistic World-Souls. He also discusses at length such issues as Plato's ideas of a divine justice, his tendency towards monotheism, and the influence of his theology on later Greek philosophy and on Christian thought, especially Origen.

A Platonic Philosophy of Religion challenges traditional views of Plato's religious thought, arguing that these overstate the case for the veneration of Being as opposed to Becoming. Daniel A. Dombrowski explores how process or neoclassical perspectives on Plato's view of God have been mostly neglected, impoverishing both our view of Plato and our view of what can be said in contemporary philosophy of religion on a Platonic basis. Looking at the largely ignored later dialogues, Dombrowski finds a dynamic theism in Plato and presents a new and very different Platonic philosophy of religion. The work's interpretive framework derives from the application of process philosophy and discusses the continuation of Plato's thought in the works of Hartshorne and Whitehead.

Examines the role of myth in Plato's Phaedrus, arguing that it leads readers to participate in Plato's dialogues and to engage in self-examination.

This lively and accessible introduction to Plato focuses on the philosophy and argument of his writings, drawing the reader into Plato's way of doing philosophy, and the general themes of his thinking. This is not a book to leave the reader standing in the outer court of introduction and background information, but leads directly into Plato's argument. It looks at Plato as a thinker grappling with philosophical problems in a variety of ways, rather than a philosopher with a fully worked-out system. It includes a brief account of Plato's life and the various interpretations that have been drawn from the sparse remains of information. It stresses the importance of the founding of the Academy and the conception of philosophy as a subject. Julia Annas discusses Plato's style of writing: his use of the dialogue form, his use of what we today call fiction, and his philosophical transformation of myths. She also looks at his discussions of love and philosophy, his attitude to women, and to homosexual love, explores Plato's claim that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and touches on his arguments for the immortality of the soul and his ideas about the nature of the universe. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they’d had in school. Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors—and born vaudevillians—Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read—and finally, it all makes sense! And now, you can read Daniel Klein's further musings on life and philosophy in Travels with Epicurus and Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change it.

This volume retains all of Taylor's introduction, notes, and his reconstruction of the lost seventh book. It is an essentially religious work;- a near perfect attempt to express in a manner accessible to the reasoning mind, the universal order in, of, and around, all things. As such, Proclus' masterpiece is pan-cosmic in its scope, illuminating for us the Principles which produce, vivify, and perfect the whole of Being, Life, Intellect, Soul, Nature, and Body, while suspending all these from one exempt and superessential Unity, called The ONE and The GOOD, which all things abide in, proceed from, and return to. It has been called one of the Great Scriptures of the world. Although the sublime genius of Proclus can be seen at its best in this 'magnum opus', Taylor's translation is, unbelievably, still the only one available. This is the first full republication of his original two-volume work, published here in a single volume. With standard pagination from the Belles Lettres Westerink-Saffrey text.