1st Edition

Religious Platonism The Influence of Religion on Plato and the Influence of Plato on Religion

By James Kern Feibleman Copyright 1959
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    In Plato’s Laws is the earliest surviving fully developed cosmological argument. His influence on the philosophy of religion is wide ranging and this book examines both that and the influence of religion on Plato.

    Central to Plato’s thought is the theory of forms, which holds that there exists a realm of forms, perfect ideals of which things in this world are but imperfect copies. In this book, originally published in 1959, Feibleman finds two diverse strands in Plato’s philosophy: an idealism centered upon the Forms denying full ontological status to the realm of becoming, and a moderate realism granting actuality equal reality with Forms. For each strand Plato developed a conception of religion: a supernatural one derived from Orphism, and a naturalistic religion revering the traditional Olympian deities.

    Introduction: Parrhesia  Part 1: Plato's Religious Philosophy  1. Plato's Method  2. Plato's Two Philosophies  3. The Greek Religious Inheritance  4. The Influence of Orphism  5. Plato's Two Religions  Part 2: The Religious Influence of Plato  6. Aristotle's Religion  7. Philo's Philosophy of Religion  8. Plotinus' Philosophy of Religion  9. Rivals and Substitutes for Platonism  10. Early Neoplatonism  11. Later Neoplatonism: The Middle Ages  12. Later Neoplatonism: The Renaissance  13. Contemporary Religious Platonism

    Biography

    Feibleman, James Kern