(November 6, 2021 at 6:00 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: Any Plato fans in the house? Or detractors?
I'm creating this thread because the Aquinas thread was drifting into discussions about Plato. So this thread is for analyzing texts you may be reading (or have read), or for just anything Plato-related you may want to discuss. Neo-Platonism is up for discussion too.
As many of you know, I'm a huge Plato fan. I think his best books are Republic, Symposium, and Apology.
I think the key to understanding Plato (especially when contemplating his early/middle works) is that he's not trying to fill your head with ideas. He's trying to get you to think about things... to shake you out of your learned perspective on things... and offer a new perspective for consideration.
Have you read anything by Plato that you find particularly interesting? If so, what book? And what interested you about it?
I was a huge Plato fan too, but Dawkins managed to knock him down a couple of pegs for me in his preface in "The Greatest Show On Earth". In it Dawkins blames Plato for humanity's chase for perfection which he claims infected politics and religion because of Plato's idea of "essence". "Essence" to Plato according to Dawkins was the idea that if you just thought about something long enough you could find that perfect thing, or idea.
I still like Plato's Apology and Allegory Of The Cave. But I do agree with Dawkins that Plato unwittingly infected humans with more tribalism and division because his "essence" idea became popular.
