From Plato to Platonism

Lloyd P. Gerson

Published by Cornell University Press 2017

From Plato to Platonism

Lloyd P. Gerson

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801469183

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lloyd P. Gerson argues that Plato was a Platonist and challenges fundamental assumptions about how Plato’s teachings have come to be understood.

Author / Editor information

Lloyd P. Gerson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the author of many books, including Aristotle and Other Platonists, also from Cornell, and Knowing Persons: A Study in Plato, and editor of The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity.

Reviews

Kevin Corrigan, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Director, the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory University:

This is a fascinating book—erudite yet accessible—that rejects the nineteenth-century split, widely accepted in the modern world, between a supposed originary 'Plato' and the subsequent history of Platonism. Lloyd P. Gerson argues persuasively, on the basis of the overall thought embedded in Plato’s dialogues and on indirect evidence from Aristotle onward, not only that Plato was a ‘Platonist’ but that Plotinus’s interpretation of Plato’s thought deserves to be taken more seriously as exegesis (as it was so understood by Proclus and others in late Antiquity).

John Dillon, Emeritus Fellow, Trinity College, author of The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy:

In From Plato to Platonism, Lloyd P. Gerson formulates in a new way the basic presuppositions behind Platonism and works them out with proper attention to the Old Academy, the New Academy, and the 'Middle' Platonists in a way that has not been done before, as well as bringing Aristotle into the fold. This work enhances Gerson's considerable reputation as an interpreter of the Greek philosophical tradition.

Claas Lattman:

Gerson's book is a highly valuable, well-written contribution to Plato nism research. It persuasively makes a case for understanding Plato's philosophy as a coherent system that has an intricate and meaningful relation to later Platonistic philosophical positions. From this point, Plato appears as a Platonist indeed.

Péter Lautner:

..the book is an important achievement. It is full of precious observations and suggestions. Even if someone is not fully convinced by the application of such an historical set of criteria he will find the book a highly rewarding reading.

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Part 1. Plato and His Readers
1. Was Plato a Platonist? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. Socrates and Platonism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
3. Reading the Dialogues Platonically Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
4. Aristotle on Plato and Platonism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Part 2. The Continuing Creation of Platonism
5. The Old Academy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
6. The Academic Skeptics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
7. Platonism in the ‘Middle’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
8. Numenius of Apamea Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Part 3. Plotinus: “Exegete of the Platonic Revelation”
9. Platonism as a System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
10. Plotinus as Interpreter of Plato (1) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
11. Plotinus as Interpreter of Plato (2) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
Index Locorum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335

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