Platonism

Platonismis thephilosophyofPlatoandphilosophical systemsclosely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato.^[1]Platonism has had a profound effect onWestern thought.At the most fundamental level, Platonism affirms the existence ofabstract objects,which are asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite ofnominalism.^[1]This can apply toproperties,types,propositions,meanings,numbers,sets,truth values,and so on (seeabstract object theory). Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called Platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "Platonism" and "nominalism" also have established senses in the history of philosophy. They denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object.^[2]

In a narrower sense, the term might indicate the doctrine ofPlatonic realism,a form of mysticism. The central concept of Platonism, a distinction essential to theTheory of Forms,is the distinction between the reality which is perceptible but unintelligible, associated with the flux ofHeraclitusand studied by the likes ofscience,and the reality which is imperceptible but intelligible, associated with the unchanging being ofParmenidesand studied by the likes ofmathematics.Geometrywas the main motivation of Plato, and this also shows the influence ofPythagoras.The Forms are typically described in dialogues such as thePhaedo,SymposiumandRepublicas perfectarchetypesof which objects in the everyday world are imperfect copies.Aristotle'sThird Man Argumentis its most famous criticism in antiquity.

In theRepublicthe highest form is identified as theForm of the Good,the source of all other Forms, which could be known by reason. In theSophist,a later work, the Formsbeing,samenessanddifferenceare listed among the primordial "Great Kinds". Plato establishedthe academy,and in the 3rd century BC,Arcesilausadoptedacademic skepticism,which became a central tenet of the school until 90 BC whenAntiochusaddedStoicelements, rejected skepticism, and began a period known asMiddle Platonism.

In the 3rd century AD,Plotinusadded additional mystical elements, establishingNeoplatonism,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. Many Platonic notions were adopted by theChristian churchwhich understood Plato's Forms as God's thoughts (a position also known as divine conceptualism), while Neoplatonism became a major influence onChristian mysticismin the West throughSaint Augustine,Doctor of the Catholic Church,who was heavily influenced by Plotinus'Enneads,^[3]and in turn were foundations for the whole ofWestern Christianthought.^[4]Many ideas of Plato were incorporated by theRoman Catholic Church.^[5]

Philosophy

Plato holding hisTimaeus,detail from theVaticanfrescoThe School of Athens

The primary concept is theTheory 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 existence.^[6]The number of the forms is defined by the number of universal concepts which can be derived from the particular objects of sense.^[6]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."

[Glaucon:] "Of course."
"And since they are two, each is one?"
"I grant that also."
"And the same account is true of the just and unjust, the good and the bad, and all the forms. Each of them is itself one, but because they manifest themselves everywhere in association with actions, bodies, and one another, each of them appears to be many."
"That's right."
"So, I draw this distinction: On one side are those you just now called lovers of sights, lovers of crafts, and practical people; on the other side are those we are now arguing about and whom one would alone call philosophers."
"How do you mean?"
"The lovers of sights and sounds like beautiful sounds, colors, shapes, and everything fashioned out of them, but their thought is unable to see and embrace the nature of the beautiful itself."
"That's for sure."
"In fact, there are very few people who would be able to reach the beautiful itself and see it by itself. Isn't that so?"
"Certainly."
"What about someone who believes in beautiful things, but doesn't believe in the beautiful itself and isn't able to follow anyone who could lead him to the knowledge of it? Don't you think he is living in a dream rather than a wakened state? Isn't this dreaming: whether asleep or awake,to think that a likeness is not a likeness but rather the thing itselfthat it is like? "
"I certainly think that someone who does that is dreaming."
"But someone who, to take the opposite case, believes in the beautiful itself, can see both it and the things that participate in it and doesn't believe that the participants are it or that it itself is the participants—is he living in a dream or is he awake?
"He's very much awake."

(RepublicBk. V, 475e-476d, translation G. M. A. Grube)

Book VI of theRepublicidentifies the highest form as theForm of the Good,the cause of all otherIdeas,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.^[6]It can only be obtained by thesoul's activity within itself, apart from the troubles and disturbances of sense; that is to say, by the exercise ofreason.^[6]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.^[6]LaterNeoplatonism,beginning withPlotinus,identified the Good of theRepublicwith thetranscendent,absolute One^[7]of the first hypothesis of theParmenides(137c-142a).

Platonistethicsis based on theForm of the Good.Virtueisknowledge,the recognition of the supreme form of the good.^[6]And, since in thiscognition,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.^[6]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.^[6]

Platonism had a profound effect onWestern thought.In many interpretations of theTimaeusPlatonism,^[8]likeAristotelianism,poses aneternal universe,as opposed to the nearbyJudaic traditionthat the universe had been created in historical time, with its continuoushistoryrecorded. Unlike Aristotelianism, Platonism describesideaas prior tomatterand identifies thepersonwith thesoul.Many Platonic notions secured a permanent place in Christianity.^[9]

At the heart of Plato's philosophy is the theory of the soul. Francis Cornford described the twin pillars of Platonism as being the theory of the Forms, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.^[10]Indeed, Plato was the first person in the history of philosophy to believe that the soul was both the source of life and the mind.^[11]In Plato's dialogues, the soul plays many disparate roles. Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in theLawsandPhaedrus) in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving oneself; the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of moral properties (i.e., when I am virtuous, it is my soul that is virtuous as opposed to, say, my body). The soul is also the mind: it is that which thinks in us.

This casual oscillation between different roles of the soul is seen in many dialogues. First of all, in theRepublic:

Is there any function of the soul that you could not accomplish with anything else, such as taking care of something (epimeleisthai), ruling, and deliberating, and other such things? Could we correctly assign these things to anything besides the soul, and say that they are characteristic (idia) of it?
No, to nothing else.
What about living? Will we deny that this is a function of the soul?
That absolutely is.^[12]

ThePhaedomost famously caused problems to scholars who were trying to make sense of this aspect of Plato's theory of the soul, such as Broadie^[13]and Dorothea Frede.^[14]

More-recent scholarship has overturned this accusation arguing that part of the novelty of Plato's theory of the soul is that it was the first to unite the different features and powers of the soul that became commonplace in later ancient and medieval philosophy.^[11]For Plato, the soul moves things by means of its thoughts, as one scholar puts it, and accordingly, the soul is both a mover (i.e., the principle of life, where life is conceived of asself-motion) and a thinker.^[11]

History

Ancient philosophy

The Academy

Site of Plato's Academy in Athens

Platonism was originally expressed in thedialogues of Plato,in which the figure ofSocratesis used to expound certain doctrines, that may or may not be similar to the thought of the historicalSocrates,Plato's master. Plato delivered his lectures at the Platonic Academy, a precinct containing a sacred grove outside the walls ofAthens.The school continued there long after Plato's death. There were three periods: the Old, Middle, and New Academy. The chief figures in the Old Academy wereSpeusippus(Plato's nephew), who succeeded him as the head of the school (until 339 BC), andXenocrates(until 313 BC). Both of them sought to fusePythagoreanspeculations onnumberwith Plato's theory of forms.

The Skeptical Academy

Around 266 BC,Arcesilausbecame head of the academy. This phase, known as theMiddle Academy,strongly emphasizedphilosophical skepticism.It was characterized by its attacks on theStoicsand theirassertion of the certainty of truth and our knowledge of it.TheNew Academybegan withCarneadesin 155 BC, the fourth head in succession fromArcesilaus.It was still largely skeptical,denying the possibility of knowing an absolute truth;bothArcesilausandCarneadesargued that they were maintaining a genuine tenet ofPlato.

Middle Platonism

Around 90 BC,Antiochus of Ascalonrejected skepticism, making way for the period known asMiddle Platonism,in which Platonism was fused with certainPeripateticand manyStoic dogmas.In Middle Platonism, the Platonic Forms were not transcendent but immanent to rational minds, and the physical world was a living, ensouled being, theWorld-Soul.Pre-eminence in this period belongs toPlutarch.The eclectic nature of Platonism during this time is shown by its incorporation intoPythagoreanism(Numenius of Apamea) and intoJewish philosophy^[15](Philo of Alexandria).

Neoplatonism

Many Western churchmen, includingAugustine of Hippo,have been influenced by Platonism.

In the third century,Plotinusrecast Plato's system, establishingNeoplatonism,in which Middle Platonism was fused withmysticism.At the summit of existence standsthe Oneor the Good, as the source of all things.^[16]It generates from itself, as if from the reflection of its own being, reason, thenous,wherein is contained the infinite store of ideas.^[16]Theworld-soul,the copy of thenous,is generated by and contained in it, as thenousis in the One, and, by informing matter in itself nonexistent, constitutes bodies whose existence is contained in the world-soul.^[16]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.^[16]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.^[16]To attain this union with the Good, orthe Oneis the true function of human beings.^[16]

Plotinus' disciple,Porphyry,followed byIamblichus,developed the system in conscious opposition toChristianity.The Platonic Academy was re-established during this period; its most renowned head wasProclus(died 485), a celebrated commentator on Plato's writings. The academy persisted until Roman emperorJustinianclosed it in 529.

Medieval philosophy

Christianity and Platonism

Platonism has had some influence onChristianitythroughClement of AlexandriaandOrigen,^[9]and theCappadocian Fathers.^[17]St. Augustinewas heavily influenced by Platonism as well, which he encountered through the Latin translations ofMarius Victorinusof the works ofPorphyryand/orPlotinus.^[9]

Platonism was considered authoritative in theMiddle Ages.^[9]Platonism also influenced both Eastern and Westernmysticism.^[9]^[18]Meanwhile, Platonism influenced various philosophers.^[9]WhileAristotlebecame more influential thanPlatoin the 13th century,St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy was still in certain respects fundamentally Platonic.^[9]

Modern philosophy

Renaissance

TheRenaissancealso saw a renewed interest in Platonic thought, including more interest in Plato himself.^[9]In 16th-, 17th-, and 19th-centuryEngland,Plato's ideas influenced many religious thinkers including theCambridge Platonists.^[9]OrthodoxProtestantismin continentalEurope,however, distrusts natural reason and has often been critical of Platonism.^[9] An issue in the reception of Plato in early modern Europe was how to deal with the same-sex elements of his corpus.^[19]

Christoplatonismis a term used to refer to adualismopined by Plato, which holdsspiritis good butmatteris evil,^[20]which influenced someChristian churches,though the Bible's teaching directly contradicts this philosophy and thus it receives constant criticism from many teachers in the Christian Church today. According to theMethodist Church,Christoplatonismdirectly "contradicts the Biblical record of God calling everything Hecreatedgood. "^[20]

Contemporary philosophy

Modern Platonism

Apart from historical Platonism originating from thinkers such as Plato and Plotinus, we also encounter the theory ofabstract objectsin 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.^[21]

Most contemporary Platonists trace their views to those ofGottlob Frege.

Thismodern Platonismhas been endorsed in one way or another at one time or another by numerous philosophers, such asBernard Bolzano,who argue for anti-psychologism.Plato's works have been decisively influential for 20th century philosophers such asAlfred North Whiteheadand hisProcess Philosophy;and for the critical realism and metaphysics ofNicolai Hartmann.

Analytic

In contemporary philosophy, most Platonists trace their ideas toGottlob Frege's influential paper "Thought", which argues for Platonism with respect to propositions, and his influential book,The Foundations of Arithmetic,which argues for Platonism with respect to numbers and is a seminal text of thelogicistproject.^[21]Contemporaryanalytic philosopherswho espoused Platonism inmetaphysicsincludeBertrand Russell,^[21]Alonzo Church,^[21]Kurt Gödel,^[21]W. V. O. Quine,^[21]David Kaplan,^[21]Saul Kripke,^[21]Edward Zalta^[22]andPeter van Inwagen.^[23]Iris Murdochespoused Platonism inmoral philosophyin her 1970 bookThe Sovereignty of Good.

Paul Benacerraf'sepistemological challengeto contemporary Platonism has proved its most influential criticism.

Continental

In contemporaryContinental philosophy,Edmund Husserl's arguments against psychologism are believed to derive from a Platonist conception of logic, influenced by Frege and his mentor Bolzano.^[24]—Husserl explicitly mentioned Bolzano,G. W. LeibnizandHermann Lotzeas inspirations for his position in hisLogical Investigations(1900–1). Other prominent contemporary Continental philosophers interested in Platonism in a general sense includeLeo Strauss,^[25]Simone Weil,^[26]andAlain Badiou.^[27]

Influence on religions

Platonism not only influenced Christianity^[28]andIslam,but alsognosticformer major world religionManichaeism^[29]^[30]and gnosticMandaeism.^[31]

References

^^a ^b"Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms" platonism "and" nominalism "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. 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 medievalNominalists.""Abstract Objects"Archived2013-12-02 at theWayback Machine,Gideon Rosen, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
^Rosen, Gideon (2012),"Abstract Objects",in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(Spring 2012 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,retrieved2023-09-29
^O'ConnellSJ,RJ,The Enneads and St Augustine's Vision of Happiness.Vigiliae Christianae 17 (1963) 129–164 (JSTOR)
^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".
^
- The G. K. Chesterton Collection II [65 Books].Catholic Way Publishing. 2014.ISBN 9781783792108.Plato in some sense anticipated the Catholic realism, as attacked by the heretical nominalism, by insisting on the equally fundamental fact that ideas are realities; that ideas exist just as men exist.
- G. K. Chesterton(2012).St. Thomas Aquinas.Courier Corporation.ISBN 9780486122267.The truth is that the historical Catholic Church began by being Platonist; by being rather too Platonist.
- Peter Stanford(2010).Catholicism: An Introduction: A comprehensive guide to the history, beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith.Hachette UK.ISBN 9781444131031.Both Aristotle and Plato were crucial in shaping Catholic thinking
- Bob Gillespie (2009).Machiavelli and the Mayflower: How to Understand the Europeans.La Rémige SARL. p. 14.ISBN 9782953386707.Roman Church doctrine is founded on many platforms, such as Plato's concept of the soul and of life after death
- Between Past and Future.Penguin. 2006.ISBN 9781101662656.To the extent that the Catholic Church incorporated Greek philosophy into the structure of its doctrines and dogmatic beliefs
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hOskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,p. 481
^Brenk, Frederick (January 2016)."Pagan Monotheism and Pagan Cult"."Theism" and Related Categories in the Study of Ancient Religions.SCS/AIA Annual Meeting. Vol. 75.Philadelphia:Society for Classical Studies(University of Pennsylvania).Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2017.Retrieved14 October2020.Historical authors generally refer to "the divine" (to theion) or "the supernatural" (to daimonion) rather than simply "God." [...] TheStoics,believed in a God identifiable with thelogosorhegemonikon(reason or leading principle) of the universe and downgraded thetraditional gods,who even disappear during the conflagration (ekpyrosis). Yet, the Stoics apparently did not practice a cult to this God.MiddleandLater Platonists,who spoke of a supreme God, in philosophical discourse, generally speak of this God, not the gods, as responsible for the creation and providence of the universe. They, too, however, do not seem to have directly practiced a religious cult to their God.
^cf. Proclus' commentary on theTimaeus;Cornford 1937
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j"Platonism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
^Cornford, Francis (1941).The Republic of Plato.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxv.
^^a ^b ^cCampbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul".The Southern Journal of Philosophy.59:523–544.
^Plato,Republic,Book 1, 353d. Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.
^Broadie, Sarah. 2001. “Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308. Quotation from page 301.
^Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo 102a–107a".Phronesis,23.1: 27–41. Quotation from page 38.
^"Platonism – Medieval Platonism".Archivedfrom the original on 2020-07-21.Retrieved2020-04-22.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^fOskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,page 484
^Armstrong, A. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge, 1970.
^Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
^Reeser, Todd W. 2016. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
^^a ^bRobin Russell (6 April 2009)."Heavenly minded: It's time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors".UM Portal. Archived fromthe originalon 22 July 2011.Retrieved10 March2011.Greek philosophers—who believed that spirit is good but matter is evil—also 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 God's biblical record calling everything he created "good."
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hBalaguer, Mark (2016),"Platonism in Metaphysics",in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(Spring 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,archivedfrom the original on 2022-06-18,retrieved2022-07-10.
^Linsky, B., andZalta, E.,1995, "Naturalized Platonism vs. Platonized Naturalism",The Journal of Philosophy,92(10): 525–555.
^Van Inwagen, Peter (2009). "God and Other Uncreated Things", in Kevin Timpe & Eleonore Stump (eds.), Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump. Routledge.
^Alfred Schramm,Meinongian Issues in Contemporary Italian Philosophy,Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 28.
^Peter Graf Kielmansegg, Horst Mewes, Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt (eds.),Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Émigrés and American Political Thought After World War II,Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 97: "Many commentators think that [Strauss's] exposition of the true Platonist was meant as a self-description of Strauss."
^Doering, E. Jane, and Eric O. Springsted, eds. (2004)The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil.University of Notre Dame Press. p. 29.
^Sean Bowden,Badiou and Philosophy,Edinburgh University Press, 2012, p. 63.
^Hampton, Alexander J. B.; Kenney, John Peter, eds. (2021).Christian Platonism: a history.Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-108-49198-3.
^Corrigan, Kevin; Rasimus, Tuomas (2013).Gnosticism, Platonism and the late ancient world: essays in honour of John D. Turner.Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies. Leiden: Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-22383-7.
^Dardagan, Amer (2017-05-13)."Neoplatonism, The Response on Gnostic and Manichean ctiticism of Platonism".dx.doi.org.doi:10.31235/osf.io/krj2n.Retrieved2024-06-04.
^Nasoraia, Brikha H. S. (2021). Trompf, Garry (ed.).The Mandaean gnostic religion: worship practice and deep thought.Studies in world religions. New Delhi: Sterling.ISBN 978-81-950824-1-4.

External links

[AO-1] "Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms" platonism "and" nominalism "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. 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 medievalNominalists.""Abstract Objects"Archived2013-12-02 at theWayback Machine,Gideon Rosen, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

[2] Rosen, Gideon (2012),"Abstract Objects",in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(Spring 2012 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,retrieved2023-09-29

[3] O'ConnellSJ,RJ,The Enneads and St Augustine's Vision of Happiness.Vigiliae Christianae 17 (1963) 129–164 (JSTOR)

[4] 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".

[LitList-5] 
The G. K. Chesterton Collection II [65 Books].Catholic Way Publishing. 2014.ISBN 9781783792108.Plato in some sense anticipated the Catholic realism, as attacked by the heretical nominalism, by insisting on the equally fundamental fact that ideas are realities; that ideas exist just as men exist.

G. K. Chesterton(2012).St. Thomas Aquinas.Courier Corporation.ISBN 9780486122267.The truth is that the historical Catholic Church began by being Platonist; by being rather too Platonist.

Peter Stanford(2010).Catholicism: An Introduction: A comprehensive guide to the history, beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith.Hachette UK.ISBN 9781444131031.Both Aristotle and Plato were crucial in shaping Catholic thinking

Bob Gillespie (2009).Machiavelli and the Mayflower: How to Understand the Europeans.La Rémige SARL. p. 14.ISBN 9782953386707.Roman Church doctrine is founded on many platforms, such as Plato's concept of the soul and of life after death

Between Past and Future.Penguin. 2006.ISBN 9781101662656.To the extent that the Catholic Church incorporated Greek philosophy into the structure of its doctrines and dogmatic beliefs

[6] The G. K. Chesterton Collection II [65 Books].Catholic Way Publishing. 2014.ISBN 9781783792108.Plato in some sense anticipated the Catholic realism, as attacked by the heretical nominalism, by insisting on the equally fundamental fact that ideas are realities; that ideas exist just as men exist.

[7] G. K. Chesterton(2012).St. Thomas Aquinas.Courier Corporation.ISBN 9780486122267.The truth is that the historical Catholic Church began by being Platonist; by being rather too Platonist.

[8] Peter Stanford(2010).Catholicism: An Introduction: A comprehensive guide to the history, beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith.Hachette UK.ISBN 9781444131031.Both Aristotle and Plato were crucial in shaping Catholic thinking

[9] Bob Gillespie (2009).Machiavelli and the Mayflower: How to Understand the Europeans.La Rémige SARL. p. 14.ISBN 9782953386707.Roman Church doctrine is founded on many platforms, such as Plato's concept of the soul and of life after death

[10] Between Past and Future.Penguin. 2006.ISBN 9781101662656.To the extent that the Catholic Church incorporated Greek philosophy into the structure of its doctrines and dogmatic beliefs

[seyffert481-6] ^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hOskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,p. 481

[Brenk_2016-7] Brenk, Frederick (January 2016)."Pagan Monotheism and Pagan Cult"."Theism" and Related Categories in the Study of Ancient Religions.SCS/AIA Annual Meeting. Vol. 75.Philadelphia:Society for Classical Studies(University of Pennsylvania).Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2017.Retrieved14 October2020.Historical authors generally refer to "the divine" (to theion) or "the supernatural" (to daimonion) rather than simply "God." [...] TheStoics,believed in a God identifiable with thelogosorhegemonikon(reason or leading principle) of the universe and downgraded thetraditional gods,who even disappear during the conflagration (ekpyrosis). Yet, the Stoics apparently did not practice a cult to this God.MiddleandLater Platonists,who spoke of a supreme God, in philosophical discourse, generally speak of this God, not the gods, as responsible for the creation and providence of the universe. They, too, however, do not seem to have directly practiced a religious cult to their God.

[8] . Proclus' commentary on theTimaeus;Cornford 1937

[Oxford-9] ^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j"Platonism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005

[10] Cornford, Francis (1941).The Republic of Plato.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxv.

[:0-11] Campbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul".The Southern Journal of Philosophy.59:523–544.

[12] Plato,Republic,Book 1, 353d. Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.

[13] Broadie, Sarah. 2001. “Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308. Quotation from page 301.

[14] Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo 102a–107a".Phronesis,23.1: 27–41. Quotation from page 38.

[15] "Platonism – Medieval Platonism".Archivedfrom the original on 2020-07-21.Retrieved2020-04-22.

[seyffert484-16] Oskar Seyffert, (1894),Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,page 484

[Cambridge-17] Armstrong, A. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge, 1970.

[Louth-18] Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

[19] Reeser, Todd W. 2016. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[Christoplatonism-20] Robin Russell (6 April 2009)."Heavenly minded: It's time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors".UM Portal. Archived fromthe originalon 22 July 2011.Retrieved10 March2011.Greek philosophers—who believed that spirit is good but matter is evil—also 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 God's biblical record calling everything he created "good."

[SEP-P-21] ^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hBalaguer, Mark (2016),"Platonism in Metaphysics",in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(Spring 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,archivedfrom the original on 2022-06-18,retrieved2022-07-10.

[22] Linsky, B., andZalta, E.,1995, "Naturalized Platonism vs. Platonized Naturalism",The Journal of Philosophy,92(10): 525–555.

[23] Van Inwagen, Peter (2009). "God and Other Uncreated Things", in Kevin Timpe & Eleonore Stump (eds.), Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump. Routledge.

[24] Alfred Schramm,Meinongian Issues in Contemporary Italian Philosophy,Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 28.

[25] Peter Graf Kielmansegg, Horst Mewes, Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt (eds.),Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Émigrés and American Political Thought After World War II,Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 97: "Many commentators think that [Strauss's] exposition of the true Platonist was meant as a self-description of Strauss."

[26] Doering, E. Jane, and Eric O. Springsted, eds. (2004)The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil.University of Notre Dame Press. p. 29.

[27] Sean Bowden,Badiou and Philosophy,Edinburgh University Press, 2012, p. 63.

[28] Hampton, Alexander J. B.; Kenney, John Peter, eds. (2021).Christian Platonism: a history.Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-108-49198-3.

[29] Corrigan, Kevin; Rasimus, Tuomas (2013).Gnosticism, Platonism and the late ancient world: essays in honour of John D. Turner.Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies. Leiden: Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-22383-7.

[30] Dardagan, Amer (2017-05-13)."Neoplatonism, The Response on Gnostic and Manichean ctiticism of Platonism".dx.doi.org.doi:10.31235/osf.io/krj2n.Retrieved2024-06-04.

[31] Nasoraia, Brikha H. S. (2021). Trompf, Garry (ed.).The Mandaean gnostic religion: worship practice and deep thought.Studies in world religions. New Delhi: Sterling.ISBN 978-81-950824-1-4.

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