Table Of ContentFrom Plato to Platonism
From Plato to
Platonism
Lloyd P. Gerson
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review,
this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher. For
information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,
512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2013 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gerson, Lloyd P., author.
From Plato to Platonism / Lloyd P. Gerson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5241-3 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Plato. 2. Platonists. I. Title.
B395.G47 2013
184—dc23 2013010926
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally
responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent
possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials
include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers
that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed
of nonwood fi bers. For further information, visit our website
at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of two teachers of integrity
Hippocrates G. Apostle
and
John M. Crossett
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Part 1. Plato and His Readers
1. Was Plato a Platonist? 3
Plato and Platonism 6
Ur-Platonism 9
From Plato to Platonism 19
2. Socrates and Platonism 34
The ‘Socratic Problem’ 39
Gregory Vlastos 53
Terry Penner 62
Christopher Rowe 68
3. Reading the Dialogues Platonically 73
Plato and Developmentalism 75
Plato the Artist, Plato the Philosopher 83
Plato’s Self-Testimony 91
4. Aristotle on Plato and Platonism 97
Aristotle and Ur-Platonism 102
Aristotle’s Testimony on the Mathematization of Forms 113
Aristotle’s Criticism of the Mathematization of Forms 125
viii Contents
Part 2. The Continuing Creation of Platonism
5. The Old Academy 133
Speusippus and First Principles 134
Speusippean Knowledge 143
Xenocrates 154
6. The Academic Skeptics 163
What Is Academic Skepticism? 165
Skepticism, Rationalism, and Platonism 172
7. Platonism in the ‘Middle’ 179
Antiochus of Ascalon 181
Plutarch of Chaeronea 187
Alcinous 195
8. Numenius of Apamea 208
On the Good 210
Part 3. Plotinus: “Exegete of the Platonic Revelation”
9. Platonism as a System 227
The First Principle of All 229
Intellect 237
Soul 242
Matter 245
10. Plotinus as Interpreter of Plato (1) 255
Matter in the Platonic System 257
Substance and Becoming 263
Categories in the Intelligible World 270
The One and the Indefi nite Dyad 276
The Good Is Eros 280
11. Plotinus as Interpreter of Plato (2) 283
Human and Person 284
Assimilation to the Divine 293
Moral Responsibility 299
Conclusion 305
Bibliography 311
General Index 329
Index Locorum 335
Preface
In 2005, I published a book titled Aristotle and Other Platonists. In that
book, I explored the idea, virtually ubiquitous in late antiquity, that Aris-
totle’s philosophy was in “harmony” with Platonism. Although I did try to
explicate the harmonists’ account of the nature of Platonism, I had little to
say about whether that account was accurate. In short, I largely sidestepped
the tendentious question “Was Plato a Platonist?” The present work is an
attempt to answer that question, or at the very least to show that an affi rma-
tive answer is not nearly as implausible as it is often taken to be. In search-
ing for an approach to my question that is minimally non-question-begging,
I have been led to reconsider a number of modern assumptions regarding
the Platonic dialogues and their relation to Platonism, the relation between
Platonism and a putative Socratic philosophy, and the direct and indirect
testimony of ancient philosophers regarding Platonism, in particular that
of Aristotle. The fi rst part of the book is taken up mainly with the critical ex-
amination of these assumptions. In part 2, I examine the “construction” of
various versions of Platonism in the Old Academy, and among the ‘Middle’
Platonists. In these chapters, I face the problem of why, indeed, there are
different versions of Platonism if Plato’s disciples were in fact aiming to be
faithful to the teachings of the master. For anyone inclined to the affi rma-
tive answer to my main question, this problem cannot be avoided. As Sextus
Empiricus said of dogmatists in general, their disagreement among them-
selves is one of the best possible arguments for skepticism. So, too, if Platon-
ists disagree, does this not at least suggest that with regard to the question
of whether Plato was a Platonist, there is in fact no truth of the matter?
There is a considerable literature that takes the dialogues as ink blots for
Download Date | 6/27/17 8:27 AM
