Reading Plato

Course Description

The Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once observed that "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." While true, Whitehead’s Eurocentric remark fails to acknowledge Plato’s importance also for Eastern philosophy and especially for Eastern Christian thought. Neither Aristotle, nor patristic theology or later idealist philosophies are thinkable without Plato’s influence. The reason for this tremendous influence is the fundamentally theological character of Plato’s thought. After all, early Christian theologians took their cue for the teaching of divinization from Plato’s famous claim in the Timaeus that true happiness consists in becoming godlike (homoiōsis theōi). This course provides students with the opportunity to read closely and discuss the key texts by Plato that have shaped all subsequent discussions in theology and philosophy on what constitutes the good life, virtue formation, the nature of language, of truth, of epistemology, and education of the soul.