The Presence of Platonism

13 November 2023

The Presence of Platonism

1.  I have been thinking about how Platonism has established itself at various times in its history.  As readers of this blog know, I think of Platonism as a spiritual tradition.  The way most spiritual, or religious, traditions are present in a culture is through one or more institutions.  These institutions function as centers of reference, meaning that when people talk about a spiritual tradition, they usually have a particular institution in mind.

2.  In the Classical period Platonism was institutionally embodied by teaching centers where people could go and study Platonism.  The two main ones were the Academy in Athens, and Platonist teachers in Alexandria.  It does not appear to be the case that the centers of Classical Platonism were hierarchically organized; I mean that I don’t see that centers of Classical Platonism had control over other such centers.

3.  The school that Plotinus established in Rome is another example of a teaching center.  But unlike the centers of Athens and Alexandria it did not outlast the life of the teacher at the center, Plotinus himself.  I wonder how many other centers of Platonism, and other schools of Roman philosophy, were also similarly centered on a single teacher with the center itself passing away when the teacher passed away? 

4.  The example of Plotinus seems to indicate that Platonism did not (and does not?) need a center that resembles those centers of religious traditions that are located in space, meaning geographically grounded.  Instead, it seems that Platonism is centered in what I refer to as the Temple of the Text; that is to say the Dialogues of Plato and the Enneads of Plotinus serve some of the same functions as the geographically located centers of many religious traditions.  Perhaps this is a consequence of the transcendental focus of the tradition of Platonism.

5.  Platonism has never established itself as a religious institution in the way that the various Christian traditions have, or the way that Daoism has in China, or the way Islam has, or the way Shinto has in Japan.  There have been attempts to do so.  The most famous one was attempted by the Emperor Julian, known as ‘The Apostate’ (331 to 363 CE).  Julian attempted to create a parallel Pagan Church, based on theurgic rituals, and grounded in Platonism as its official ‘theology’ as interpreted by Iamblichus and Proclus.  The attempt failed.  Historians give various reasons for the failure.  But one reason that I think is of consequence, that I haven’t seen mentioned in sources I have read, is that Platonism is uncongenial for the role that Julian wanted to give it.  I mean that it isn’t a good ‘fit’, that turning Platonism into a State Religion is like trying to put on a suit that is much too small.

6.  Platonism tends to flourish when it is in the background.  By ‘background’ I mean that it is not primarily involved in political causes and or social movements, though Platonism can have an influence on such movements. 

7.  An example of what I call ‘flourishing in the background’ was the long period of Christian Platonism, both in the Latin West and the Orthodox East.  This period is still ongoing.  This allowed Platonism to be ‘present’ without having to be engaged in the various political and social conflicts of history.

8.  In the present day the presence of Platonism is very diffuse.  There is nothing that resembles the Academy in Athens or the great teaching institutions of Alexandria.  And Platonism has been displaced as the necessary foundation of Christian theology so that in the context of the Christian tradition, Christian Platonists have to compete with those who have different starting points for their theology.

There are some Platonist focused academic centers, like the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism.  Organizations like this have done a lot to keep the interest in Platonism active in the academy and have also played a role in translating Platonist writings that might otherwise have been forgotten.  This is to be greatly appreciated.

9.  There are also individuals who have been attracted to Platonism and pursue Platonism as a spiritual tradition.  This is done by a small number of academics, but most of them are found outside of the academy and outside of an established religious context.  An early example of this would be Anne Conway (1631-1679 CE) who was associated with the Cambridge Platonists but was not allowed to attend their campus meetings because women were not allowed on campus.  Yet she pursued her studies with great dedication.

Another example would be Thomas Taylor (1758-1835 CE) who translated a large number of Platonist texts, including the complete Dialogues of Plato and the complete writings of Aristotle, into English for the first time.  His translations are foundational for the spread of Platonism outside an official academic context and remain of significance to some contemporary Platonist groups.

Thomas Moore Johnson (1851-1919 CE) was a Platonist scholar, author, and practitioner who lived in Osceola, Missouri.  He was influenced by Thomas Taylor and published two magazines on Platonism to help bring these teachings to others.

10.  At this time of great social change and upheaval, I think Platonism is situated to continue ‘flourishing in the background.’  I suspect that there will be experiments on Platonist life and practice because it is only very recently that there has been space for such experiments.  One experiment might be a kind of renunciant brotherhood of Platonists that see the ascetic teachings of Platonism as the heart of its practice.  I don’t know whether this would resemble the wandering ascetic traditions, or the hermit approach such as that found in Chinese history (Daoist, Buddhist, and Poetry hermits).  Or perhaps it would take the form of a small group of ascetics who would share the expenses of a household by working at low-paying jobs.  In the history of Platonism there are stories of such people going all the way back to the Classical period.  But it is only very recently that our society could, at least theoretically, support such a calling.

Personally, I am attracted to the idea of a Platonist ascetic brotherhood, though, because I am an old man, I don’t think I will live to see it.  That’s OK.  Perhaps in a future birth such an opportunity will appear.