Table of Contents

Introduction
2. Platonism vs. Naturalism
2.1. What Is Platonism?
2.2. What Is Naturalism?
2.3. Methodological, Philosophical Naturalism
2.4. A Rapprochement?
3. Plato's Critique of Naturalism
3.1. Some Hermeneutical Assumptions
3.2. The Turn from Naturalism to Metaphysics
3.3. Socrates's "Autobiography" in Phaedo
3.4. Republic on the Subject Matter of Philosophy
3.5. Theaetetus and Sophist on the Subject Matter of Philosophy
4. Plato on Being and Knowing
4.1. Forms as Explanatory Entities
4.2. Eternity and Time
4.3. Nominalism and Its Connection to Relativism
4.4. The Nature and the Possibility of Knowledge
4.5. Some Exigencies of Knowledge and Belief
5. The Centrality of the Idea of the Good in the Platonic System (1)
5.1. The Idea of the Good, Unhypothetical First Principle of All
5.2. First Principles in Parmenides
5.3. First Principles in Sophist
5.4. First Principles in Philebus
5.5. First Principles in Timaeus
5.6. Aristotle's Account of First Principles in Plato
6. The Centrality of the Idea of the Good in the Platonic System (2)
6.1. The Form of the Good and the Idea of the Good
6.2. Virtue, Knowledge, and the Good
6.3. Platonic Ethics without the Idea of the Good
6.4. The Good, Ethical Prescriptions, and Integrative Unity
6.5. Eros and the Good
7. Aristotle the Platonist
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Aristotle on the Subject Matter of Philosophy
7.3. The Immateriality of Thought
7.4. The Causality of the First Principle
8. Plotinus the Platonist
8.1. The Platonic System
8.2. Critique of Stoicism
8.3. Platonic and Stoic Wisdom
9. Proclus and Trouble in Paradise
9.1. The Dynamics of the Platonic System
9.2. A Crack in the System?
9.3. Damascius
10. Concluding Reflections

About the Author

Lloyd P. Gerson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including, most recently, From Plato to Platonism.

Reviews

Both excellent intellectual history and sharp contemporary philosophy, this book will be of great interest to historians of philosophy and naturalistic philosophers alike. Exceptional. (Choice) The significance of this monograph cannot be overestimated. Not only is it a highly original and fresh account of the historical odyssey of Platonism from Plato to Damascius (with Aristotle, like it or not, taken on board and, occasionally, tied to the mast), but it is also an attempt to bring back philosophy, as it was conceived of until quite recently, to the late modern intellectual and spiritual milieu. (The Classical Review) A short review hardly does justice to this formidable book... I applaud his synoptic approach and admire his effort to come to grips with many of the most difficult passages in Plato and other Platonists. Like the book or not, Platonism and Naturalism deserves to be read by anyone trying to make sense of Plato. (Journal of the History of Philosohpy) The book impresses most by the way it combines its depth of hermeneutic and analytical detail with a far-reaching perspective on what is at stake philosophically and for philosophy itself. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)