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Plato’s lifework is in some respects a response to the experience of growing up in the increasingly chaotic political environment of late 5th Century Athens, where new ideas from the natural philosophers and new ways of thinking about language and knowledge were transmitted by the travelling teachers of rhetoric, the sophists. He reacts specifically to the trial and execution of his mentor Socrates on charges of denying the gods and corrupting the youth. He wrestles with the complex relationship between philosophical argument, rhetorical skill, common life and truth, to develop a sophisticated, self-questioning, holistic philosophy-for-life, centred on a powerful concept of absolute value.
Week 1
Socrates: sophist, clown or martyr to the Truth?
This session looks at the political and cultural context of Socrates’ trial, exploring text from Plato’s Apology and Aristophanes The Clouds. We shall take in the Athenian Empire, the challenge to traditional values posed by wealth and the travelling teachers of rhetoric (the Sophists), as well as the effect of the transmission of new ideas in early science on religion and culture. We will focus on Plato’s perception of Socrates, as a figure who consistently witnesses to integrity, truth and non-negotiable values of justice.
Week 2
Journey of the Soul
One of the most influential areas of Plato’s thought is his philosophy of the soul. In some form it is embedded in the philosophical traditions of the Abrahamic faiths, and finds echoes in Freud and Jung. In this class we shall look primarily at texts from the Phaedo with a nod to the Republic and Phaedrus.
Week 3
The Ideal State
Plato’s philosophy of the state is controversial. His template for organising society, echoed in Christian cenobitic movements, has also had more totalitarian imitators, whether in 20th century fascism and communism or revolutionary Iran. The underlying philosophy, however, is exploring how to bring absolute value into the way humans live together in cities, and presents the four key virtues (justice, courage, temperance, wisdom) as gateways to transcendence, both guarantors of a flourishing communal life and sources of salvation for the human soul.
Week 4
Theories of theUniverse
One of Plato’s most popular dialogues in the Jewish, Islamic and Christian Middle Ages was the Timaeus, where Plato explores natural philosophy (physics and astronomy)and a theory of the creation of the world. We will see how this text responds to the ideas of earlier philosophy, and integrates it with the ethical concerns that dominate other dialogues.
Week 5
Plato: sophists and scepticism
Plato’s philosophy is characterised by a fluidity in its readiness to respond to new and better arguments. Two of his late dialogues Theaetetus and The Sophist rigorously interrogated definitions of knowledge and explore the workings of language, which continue to stimulate critical philosophy and philosophy of language today.
John Moffatt SJ works at the London Jesuit Centre. His first degree was in Classics. He taught in London secondary schools intermittently between 1985 and 2016 and has worked briefly in University Chaplaincy. He has been involved with teenage and adult faith education in Britain and South Africa and has recently completed a doctorate in medieval Islamic philosophy.
