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2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter
Originally published on March 11, 2015, this article presented my very limited referencing of Plato, and related within my Wales, PhD.
That remains, but for an entry on academia.edu, I decided to add some material and republish on April 8 2023.
Platonic Philosophy
Platonic philosophy was largely created by Plato (427-347 B.C.).[1] Richard Kraut (1996) notes Plato was a preeminent Greek philosopher who conceived the observable world as an imperfect image of the realm of the unobservable and unchanging forms.[2] Plato, in Timaeus, written in 360 B.C, viewed these forms as divinely moved objects.[3]
Platonic philosophy was largely created by Plato (427-347 B.C.).[1] Richard Kraut (1996) notes Plato was a preeminent Greek philosopher who conceived the observable world as an imperfect image of the realm of the unobservable and unchanging forms.[2] Plato, in Timaeus, written in 360 B.C, viewed these forms as divinely moved objects.[3]
Neoplatonism
Mark D. Jordan (1996) notes Augustine was
primarily affected by Neoplatonism before his conversion to Christianity.[4] Augustine (398-399)(1992) states in Confessions
he examined Platonist writings that supported his Biblical understanding of the
nature of God.[5] Jordan states the Platonic writings helped
Augustine to conceive of a cosmic hierarchy in the universe in which God was
immaterial and had sovereign control over his material creation.[6] However, Jordan states Augustine saw
philosophy alone as being unable to change his life as only God himself could
do.[7] Augustine’s use of Plato does not in itself
invalidate his understanding of Biblical writings where the two may happen to
be in agreement.[8]
Platonic Demiurge
Mill theorized of a God that resembled the ‘Platonic Demiurge.’[9] A
demiurge is a Greek term meaning ‘artisan’, ‘craftsman.’ It is a deity that develops the material
world from ‘preexisting chaos.’ Plato introduced the concept and term in his
text Timaeus. The perfectly good
demiurge wishes to present his goodness and shapes the chaos as best he can,
and the present world results. Wainwright (1996: 188). The demiurge is a limited, non-omnipotent
God, that did not create original matter. Wainwright (1996: 188). Blackburn (1996: 98).
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Website work
Cited
'Plato’s central doctrines '
'Many people associate Plato with a few central doctrines that are advocated in his writings: The world that appears to our senses is in some way defective and filled with error, but there is a more real and perfect realm, populated by entities (called “forms” or “ideas”) that are eternal, changeless, and in some sense paradigmatic for the structure and character of the world presented to our senses. Among the most important of these abstract objects (as they are now called, because they are not located in space or time) are goodness, beauty, equality, bigness, likeness, unity, being, sameness, difference, change, and changelessness. (These terms—“goodness”, “beauty”, and so on—are often capitalized by those who write about Plato, in order to call attention to their exalted status; similarly for “Forms” and “Ideas.”)
The most fundamental distinction in Plato’s philosophy is between the many observable objects that appear beautiful (good, just, unified, equal, big) and the one object that is what beauty (goodness, justice, unity) really is, from which those many beautiful (good, just, unified, equal, big) things receive their names and their corresponding characteristics. Nearly every major work of Plato is, in some way, devoted to or dependent on this distinction.' End citation
I personally do not find 'forms' as eternal as very helpful, philosophically. For me, philosophically and theologically, there is the infinite, which is of God, his attributes and his characteristics, and the finite, of which God created with logically, limited attributes and characteristics.
Citation
'Although these propositions are often identified by Plato’s readers as forming a large part of the core of his philosophy, many of his greatest admirers and most careful students point out that few, if any, of his writings can accurately be described as mere advocacy of a cut-and-dried group of propositions. Often Plato’s works exhibit a certain degree of dissatisfaction and puzzlement with even those doctrines that are being recommended for our consideration.' End citation
'cut-and-dried group of propositions'
I reason that for reasonable premise (s) and conclusion, there needs to be a clear distinction between the infinite and the finite. Although I have significant knowledge of the difference; I have no have exhaustive knowledge of either, and this shall remain so.
Citation
Plato is a key, historical, philosophical source, and significantly speculative.
Blackburn
Concerning Platonism, British Philosopher, Blackburn writes that this was especially developed in the 'middle dialogues' (289). Plato reasons that 'abstract objects' such as those in mathematics (289) or justice (289) are timeless and objective entities. (289). I can grant that God had/has infinite understanding of mathematics and justice, but that does not equate to a finite understanding of the same, that to various degrees would be the understanding of any significantly, conscious, rational, entities which would be able to ponder on such.
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PhD, Wales
AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated
by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry
Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend
Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3,
Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F.
Shaw, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G.
Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.
AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by
D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian Teaching, Translated by
R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
CAREY, GEORGE W. (2002) ‘The
Authoritarian Secularism of John Stuart Mill’, in On Raeder’s Mill and the Religion of Humanity, Volume 15, Number 1,
Columbia, University of Missouri Press.
JORDAN, MARK D. (1996) ‘Augustine’, in
Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy, pp. 52-53. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
KRAUT, RICHARD (1996) ‘Plato’, in
Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, pp. 619-629. Cambridge University
Press.
MILL, JOHN STUART (1789-1861)(2003) Utilitarianism and On Liberty, Mary Warnock (ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
MILL, JOHN STUART (1789-1861)(2003) Utilitarianism and On Liberty, Mary Warnock (ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
MILL, JOHN
STUART (1825-1868)(1984) Essays on
Equality, Law, and Education, John M. Robson (ed.), University of Toronto
Press, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
MILL, JOHN
STUART (1833)(1985)(2009) Theism: John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill,
Volume X - Essays on Ethics, Religion, and Society, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
MILL, JOHN
STUART (1874)(2002) The Utility of
Religion, London, Longman, Green, and Reader.
MILL, JOHN
STUART (1874)(1885) Nature the Utility of Religion and Theism, London, Longmans, Green
and Co.
PLATO (360 B.C.)(1982) ‘Timaeus’, in Process Studies, Volume. 12, Number 4, Winter, pp.243-251. Claremont, California, Process Studies.
POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New
York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.
[1]
Pojman (1996: 6).
[2]
Kraut (1996: 619-620).
[3]
Plato (360 B.C.)(1982: 35).
[4]
Jordan (1996: 52).
[5]
Augustine (398-399)(1992).
[6]
Jordan (1996: 53).
[7]
Jordan (1996: 53).
[8]
Augustine (398-399)(1992).
Burnyeat, Myles and Michael Frede, 2015, The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter, Dominic Scott (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
