Plato, lover of limits, loved the illimitable, saw the enlargement and nobility which come from truth itself and good itself, and attempted as if on the part of human intellect, once for all to do it adequate homage . . . .  [But] he has not a system. . . .  He attempted a theory of the universe, and his theory is not complete or self-evident. . . .  [H]e has said one thing in one place, and the reverse of it in another place.  He is charged with having failed to make the transition from ideas to matter. . . .  These things we are forced to say if we must consider the effort of Plato or of any philosopher to dispose of nature - which will not be disposed of.  No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence.  The perfect enigma remains.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Plato; or, The Philosopher (1850)

Christianity is Platonism for "the people" . . . .

Friedrich Nietzsche, Preface to Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

Readings:

"The Allegory of the Cave" (excerpt from Republic)   

Miscellanea:

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Discussion Question

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