The revival of Platonic philosophy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23171984 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher S Celenza (0000-0002-1902-0437, Harvard University Press, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Pages | 72-96 |
| Publication date | 2007-10-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/ccol052184648x.005 |
| OpenAlex | W2500843739 |
| ISBN | 9780521846486 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
“Plato is praised by greater men, Aristotle by a greater number.” This pithy statement by Petrarch (1304-74) in his work On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others is best read in context. Petrarch goes on in the same passage: “each of them is worthy of praise both by great men and by many - by all, really.” On the one hand, Petrarch reflects here a medieval commonplace, inherited from St. Augustine (354-430): that of all the ancient pagan philosophies, Platonism came the closest to Christian truth. Even more precisely, Augustine said: the ancients who had believed things about the creator that were close to “us” were represented by “Plato and those who had understood him correctly.” This process of “understanding” a past thinker is significant. It is primarily exegetical, and those who embraced it - as many adherents of Platonism in the Renaissance did - assumed that it was their responsibility as interpreters to bring out the truth of the ancient thinker or school that they were investigating.
Art · Art history · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Ignorance · Literature · Platonism · Praise · Statement (logic) · The Renaissance · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Classics · History · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,58 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2023 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |