This engaging course of lectures begins by providing a detailed and accurate overview of Plato's philosophy and it's central idea - the idea of a transcendent reality that has popularly become known as the theory of the Forms. Professor Kreeft then takes us on a concise journey through Western Philosophical history to show how that central idea - the theory of forms - has either been built upon or reacted to by philosophers ever since. We explore not only the work of Plato, but also that of several other great voices in the Western Philosophical tradition - Aristotle, Plotinus, and Augustine - each of whom gave the forms a new metaphysical address. Later lectures explore both Christian Platonists and philosophical movements such as Positivism and Nihilism which have been anti-Platonist in their outlook. In the end we are left with a richer appreciation for Plato's work and its enduring legacy.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Ruben Lopez
Format:Audible Audio Edition
If you recognize the tremendous value of the history of philosophy--ancient to contemporary--for understanding life's most important questions, I think you'll find Dr. Kreeft's "The Platonic Tradition" incredibly exhilarating. Like all good teachers, Dr. Kreeft clearly identifies and explains a big-idea of the subject at hand, namely, in the case of the history of philosophy, the centrality of metaphysics, an understanding of reality.
Especially if you've found the history of philosophy to be an incoherent cacophony of very smart people talking about very abstruse ideas, I think you'll find the thread, the string of the Platonic tradition very clarifying.
Although he without a doubt argues that Plato's "theory of forms" positively contributed to a metaphysics that holds that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" throughout the history of philosophy, Kreeft from the start and continuously states that Plato's philosophy needed to be added to and/or corrected, as was done by Aristotle and St. Augustine, as is done in every science: conceptual, social, behavioral, or physical.
For the theist, who argues with Hamlet that reality is more, not less, than is in our philosophies, Kreeft convincingly explains that modern and contemporary philosophical views that are predominantly reductionistic, views that hold to "nothing-buttery," views that would tell Horatio that there is less in his philosophy are the logical off-spring of the total repudiation of Plato's "theory of forms." And, I don't think that Kreeft's claim that William of Ockham's nominalism's impetus to reductionism is errant or over-stated.
For those who like me are fans of Dr.... Read more ›
Especially if you've found the history of philosophy to be an incoherent cacophony of very smart people talking about very abstruse ideas, I think you'll find the thread, the string of the Platonic tradition very clarifying.
Although he without a doubt argues that Plato's "theory of forms" positively contributed to a metaphysics that holds that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" throughout the history of philosophy, Kreeft from the start and continuously states that Plato's philosophy needed to be added to and/or corrected, as was done by Aristotle and St. Augustine, as is done in every science: conceptual, social, behavioral, or physical.
For the theist, who argues with Hamlet that reality is more, not less, than is in our philosophies, Kreeft convincingly explains that modern and contemporary philosophical views that are predominantly reductionistic, views that hold to "nothing-buttery," views that would tell Horatio that there is less in his philosophy are the logical off-spring of the total repudiation of Plato's "theory of forms." And, I don't think that Kreeft's claim that William of Ockham's nominalism's impetus to reductionism is errant or over-stated.
For those who like me are fans of Dr.... Read more ›
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audible Audio Edition
Professor Kreeft does not doubt that the Platonic tradition encapsulates the wisdom of the ages, and provides the path to truth and goodness. To him, our foolish culture has been victimized by self-hating philosophers with chronic incapacity to bring to bear their (anti-Platonic)tools of skepticism upon their own critiques of Platonism.
The good thing about these lectures is that they are sincere and deeply felt, and provide a sharp contrast to the triumphalist narrative of philosophic history. He has a comically overblown take on William of Ockham as the first culprit for philosophy's deviations into hopeless error. Admirers of Christian thinkers like C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien will find Professor Kreeft wonderfully simpatico.
The flaw in these lectures is that they do not seriously consider the inadequacies of Platonism, and ignore the many ways in which Platonism can be, and has been, used as a tool for irrational domination of all kinds.
I listened to the four disk Modern Scholar edition published by Recorded Books, and I believe that those eight lectures are the ones contained on this Audible Books product.
The good thing about these lectures is that they are sincere and deeply felt, and provide a sharp contrast to the triumphalist narrative of philosophic history. He has a comically overblown take on William of Ockham as the first culprit for philosophy's deviations into hopeless error. Admirers of Christian thinkers like C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien will find Professor Kreeft wonderfully simpatico.
The flaw in these lectures is that they do not seriously consider the inadequacies of Platonism, and ignore the many ways in which Platonism can be, and has been, used as a tool for irrational domination of all kinds.
I listened to the four disk Modern Scholar edition published by Recorded Books, and I believe that those eight lectures are the ones contained on this Audible Books product.
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