Plato the Orphic philosopher? - open session in London

When

February 17, 2025    
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Where

London - Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent's Park Rd , London, NW1 7AY

Event Type

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Plato references Orphic myth and cult teachings throughout his writings: although modern rationalist scholarship has been reluctant to acknowledge how much Orphic material underpinned the philosophy of Plato, many of the most recent scholars are beginning to challenge this neglect. Writers such as Radcliffe Edmonds, Gabor Betech, Fritz Graf and others have published important works exploring the Orphic teachings and their appearance in Plato’s dialogues: the Prometheus Trust is about to publish Harold Tarrant’s book Chaerephon: Rethinking Platonic Characters in the Light of the Derveni Papyrus – and this is likely to draw our understanding of both Plato and the Orphics together. (The Orphic Derveni manuscript is a relatively recent find which has ensured that Orphism is now more fully recognized as playing a part in the development of western thought.)

This session is an opportunity to explore how much the Orphic mystery teachings colour Platonic doctrines of reincarnation, salvation, and enlightenment. We will look at an outline of the Orphic myths, and read some passage from the Phaedo, the dialogue (along with the Meno) where Plato is most explicit as regards his debt to “wise priests and priestesses” when it comes to understanding the soul’s relationship to its beyond-terrestrial experiences.

These evenings include short talks and/or readings from Platonic writings – but we hope they will be genuinely interactive, with all participants invited to contribute to our collaborative search for truth. No previous experience of formal philosophy is required.

Admission is free, but we do encourage those who are able to donate £5 in order to cover our costs, either as cash on the day or donating through this website

Most of these evenings are self-contained and every effort is made to make them accessible to the newcomer, while allowing the great profundity of the Platonic tradition to step forward and speak to us at whatever level our present understanding sits. Some of these sessions are coupled together, in order to give us the space to examine more fully particular texts and themes, but even here we will ensure that if those attending have missed the first of the two sessions a recap of what has gone before will help all participants to pick up the main threads of the theme.

We will be drawing from a paper, which we’ll make available as a PDF download a few days before the event.

The Trust has run similar activities for some 18 years, and in our experience they allow the most profound questions concerning human life, the nature of reality, and our interactions, to be explored at once both seriously and with good cheer. Our aim is to provide a forum for honest and straight-forward enquiry, but which is unafraid to explore inward-moving paths too often neglected by modern schools of thought.

Click on the London tag under Event type to be taken to all upcoming activities in London.

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