The philosophy of Plato and his continuing tradition rests on an affirmation that reality – however that term is understood – is a systematic unity, one which embraces the extended multiplicity we see around us. It is essentially a top-down system so that the First Principle of this ‘All’ is held to be the cause of all: as Plato’s Seventh Letter poetically puts it, it is “the cause of beautiful things.”
This fundamental affirmation underpins every aspect of the tradition’s philosophy – metaphysical, ethical, psychological, and so on: for this reason, advances made by the seeker after wisdom in one area enhances his or her understanding of other areas. The seeming difficult complexity facing us as we contemplate the great sweep of philosophy is thus, perhaps, less daunting than might otherwise be imagined. One of the great keys to the serious cultivation of Platonic wisdom is triadic thinking: once one begins to look at texts of both Plato and the Platonists of late antiquity (“Neoplatonists”) it becomes clear that triads abound.
We will look at a few examples in our short paper (see below) which is designed to be an introduction to the concept of triads in Platonic philosophy as a technique for learning. We hope that this will form the basis of an interesting evening’s discussion – it is, of course, very far from an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but leaves space for participants to explore this usually neglected area.
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.
This event is free but donations are encouraged, circumstances allowing. We’ll start the session at 6.30pm: tea/coffee and cake will be available just beforehand. No need to book.
Please download here a PDF of the extracts we’ll be using: short paper,
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. Every effort is made to make these type of evenings 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.