The Plato Papers


Book Description

From the imagination of one of the most brilliant writers of our time and bestselling author of The Life of Thomas More, a novel that playfully imagines how the "modern" era might appear to a thinker seventeen centuries hence. At the turn of the 38th century, London's greatest orator, Plato, is known for his lectures on the long, tumultuous history of his now tranquil city. Plato focuses on the obscure and confusing era that began in A.D. 1500, the Age of Mouldwarp. His subjects include Sigmund Freud's comic masterpiece "Jokes and Their Relation to the Subconscious," and Charles D.'s greatest novel, "The Origin of Species." He explores the rituals of Mouldwarp, and the later cult of webs and nets that enslaved the population. By the end of his lecture series, however, Plato has been drawn closer to the subject of his fascination than he could ever have anticipated. At once funny and erudite, The Plato Papers is a smart and entertaining look at how the future is imagined, the present absorbed, and the past misrepresented.




The Plato Prophecy


Book Description

As China rises, it swaggers with a new sense of nationalism, backed by its bourgeoning military and growing political assertiveness. Are we sleepwalking into disaster? Democracy is stumbling under the weight of dysfunction and toxicity. Meanwhile, the US seems to be waning, just when we need it most, Britain is struggling with Brexit and Europe is trying to recalibrate. Social media publishes unfiltered swill across a billion unedited platforms, creating a dangerous new cyber electorate, which a malign foreign actor can invade, to manipulate the public discourse. A new pandemic of political correctness and 'wokism' now attacks free thought, free speech and the right of individuals to hope, to dream and to aspire, unfettered by those who would silence them. As democracy grapples with these challenges, China, Russia and other, non-democratic regimes are rushing to fill the void. If you are troubled by these things, this is the book for you!




Phaedrus


Book Description

The Phaedrus, written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. The Phaedrus was presumably composed around 370 BC, about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium.




Blindness and Reorientation


Book Description

C. D. C. Reeve develops a powerful new account of the age-old argument over whether the just are happier than the unjust, drawing from a new understanding of Plato's conception of philosophy.




Ancient Prophecy


Book Description

Annotation A study of the phenomenon of prophecy as documented in ancient Near Eastern texts and the Hebrew Bible as well as Greek sources, from the twenty-first century BCE to the second century CE.




The Plato Prophecy


Book Description

In an era fraught with uncertainty and mounting global challenges, The Plato Prophecy unveils a chilling portrait of a world teetering on the precipice. As China’s meteoric rise ushers in a wave of unabashed nationalism, bolstered by its burgeoning military might, and Russia, an audacious autocracy, brazenly invades Ukraine, trampling upon the sovereignty of this fledgling democracy, a haunting question looms: are we unwittingly sleepwalking into a catastrophic disaster? Amidst this perilous landscape, the deafening absence of resolute Western leadership, those strong voices commanding respect and purpose, becomes all too apparent. Democracy, burdened by dysfunction and poisoned by partisan toxicity, falters under its own weight, mirroring the twilight of an empire. The United States grapples with internal social malaise, an affliction that signals the decline of a once-great nation. Britain, embroiled in the quagmire of Brexit, contends with an energy crisis and rampant inflation, while Europe, shackled by Russia’s stranglehold on its energy supply, races against time to recalibrate and salvage its economic stability. The unfiltered deluge of vitriol unleashed across unregulated platforms of social media breeds a perilous new cyber electorate, a breeding ground ripe for malign foreign actors to manipulate civil discourse. The insidious contagion of political correctness and ‘wokeism’ casts a suffocating shadow upon free thought, free speech, and the indomitable right of individuals to dare, to aspire, to hope, unhindered by those seeking to silence them. As the foundations of democracy crumble, opportunistic regimes like China and Russia eagerly seize the opportunity to fill the void, exerting their influence and shaping the world according to their own agendas. For those troubled by the alarming trajectory of these developments, The Plato Prophecy emerges as an urgent call to action, a searing exploration of the perils facing humanity’s most cherished ideals.




Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy


Book Description

One of the outstanding thinkers of our time offers in this book his final words to posterity. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy was well underway at the time of Leo Strauss's death in 1973. Having chosen the title for the book, he selected the most important writings of his later years and arranged them to clarify the issues in political philosophy that occupied his attention throughout his life. As his choice of title indicates, the heart of Strauss's work is Platonism—a Platonism that is altogether unorthodox and highly controversial. These essays consider, among others, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Marx, Moses Maimonides, Machiavelli, and of course Plato himself to test the Platonic understanding of the conflict between philosophy and political society. Strauss argues that an awesome spritual impoverishment has engulfed modernity because of our dimming awareness of that conflict. Thomas Pangle's Introduction places the work within the context of the entire Straussian corpus and focuses especially on Strauss's late Socratic writings as a key to his mature thought. For those already familiar with Strauss, Pangle's essay will provoke thought and debate; for beginning readers of Strauss, it provides a fine introduction. A complete bibliography of Strauss's writings if included.




The Powers of Prophecy


Book Description

The Powers of Prophecy is an original attempt to investigate the subject of medieval eschatological prophecies: how and in what circumstances they were written; how they circulated; what they told people about the future; and how they were received. Although scholars have studied the ideas of a few outstanding medieval prophetic thinkers or the role of prophecies in heretical movements and popular insurrections, up to now there has been no attempt to study the most commonplace medieval prophetic ideas as they were communicated in the most frequently copied and widely read anonymous prophetic texts. Dedicated to pursuing the typical, Lerner's book traces the fortunes of an eschatological prophecy that was first written around 1240 and thereafter circulated throughout Western Europe for more than four centuries. Originally composed as a response to the Mongol onslaught, the prophecy was resurrected and reconceived to apply to other crises such as the fall of the Holy Land, the Black Death, and the Protestant Reformation. Although it was supposed to have descended form on high, allegedly being a message written by a disembodied moving hand over an altar during mass, countless scribes felt no qualms about recirculating the text with substantial changes. Among the many who took note of the prophecy in one or another of its numerous guises were the scholastic theological John of Paris; the Infante Peter, a prince of the house of Aragon; John Clyn, an Irish monk who entered it into his chronicle shortly before dying of the bubonic plague; and Martin Luther.




Atlantis


Book Description

Traces the legend of Atlantis from the original stories found in the works of Plato to the latest scientific debates and discoveries, and argues that the threat of global warming may lead modern society to the same fate.




Plato's Seventh Letter


Book Description