Platon

The modern world is preoccupied with correctness in its views of nature, government, economy and culture but at an unacceptable price. We find nature blind and indifferent and we now see culture as anything legally allowed. This insightful study examines the philosophy leading us here while showing how to change it. If we accept the integral role of mockery in truth we gain a more comprehensive view of ourselves and the world. In a perceptive study of four dialogues of Plato---the ones telling the story of Socrates' defense of philosophy----we find a pattern for our own growth. This book calls for renewed faith in an educated perception and in noble self-development. It speaks to discovering "heart and soul, not in an aesthetic diversion but in the nature of everything around us."

Plato’s great discovery was radically new but has echoed down the ages. His “theory of Ideas” has shaped the whole of Western culture and his name is known worldwide. More than 2000 years ago Plato used his “allegory of the cave” – which envisaged people looking at shadows on a cavern wall and taking them for realities – to express a terrible suspicion. He saw his fellow Athenians living in a manipulated world of appearances – cut off from reality and “put to sleep” by material pleasures, wealth and demagogic politicians – and hoped, with this image, to shake them out of this sleep. Plato’s suspicions here are astonishingly relevant still in our Digital Age. Do we not also risk getting entirely lost in the shadows and projections of our TV-, Internet- and mobile-phone-dominated lives? To know truth, argued Plato, Man must learn to see again with his “inner eye”. We are able to sense the truth if we succeed in looking beyond the mere appearances. For behind the everyday objects that surround us, and the immediately visible world, there is another (invisible) reality, a sort of higher level of Being, which can reveal to us the world as it truly is. This second, higher reality is the realm of the “Ideas”: above all the Ideas of the Good, the True and the Beautiful by which we must be guided in our lives. But what exactly are these Ideas? Where do they come from? What does Plato mean when he speaks of “the Good”? And, most importantly, how can we know this “Good” and live a life in accordance with it? The book Plato in 60 Minutes uses three of Plato’s marvellous allegories – “the chariot”, “the sun”, and “the cave” – to explain the philosopher’s fascinating vision of the Ideas. But it also presents, citing key passages, Plato’s great political vision of an ideal state ruled by philosopher-kings. Finally, in a chapter on “what use Plato’s discovery is for us today”, it is shown how burningly relevant the ancient philosopher’s thoughts still are. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.

This collection of unique portraits by British born, New York based fashion photographer Platon includes over 120 photographs constituting a unique and dynamic cross-section through the cult of fame and power.

Le volume rassemble quatorze contributions etudiant les diverses reinterpretations du Timee qui se situent entre l'empire romain et notre siecle. Tandis que les etudes portant sur des auteurs singuliers tels que Galien (M. Vegetti), Calcidius (E. Rudolph), Proclus (A. Lernould), Boece (W. Mesch), M. Ficin (A. Etienne) et N.A. Whitehead (G. Betegh) mettent en relief des moments importants de la reception du "Timee", les contributions de W. Rod, K. Gloy et L. Brisson permettent de comparer globalement la vision antique et moderne de la cosmologie et en particulier des mathematiques. Le volume s'ouvre par un essai d'A. Neschke presentant une comprehension actuelle du Timee comme contribution a la physique grecque. Une bibliographie selective de la reception du Timee ainsi que des index donnent au volume le caractere d'un instrument de travail precieux. A. Neschke-Hentschke, nee a Berlin en 1942, enseigne actuellement la philosophie antique et l'histoire de la philosophie a l'Universite de Lausanne. Ses recherches portent en particulier sur Platon et sa reception. En temoignent, a part de nombreux articles, les deux volumes parus dans la meme collection: Images de Platon et lectures de ses oeuvres et Platonisme politique et theorie du droit naturel, vol. 1.