Naslov
Dominic J. O’Meara, Platonopolis: Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity

Autori
Boršić, Luka

Izvornik
Rhizai : a journal for nncient philosophy and science (1312-3963) 1 (2004), 2; 137-141

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, prikaz, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Dominic J. O’Meara, Platonopolis, Plato, political philosophy

Sažetak
This is a review of the book "D. J. O'Meara: Platonopolis" (Oxford, 2003). The book has three main parts: Part 1: Neoplatonic Political Theory Reconstructed: The Divinization of Soul ; Part 2: Neoplatonic Political Theory Reconstructed: The Divinization of the State ; and Part 3: Platonopolis in Christianity and Islam. Each of the parts is further divided into several thematic sections, which are, in turn, divided into subsections. The thematic sections are between five and fifteen pages long, and they can be read as relatively separate essays. O'Meara takes care to provide the reader with résumés of relevant results in the previous pages at the beginning of each section. This schematic division, organized according to a thematic key rather than chronology, reflects the main, rather ambitious goal of the book: to inaugurate a new philosophical field of investigation – Neoplatonic political theory: O'Meara's aim is not just to show that different Neoplatonists in different periods said something on politics, but that there is a certain body of teaching in Neoplatonism which can be said to constitute a political theory (or political philosophy, as O'Meara prefers to call it). This projects goes against the main textbook current: as it has been commonly accepted in textbooks of the history of philosophy, Neoplatonists were almost completely disinterested in political philosophy, which is not a surprising consequence for philosophers such as Plotinus, who claimed that he was ashamed to be in a body, who never mentioned his fatherland and who paid no attention to political philosophy of his idol. O'Meara goal is to show that this approach is too narrow, that is, that the traditional approach neglects some pieces of textual evidence which testify about a certain form of political theory even among Neoplatonists.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija

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