Philosophy and Esotericism of Plato II

What is the soul? Did it exist before birth? Can forgotten knowledge be recovered? What awaits humanity after death-and what lies beyond the changing world perceived by the senses?Philosophy and Esotericism of Plato II brings together five profound Platonic dialogues-Phaedrus, Phaedo, Meno, Gorgias, and Parmenides-whose explorations of the soul, immortality, divine inspiration, recollection, virtue, judgment, and ultimate reality would resonate throughout later philosophical, mystical, and esoteric traditions. Phaedrus presents the soul through the extraordinary image of the winged charioteer and explores divine madness and ascent toward true reality. Phaedo confronts death and the immortality of the soul, while Meno introduces recollection and the possibility that learning is the recovery of knowledge already possessed by the soul. Gorgias examines justice, virtue, and the judgment of souls after death, while Parmenides enters some of Plato’s most difficult metaphysical territory through its investigation of unity, plurality, being, and the One.Across centuries, Platonists, Neoplatonists, mystics, Renaissance philosophers, and later esoteric thinkers returned to these dialogues in developing teachings concerning the soul’s divine origin, spiritual ascent, pre-existence, purification, higher knowledge, and the structure of reality. This collection invites readers to encounter the Platonic sources themselves and explore the philosophical foundations from which those later traditions drew-a legacy in which reason and mystery, philosophy and spirituality, and the visible and invisible worlds continually meet.