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2 - The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2024

By
Kevin Corrigan
Edited by
Douglas Hedley  and
Daniel J. Tolan
Douglas Hedley
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Daniel J. Tolan
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The Platonic quest has often been characterized by a famous passage from the Theaetetus: “we ought to try to flee from here to there [the seat of the gods] and flight is to become like God, as far as this is possible” (176a–b). Yet, according to Socrates in the Phaedrus, the dilemma is that Socrates does not know whether he is “really a beast more complex and violent than Typhon … or a simpler animal, participating by nature in some divine, non-typhonic portion” (230a: θείας τινὸς καὶ ἀτύφου μοίρας φύσει μετέχον). In short, “I am not yet capable … of knowing myself.”

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Chapter
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Participation in the Divine
A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era
 , pp. 39 - 70
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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