Modernity and Plato

ARBOGAST SCHMITT is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Greek and Latin Philology at Free University, Berlin and Emeritus Professor of Classical Philology and Greek at the University of Marburg, Germany. VISHWA ADLURI teaches in the Departments of Religion and Philosophy at Hunter College, City University of New York.

• IntroductionDo Freedom and Indeterminacy Make Man a Cultural Being? Or, Why Antiquity Seems Antiquated"Healthy Common Sense" and the Nature/Culture AntithesisThe Interpretation of "Antiquity" from the Perspective of Modern RationalityThe Epistemological Foundations of a Philosophy of DiscriminationAbstract Consciousness versus Concrete Thought: Overcoming the Opposition between Feeling and Reason in a Philosophy of DiscriminationThe Soul in a Philosophy of Consciousness and in a Philosophy of DiscriminationThe Different Forms of Volition and Their Dependence upon CognitionThe Aesthetic, Ethical, and Political Significance of a Culture of Feelings in Plato and AristotleTheory and Practice: Plato's and Aristotle's Grounding of Political Theory in a Theory of ManEvolutionary and Biological Conditions for Self-Preservation and Rational Conditions for Man's Self-Realization: An Appeal for a New Evaluation of RationalityThe Contrast "Ancient" versus "Modern"Characteristic Differences between the Platonic-Aristotelian and the Hellenistic Understanding of RationalityIndex

Schmitt shows how much 'modern' thinkers have lost by turning away from what they believe to be ancient or, even worse, medieval. . . . Schmitt shows why the anti-Platonic 'turn' . . . has marginalized Plato in academic philosophy. One of Schmitt's undoubted achievements is establishing Plato's continuing importance.