Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Chapter Summary & Analysis - Plato, or, the Philosopher Summary

Plato, or, the Philosopher Summary and Analysis

Emerson believes the ancient Greek philosopher Plato is the beginning and end of all philosophy, the template that thinkers of all times and places have used as a foundation for their own works. Indeed, Michelangelo and Shakespeare are but two of the many platonists throughout history, according to Emerson. Born in 427 B.C., Plato became a pupil of Socrates and his ideas seem, to Emerson, an example of "extreme modernness [in] his style and spirit." Whatever its era or precepts, Emerson says, philosophy is "the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world." In fact, Plato's conception of the dichotomy of body and soul provides the foundation for the later development of monotheism in the form of Christianity, Emerson says. Plato's idea of opposites joined together through synthesis, or polarity, has been an invaluable tool for understanding our world through the ages. In estimating...
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