A Less Familiar Plato

In this book, Kevin Corrigan sheds light on aspects of Plato's thought that are less familiar to contemporary readers. He reveals a Plato who believes in Forms but is not essentialist, who develops a scientific view of perception in the middle and late dialogues, and who offers positive models of art and science. Corrigan shows how Plato articulates a broader view of intelligible reality in which embodiment is affirmative and the mind-soul-body continuum has an eidetic structure, and where even failure and the imperfect are included. He also demonstrates that Plato developed an ideal, yet finely layered view of love that provided a practical guide throughout antiquity; and that the dialogues and unwritten teachings can be understood in a mutually open-ended, non-antagonistic way. Corrigan's book provides a guide to Plato in an unexpected key and poses important questions regarding imagination, divine inspiration, and Forms and the Good, among other topics.

• Tackles some of Plato's major dialogues, and in analyzing each major dialogue on its own terms, it provides an accessible guide for any reader to think through these central dialogues
• Charts some important links in the what I have argued is a hidden conversation between different dialogues
• Argues that Plato's thought cannot be reduced to a logically comprehensible overarching system--precisely because to be open to the Divine is a crucial feature of Plato's thought, and the Divine in Plato's works cannot be compelled