Plato

by Eric Voegelin

Once again available in paperback, Plato is the first half of Eric Voegelin's Plato and Aristotle, the third volume of his five-volume Order and History, which has been hailed throughout the Western world as a monumental accomplishment of modern scholarship.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2000

About the author

German-born American political philosopher. He taught political theory and sociology at the University of Vienna after his habilitation there in 1928. While in Austria Voegelin established the beginnings of his long lasting friendship with F. A. Hayek. In 1933 he published two books criticizing Nazi racism, and was forced to flee from Austria following the Anschluss in 1938. After a brief stay in Switzerland, he arrived in the United States and taught at a series of universities before joining Louisiana State University's Department of Government in 1942. His advisers on his dissertation were Hans Kelsen and Othmar Spann.

Voegelin remained in Baton Rouge until 1958 when he accepted an offer by Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität to fill Max Weber's former chair in political science, which had been empty since Weber's death in 1920. In Munich he founded the Institut für Politische Wissenschaft. Voegelin returned to America in 1969 to join Stanford University's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace as Henry Salvatori Fellow where he continued his work until his death on January 19, 1985. He was a member of the Philadelphia Society.

Reviews

[Stephen Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was interested in reading a couple of Plato's dialogues, and I used this book as a commentary of sorts. Upon completion of a dialogue, I would then read the corresponding chapter from Voegelin. Simply put, without this book as a guide to my reading, I would have gleaned perhaps 10% of the magnitude and importance of Plato's dialogues. I have no formal philosophical training (engineer by trade, so really out of my element here), and I found Voegelin's writing to be accessible without too much labor.

Voegelin's ability to spring Platonic thought forward 2,500 years to make it pertinent, if not crucial, to understanding modern society is remarkable. His theme of Order and History (of which this volume is but an excerpt from his magnum opus) is constant throughout, and it has the power to alter how one understands civilization through time. At least it has done this for me. This was an entry point to Voegelin for me, and I anticipate returning to this abundant well again and again.

Disclaimer - I did not read this book cover to cover. Only the chapters that corresponded to the dialogues I read (which ended up being about 2/3 of the book anyways).