Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/132

* PLATO, 104 PLATO OF TIVOLI. ture of philosopliv, but in that of religion, mysti- cism, poetry, iimi iu>tlu'lie eritieisiii. But a word must be said of the theory of ideas with whieli most ex|Tositrs of Plato begin and which mij,'bt be made the centre of the Platonic philosopliv. Taken literally, it is the assertion of the astoundinfr paradox that reality belongs not to the individual thing, this book, this tree, this man, but to the general idea of book, tree, or man. The individual things are but the fleeting. perishable copies of the Form or Idea which abides in changeless unity forever, and is the sole object of real knowledge. Primarily, this is merely a paradoxical logic of general terms, which", employed with Plato's unllinching consist- ency, serves as well as the reverse mode of speech that alone seems reasonable to us. In the second j)lace, it is a manifestation of the plasticity of the Greek imagination which in Plato, as in the mythology and on the stage of Aristophanes, re- fuses to deal with ideas as algebraic counters, but since they are real forces in thought, life, and speech, treats them as veritable things and per- sons. In the third place, it is a metaphysical doctrine with regard to the noumcnon or reality behind the veil of sense which all philosophies that acknowledge an absolute, wliether in being or cognition, are compelled to assume. Only those wTio are willing to affirm that sense is all can consistently condemn as absurd Plato's asser- tion that idtimatc realities are more akin to our ideas than to our sensations and perceptions, ilany passages show that Plato saw, as clearly as his modern critics see, the conflict of this doc- trine with common sense. But metaphysics is not common sense. The ideas were the only al- ternative, he thought, to the philosophy of Herac- litus that all things are in perpetual flux, which Plato interpreted to mean, in modern phrase, that reality is mendy 'the permanent possibility of sensation.' It is because he would not accept this doctrine that Plato clung to the ideas; not. as we are so often t(dd, because in the infancy of human thought he did not 'understand' the processes of generalization and abstraction. Associated with the theory of ideas is the poetical doctrine of reminiscence or recollection. The soul has beheld the ideas in a previous stage of existence. "Our birth." as Wordsworth says, "is but a sleep and a forgetting." Learning, ex- perience, is the re (■<dlcction of the idca-i through the suggestions and association of their imperfect copies in this world. We have never seen two things absolut(dy ecpial, but we recollect the idea and ideal of pure equality from the proximate equals nf experience. JIathematical truths can be elicited from an uneducated man by skillful questioning (.I/cno). The idea of beauty alone has a not wholly inadequate embodiment on earth. Hence the peculiar ecstasy of the thrill which the aspect of beauty stirs in the lover. It awakens inunortal memories of the soul's beatific vision of the idea. Plato's writings exercised an inestimable influ- ence on Aristotle, the Stoics, Cicero, Plutarch, the Neo-Platonists, the Christian Fathers, the earlier scholastics, the philosophy and poetry of the Renaissance in Italv and England, and on the nineteenth-century revival of historical and phil- osophical studies in Oermany. His infliience is rather increasing than diminisbing in the higher literature and scholarship of our own time. Nor is it likely soon to wane. To borrow his own half mystical imagery, he purges the e3'e of the soul, Unit it may. discern spiritual truth, and converts it from the observation of the transient shadows of the lire-lit cave, to the contemplation sub specie wicrnilatis of the abiding forms of pure being illumined by the idea of good. BiBLiotiK.vi'iiY. The best critical edition of the text is that of Sehanz, still incomplete. Good and convenient texts abound — in the Teubner Series, in the Didot Bibliotlieca, and that now in course of publication at Oxford. The chief com- plete annotated edition is that of Stallbaum with Latin notes, parts of which have been re-edited by other scholars. Campbell's Thcwtctus, Sophintcs, and I'oliliciis, Jowett and Campbell's Republic, Archer Hind's Flia'do and TiDKrus, and Bury's I'liilcbus are well known. School and college editions of tJie Apology and Crito, the I'rotagoras, (l(ji;/ius, McHO, and Euthijphro abound. Jowett's translation (3d ed.) supersedes all others for Englisli readers. Grote's four volumes of sinumary and conunent cite the literature down to the year i8(j(j. The volume on Plato in the last edition of Zeller's History of Greek Philosophy is the fullest scholarly treatment of the whole subject. Pro- fessor Ritchie's Plato (New York, 1902) is a readable sketch. For the right understanding of Plato, however, the best guide is Jlill's review of Grote (Dissertations and Discussions, vol. iv., p. 227 ), supplemented where unsympathetic by Pater's Plato and Platonism (New York, 1893), and Emerson's essay in Representalire Men. PLATO'DA. See Platyhelminthes. PLATOFF, plii'tof, Matvei Ivanovitcii, Count (1751-1818). A Russian general and hetman of the Cossacks of the Don. He was born on the banl^s of the Don, August 17 (0), 1751, and was of Greek descent. In 1765 he entered the Rus- sian Army and distinguished himself in the wars against Turkey and France, so that in 1801 he was appointed by Alexander I. hetman of tlie Cos- sacks, and lieutenant-general in tlie Russian Army. As commander of the Russian irregular cavalry, he took a prominent part in the further wars with France and Turkey. In the War of 1812, after the French had evacuated Moscow, Platoff hung upon their rear with the utmost pertinacity, wearying them by incessant attacks, cutting off straggling parties, capturing their convoys of )>rovisions, and keeping tliem in a state of con- tinual terror and apprehension. French histo- rians state that Napoleon's army suffered more loss from the attacks of Platoff's Cossacks than from privation and exhaustion. After crossing the Prussian frontier he occupied Marienwerdor and other cities. On May 28, 1813, he defeated Le- fe1>vre at Altenburg. After the defeat of the French at Leipzig he inflicted great loss upon them in tlieir retreat, and subsequently gained a victory over them at Laon. His undisciplined bauds committed great depredations everywhere, but Platnff was loaded with honors by the mon- archs who were warring against France. Alex- ander made him a count in 1812. PLATONIC BODIES. See Polyhedron. PLATO OF TIVOLI, or TIBURTIKTUS ( e.l 120 ) . A translator of Arabic mathematical manu- scripts. He is known chiefly for his translation of the trigonometry and astronomy of Al Battani. Among his contemporaries are Gerard of Cre- mona, Athelard of Bath, and John of Seville,