New Class: “More Real Than the World,” Summer Seminar with Dr. Laurie Johnson

Using selections of texts from Plato’s Republic, Gorgias, Symposium, and Laws, Laurie will discuss key ideas that attracted early Christians: Plato’s idealism (doctrine of the forms), his views on justice, the role of human love, the existence of God, and the afterlife. The last half hour, at least, will be for open discussion.

Each session will run roughly 1.5 hours. To attend, join the Maurin Academy Patreon or register on Eventbrite! Catholic Workers, email maurinacademy@gmail.com for free access. Word of Life Church members attend free–register at WOLC.

Tentative Schedule

May 20: Platonic idealism and the relationship between the intelligible and the material world. This week, we’ll discuss why and how Plato departed from/critiqued Greek polytheism, and how he developed his distinction and relationship between the material world of change and the eternal realm of ideas and forms. Core text: Republic, Books II (on the nature of god), VII (allegory of the cave, the sun and the intelligible world)

May 27: Plato on human nature and the distinction between true justice and conventional justice. Plato thought that human justice was often very lacking because those who defined it did not understand eternal justice. This week we’ll discuss the relationship between all-too-human actions and laws and true justice, and why understanding this relationship is important for moral reasoning. Core text: Republic, Book II (on the just and unjust man).

June 3: The ladder of love: how human affection is a (pale) reflection and indication of divine love. Understanding the true meaning of “Platonic love” will help us understand the relationship between our imperfect worldly existence and the eternal logos or reason that Plato thought human beings could grasp via philosophy. Core text: Symposium (tale of Diotima of Mantinaea).

June 10: Proofs of God’s existence and imagining the eternality of the human soul. Plato argued that it made logical sense to believe in one God, so this week we will examine one of his arguments. We will also learn something of his unconventional views of humanity’s place in the afterlife, and sum up what all of this has to do with the development of Christian theology. Core texts: Laws, Book X (prime mover argument), Gorgias (story of the Isles of the Blessed and Tartarus).