Podcasts · Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle: The Thinkers Who Changed History — Fexingo History
Plato's Unwritten Doctrines: The Secret Teachings of the Academy
· 12 min · S5 E209
Episode Plato's Unwritten Doctrines: The Secret Teachings of the Academy
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the shadowy side of Plato's legacy: the unwritten doctrines, the oral teachings he reserved for the inner circle of his Academy in Athens. They unpack the testimony of Aristotle, who claimed that Plato held a 'so-called unwritten teaching' about the One and the Indefinite Dyad, numbers as ideal intermediates, and a cosmos generated from principles of Limit and the Unlimited. They trace these ideas back to Pythagorean influence and forward to the Neoplatonists, from Plotinus to Proclus. The conversation touches on the Seventh Letter, the anecdote of the lecture 'On the Good' that baffled the public, and the ancient tradition that Plato's real philosophy was never written down. Is this secret doctrine a historical fact, or a later invention? Lucas and Luna weigh the evidence, from Aristoxenus to the Tübingen School, and ask what it would mean for our picture of Plato if the dialogues were only the visible tip of a vast iceberg. A must-listen for anyone curious about the hidden depths of ancient philosophy.
#Plato #UnwrittenDoctrines #Academy #Aristotle #Neoplatonism #Pythagoreanism #AncientPhilosophy #GreekPhilosophy #OralTeaching #TheOne #IndefiniteDyad #TübingenSchool #SeventhLetter #OnTheGood #Plotinus #Proclus #History #FexingoHistory
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Transcript
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