Towards a restoration of Plato's doctrine of mediation: Platonizing Augustine's criticism of 'the Platonists'.

摘要

Augustine is and remains a Platonist. He inherits the doctrines of Plato as they are mediated through a number of Plato's successors, mort prominently Plotinus, Porphyry, and Victorinus. It is shown that Augustine's main criticism of the 'Platonists' in both his Confessions and City of God on the nature of mediation between the human and the divine, does not necessarily apply to Plato's doctrine of mediation as expressed in the Symposium. Essentially, Augustine criticizes the Platonists for their pride, their belief that they can attain a union with the first principle through their own power alone. This, however, is an accurate portrayal of neither Plato's nor the later pagan Neoplatonic itineraria of the soul.;The Neoplatonists' recognition of human limitation marks a return to Plato's own position, which attempts to account for the presence of the divine to the embodied human in a mediated way. The progress made by the Neoplatonists towards solving the problem of mediation has its roots in Plato's own doctrine of the demon Eros. Augustine's correction of what he takes to be Platonic errors is already anticipated and surpassed within the pagan Neoplatonic tradition itself. On the question of mediation, Augustine is fundamentally within the Platonic tradition, and despite his Christian differences, his doctrine of mediation is not opposed to those of the pagan Neoplatonists, but agrees on fundamental points which mark a return to Plato's own position in the direction away from that of Plotinus.;This work examines the doctrines of the first principles, the soul, matter, and embodiment in the thought of Plotinus, Porphyry, Augustine, Iamblichus, and Proclus in relation to Plato's doctrine of mediation as presented in the Symposium. It is argued that what is lacking in Plotinus is what Augustine, Iamblichus, and Proclus supply: the agency of intermediators. In general, the post-Plotinian Neoplatonists, such as Iamblichus and Proclus, incorporate the necessity of grace, as well as other 'non-rational' methods such as theurgy and demonology to attain union with that which is the source of all things.