The Good Universe and the Universal Good. Plutarch's Cosmological Ethics

The good universe and the universal good. Cosmology and its ethical implications in the Platonic tradition: the case of Plutarch of Chaeronea. The idea that the cosmos is intrinsically good pervades the history of Western thought. It was the standard view until the 17th century and still it plays a role in some religious or metaphysical contexts or is felt, e contrario, in accounts on the precarious role of humankind in a mechanistic universe. An important consequence of this teleological view (i.e. the view that the cosmos has a goal, the good) are its ethical implications: if the cosmos is good, people can learn about the good in their own lives by studying it. This corollary was elaborated for the first time by Plato, esp. in his main cosmological text, Timaeus, which for its enormous influence has been called 'the teleologists' bible' (Sedley 1998: 152). Yet, the ethics of Platonic cosmology have rarely been studied. Therefore, this research will turn to Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 45-120 AD), the main representative of Platonism in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Not only is Plutarch the most prolific ethicist in the Platonic tradition, he is also the author of the first extant treatise on Platonic cosmology. I will provide an analysis of this text (On the generation of the soul), focussing on Plutarch's conception of the connection between cosmology and ethics. On this basis, the theme will be explored in the rest of Plutarch's multifaceted oeuvre, in order to present, for the first time, a case-study of how cosmological ethics functioned in Platonism and, more generally, in the history of science and philosophy.

Jaar van publicatie:2018

Toegankelijkheid:Closed