Religious Platonism

<p>In Plato's <em>Laws</em> is the earliest surviving fully developed cosmological argument. His influence on the philosophy of religion is wide ranging and this book examines both that and the influence of religion on Plato.</p> <p>Central to Plato's thought is the theory of forms which holds that there exists a realm of forms perfect ideals of which things in this world are but imperfect copies. In this book originally published in 1959 Feibleman finds two diverse strands in Plato's philosophy: an idealism centered upon the Forms denying full ontological status to the realm of becoming and a moderate realism granting actuality equal reality with Forms. For each strand Plato developed a conception of religion: a supernatural one derived from Orphism and a naturalistic religion revering the traditional Olympian deities. </p>