Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition

Download or read book Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition written by Michael Erler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All disciplines can count on a noble founder, and the representation of this founder as an authority is key in order to construe a discipline's identity. This book sheds light on how Plato and other authorities were represented in one of the most long-lasting traditions of all time. It leads the reader through exegesis and polemics, recovery of the past and construction of a philosophical identity. From Xenocrates to Proclus, from the sceptical shift to the re-establishment of dogmatism, from the Mosaic of the Philosophers to the Neoplatonist Commentaries, the construction of authority emerges as a way of access to the core of the Platonist tradition.