Platonism: Ficino to Foucault

The sixteen essays in this volume trace the development of Platonism in the history of Western thought, starting with the revival of the Platonic tradition in the early modern period that followed the rediscovery and translation of important Greek texts. Special attention is devoted to Marsilio Ficino’s translations and commentaries; to the relationship between Platonism and Christianity; to the influence of Platonic metaphysics on the mystical tradition – in particular on Jacob Böhme and Emanuel Swedenborg; to the impact of idealism on the hermeneutical criticism of traditional philosophical categories and to the ways in which the so-called ‘Critique of Modernity’ promoted a new reading of the Platonic dialogues. The emphasis throughout is on demonstrating the theoretical and historical continuity of Platonism over the centuries.

Contributors are: Laura Candiotto, Pierpaolo Ciccarelli, Anna Corrias, Francesca Maria Crasta, Eva del Soldato, Laura Follesa, Guido Giglioni, Nicholas Holland, Andrea Le Moli, Brunello Lotti, Cecilia Muratori, Arnold Oberhammer, Paula Oliveira e Silva, Valery Rees, Pasquale Terracciano, and Angelo Maria Vitale.

Valery Rees graduated MA from Newnham College, Cambridge. She leads Renaissance Studies at the School of Philosophy and Economic Science. Her publications include The Letters of Marsilio Ficino and From Gabriel to Lucifer. A Cultural History of Angels.

Anna Corrias is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the universities of Cambridge and Toronto. She authored the monograph The Renaissance of Plotinus: The Soul and Human Nature in Marsilio Ficino’s Commentary on the “Enneads” (Routledge, 2020) and several articles.

Francesca M. Crasta is Professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Cagliari. She works on early modern metaphysics and natural philosophy and has published several articles and books on Emanuel Swedenborg and eighteenth-century Italian philosophy.

Laura Follesa is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Jena. Her research focuses on German authors (Herder, Schelling), the notion of 'thinking in images' (Das 'Denken in Bildern', Lang 2019), and the interplay between philosophy and science.

Guido Giglioni is Associate Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Macerata, Italy. His research concentrates on the interplay of life and imagination in the early modern period. His publications include two books on Jan Baptista van Helmont (Milan, 2000) and Francis Bacon (Rome, 2011).