Abstract

Although the author closes this book with Whitehead's famous comment that European philosophy is "a series of footnotes to Plato," his thesis is that Hegel's footnotes are the right ones. "Dialectic" here means the dynamic reconciliation of opposites. The question of whether dialectic might have had some other meaning for Plato is not raised. Hegelian jargon is used throughout, without explanation, e.g.: "There are two movements in the Philebus: In the first part, the Substance, World itself, becomes Subject aware of itself in the soul...". In addition, one finds obvious errors, such as the citation of the myth of the Timaeus to prove that Plato understood the Empedoclean rhythm of order and disorder as "more than a myth," and the claim that in the latter part of the Timaeus man is described in the "categories of naturalistic description". Typographical errors abound.—R. J. W.