If the Good were God: Platonic Meditations on Theism

Abstract

The usual way to relate to Platonism to theism is to contrast an impersonal conception of the Good with a God of absolutely benevolent will. I call into the question the usefulness of that contrast and argue for a reading of Plato that takes centrally into account Socratic service to the god. My overall aim is to suggest that a genuinely philosophical faith tends to defy the distinction between an ethics of will and an ethics of vision.