From Plato To Platonism Lloyd P Gerson by Lloyd P. Gerson 9780801452413, 0801452414 instant download after payment.

“Was Plato a Platonist?”
The present work is an attempt to answer that question, or at the very least to show that an affirmative answer is not nearly as implausible as it is often taken to be. In searching
for an approach to my question that is minimally non-question-begging, I have been led to reconsider a number of modern assumptions regarding the Platonic dialogues and their relation to Platonism, the relation between Platonism and a putative Socratic philosophy, and the direct and indirect testimony of ancient philosophers regarding Platonism, in particular that of Aristotle. The first part of the book is taken up mainly with the critical examination of these assumptions.
In part 2, I examine the “construction” of various versions of Platonism in the Old Academy, and among the ‘Middle’ Platonists. In these chapters, I face the problem of why, indeed, there are different versions of Platonism if Plato’s disciples were in fact aiming to be
faithful to the teachings of the master. For anyone inclined to the affirmative answer to my main question, this problem cannot be avoided. As Sextus Empiricus said of dogmatists in general, their disagreement among themselves is one of the best possible arguments for skepticism. So, too, if Platonists disagree, does this not at least suggest that with regard to the question of whether Plato was a Platonist, there is in fact no truth of the matter?