THE PROMETHEUS TRUST
The Prometheus Trust hold regular meetings at Bound & Infinity for those interested in the living philosophic tradition which traces its roots back to Plato and beyond. We meet on the third Friday of each month, from 18:30 to 20:00 with time after for more informal conversation if so desired. These evenings include short talks and/or readings from Platonic writings which we hope are genuinely interactive, with all participants invited to contribute to our collaborative search for truth. No prior acquaintance with Platonism or any other school of thought is necessary to attend.
Admission is free, but we encourage those who are able to donate £5 in order to cover the costs.
The Prometheus Trust is a registered educational charity and exists to encourage, promote and assist the flowering of philosophy as the love of wisdom. It aims especially at re-introducing philosophy as a transformative activity, that is, one that gradually draws into activity all that is best in the human self, so that both the inner and outer life are directed towards that which is truly good, rather than that which only appears to be good.
“Beatific contemplation” says Porphyry, “does not consist of the accumulation of arguments or a storehouse of learned knowledge, but in us theory must become nature and life itself.”
The starting point of our studies and reflections are the writings from the Platonic tradition but we rely on the affirmation that every man and woman has within a connection to all the great truths which underlie reality: our joint discussions are aimed at bringing forth and into focus these truths, which otherwise might remain more or less obscured by the complexities of life. The Trust looks to follow the Platonic tradition’s general approach, that merely because Plato or any of the other philosophers of the Platonic tradition have asserted something we should not simply accept it, but seek to see for ourselves whether or not (and in what way) any particular affirmation is true.
You can find all the texts we are going to use as starting points for each evening at the bottom of the events listing, the next meetings are as follows:
THE WHOLE CHAIN OF IDEAS
January 24th
For many who have read something of Plato, there is a fairly simple schema known as the “theory of forms” which consists of two distinct orders of things–there is a powerful and active order of forms (or ideas), and then there is an order of material instantiations, or material things stamped with impressions of those forms. The first is active, the second passive; the first is the object of intellect and reason, the second is the object of sense and opinion. This is a useful but limited starting point, an understanding which presents the thinker with a number of difficult problems–all of which gather as one major question: how do the two very different orders interact?
We need a much more refined understanding of how the manifested and material world proceeds from, and returns to, the unmanifested and immaterial order. According to Proclus, both these processes–procession and return–work through the law and power of similarity: and since there seems to be a very great dissimilarity between the two orders, we must postulate a series of intermediaries. In this series, each intermediary must have a degree of likeness both to that which is immediately above itself, and to that which is immediately below.
Proclus, in his Commentary on the Parmenides of Plato, offers the serious student of ideas a scheme in which a series of intermediaries carry out just such a function, and thus allow a fruitful communication between the otherwise separated orders of reality. We will look at this passage and consider whether it holds together as a viable scheme, and how it informs our understanding of reality at its various levels.
THE PLATONIC TRADITION LOOKS AT EVIL
February 21st
Plato calls the great first principle “the Good” and says that the Gods are rooted in this Good as the primary agents of providence. He says, in the Republic, that the Gods are the causes of all goodness, and are not the causes of evil; he also says, in the Timaeus, that the universe is good. This presents the philosophers who followed Plato in his tradition with a problem: how can the existence of evil be explained? Where does it come from? What kind of existence is it said to possess? What kind of things are said to be evil in some way?
We will look at some passages from Plotinus and Proclus, and consider for ourselves how this seemingly intractable issue might be understood.
TRIADS: A FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLORING PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
March 21st
The use of connected triads in Platonic texts throughout the long history of the tradition seems, at first, either arbitrary or unimportant: but perhaps it is grounded in the reality of a universe which is both stable and dynamic. We will explore the tradition’s use of triads as a possible key to our progress in both cognitive and life-affirming activities.
ORPHIC MYTH AND MEMORY
April 25th
“The Grecian theology”, says Thomas Taylor, “which originated from Orpheus, was not only promulgated by him, but also by Pythagoras and Plato… By the first of these … it was promulgated mystically and symbolically; by the second, enigmatically, and through images; and scientifically by the third.”
Beginning with Aristotle, scholars and practitioners have remained divided on Orpheus’ role in the Western Tradition. For some, his existence as a bard is no more real than the part he plays in Virgil’s Eclogues, where he’s depicted descending into Hades to bring back Eurydice from the Land of the Dead, and for others he is a historical personage and founder of the Dionysian Mysteries.
Although modern scholarship has been reluctant to acknowledge how much Orphic material underpinned the philosophy of Plato, references to Orphic myth and cult teachings can be found throughout his dialogues.
In this session we will explore how much the Orphic mystery teachings inform Platonic doctrines of reincarnation, salvation, and enlightenment. We will look at an outline of the Orphic myths, and read some passages from the Phaedo, the dialogue (along with the Meno) where Plato is most explicit as regarding his debt to “wise priests and priestesses” when it comes to understanding the soul’s relationship to its beyond-terrestrial experiences.
THE DIVIDED LINE AND THE CAVE IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC
May 23rd
Two famous passages in Plato’s Republic are commonly known as “the divided line” and “the cave”, they are placed right next to each other, one at the end of book six, and the other at the beginning of book seven. We will read and consider both and explore how each enables us to understand the other–how the first is primarily cognitive and the other primarily vivific, and how the two together are particularly suitable for cultivating the soul. For the soul, according to the Platonic tradition, is a life-bearing and knowing being, only able to play its fullest part in the great drama of the cosmos if it combines both elements of its nature.
PROVIDENCE, FATE AND THE SOUL
June 20th
The Platonic tradition holds that the soul is a mysterious and amphibious creature that must negotiate two worlds, that of eternal being and that of time-bound “becoming”. What kind of experiences arise from these two orders of reality? In what way are they related? How is each order regulated? And how does the soul unfold its nature within the confines of each? Using short extracts from the writings of Plato, Plotinus and Proclus, we will spend our evening exploring these questions and consider the nature of the two worlds as expressing the underlying divine powers the tradition understands as Providence and Fate.