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Divine Madness: Plato's Case Against Secular Humanism
Josef Pieper The popular Thomistic philosopher and writer Josef Pieper focuses on the thesis of Plato, which at first sight appears strange and unrealistic, that those experiences that advance human life to its true fullness are bestowed on us only during a "god-given" state of "being-beside-oneself". This thesis is then resolutely confronted with our contemporary and above all psychoanalytical knowledge of man's nature, as well as with the Christian conception of man's existence, thus revealing its amazing unexpected relevance. "Man's real spiritual patrimony is achieved and preserved only through a willingly accepted openness: openness for divine revelation, for the salutary pain of catharsis, for the recollecting power of the fine arts, for the emotional shock brought about by eros and caritas-in short, through the attitude rooted in the mysterious experience that Plato called theia mania." -Josef Pieper
59 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
About the author
Josef Pieper
166 books297 followersJosef Pieper was a German Catholic philosopher and an important figure in the resurgence of interest in the thought of Thomas Aquinas in early-to-mid 20th-century philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance; Leisure, the Basis of Culture; and Guide to Thomas Aquinas (published in England as Introduction to Thomas Aquinas).
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 12, 2024
Reading Pieper makes me feel smart, and I enjoy that feeling, probably a little too much.
April 14, 2015
Josef Pieper examines an extended argument from Plato's Phaedrus, one of the later dialogues. Pieper quotes Plato, "The highest goods come to us in the manner of the mania, inasmuch as the same is bestowed on us as a divine gift" (p. 7). Mania is deliberately untranslated in this quotation because the meaning is unpacked over the course of this small book (59 pages).
Due to the nearly 2500 year gap between the first writing of Phaedrus and our reading of it, there is no neat equivalence between the Plato's Greek term and our modern English usage. The idea isn't lost to us, it just needs more than one English word to express it. The title of the book, "Divine Madness," is, at best, an approximation. Pieper throughout the book uses words like inspiration, ecstasy, or frenzy. Most often he refers to it as "being-beside-oneself," a mania where the person is acting not so much "out of his mind" as "beyond his abilities." Plato's examples make the idea clearer.
His first example is prophecy. Prophets speak of things beyond their knowledge, usually during a heightened or ecstatic state (these are the Greek prophets like the Oracle of Delphi). Their words are at once insightful and inscrutable. Modern thinkers tend to disregard the importance of this example because Greek religion has gone by the wayside. Pieper looks at the Christian concepts of revelation and theological inspiration as parallels to Greek prophecy. Inspiration comes from outside the prophet or scholar and lifts him into a realm of higher, divine understanding. Scientific rationalism does not accept either the Greek or Christian examples precisely because they are outside of scientific competence.
Pieper goes through three other examples given by Plato (catharsis, poetic inspiration, and eros) and finds similar modern skepticism but provides interesting and persuasive counterpoints to modern objections.
Pieper's argument is a great example of why studying classic works of philosophy is important. They bring up issues that are relevant throughout the ages. But only if the reader is willing to engage the texts in their own right and to reflect on how the texts apply in the contemporary world. The effort is worth the reward.
Due to the nearly 2500 year gap between the first writing of Phaedrus and our reading of it, there is no neat equivalence between the Plato's Greek term and our modern English usage. The idea isn't lost to us, it just needs more than one English word to express it. The title of the book, "Divine Madness," is, at best, an approximation. Pieper throughout the book uses words like inspiration, ecstasy, or frenzy. Most often he refers to it as "being-beside-oneself," a mania where the person is acting not so much "out of his mind" as "beyond his abilities." Plato's examples make the idea clearer.
His first example is prophecy. Prophets speak of things beyond their knowledge, usually during a heightened or ecstatic state (these are the Greek prophets like the Oracle of Delphi). Their words are at once insightful and inscrutable. Modern thinkers tend to disregard the importance of this example because Greek religion has gone by the wayside. Pieper looks at the Christian concepts of revelation and theological inspiration as parallels to Greek prophecy. Inspiration comes from outside the prophet or scholar and lifts him into a realm of higher, divine understanding. Scientific rationalism does not accept either the Greek or Christian examples precisely because they are outside of scientific competence.
Pieper goes through three other examples given by Plato (catharsis, poetic inspiration, and eros) and finds similar modern skepticism but provides interesting and persuasive counterpoints to modern objections.
Pieper's argument is a great example of why studying classic works of philosophy is important. They bring up issues that are relevant throughout the ages. But only if the reader is willing to engage the texts in their own right and to reflect on how the texts apply in the contemporary world. The effort is worth the reward.
October 25, 2008
Beautiful beyond belief.
January 6, 2024
Profound as ever.
August 2, 2025
There is definitely much food for thought! & now I'm readung Plato's Phaedrus, to know the source material. If I have time, I'd like to revisit this after, to see if I understand Pieper's argument better.
March 29, 2020
Better the second time found.
September 15, 2024
Reading Pieper is like reading C. S. Lewis if he had become Catholic and become an academic philosopher instead of a medievalist. The virtues of this book are its conciseness and depth of thought. Yet, this will also be frustrating for some people (including myself) for whom Pieper does not spell out his exact meaning but leaves the reader feeling as though they he has moved them to the edge of a profound insight and leaves them reeling at the precipice. I enjoy Pieper's passion for the wisdom of pre-modern philosophy. I also wished he would have spelled out how the content of this book, the "divine madness" is a case against secular humanism. I believe his point is that there is present in the human experience those moments when we are drawn outside of ourselves and moved by something clearly beyond ourselves to a state than classically would be called "madness" or "being beside oneself." Plato argues, according to Pieper, that this is experienced in prophecy/oracles (with which we moderns have little experience and are highly skeptical of), repentance (interestingly), art/beauty, and eros. I give it five stars mainly because of how thought provoking it is.
April 28, 2021
Josef Pieper is one of the best writers I have ever read.
Here are my thoughts:
1. The book is a very quick, short read and exceptionally clear.
2. I think Pieper does a good job of synthesizing a few dialogues of Plato (Phaedrus, Symposium) and he also ties in St. Thomas Aquinas much and a few other thinkers.
3. What Pieper is trying to tell the reader is that the wisdom of Plato and Socrates would greatly benefit people today. That there is a higher order, that wisdom in the pursuit of truth is worth it.
4. The biggest take-away for me in this book is that Plato is worth reading. Plato had a strong understanding of the human person and yearned for truth.
Here are my thoughts:
1. The book is a very quick, short read and exceptionally clear.
2. I think Pieper does a good job of synthesizing a few dialogues of Plato (Phaedrus, Symposium) and he also ties in St. Thomas Aquinas much and a few other thinkers.
3. What Pieper is trying to tell the reader is that the wisdom of Plato and Socrates would greatly benefit people today. That there is a higher order, that wisdom in the pursuit of truth is worth it.
4. The biggest take-away for me in this book is that Plato is worth reading. Plato had a strong understanding of the human person and yearned for truth.
September 16, 2018
Whenever a Thomist writes an essay on Plato, it is on a topic where Plato and Aquinas are in some kind of agreement. Well, it could be true, and it is here. Pieper writes in this essay about the mania, the "Divine Madness" of the Oracles, and track it into Christian life, poesy and Eros - into the idea of being moved by something utside oneself - or rather "being-beside-onself-in-enthusiasm". It is a slick read, but for the interested, probably a worthwhile acquaintance.
January 8, 2024
In this short work, Pieper lays out Plato’s idea of theia-media, divine madness, or inspiration. That God-given state, which produces revelation and connection to what is actually most true and good. Piper begins with prophecy, moves on to caritas, then poesy, and finally Eros. Prophecy and Eros were, I think the strongest sections, the weakest being poesy.
Another excellent work by Pieper, and I highly recommend this and all of his works.
Another excellent work by Pieper, and I highly recommend this and all of his works.
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July 16, 2020Loved the ending!
March 1, 2021
Until i re-read the Phaedrus i can't give this a proper rating
September 23, 2021
Wow! Short but amazing.
I wanna read more stuff by Pieper mostly because of how accessible his writing is.
I wanna read more stuff by Pieper mostly because of how accessible his writing is.
October 7, 2021
nice and short! pieper is incredibly clear and draws on a variety of voices to make his points. i look forward to reading more of his works.
March 15, 2023
Great analysis on the "being beside oneself" in Plato
November 30, 2024
Four types of divine mania: prophetic (reception), kathartic (an end-of-yourself release), poetic (inspiration) and erotic (ecstasy unto infinity).
February 16, 2025
Extremely good and short book for artists with bipolar
July 31, 2025
Not my favorite Pieper
October 1, 2016
What a phenomenal little book!
April 25, 2016
In Phaedrus Socrates argues that a young man should favour a lover over a lecher since love is a form of divine madness. In fact, Socrates argues in favour of divine madness in its various forms – prophecy, catharsis, poetry and love. Such madness or mania – being-beside-oneself – is a gift of the gods to be valued highly, as Socrates does value it when he is so-gifted from time to time.
Josef Pieper focuses on this broader theme in “Divine Madness”: Plato's Case against Secular Humanism. In Pieper's view, secular rationalism rejects the idea of divine inspiration and thereby distorts and impoverishes our vision of reality. Grace and the gift of inspiration are, for Pieper, important elements of our world which should not be discounted by those who lack them.
Pieper's book is short (59 pages in a small format) and, despite bringing Plato together with Thomas Aquinas, it is not deep in either insight or analysis. It is an occasion piece: it provides an occasion for thinking about being-beside-oneself.
The fact of mania is hard to deny and in its milder forms it seems to be how most of us spend much of our time. Freud and friends have pointed this out clearly enough. Nonetheless, it is useful to have someone like Pieper remind us that Plato, Aquinas and others have placed a high value on the forms of divine madness. These gifts can open the door to new life or simply enrich the life we are living. We should be grateful. More importantly, we should not toss away the gift because we don't understand the source.
We tend to take refuge in half-baked science when faced with the extraordinary. Inspiration we acknowledge but discount as background processing that's finally finished. Prophecy is predictive analytics in a fog. Art and poetry are socio-political-economic products with sidebar explanations. Love is evolutionary pressure in full bore. And that curious fourth, catharsis of a family curse, is not in our range of experience, except possibly as something we hope to obviate through genetic manipulation.
Of course, Pieper doesn't say any of that. He sticks to his philosophy tinctured with religion.
It would be interesting if someone with less of an axe to grind (Pieper is an ardent Christian) would pick up where Pieper left off. Being-beside-oneself is an extraordinary phenomenon in its many forms. We could benefit from a substantive, twenty-first century look at what it is and the roles it plays (or could play) in our society.
Josef Pieper focuses on this broader theme in “Divine Madness”: Plato's Case against Secular Humanism. In Pieper's view, secular rationalism rejects the idea of divine inspiration and thereby distorts and impoverishes our vision of reality. Grace and the gift of inspiration are, for Pieper, important elements of our world which should not be discounted by those who lack them.
Pieper's book is short (59 pages in a small format) and, despite bringing Plato together with Thomas Aquinas, it is not deep in either insight or analysis. It is an occasion piece: it provides an occasion for thinking about being-beside-oneself.
The fact of mania is hard to deny and in its milder forms it seems to be how most of us spend much of our time. Freud and friends have pointed this out clearly enough. Nonetheless, it is useful to have someone like Pieper remind us that Plato, Aquinas and others have placed a high value on the forms of divine madness. These gifts can open the door to new life or simply enrich the life we are living. We should be grateful. More importantly, we should not toss away the gift because we don't understand the source.
We tend to take refuge in half-baked science when faced with the extraordinary. Inspiration we acknowledge but discount as background processing that's finally finished. Prophecy is predictive analytics in a fog. Art and poetry are socio-political-economic products with sidebar explanations. Love is evolutionary pressure in full bore. And that curious fourth, catharsis of a family curse, is not in our range of experience, except possibly as something we hope to obviate through genetic manipulation.
Of course, Pieper doesn't say any of that. He sticks to his philosophy tinctured with religion.
It would be interesting if someone with less of an axe to grind (Pieper is an ardent Christian) would pick up where Pieper left off. Being-beside-oneself is an extraordinary phenomenon in its many forms. We could benefit from a substantive, twenty-first century look at what it is and the roles it plays (or could play) in our society.
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September 5, 2016I almost feel bad giving myself credit for reading this book. It's only 56 pages and a tenth of those are blank. At best this is a 10 page essay like you'd write for a philosophy class. I like pieper a lot. His anthology is one of the most lucid philosophy books I've read. This book, however, isn't as lucid. I can't say I really understood what the point was except to say that "being-beside-oneself" or spiritual ecstasy can be a real form of knowledge. Or maybe not....again, I'm not really sure what I read. I read it pretty fast with distractions around me. Since the book was so short, I guess I'll read it again and maybe then give it an official rating. Right now I feel I'd be doing a disservice to Pieper if I gave it fewer stars than it deserved.
November 21, 2013
"…the present time…cries out for resistance to the attempt and the temptation to establish the autocratic rule of man, who deludes himself that he possesses sovereign powers over the world and over himself and thus squanders his real existential patrimony." - pp. 57-58
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