Truls Ljungström’s Reviews > Gardens of Philosophy: Ficino on Plato (1) > Status Update

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He approves of the middle course. Note his golden words: ‘Service given to God is well-measured, but that given to men exceeds the measure. Law is the god of temperate men, but lust is the god of the intemperate.’

At this point, let us heed the warning never to make wrong use of power and art and not to be troubled in debate, where serenity is essential for the perception of truth.

(Gorgias)
SINCE 2 THINGS – consciousness & emotion – wield z greatest power in z soul, z Sophists, under the guise of truth, divert men’s consciousness towards what is false, while the popular poets, using the bait of harmonious pleasure, frequently hurl the emotions into inharmonious upheavals. Lastly, z popular declaimers deceive men’s understanding with their false notions & drive human emotions into / activities.

In Cratylus he expounds the Greek word sophrosyne as ‘temperance’, the wholesome preserver of prudence. For he thinks that the glories of all true things have been born within the soul, and this is why a man who looks directly into himself will behold all true things within himself.

Thus a single king is required as judge of all the others: one who has the undoubted respect of all the others. Such a king, moreover, must be a model of virtue to his subjects. Most importantly, he will be above all the others, the one to whom every eye will turn. Even if he pos- sessed the whole world, he would not desire another’s kingdom or be envious of others.

Plato wishes the king to be exactly like this, both discerning the truth in the manner of the contemplatives and commanding that his own laws, and not those of others, be executed.

Statesman

In this way he showed that the function of the master builder is to be found midway between pure theory and pure service, although it has more of theory than of service. He also showed that the master builder not only judges in the manner of the Geometer but also commands the workers and always stands by the craftsman.

Knowledge is therefore the understanding of things divine by infallible reason. It abides in mind and flows forth into reason. It is put into mind by God, and it is brought to reason by a teacher of dialectic under the grace of God. It guides reason into mind and unites mind with divinity.

(Theaetetus)
The same is true for the senses. For sight does not endure for a moment within the sense of sight, and hearing does not endure for a moment within the sense of hearing. Thus, even while we are assert- ing that we are seeing and hearing, the fact is that we are not-seeing and not-hearing as much as seeing and hearing.

This is why that wise man rightly said that a triple-corded rope is difficult to undo, a rope plaited from piety, holiness, and religion.