PLATON, Levshin (1737-1812), a celebrated Russian archbishop, was born at the village of Tchashnikovo, near Moscow, in 1737, and was educated in the academy of that city. On completing his studies there in 1758 he was appointed teacher of rhetoric in the school connected with the monastery of St Sergius, and about this time entered the priesthood. In 1763 Catherine invited him to instruct her son Paul in theology, and he became one of the court chaplains. Three years afterwards Platon was appointed archimandrite of the monastery of the Trinity (Troitzkaia Lavra) near Moscow; in 1770 he was made archbishop of Tver, and finally in 1787 archbishop of Moscow and metropolitan. He died in 1812. Platon was a brilliant and learned man, not only in the opinion of his countrymen, but in the estimation of all foreigners who made his acquaintance. We get a graphic and interesting picture of him at the beginning of the present century in the travels of Edward Clarke of Cambridge, who was much struck with his wit and wide range of reading. As a preacher he enjoyed great celebrity, one of the most remarkable specimens of his eloquence being the sermon preached at the coronation of Alexander I. He was also the author of several works which enjoyed considerable reputation in their time, such as A Short Course of Divinity, compiled for the use of the emperor Paul when grandduke, several Catechisms, A Short History of the Russian Church, which has been translated into English, and other works. Platon is altogether a striking and important figure in a very -eventful period of his country’s history.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 19, p. 212 [272 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
1. Pertaining to Plato the philosopher, or to his philosophy, his school or his opinions.
2. Platonic love, is a pure spiritual affection subsisting between the sexes, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellencies; a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.
3. Platonic year, the great year, or a period of time determines by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes. This revolution, which is calculated by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 25, 000 years.
The philosophy of Plato, consisting of three branches, theology, physics and mathematics. Under theology is included moral philosophy. The foundation of Plato's theology is the opinion that there are two eternal, primary, independent and incorruptible principles or causes of all things, and matter, from which all things are made. It was a fundamental maxim with him that from nothing, nothing can proceed. While therefore he held God to be the maker of the universe, he held matter, the substance of which the universe was made, to be eternal.
The Platonic philosophy is denominated from Plato, who was born about B. C. 426. He founded the old academy on the opinions of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates; and by adding the information he had acquired to their discoveries, he established a sect of philosophers, who were esteemed more perfect than any who had before appeared in the world. The outlines of Plato’s philosophical system were as follows:--that there is one God, eternal, immutable, and immaterial; perfect in wisdom and goodness, omniscient, and omnipresent: that this all-perfect Being formed the universe out of a mass of eternally preëxisting matter, to which he gave form and arrangement: that there is in matter a necessary, but blind and refractory force, which resists the will of the supreme Artificer, so that he cannot perfectly execute his designs; and this is the cause of the mixture of good and evil which is found in the material world: that the soul of man was derived by emanation from God; but that this emanation was not immediate, but through the intervention of the soul of the world, which was itself debased by some material admixture: that the relation which the human soul, in its original constitution, bears to matter, is the source of moral evil; that when God formed the universe, he separated from the soul of the world inferior souls, equal in number to the stars, and assigned to each its proper celestial abode: that these souls were sent down to earth to be imprisoned in mortal bodies; hence arose the depravity and misery to which human nature is liable: that the soul is immortal; and by disengaging itself from all animal passions, and rising above sensible objects to the contemplation of the world of intelligence, it may be prepared to return to its original habitation: that matter ...never suffers annihilation, but that the world will remain for ever; and that by the action of its animating principle it accomplishes certain periods, within which every thing returns to its ancient place and state. This periodical revolution of nature is called the Platonic, or great year.
The Platonic system makes the perfection of morality to consist in living in conformity to the will of God, the only standard of truth, and teaches that our highest good consists in the contemplation and knowledge of the supreme Being. In this divine Being Plato admitted a sort of trinity of _three hypostases_. The first he considered as self-existent, calling him, by way of eminence, τὸ hὸν, the Being, or τὸ hὲν, the One. The only attribute which he acknowledged in this person was goodness; and therefore he frequently styles him, τὸ ἀγαθὸν, the _good_. The second he considered as, νοῦς, the _mind_, or, λογὸς, the _wisdom_ or _reason_ of the former, and the δημιȣργὸς, _maker of the world_. The third he always speaks of as, ψυχὴ, the _soul_ of the world. He taught that the second is a necessary emanation from the first, and the third from the second, or perhaps from both; comparing these emanations to those of light and heat from the sun. From the above use of _Logos_ for the second person of the Platonic trinity, it has been thought that St. John borrowed the term from Plato; but it is not likely that this Apostle was conversant with his writings, and therefore both Le Clerc and Dr. Campbell think it more probable that he took it from the Old Testament. The end of all knowledge, or philosophy, according to Plato, was to make us resemble the Deity as much as is compatible with human nature. This likeness consists in the possession and practice of all the moral virtues. After the death of Plato, many of his disciples deviated from his doctrines. His school was then divided into the old, the middle, and the new academy. The old academy strictly adhered to his tenets. The middle academy partially receded from his system, without entirely deserting it. The new academy almost entirely relinquished the original doctrines of Plato, and verged toward the skeptical philosophy. An infusion of Platonism, though in a perverted form, is seen in the philosophy most prevalent in the times of the Apostles. It was Judaized by the contemplativeHellenists, and, through them, their native Judaism was Platonized. The eclectic philosophy added other ingredients to the compound, from the oriental systems. All however issued in pride, and the domination of bewildering and monstrous imaginations.
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