# Is Moïse Amyraut's reading of Plato accurate?



## Reformed Covenanter (Nov 28, 2020)

Do you consider the below analysis to be an accurate reading of Plato?:

... As for the expression of _Plato,_ that the Being of God is the only true Being, and that ours is no other then a shadow of that, infinitely inferior to it in dignity, he did not consider it simply as a Being, but as an eternal Being, that wastes not away with duration, nor is obnoxious to any kind of change, that includes in its eternity all the several successions and revolutions of times, and all whose Properties and Virtues are as invariable as its essence.

Moïse Amyraut, _A treatise concerning religions, in refutation of the opinion which accounts all indifferent. Wherein is also evinced the necessity of a particular revelation, and the verity and preeminence of the Christian religion above the pagan, Mahometan, and Jewish rationally demonstrated_ (London: Will. Nealand, 1660), Part 1.5, pp 63-64.


----------



## RamistThomist (Nov 28, 2020)

Kind of. It's accurate in that Platonism tended to see the sensible world as a shadow or less than real. But on Plato's account God is strictly speaking "beyond being" (see Republic 509b).

It's also important to realize that the Forms have causal power, so on some readings of Plato the Good (which is beyond being) causes the next class of being, which is "thinner" in reality.

Reactions: Informative 2


----------

