Post #505

Below is a historically informed reading list to begin your journey. The order matters. This list is based on what we know some historical Platonists used as a curriculum. The first two are short and straightforward and will transform your life if you engage seriously with them. I recommend reading them frequently and meditating on them daily. This curriculum will take you through a plan of moral purification and gradually introduce you to deeper philosophical matters. While not part of the "standard" historical Platonic curriculum, as far as I know, I do also recommend reading Book VII of Plato's Republic, which contains the famous cave allegory. Additionally, Sallust's On the Gods and the World is a good introduction to the Platonic path. 1. The Pythagorean Golden Verses 2. The Handbook of Epictetus 3. Select dialogues of Plato: 1. Alcibiades I 2. Gorgias 3. Phaedo 4. Cratylus 5. Theaetetus 6. Sophist 7. Statesman 8. Phaedrus 9. Symposium 10. Philebus 11. Timaeus 12. Parmenides Moving on from here, there are ancient commentaries available on many of these texts, as well as numerous other Stoic and Platonic texts, such as those by Epictetus, Seneca, Plotinus and Proclus.