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Plato differentiates knowledge from belief - though seemingly without any clear criteria as to how to distinguish the two beyond that knowledge concerns the Ideas and belief (even if derived via reason) does not and thus maybe true or false.

Among those things which he categorizes as belief are oracles/divination. While he doesn’t outright reject such divine revelation he (or whoever he has speaking) is wary of it and doesn’t claim to have knowledge of such things (if I’m recalling correctly).

On the other hand, he looks to the heavens and the rest of the material realm as imitations of the divine realm of the forms through which - via reason - we might obtain knowledge proper. The heavens are even explicitly constructed by the Demiurge for this purpose - that by observing the movements of the heavens we might learn to correct the disorder within our own souls and match our movements with the World Soul.

Since the heavens and the rest of the physical realm are composed in such a manner as to instruct us, is not all of the material realm itself divine revelation? And if so, is not the Philosopher who studies these things via reason to acquire knowledge and to share it an oracle/diviner?

Ryan Pierce Williams
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  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Aug 21 '22 at 21:43
  • @Community my post ends in two clear questions. However, to expand further, with regards Platonism, I am inquiring into what - if any - real difference can be said to exist between the diviner and the Philosopher, between revelation and knowledge? – Ryan Pierce Williams Aug 21 '22 at 22:14
  • Sounds an interesting comparison, except philosophers don't need euphoric psychedelics such as ethylene. During 2001, water samples from the Kerna spring, uphill from the Delphic oracle's temple and now diverted to the nearby town, yielded evidence of 0.3 parts per million of ethylene. It is likely that in ancient times, higher concentrations of ethylene or other gases emerged in the Oracle temple from these springs... – Double Knot Aug 22 '22 at 23:49
  • @DoubleKnot ha, that’s true - though I doubt Plato was aware of this. Nor was that the only Oracle or form of divination in Ancient Greece; not everyone has a natural hot box – Ryan Pierce Williams Aug 23 '22 at 00:03

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