- Title
- Philosophy
- Creator
- Benitez, Rick; Tarrant, Harold
- Relation
- The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion p. 211-224
- Relation
- https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-ancient-greek-religion-9780199642038
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- The study of the dialectic between philosophy and religion in antiquity informs us about how religion was conceived and how philosophers contributed to the development of religious thinking. We review the philosophy and religion dialectic from the end of the sixth century BCE to the second century CE, focusing more on theology, mythology, and personal religious experience, than on cult practices of polis and oikos. In general, philosophers accepted that conventional religion had an essential place in Greek culture. Competition arose rather where concepts and assumptions underlying religious practice appeared to conflict with reason. Such competition has been viewed in terms of antagonism between philosophy and religion. In this chapter, we stress the interrelation of philosophy and religion, paying special attention to how some philosophers incorporated religious thought into their own views. In the case of Plato, this inevitably also includes the incorporation of religious practice and experience. We begin by reviewing the supposed opposition between philosophy and religion, in order to put into question the very distinction it presupposes. This is followed by more detailed case studies that show philosophy and religion in closer proximity. We focus on Xenophanes, Plato, and later Platonism, on the grounds that these reveal the most pertinent interactions between religious culture and philosophical thinking.
- Subject
- Ancient Greece; philosophy; religion; Plato; Xenophanes
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1309523
- Identifier
- uon:21899
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780199642038
- Language
- eng
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