Plato rarely if ever states anything about himself clearly.

- Thomas Mcevilley

In the Republic Plato presents a theory of personality. ... He speaks of three faculties, the appetitive, the ambitious, and the rational. ... The mo…

- Thomas Mcevilley

Plato feels that ethical abstinences and austerities are essential preconditions for the cleansing and opening of the eye of the soul.

- Thomas Mcevilley

Art's primary social function is to define the communal self, which includes redefining it when the community is changing.

- Thomas Mcevilley

To Plato the desire for excessive and special foods ... is a hindrance to the soul's attainment of intelligence.

- Thomas Mcevilley

It is ... possible to read Plato as if he were only discussing reason and not mystical intuition in his writings but ... in that case he seems naivel…

- Thomas Mcevilley

Many modern scholars have found the asceticism expressed in Plato unacceptable; it does not sound like the advice of a reasonable man in the Cartesia…

- Thomas Mcevilley