nvinced, guided his actions. The
present writer is strongly of the opinion that much violence has been
done the words of Socrates by translators and interpreters, and that
this fact will account for much of the alleged theistic teaching which
is, without warrant, ascribed to the Athenian sage.

The contribution of Plato to the theistic argument was,
characteristically, the form of the "Ontological proof" which has been
called "Idealogical." This process is a very natural development for
Plato's Dialectic.[8] Once divide the universe, as he did, into the two
classes of permanent existence and transient phenomena, and identify the
former with the ideas (which are nothing else than universals, each of
which expresses the essence of many phenomena), and it is a very easy
process to conceive of these ideas themselves being united in another
more inclusive idea, and so, by a process of generalization, to reach at
length the "Idea of Ideas"--the absolute Idea, in which lies the essence
of all in the universe. Thus from any one fact of beauty, harmony, etc.,
the human mind may rise to the notion of a common quality in all objects
of beauty, etc.: "from a single beautiful body to two, from two to all
others; from beautiful bodies to beautiful sentiments, from beautiful
sentiments to beautiful thoughts, until, from thought to thought, we
arrive at the highest thought, which has no other object than the
perfect, absolute, Divine Beauty."[9] The "ideas," too, and especially
the "Good" or "absolute Idea," have in them a teleological element,
"since the Idea not only states as what, but also for what a thing
exists."[10] The absolute Idea is not only the first principle of the
universe, but also its final purpose, and thus we have indicated in
various places a teleological argument. Traces of other forms of the
theistic argument have been detected in Plato's writings, but none of
them are at all explicitly developed, and one cannot but feel that some
writers on the subject have claimed altogether too much for Plato's
theology.[11] The poetical and allegorical form into which he so
constantly throws his discussion makes it extremely difficult to
determine his exact position, especially on such a subject as his
theology, in which he is constantly adapting his metaphysical doctrines
to the prevailing polytheistic religious ideas; and at the same time
this method of expression gives a good opportunity for the collection of
isolated quota