The Core Elements of a Platonist

Plato's thought was codified or systematized in a messy and individualistic way by thinkers from around the first century CE onward into a kind of school of thought, which we can legitimately call Platonism. The late Platonists created powerful systems of thought which interpreted Plato in a way that would dominate ideas about what Plato meant until modern times. As we shall see, the late Platonist reading of Plato was dominant until very recently indeed, the early 19th century in fact.