Eric Charles Steinhart - Atheistic Platonism : A Manifesto

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Epictetus, Discourses. Cited by chapter, section, and lines. D 1.2.3-4 is chapter 1, section 2, lines 34.

Plotinus, Enneads. Trans. S. MacKenna & B. Page. Cited by ennead, tractate, section, and lines. E 1.2.3.4-5 is ennead 1, tractate 2, section 3, lines 45.

Iamblichus, On the Mysteries. Trans. E. Clarke, J. Dillon, & J. Hershbell. Cited by book and section. M 1.2 is book 1, section 2.

Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods. Cited by book and lines. ONG 1.2-3 is book 1, lines 23.

Atheism is stuck in a rut. More precisely, its stuck in a cave . Nietzsche described this cave: God is dead; but given the way people are, there may still for millennia be caves in which they show his shadow (The Gay Science, sec. 108). And Nietzsche adds that, after getting rid of God, we still have to get rid of his shadows. The shadowsof God are deeply entrenched habitual patterns of thought and practice. And, while most atheists no longer believe in God, I contend that far too many still believe in Gods shadows. Of course, Nietzsches cave is also Platos cave. Its a place where prisoners are bound with chains . So Platos chains are Nietzsches shadows: they are enchanting patterns of thought and practiceentranced by these shadows, you are bound in the cave. Keeping both Plato and Nietzsche in mind, I refer to this cave as the theistic cave.

Many people live in the theistic cave. As an atheist (and this should come as no surprise), I say that if you believe in God, then you live in the theistic cave. But what is God? By the term God I mean the greatest possible theistic deity. A theistic deity is a bodiless superhuman person.And since being a body locates you in a universe, and binds you to its laws, God is not located in any possible universe, and is not bound by any physical laws. Most people in the Abrahamic religions believe in God. These religions are mainly Judaism, Christianity , and Islam. If people in these religions believe in God, then they are living in the theistic cave. But you dont have to belong to one of these religions to live in the theistic cavemerely believing in God puts you there.

Although the theistic cave is filled with religious people, many atheists live there too. Here I take atheism to be the denial of theism. An atheist denies the existence of all theistic deities: God does not exist. And while an atheist cant believe in God, an atheist can still (unfortunately) believe in Gods shadows. If you believe in those shadows, then you still live in the theistic cave. Heres a shadow: if theres no God, then theres no objective morality. Theists believe in this shadow, but lots of atheists believe in it too. Its one thing to declare that God does not exist, but its another thing altogether to get out of the theistic cave. To escape from the cave is to escape from the shadows. Id like to help atheism to get out of the theistic cave. However, the path I propose does not bear much resemblance to contemporary mainstream atheism. Mainstream atheism has extremely narrow premises. Its narrowness prevents people from seeing that there are many paths out of the cave. You can base your atheism on materialism, but you can also base it on pure mathematics. Atheism does not require empiricism, materialism, or physicalism. You can deny all those things and still be an atheist. John Gray () correctly reminds us that there are many atheisms. The atheisms of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John McTaggart are far from those of the materialists.

I will argue that the best path out of the theistic cave is atheistic Platonism. Atheistic Platonism is a modern version of Platonism. It modifies ancient Platonism by removing its theistic aspects. In one word, it is