Plato and Socrates (and a few other philosophers) have a plan to rescue us from ‘insanity’ and save the planet

‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael, depicting Plato (centre), with Aristotle, and Socrates (left), in profile in brown garb.

Imagine an intensive discussion about the ideal society between a philosophy professor of today and the Classical Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato, as well as the Dutch philosopher Baruch ‘Benedict’ Spinoza (1632–77) and the American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842–1910).

Here we have it in this extraordinary new book Conversations with Socrates and Plato: How a post-materialist social order can solve the challenges of modern life and insure our survival, by Neal Grossman (Iff Books, UK £34.99 / US $49.95, July 2019).

Grossman, PhD, an associate professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has wide-ranging interests, from the philosophy of science, especially quantum mechanics, to Spinoza, Plato, mysticism, parapsychology and survival research, together with a new ‘world view’ emerging from such research.

Conversations is a veritable philosophical tour de force, impressive for its sustained intellectual drive and assertion, and the unprecedented way in which Grossman assimilates and interweaves the existential and metaphysical ideas of the four illustrious thinkers.