Introduction to the Ratio-Positio Analysis of Platonic Doctrines

Abstract

The examination of the complete body of the texts themselves led to a selection of certain major areas of study. In the light of the principles discovered in the last chapter, we can now define our study of these areas with some degree of precision. We propose to examine the texts within each area to determine what ratio-positio analyses of doctrines expressly and nominatim attributed to Plato and/or the Platonists Saint Thomas himself presents within each of the selected areas and to obtain as clear an understanding of these analyses, of their import and interrelationship, as the information at our disposal allows. Whatever the results of this study, they will at least be fundamental and immediately grounded in the texts.