Panos Eliopoulos

Even though Heimarmene is the natural order of things, as it is claimed in the Laws; and although the human being has to participate in that order, as it is written in Timaeus; Plato, at times, tends to be willing to rupture that circle of necessity, that the "naturality" of Heimarmene enforces on man, by finding a potential escape. The human soul is the unambiguous vehicle of this effort. In the writings of the Stoic Seneca, the transcendence of Fate is a matter correlated with the human life and with moral responsibility. His philosophical aim is focused on overcoming the existential conditions which render man a subjugated as well as a non eudaimonistic being. In both philosophers we diagnose a common theoretical orientation: to break through the limitations that Fate imposes on man's freedom in the material world. Certainly there is a difference in the degree, frequency and depth that this is critically established in their thought. In our paper, we mean to: a) ascertain this, b) examine the role of the soul, and c) to recognize the ground where "Paideia" may initiate the transcendence of Fate by human means solely

In Charles Baudelaire’s poetry there is only one direct reference to Plato. The French poet juxtaposes the joy of the senses to the ascetic, as he perceives it, pursuit of the Platonic Good. This juxtaposition is taking place not only with the aid of ethical terms, but principally through their transformation into aesthetic ones. For Baudelaire, the absence of the metaphysical or symbolical light is tautological to beauty, but also a firm ground where the poet stands upon for his artistic creation. Human existence without light, although bordering to the cold safety of death, is also an affirmation of its emptiness when without pleasure and passion.