In Quest of Platonopolis: Excerpts from Research Visits to Philosophical Communities

Preview: In general, the idea of a completely contemplative life, of a studious leisure whose pleasantness would be still further enhanced by the pure pleasure of the spiritual friendship, exerted on all of Antiquity a fascination which seemed to only increase at the end of the Roman Empire. One hundred years after Plotinus, Augustine too, before his conversion, would dream of a phalanstery of philosophers, where, in leisure and complete communal ownership of possessions, he and his friends could “flee the noise and annoyances of human life.”