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less, the great majority of the Christian philosophers
down to St. Augustine were Platonists. They appre-
ciated the upUfting influence of Plato's psychology
and metaphysics, and recognized in that influence a
powerful ally of Christianity in the warfare against
materialism and naturalism. These Christian Plato-
nists underestimated Aristotle, whom they generally
referred to as an "acute" logician whose philosophy
favom-ed the heretical opponents of orthodox Chris-
tianity. The Middle Ages completely reversed this
verdict. The first scholastics knew only the logical
treatises of Aristotle, and, so far as they were psychol-
ogists or metaphysicians at all, they drew on the Plato-
nism of St. Augustine. Their successors, however, in
the twelfth century came to a knowledge of the
psychology, metaphysics, and ethics of Aristotle, and
adopted the Aristotelean view so completely that
before the end of the thirteenth century the Stagyrite
occupied in the Christian schools the- position occu-
pied in the fifth century by the founder of the Acad-
emy. There were, however, episodes, so to speak, of
Platonism in the history of Scholasticism — e. g., the
School of Chartres in the twelfth century — and
throughout the whole scholastic period some prin-
ciples of Platonism, and especially of neo-Platonism,
were incorporated in the Aristotelean system adopted
by the schoolmen. The Renaissance brought a re-
vival of Platonism, due to the influence of men like
Bessarion, Plethon, Ficino, and the two Mirandolas.
The Cambridge Platonists of the seventeenth century,
such as Cudworth, Henry More, Cumberland, and
Glanville, reacting against humanistic naturalism,
"spiritualized Puritanism" by restoring the founda-
tions of conduct to principles intuitionally known and
independent of self-interest. Outside the schools of
philosophy which are described as Platonic there are
many philosophers and groups of philosophers in
modern times who owe much to the inspiration of
Plato, and to the enthusiasm for the higher pursuits
of the mind which they derived from the study of his
works.
The standard printed edition of Plato's works is that of Ste- PHANUS (Paris, 1578). Among more recent editions are Bekker (Berlin, 1816-23), Fihmin-Didot (Paris, 1866—). The best Eng- lish tr. is JowETT, The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford, 1871 ; 3rd ed., New York, 1892). For exposition of Plato's system cf. Zelleh, Plato and the Older Academy, tr. Alletne and Goodwin (London, 1888); Grote, Plato and the Other Companions of Socrates (Lon- don, 1885); Pateb, Plato and Platonism (London, 1893); Turner, History of Philosophy (Boston, 1903), 93 sq.; Fouill£e, La philosophie de Platon (Paris, 1892); HuiT, La me el Va-uvre de Platon (Paris, 1893) ; Windelband, Platon (Stuttgart, 1901) ; LnTOSLAWSKi, Origin and Growth of Plato's Logic (London, 1897) . For history of Platonism cf. Bussell, The School of Plato (London, 1896) ; Huit, Le platonisme d Byzance et en Itahe A la fin du moyen-dge (Brussels, 1894); articles in Annates de philosophie chrUienne, new series, XX-XXII; Tarozzi, La tradizione pla- tonica nel medio evo (Trani Vecchi, 1892).
William Turner.
Play, Pierre-Guillaume-Fr£d£bic, Le, French economist, b. at La Riviere (Calvados), 11 April, 1806; d. at Paris, .5 April, 1882. His childhood was spent among Christian people, with a poor widowed mother. From the college of Havre he went (1824) to Paris, where he followed the scientific courses of the College St. Louis, the polvtochnic school, and the school of mines. At the jici'lvtcchnic school he had as fellow- pupils the economist Michel Chevalier, Pore Gratry, and the philosopher JcimReynaud. In ls20withRey- naud he made a journey on foot through the Rhine provinces, Hanover, Brunswick, Prussia, and Belgium to study mining, customs, and social institutions. On his return an accident in the course of a chem- ical experiment caused him eighteen months of suffer- ing and deformed his hands for life. He bec;une secre- tarvof the"Annales des mines" and of "Statistique de I'industrie min^rale", and professor of metallurgy at the school of mines (1840). Each year he travelled six months, studying metallurgy and social problems, and questioning traders, workmen, owners, ;iiid peas- ants. He spoke five languages and understood eight.
His life may be divided into two periods: from 1833-
55 he invented, appUed, and perfected his method ; from
1855-82 he explained, developed, and perfected his
doctrine. In 1833 he visited Spain; in 1835 and 1846,
Belgium; 1836 and 1842, Great Britain; 1837 and
1844, Russia; 1845, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway;
1844 and 1845, Germany; 1846, Austria, Hungary,
and Northern Italy. Extracts from his correspond-
ence with his wife and mother during his travels
were published in 1899. During his sojourns in Russia
he was consulted by Nicholas I on various projects of
reform, and, having undertaken at the instance of
Prince Anatol Demidoff a scientific expedition into
the coal regions of Donetz, the prince entrusted him
with the superintendence of his gold, silver, platinum,
copper, and iron mines, which employed 45,000 men
in the Ural region.
His conversations with Comte de Rayneval, French ambassador at Madrid, to whom he had been recommended by Boieldieu, convinced him that the forced division of inheritances established by the Code NapoMon had evil social consequences. His visit to the Baron de Tamm, who directed 2300 workmen at Osterby, near Upsala, showed him what might be done by resident owners anxious for the welfare of their people, and his theory of "social authorities" slowly took form in his mind. Among the peasants and blacksmiths of the Ural region he observed a social condition very similar to the ancient French feudal regime, and his statements regarding the comfort of these people coincided with those of Gu^rard and Leopold Delisle concerning the prosperous condition of the French agricultural classes during the early centuries of feudalism. He thus formed ideas quite at variance with the juridical and historical concep- tions propagated by the men of the French Revolu- tion. His "method of observation ", the rules of which he gradually formulated, was in contradiction to the in- dividualism of the French Revolution. It consisted in studying, not the individual, but the family (which is the real social unit) , and in studying types of families among the stationary element of the population whose members lead uniform lives and faithfully preserve their local customs.
From 1848, during the months he spent in Paris, Le Play held weekly gatherings of persons of various opinions interested in the social question; among them were Jean Reynaud, Lamartine, Francois Arago, Carnot, Lanjuinais, Tocqueville, Montalembert, Sainte-Beuve, Ag<;nor de Gasparin, Abb6 Dupanloup, Thiers, Auguste Cochin, and Charles Dupin. During the social troubles which followed the Revolution of 1848 these men besought Le Play to abandon his teach- ing at the school of mines and to devote himself ex- clusively to the exposition of his social system. But Le Play, ever scrupulous, considered it necessary to make further journeys to Switzerland, the Danube provinces, and Central Turkey (1848), Auvergne (1850), England and Western Germany (1851), Aus- tria and Russia (1853). However, in 1855 he pub- lished "Les ouvriers europeens", describing the ma- terial and moral life of thirty-six families, among widelj' (lifTerent races, which he had studied at close range. The School of Le Play continues this series of valuable monographs in a periodical entitled "Les ouvriers des devix mondes". The EnglLsh economist Higgs declared that Le Play's monographs on four English f;unilies are the best available account of English i)iip\ilar life from the economic point of \aew. Taine, the French historian, after studying the origins of (^ontcmi)orary France for his great work, wrote: "By his methodical, exact, and profound researches, Le Play luus done a great service to politics and, in consequence, to history." Luzzatti, a Jew who later bec;Hne )ircsidcnt of the Italian ministry, wrote to Le Play: "After drinking at all sources, I drawinspira^ tion for my studies from your method alone. " And it
