Platonist

Platonist refers to a follower of Platonism, the philosophical tradition associated with the Greek philosopher Plato. It holds that beyond everyday objects there exists a realm of abstract, unchanging Forms that constitutes true reality. Knowledge, on this view, is the grasp of these universal realities rather than mere opinion about appearances, often achieved through reason. Some platonists also posit a transcendent source of truth and a path of ascent for the soul.

Historically, Platonic thought began with Plato and the Academy. The tradition developed through Middle Platonists (roughly 1st–3rd centuries CE), who systematized his ideas, and then through Neoplatonism, with Plotinus, Porphyry, and Proclus, who posited a hierarchy culminating in the One and the World Soul. Neoplatonism deeply influenced Christian thinkers such as Augustine and also informed Jewish and Islamic philosophy, shaping later scholastic and theological thought.

Core claims include the theory of Forms, a higher intelligible order, and the view that the Good or the One is the ultimate source of reality. The soul is immortal and capable of ascent beyond the material world, and knowledge is achieved by recollection of the Forms. Ethics and politics emphasize virtue and alignment with the rational order.

Modern usage distinguishes mathematical Platonism, the view that abstract mathematical objects exist independently of human minds. The term platonist is used for philosophers defending some form of abstract-realist ontology in metaphysics or the philosophy of mathematics. The Platonist tradition influenced Renaissance humanism, Christian scholasticism, and contemporary debates about universals, realism about mathematics, and the status of abstract entities.