| Platonical | { } a. [ L. Platonicus, Gr. &unr_;: cf. F. platonique. ] 1. Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical. [ 1913 Webster ]
Platonic bodies, the five regular geometrical solids; namely, the tetrahedron, hexahedron or cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. --
Platonic love, a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; -- a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate. --
Platonic year (Astron.), a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; -- called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 26, 000 years. Barlow. [ 1913 Webster ]
Variants: Platonic |
| Platonism | n. [ Cf. F. Platonisme. ] 1. The doctrines or philosophy by Plato or of his followers. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ Plato believed God to be an infinitely wise, just, and powerful Spirit; and also that he formed the visible universe out of preëxistent amorphous matter, according to perfect patterns of ideas eternally existent in his own mind. Philosophy he considered as being a knowledge of the true nature of things, as discoverable in those eternal ideas after which all things were fashioned. In other words, it is the knowledge of what is eternal, exists necessarily, and is unchangeable; not of the temporary, the dependent, and changeable; and of course it is not obtained through the senses; neither is it the product of the understanding, which concerns itself only with the variable and transitory; nor is it the result of experience and observation; but it is the product of our reason, which, as partaking of the divine nature, has innate ideas resembling the eternal ideas of God. By contemplating these innate ideas, reasoning about them, and comparing them with their copies in the visible universe, reason can attain that true knowledge of things which is called philosophy. Plato's professed followers, the Academics, and the New Platonists, differed considerably from him, yet are called Platonists. Murdock. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. An elevated rational and ethical conception of the laws and forces of the universe; sometimes, imaginative or fantastic philosophical notions. [ 1913 Webster ] |
| Platoon | n. [ F. peloton a ball of thread, a knot or group of men, a platoon, from pelote a ball formed of things wound round. See Pellet. ] (Mil.) (a) Formerly, a body of men who fired together; also, a small square body of soldiers to strengthen the angles of a hollow square. (b) Now, in the United States service, half of a company. [ 1913 Webster ] |
