John Wild: Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law

There is no better authority on the subject of Natural Law philosophy whom I have yet had the pleasure to read than John Wild. Were he still alive today, I would offer him my heartfelt thanks for his strident defense of the Platonic and Socratic school. His work on Plato is without a doubt the best analysis on the subject I've seen come out of the 20th century.

I hope he'll be remembered as such.

His 1952 book, Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law, is no longer in print. It should be required reading for every American high-school senior, a prerequisite before one comes of age to vote and assume their duties as citizens of our Republic.

I look forward in the next three months to finding the owners of its copyright and republishing it if possible. I've also received word from the most admirable Catharine Tierney that there have been a number of texts written about the late John Wild in the last few years. One was published last autumn, likely when I was first reading his text on Plato on the fourth floor of Wilson Library.

Foremost in my thoughts as I turn to the last chapter of this remarkable text are the source and role of what Wild calls noësis and noëtic action. His analysis of human nature in light not only of platonic text, but also the work of moral realist philosophers dating back to the dark ages, lays the "oration on the dignity of man" by Pico della Mirandola either to waste or to rest.

My entries this summer will doubtless reflect my exposure to his work, a thorough review of my Loeb editions of Plato, and my proximity to completion of an 18-month thrust in software development. I'm closing in fast on a number of my software projects, which when combined should help me deliver much better analysis, integrated with primary source materials in a way that's never been done before. I don't want people to grope in the dark in search of these texts and their connections to each other anymore. I hope to end all that.