On Being,Vol. 1: Plato
By david haines
Available now for special launch price of $19.95 (ends March 28th)
Publication Date: February 27, 2025
About this book
The one question that all true philosophers seek to answer.
Since the beginnings of Western philosophy in ancient Athens, one question has stood above all others: the Question of Being. To modern minds, warped by twentieth century philosophers who dismissed metaphysics as unimportant, it seems an abstract and irrelevant question. But like all true philosophy, it is a question born out of wonder—wonder at the sheer fact that the universe has come to be. In this wonder, the philosopher asks: what is Being?
History’s greatest philosophers have wrestled with this question, and given different answers. In On Being, David Haines surveys the approaches of four of these philosophers to the Question of Being, along with some of their major interpreters: Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Heidegger.
This first volume surveys Plato’s approach to the Question of Being. Readers will find an overview of the most relevant sections of Plato’s dialogues, followed by an analysis of three key contemporary interpreters of Plato: Stanley Rosen, Paul Ricoeur, and Giovanni Reale. Finally, David Haines presents his own close study and analysis of Plato’s approach in three key dialogues: the Parmenides, the Theaetetus, and the Sophist.
On Being is an ideal scholarly introduction to the Question of Being for students of philosophy looking to get to grips with the one question that all true philosophers seek to answer.
Paperback | xxiv + 231 pp. | 6 x 9 | PubliSHed february 27, 2025 | ISBN 978-1-949716-67-2
If you are interested in a bulk order please contact m.riggins@davenantinstitute.org.
From the Book
“The purpose of this book, On Being, across four volumes on Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Heidegger is to give readers a thorough yet relatively concise and accessible scholarly introduction to what is known in philosophy as “the Question of Being.” Being is, says the Eleatic Stranger in Plato’s Sophist, of all the Forms, “the greatest and most important expression.” As great as it is, it also happens to be the most difficult to grasp, and the cause of endless debate. Yet, according to Plato’s Sophist, it is Being which is most coveted by the true philosopher. Josef Pieper suggests that one of the essential elements of Platonic philosophy is that “the philosophizing person, insofar as he philosophizes, is on the hunt for ‘the Idea of Being.’” He says in a different article in the same collection, “And it is this same totality of Being that is the object of philosophizing; indeed, with philosophizing, nothing more is meant than the contemplation of reality as a whole.” The question of Being, then, is that one question that all true philosophers seek to answer. But can it be answered? More importantly, when the purpose of a treatise is to contribute to the sum of human knowledge, is it possible, today, to really say something that hasn’t already been said about Being?”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction to the Series
- Overview of Sources
- Contemporary Interpreters of Plato’s Approach to Being
- Stanley Rosen
- Paul Ricoeur
- Giovanni Reale
- Plato’s Approach to the Question of Being
- Parmenides
- Theaetetus
- Sophist
- Conclusion
- Index
- Series Bibiliography
About the Authors
David Haines (PhD, Université Laval), is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Bethlehem College & Seminary, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at VIU, a Visiting Fellow at Davenant Hall, and a lecturer in philosophy at Université de Sherbrooke. He has previously authored Natural Theology: A Biblical and Historical Introduction and Defense, Richard Hooker on Natural Theology and Scripture, co-authored Natural Law: A Brief Introduction and Biblical Defense, and edited Without Excuse: Scripture, Reason, and Presuppositional Apologetics, all with The Davenant Press.
Praise for this work
“In this volume, David Haines illuminates some of Plato’s most difficult dialogues, and he does so in conversation with interpreters whose writings are not easy either. Treating the most important philosophical problem and the most fundamental philosopher, Haines impresses with his boldness, clarity, and humble erudition. This is a book to treasure and to emulate.”
– matthew levering
James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary
“The Wisdom of David Haines’ remarkable book is the quality and expressions of relational reality. We are with Dante and Virgil, Socrates and Plato, in conversation about the highest things, and in pursuit of the really real. The book conjures the intimacy of lover and beloved, and the rigors of eros seeking the immortalizing Beautiful. The author has illuminated the very best of Plato “mounting the heavenly ladder, stepping from rung to rung” traversing the mystery of Being and the divine. With greatest care we are guided in new and nuanced ways along the paths of late Platonic thought and we recover many forgotten but crucial tributaries obscured by a misplacing of the historical forms. This book should find its way into every classroom serious about the history of Western thought.”
– CAITLIN SMITH GILSON
Professor of Philosophy at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary
“The time is ripe for revisiting the wonderfully alien world of classical metaphysics, including classical accounts of the nature and structure of Being. Professor Haines serves as a capable contemporary tour guide to such a world in this timely introduction to Plato’s conception of Being. Haines draws primarily upon Plato’s late dialogues the Parmenides, the Theaetetus, and the Sophist, and insightfully engages leading English and non-English speaking scholarly interpreters along the way. Highly recommended!”
– ROSS D. INMAN
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
“This is a serious and scholarly attempt to take seriously what Plato taught us about the nature of reality and how to think about the relationship between being itself and us as human beings. For Plato the key to the good life is conforming to reality for only in this way can human beings flourish. As Christians, we have sound biblical theological reasons for thinking that this is true. So, we ought to join Plato and the philosophical tradition stemming from him in the quest to know reality at its most fundamental level. This book is a sound guide to that journey.”
– craig carter
Research Professor of Theology at Tyndale University
“In this, the first in a four-book series on Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Heidegger, David Haines begins his ascent, Moses-like, up the mount of Being. Here he offers a close, incisive, nuanced, highly-informed reading of three lesser-known, late Platonic dialogues (Parmenides, Theaetetus, and Sophist) in which the great philosopher works out his theory of Being. Haines is a fine guide who trains the minds of his readers as he leads them, step by step, through the intricacies of Plato’s terminology and ontology. At once academic and joyous, On Being, Vol. 1: Plato is a philosophical tour de force. “
– LOUIS MARKOS
Professor in English and scholar in Residence at Houston Christian University; author of From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith.
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