Plato's Dream
"Plato's Dream" (original French title "Songe de Platon") is a 1756 short story written in the 18th century by the French philosopher and satirist Voltaire. Along with his 1752 novella Micromégas, "Plato's Dream" is among the first modern works in the genre of science fiction.
"Plato's Dream" is a pointed philosophical criticism of religious doctrine, told as a dream contained within the framework of a famous (and religiously-tolerated) personality of antiquity. His story recounts a dream attributed to Greek philosopher Plato, in which Demiurgos, a god-like entity referred to as the "eternal geometer", charges a number of "lesser superbeings" with the task of creating their own worlds. Demogorgon, the being which ultimately creates the planet we know as Earth, is at first quite pleased with his creation, only to find his eminently imperfect handiwork the subject of ridicule by the other beings. Up to a point, it is based on the platonic dialogues 'Timaeus' and 'Critias'.
See also
- Gulliver's Travels
- Frankenstein
- The Last Man
- Utopia
External links
- Online text of Plato's Dream
- Romans — Volume 3: Micromegas at Project Gutenberg
- v
- t
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works
- Letters on the English
- Elements of the Philosophy of Newton
- Zadig
- History of Charles XII
- The Age of Louis XIV
- Micromégas
- Annals of the Empire
- "Plato's Dream"
- Doctor Akakia
- "Essai sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations"
- Candide
- Treatise on Tolerance
- Dictionnaire philosophique
- Commentaires sur Corneille
- Idées républicaines
- Questions sur les Miracles
- L'Ingénu
- "The Historical Praise of Reason"
- Précis du siècle de Louis XV
- Des singularités de la nature
- The Man of Forty Crowns
- The White Bull
- Les Dialogues d’Evhémère
- Henriade
- "Le Mondain"
- Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne
- "Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs"
- The Maid of Orleans
- Oedipus
- Artémire
- Hérode et Mariamne
- Brutus
- Ériphyle
- Zaïre
- La Prude
- Socrates
- Mahomet
- Mérope
- La princesse de Navarre
- Sémiramis
- Nanine
- L'Orphelin de la Chine
- La Femme qui a Raison
- Tancrède
- Don Pèdre, roi de Castille
- Sophonisbe
- Irène
- Agathocle
- Samson (opera)
- Les Délices
- Émilie du Châtelet
- Voltaire Foundation
- Ferney-Voltaire
- The Friends of Voltaire (1906 book)
- Voltaire (1933 film)
- Passionate Minds (2006 novel)