The Political Thought of Gemistos Plethon: A Renaissance Byzantine Reformer

Abstract

Modern modes of thought often have roots that reach back into earlier periods of history. Peritore presents an illuminating analysis of an early development of nationalist myth by Georgios Gemistos Plethon and its practical application as a means of national mobilization against the Turkish threat to the Byzantine Empire. Plethon, an important figure in the diffusion of Platonic ideas to fifteenth-century Italy, bases his proposals for radical reforms of class, military, taxation, penal, and economic structures on a prescient awareness of the persuasive power of nationalist ideology. In the present article the author examines the background, philosophic origin, and practicability of his proposals.

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