Anti-Platonism 1 -- David Hume

27 December 2022

Anti-Platonism 1 -- David Hume

“When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make?  If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number?  No.  Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence?  No.  Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”

(David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, XII, Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy, 1748)

I think it is helpful to become familiar with what I call ‘Anti-Platonism’.  Such teachings, which are very numerous, help to clarify one’s own thought and to sharpen one’s own mind.  There are examples of Anti-Platonism in the Dialogues; mostly when Socrates disputes with Sophists.  Plato did not hesitate to bring into his Dialogues articulate views that oppose his own understanding.  It is consistent with that approach to turn, now and then, to contemporary Anti-Platonist arguments. 

1. In some ways I think of modernity as an Anti-Platonist project.  Sometimes this is explicit, meaning that Plato is specifically mentioned, and sometimes this is only clear if I have familiarity with Plato’s thought and perspective.

2.  Anti-Platonism is often openly hostile to metaphysics as such.  I used to see hostility to metaphysics as a very recent aspect of modernity, but that was because I had not been paying attention.  This quote by David Hume is a very good example of the kind hostility to metaphysics as such, that I am thinking of.

3.  A characteristic of Anti-Platonism is a deep intolerance to the idea of transcendence.  Hume regards transcendence as a complete folly.

4.  Modernity tends to think of itself as advanced, liberal (meaning open-minded), and above the primitive impulses of pre-modern societies and views.  But their often overt hostility and mean-spiritedness isn’t very far away. 

5.  One of the strategies of Anti-Platonism is to declare all metaphysical speculation or discussion to be without any meaning.  Only statements that can be quantified and empirically tested have meaning.  (It has often been pointed out that this idea does not have an empirical foundation, but never mind.)  In my own life, at an early period, I think I could have signed on to such an idea; it is attractive in its simplicity and adopting its perspective makes one feel in some way ‘above’ all those deluded religious and metaphysical thinkers without ever having to really grapple with what they argued or how they understood the world. 

I think what saved me from falling into this kind of error was music.  Music has always been a big part of my life; I am both a musician and composer.  Musical statements are meaningful in the sense that people value them, will spend time and treasure on the musical experience.  But though musical statements, such as melodies, rhythms, chord progressions, etc., are meaningful, that meaning is not empirically verifiable.  Nor does it make sense to say that, for example, a melody is true or false in the way that empiricists understand true and false.  In other words, there is this whole vast domain of meaning that I simply could not integrate into what I would now call an Anti-Platonist framework.  And for this reason, I was never able to take this line of reasoning seriously.

6.  It is interesting to me that Anti-Platonism understands the connection between metaphysics and asceticism and because Anti-Platonism is hostile to metaphysics it is also hostile to asceticism:

“Celibacy, fasting, penance, mortification, self-denial, humility, silence, solitude, and the whole train of monkish virtues; for what reason are they everywhere rejected by men of sense, but because they serve to no manner of purpose; neither advance a man’s fortune in the world, nor render him a more valuable member of society; neither qualify him for the entertainment of company, nor increase his power of self-enjoyment?  We observe, on the contrary, that they cross all these desirable ends: stupify the understanding and harden the heart, obscure the fancy and sour the temper.”

(David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 1777, Section IX, Conclusion, Part 1; quoted at the blog ‘Grand Strategy’, 9 April 2019)

This kind of writing is just sad; it indicates the loss of the sense of an interior life.  But that is the world in which we live, a world where ‘monkish virtues’ are considered to be hindrances to a full life.  I used to think that it was contemporary psychology that undermined ascetic spirituality, but this quote by Hume indicates that this emerged far earlier than the practice of psychology. 

7.  To the extent that asceticism is foundational for Platonism, it is only natural that Anti-Platonism would regard the Ascetic Ideal and its attendant practices as foolish and, to repeat, meaningless.  For Anti-Platonism there is no transcendence, there is no emanation from the One, there is no the One.  The Cave in its darkest depths is the only reality.

8.  Nevertheless, Platonism has managed to remain alive and well even in the midst of modernity.  That is a great good fortune for humanity as a whole.