On Old Age

On Old Age

After sixty years one is less agile

And most ev’ryone is younger than you;

They tend to treat you as extra fragile,

Which is a good thing because it is true.

Time becomes more amorphous and less rushed

(Was it three, or perhaps ten years ago?)

And so one speaks less and one’s tones are hushed,

Unsure, remote, hesitant, kind of slow.

It is the time of life to go within,

To break free of all of the commotion,

To become quiet, to escape the din,

To ride the ebb-tide into the ocean.

It is the time of sunset and return,

When all the ties to this sad world are burned.

 

 

The Spiritual Sun

30 March 2023

The Spiritual Sun

1.  In Platonism the metaphysical description of the cosmos is that everything emanates from a primal source that is beyond predication, beyond name and form.  It is most often referred to as the One, because it is pure unity and the source of the thingness of things.  It is often called the Good, because it is the source of all that is good in the cosmos, it is the reason that there anything that is good.  I often refer to it as the Eternal, because it is the reason that things endure, even if they last for only a brief moment in time.

2.  This way of sketching the metaphysical layout of existence can lead to the feeling that the One, the source of all that exists, is very far away.  Sometimes the material realm is spoken of as metaphysically distant from the transcendental One; and although the modifier ‘metaphysical’ helps us to understand that ‘distant’ is not meant in terms of miles or light years, the metaphor of distance naturally leans to a kind of geographical understanding.

3.  At the same time the human soul is said to be, in some sense, connected to the One, that an aspect of the One is also an aspect of the human soul.  In this sense the soul is very close to the One.

4.  How does this work?  It has helped me to use the metaphor of the sun to clarify the metaphysical icon which Platonism uses to teach its understanding of spirituality and the Way to Return to the One.  We can look at it this way: all life on earth is connected to the sun, depends upon the sun for its existence.  It is the sun that provides the energy, warmth, and light that are necessary for life to exist on earth.  And this is true even when we cannot see the sun; I mean that this is true even at night, after the sun has set.  Even when we cannot perceive the sun with our senses the sun nevertheless pours its life-giving energy on the earth; I think of this as a kind of grace. 

5.  In a similar way, the One is a spiritual sun that is the source for all things in the cosmos, as well as those things in the realm of mind (nous) that are transcendental to the material realm in which we dwell.  And like the material sun, the spiritual sun, the Good and the One, does this even when we are unable to perceive the spiritual sun.  The spiritual sun continuously nourishes all things just as the physical sun nourishes all things on earth.

6.  The physical sun’s presence on earth is everywhere.  Similarly, the spiritual sun’s presence is everywhere; both in the world around us and when we turn within to find it in our souls.

7.  The physical sun’s presence on earth nourishes everything.  Similarly, the spiritual sun’s presence nourishes all things.  Nothing would exist without the spiritual sun’s permeating presence.

8.  The physical sun’s presence is everywhen, it is felt at all times of our lives; past, present, and future.  Similarly, the spiritual sun’s presence is felt at all times and beyond time.  The spiritual sun’s presence is the everywhen of eternity. 

9.  Everywhere, everything, and everywhen; the One is located everywhere in particular.

10.  This means that the spiritual sun’s presence is always near, never far.  Our inability to perceive the spiritual sun is due to our limitations.  During the day we cannot look directly at the sun for it will blind us.  During the night the sun is absent from the sky and so we cannot find it or perceive its presence.  It is only at sunrise and sunset, a few minutes each day, that we can perceive the sun.

The presence of the spiritual sun within resembles the material sun at sunrise or sunset.  It is beautiful.  But unlike the material sun, the spiritual sun within, is available to us at all times.  We simply need to turn to it, to turn to the heart of our soul, and we find its light guiding us to the Good, and the One.

However, if we are distracted by material manifestations, this distraction functions to keep us unaware of the spiritual sun within.  Most of us miss both sunrise and sunset because we have other concerns.  In a similar way, most of us, most of the time, are unaware of the spiritual sun within because we have other concerns.  This is where asceticism assists us by limiting our material involvements and concerns.  When these concerns diminish, through our ascetic practices, it is easier to turn to the spiritual sun within and allow it to guide us on the spiritual path.

 

Methods of Platonic Contemplation

27 March 2023

Methods of Platonic Contemplation

“The first way of conceiving God is by abstraction of those attributes, just as we form the conception of a point by abstraction from sensible phenomena, conceiving first a surface, then a line, and finally a point.

“The second way of conceiving him is that of analogy, as follows: the sun is to vision and to visible object (it is not itself sight, but provides vision to sight and visibility to its objects) as the primal intellect is to the power of intellection in the soul and to its objects; for it is not the power of intellection itself, but provides intellection to it and intelligibility to its objects, illuminating the truth contained in them.

“The third way of conceiving him is the following: one contemplates first beauty in bodies, then after that turns to the beauty in soul, then to that in customs and laws, and then to that ‘great sea of Beauty’, after which one gains an intuition of the Good itself and the final object of love and striving, like a light appearing and, as it were shining out to the soul which ascends in this way; and along with this one also intuits God, in virtue of his pre-eminence in honour.”

(Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism, translated by John Dillon, Clarendon Press, 1993, pages 18 and 19, ISBN: 0198236077)

1.  I would probably use the word ‘contemplating’ rather than ‘conceiving’ because the methods that Alcinous offers are not analytical; but that is a minor point.

2.  The first method Alcinous presents is what he calls ‘abstraction’, by which he means to remove all ‘attributes’.  This is a spare outline of the apophatic approach to God and is found in the contemplative tradition of Platonism in various places over the centuries.  It indicates that the apophatic approach has always been a significant part of Platonist practice.  (As an aside, I would add that the geometric point with which Alcinous concludes the series of abstractions would also be removed, dissolving into that which is before name and form.  I believe this is implicit in the process Alcinous outlines, and in the understanding that a point is without dimension and therefore beyond sensory experience.)

3.  The second method Alcinous offers is ‘analogy’.  This is consistent with Plotinus where Plotinus says that Platonist teachings us various types of ‘comparison’ to facilitate the ascent to the ultimate, to the One.  This is a cataphatic spiritual exercise.  In contrast with the apophatic approach, the use of analogy is structured to infer from a sensory experience a transcendental dimension that lies behind the sensory experience.  I refer to this process as ‘metaphorical inference’ (I’m using ‘metaphor’ broadly so that in this context it includes not only metaphor, but also comparisons such as simile, analogy, and allegory.) 

Here Alcinous is drawing an analogy between the material sun and the transcendental sun.  Just as the material sun allows us to see all things but is not itself sight, so also the spiritual, and immaterial, sun allows us access to all objects of mind (intellect/nous), though the spiritual, and immaterial, sun is not those objects.  Just as the material sun transcends the objects that it illuminates, so also the spiritual sun transcends the realm of mind which the spiritual sun illuminates.

I believe that this analogy could be further unpacked: just as the material sun gives birth to all life on earth, so also the spiritual sun is the source for all existing things, both in the material realm and in the realm of mind.  And just as the material sun is not itself and earthly object, so also the spiritual sun is not an object of mind (intellect/nous).  By turning to the spiritual sun, on the basis of ascetic transcendence, the practitioner enters into an experience of that which is beyond mind/intellect/nous, the Good and the One.

The spiritual sun is, I think, a widespread analogy that was used in Classical Platonic culture.  I suspect it was a widespread explanatory comparison in many spiritual traditions of the Classic Period. 

4.  The third method is, I think, a specifically Platonist contemplative practice.  It is a way of cultivating experience of Platonic forms.  The procedure is to observe a common attribute among a variety of things, and then turns one’s attention away from these things to the presence of the attribute itself; this opens the mind to the experience of the form upon which the attribute relies. 

In this case Alcinous refers to the perception of beauty in bodies, in souls, and in customs and laws.  Notice how different these three things are.  Bodies are material.  Souls are immaterial.  Customs and laws are human made.  (As an aside, we might have difficulty thinking of customs and laws as beautiful because we live in a society where different political factions are constantly critiquing customs and laws.  My suggestion is to think of a particular law that you appreciate and find well-crafted and to use that as the basis for perceiving that law as ‘beautiful’.) 

All three things can share the attribute of being beautiful.  From this observation one then observes the ‘sea of Beauty’ from which these specific examples of beauty appear like waves on the sea.  At this point the practitioner is experiencing the form of beauty, transcendental beauty, beauty as beauty.  The mind is now accessing the realm of forms.

From there, Alcinous offers, one ascends to the Good itself, to the One, to God.  What is the connection between transcendental beauty and the Good?  From the perspective of Platonism, beauty is a sign of the presence of the One even in the material realm.  Beauty is a symbol of the presence of eternity.  The One is inherently the Beautiful, or inherently the source of all that which is beautiful.  The One is inherently attractive to the soul, and that attractiveness is the presence of beauty. 

The difficulty with this contemplation is that beauty often generates desire and an impulse to grasp that which one finds beautiful.  When this happens, the opportunity for ascending to the sea of beauty is lost.  For that reason, when I engage in this contemplation on beauty, I avoid objects that tend to stimulate grasping and desire, such as erotically attractive human bodies.  Instead, I might choose a beautiful tree, a beautiful sunset, and a beautiful house; etc.  The general pattern is to choose three such objects that strike one as beautiful, and then use them as the occasion for this kind of contemplation.

For those interested in more about this type of contemplation I recommend Ennead 1.6, On Beauty, and Ennead V.8 On the Intelligible Beauty, by Plotinus.  These two Enneads unpack the basis for this kind of contemplation and open up many additional dimensions as well.

5.  The Platonic corpus contains many contemplations, or what Pierre Hadot likes to call ‘spiritual exercises’.  Often these are overlooked when first reading these works because they are not specifically labelled as contemplation, meditations, etc.  And I am not aware of a Platonic work that is solely devoted to these practices; a kind of manual for Platonic contemplation.  My intuition is that instructions for these practices were likely given orally in Platonic communities; not that they were esoteric, but that a teacher might be able to correct misunderstandings and offer suggestions for how to practice (I’m thinking of practical questions like when to enter into these contemplations, how often, with others or alone, etc.).  But as one becomes more attuned to Platonism as a spiritual tradition these contemplative practices begin to emerge and the reader becomes aware of the rich variety of practices that is found in the Platonic tradition.

 

 

The City of Heaven

24 March 2023

The City of Heaven

Speaking about the Guardians of the Republic that is detailed on Book IX of the Republic:

“’Does this also apply then to arrangement and concord in acquiring his possessions?’  I asked.  ‘And he won’t increase beyond measure the mass of his wealth, carried away by the adulation of the crowd, and so acquire countless faults, will he?’

“’I don’t think so,’ he said.

“’But by paying attention to his inner constitution and by taking care not to disturb any of those elements in him on account of the size of his wealth, or lack of it, in this way, as far as he can, he’ll steer and accumulate and spend his resources.’

“’Absolutely,’ he said.

“’And what’s more, keeping his eye on this same principle, he’ll willingly partake of and sample some of the rewards which he thinks will make him a better person, but those which will disturb his existing state he’ll avoid in his private and public life.’

“’Then he won’t want to have anything to do with public life, if this is what he cares about,’ he said.

“’Yes, by the dog!’ I said.  ‘Certainly in his own state, although perhaps not in his native city, unless by some heaven-sent chance.’

“’I understand,’ he said, ‘you mean in the state we’ve been founding and discussing, the one existing in words, since I don’t think it exists anywhere on earth.’

“’Well, perhaps there’s a model up in heaven for anyone willing to look and if he sees it, found himself on it.  But it makes no difference whether it exists anywhere or will do.  You see, he’d only involve himself in its affairs, not those of anywhere else.’

“’That’s likely,’ he said.”

(Plato, The Republic, Book IX, Plato, The Republic Books 6-10, translated by Chris Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2013, 591d – 592b, pages 387 – 389, ISBN: 9780674996549)

 

1.  This is another example of where Plato unpacks, in a casual way, how allegory works in his dialogues, and how the reader, presumably a student of philosophy, should use the allegories Plato presents.  From this perspective, this passage shares the same purpose as the passage I quoted yesterday from Phaedo concerning the allegory of the afterlife journey.

2.  When it is suggested that the City that was being discussed doesn’t exist ‘anywhere on earth’, Socrates responds that “perhaps there’s a model up in heaven for anyone willing to look and if he sees it, found himself on it.”  The ‘model’ is the ‘form’ of the perfectly just city.  The model cannot exist on earth, because forms are immaterial.  However, the forms emanate material existence and are thus connected to appearances.

3.  However, Plato adds that someone, presumably a philosopher, or at least a philosophy student, should be willing to ‘found himself on it’; the ‘it’ being the heavenly city.  This is a declaration by Plato (not the only one) where Plato states that The Republic is an allegory of the soul and its ascent by purification to the transcendental realms. 

4.  The Republic is not a political treatise; its focus is otherworldly.  This is widely misunderstood both by people who admire Plato (e.g. Leo Strauss) and by those who are critical of Plato (e.g. Karl Popper).  I’m not saying that there are no teachings that can be applied to a political context in The Republic; but that is true of a great many dialogues.  What I am saying is that The Republic as a whole is an allegorical inquiry whose purpose is to harmonize and transform the conflicting tendencies of the soul, transforming the soul, or uncovering the soul, so that the soul is now equipped to ascend to that which is eternal, The Good and The One.

5.  Why would Plato write a dialogue consisting of ten books using allegory as its central manner of teaching?  I believe this has to do with that the Greek understanding of the soul was more complex, and, in addition, more subtle, than the view of the soul in modernity, or even in late traditionalism.  For example, both reason and emotions are considered parts of the soul in Greek writing on the subject.  From the perspective of modernity, emotions are psychological and entirely due to material factors such as upbringing.  And in modernity reason is considered an almost mechanical process.  I say this because it is often assumed that two perfectly reasonable people would have to come to the same conclusion on any specific issue.  But this is not how Greek philosophy saw reason.  Greek philosophy saw reason as the servant of intuition, tradition, and transpersonal insight and experience, including explicitly mystical insight.  (A good example is Parmenides’s assent to an upper region of the cosmos wherefrom his philosophical insights are given to him.)  In modernity this would make reason, paradoxically, irrational because of the way modernity has merged reason with materialism and empiricism.  But for Platonism there is no such merging; the material realm is the lowest level of emanation from the non-material transcendent. 

Often Platonists depict the soul as pulled by the senses into materiality, but at the same time capable of uniting with the transcendental; this in itself gives the soul a complexity missing from modernity.  With The Republic Plato offers us, the readers, a way of ‘seeing’ and ‘comprehending’ the soul in all of its complexity.  Because Plato saw this complexity clearly Plato is in the perfect position to offer us a guidebook to our interior life, and the way for that interior life to break free from its entanglements.

6.  The point Plato is making at the end of Book IX is that we need to ‘found ourselves on’ these transcendental realities and the teachings that lead us to these transcendental realities.  We do this by practicing the Dharma of Platonism on a regular, hopefully daily, basis.  These are the ‘affairs’ of the City of Heaven.  Then the insights and tools offered by Platonism can be used to cultivate the transcendental tendencies of the soul.

 

 

Plato on Understanding Allegories

23 March 2023

Plato on Understanding Allegories

Two days ago, 21 March 2023, in my post titled ‘Karma’, I quote Socrates talking about what happens to the soul after death.  In this quote Socrates describes the consequences of the activities of our lives are, as the soul encounters its fate in the life hereafter. Right after this quote from Phaedo Socrates continues the discussion with comments on how to understand the elaborate allegory he has just given voice to:

“But, Simmias, because of all these things which we have recounted we ought to do our best to acquire virtue and wisdom in life.  For the prize is fair and the hope great.

“Now it would not be fitting for a man of sense to maintain that all this is just as I have described it, but that this or something like it is true concerning our souls and their abodes, since the soul is shown to be immortal, I think he may properly and worthily venture to believe; for the venture is well worth while; and he ought to repeat such things to himself as if they were magic charms, which is the reason why I have been lengthening out the story so long.  This then is why a man should be of good cheer about his soul, who in his life has rejected the pleasures and ornaments of the body, thinking they are alien to him and more like to do him harm than good, and has sought eagerly for those of learning and after adorning his soul with no alien ornaments, but with its own proper adornment of self-restraint and justice and courage and freedom and truth, awaits his departure to the other world, ready to go when fate calls him.”

(Plato, Phaedo¸ Plato I: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, translated by Harold North Fowler, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1914, pages 391-393, 114D -115, ISBN: 0674990404)

 

1. Socrates states that it ‘would not be fitting to maintain that all this is just as I have described it.’  In other words, Socrates is telling us not to take him literally.  The inclination in modernity is to take such statements literally, which leads to a kind of fundamentalist approach to religious scripture.  Because we lack experience in working with allegories it is not easy for people today to understand that there are other ways of reading than the literal way.  It is true that people will read fiction; but they regard fiction as untrue from an historical and material perspective.  But Socrates is not saying that his allegory is untrue.

2.  Socrates follows up by suggesting how to approach his allegory, “. . . but that this or something like it is true concerning our souls and their abodes . . “  When Socrates uses the words ‘something like it is true’ Socrates is entering the realm of simile and metaphor, what Plotinus will collectively refer to as ‘comparisons’.  I might put it this way; Socrates is suggesting that his description of the afterlife journey is ‘close enough’ to be useful and beneficial; it is a kind of gift he is leaving his students which will benefit them both in this life and in their next between-lives journey.

3.  I am intrigued by Socrates’s suggestion that his description be used repeatedly and that these repetitions are like magic charms (as if they were magic charms).  Notice that, once again, the use of simile, a type of comparison, as the foundation for his suggestion.  I also wonder if there is some suggestion here that his followers regularly read, recite (possibly chanted in the way magic charms are chanted), copy, and give reverence to the teachings found in Phaedo, and perhaps the specific description of the post-death realms.  At this moment, only a few short moments before his own passing, the spirit of Socrates is already residing in the realm that lies beyond; he is acting as a kind of gate, or portal, to that other realm, a kind of guide for those of us left on this side of the great divide.  I have no definite answer regarding these questions.  On the other hand, for thousands of years people have found these teachings valuable and helpful to them when their own time of transition has arrived.

4.  Passages such as this re-enforce my view that the heart of Platonism is found in the allegories, and other types of comparisons, found in the Dialogues.  Further, that reason in Platonism should be placed at the service of the allegories.  In other words, allegories are not illustrations of deductive arguments.  Allegories in Platonism are the gate to understanding the cosmos in which we dwell, the source of that cosmos, and the ascetic ideal that leads us to the source.  Reason unpacks the allegories; reason is the servant of the allegories.

Karma

21 March 2023

Karma

“Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his genius, first they are judged and sentenced, as they have lived well and piously, or not.  And those who are found to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the Acheron and, embarking upon vessels provided for them, arrive in them at the lake; there they dwell and are purified, and if they have done any wrong they are absolved by paying the penalty for their wrong doings, and for their good deeds they receive rewards, each according to his merits.  But those who appear to be incurable, on account of the greatness of their wrong-doings, because they have committed many great deeds of sacrilege, or wicked and abominable murders, or any other such crimes, are cast by their fitting destiny into Tartarus, whence they never emerge.  Those, however, who are curable, but are found to have committed great sins – who have, for example, in a moment of passion done some act of violence against father or mother and have lived in repentance the rest of their lives, or who have slain some other person under similar conditions – these must needs be thrown into Tartarus, and when they have been there a year the wave casts them out, the homicides by way of Cocytus, those who have outraged their parents by way of Pyriphlegethon.  And when they have been brought by the current to the Acherusian lake, they shout and cry out, calling to those whom they have slain or outraged, begging and beseeching them to be gracious and to let them come out into the lake; and if they prevail they come out and cease from their ills, but if not, they are borne away again to Tartarus and thence back into the rivers, and this goes on until they prevail upon those whom they have wronged; for this is the penalty imposed upon them by the judges.  But those who are found to have excelled in holy living are freed from these regions within the earth and are released as from prisons; they mount upward into their pure abode and dwell upon the earth.  And of these, all who have duly purified themselves by philosophy live henceforth altogether without bodies, and pass to still more beautiful abodes which it is not easy to describe, nor have we now time enough.”

(Plato, Phaedo: Plato I: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, translated by Harold Fowler, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1914, pages 387-391, 113D - 114C, ISBN 0674990404)

 

1.  When I recently finished a commentary on Phaedo by an analytic philosopher, which I mentioned in an earlier post, I discovered that the commentary ends abruptly.  There is no mention of the last section of Phaedo where Socrates speaks in cosmological and allegorical terms about the journey of souls after death. 

This brought back to my mind when I was a young man studying philosophy at a Master’s Degree program.  I was taking a seminar on Plato and one of the dialogs discussed was Phaedo.  During the discussion neither rebirth nor karma were mentioned.  Only the logical structure of certain arguments presented for the reality of, or the immortality of, the soul were discussed. 

It was only after I took a long journey through Buddhism that I returned to Plato.  At that time when I read Phaedo it was like I was reading a completely different book; the salvific nature of the teachings were immediately present to me.  But I also felt cheated by the way the spiritual and mystic nature of Platonism was made inaccessible, even when it was right in front of the students’ eyes.

2.  Modernity has a number of ways for making access to the transcendental difficult such as reductionism, chronocentrism, psychologizing, etc.  In this kind of instance, modernity simply ignores the transcendental nature of Plato’s dialogues.  If you are a student the clear, though unstated, message is that those passages that refer to the transcendental are not worth spending time on.

3.  The allegorical unfolding of the karmic consequences of the way people have lived their lives at the end of Phaedo is, to my mind, deeply moving and packed with meaning.  But you need to be open to this kind of writing and many in modernity are not.

4.  I think the way to read this kind of writing is to read these passages the way you would read a poem; that is to say that you allow for symbolism, metaphor, simile, and all the other tools that a skilled writer uses to convey meaning.  You allow for wordplay such puns and double meanings. 

5.  I find this presentation of the journey of the soul in the afterlife to be uplifting and inspiring.  It is inspiring in that it places our one life in the context of a vast series of lives that can constitute a great journey back to the One.  It is uplifting in the way that a prayer to the Divine is uplifting when the Soul makes contact with the One.

The Qualities of a Philosopher

15 March 2023

The Qualities of a Philosopher

In my previous post, quoting from the opening chapter of Alcinous’s Handbook, Section 3 addresses the qualities that are necessary for a student of philosophy to have in order for the student’s study and practice to bear fruit.  It was pointed out to me by a friend that Alcinous is presenting a condensed version of this topic, the qualities of a philosopher, that is found in Book VI of The Republic.  The translator of Alcinous, John Dillon, also references The Republic, Book VI in an endnote, which I didn’t take the time to read before posting.  Here is the section of The Republic that is the basis for Alcinous’s comments:

“’Well, as to the natures of philosophers, let us agree that they are constantly devoted to that learning, which makes clear to them that part of existence which is eternal and does not wander round between growth and decay.

“’Yes, let’s agree on that.’

“’And their devotion is to the whole of it,’ I said, ‘and they do not willingly pass over anything that is insignificant, or larger, or of greater or less value, just like those we discussed earlier who are ambitious and lovers.

“’Now consider the next point, whether those who are to be the sort of people we were discussing must have something in their nature in addition to this.’

“’Such as?’

“’Not lying and under no circumstances be willing to accept falsehood, but rather detest it and be devoted to truth.’

“’That’s fair enough,’ he said.

“’Not only is it fair enough, my friend, but one who is by nature a lover of something is under total obligation to love everything that belongs to and is akin to the objects of his love.’

“’You’re right,’ he said.

“’Could you find anything closer to wisdom than truth?’

“’How could I?’ he said.

“’Can a lover of wisdom and a lover of lies have the same nature?’

“’In no way!’

“’Then he who is truly a lover of learning, must search for the whole truth right from childhood as far as possible.’

“’Absolutely.’

“’Yet going on from this, I think that we know that whoever has passions that incline sharply toward one thing is weaker toward others, like a stream diverted from the main channel.’

“’Of course.’

“’If a person were a true philosopher and not a fake one, I think that when his passions have flowed into his learning and everything of this sort, he would be led to the pleasure of the soul by itself alone and leave aside those which arise through the body.’

“’Yes, that must be right.’

“’Such a person is temperate and not at all passionate about money.  Why money and high expenditure should be a serious matter is a subject more fit for someone else to worry about.’

“’So it is.’

“’Again, I think we must also consider the following point when you are going to distinguish between a nature which is a lover of wisdom and one which isn’t.’

“’What’s that?’

“’You must not overlook any trace of illiberality.  Pettiness in my view is the extreme opposite to the nature of a soul which is constantly seeking to reach out for the sum total of things divine and human.’

“’That is so true,’ he said.

“’Do you then think it is possible for the one who is high-minded and has the whole of time and existence in his view to regard human life as something great?’

“’No, that’s impossible,’ he replied.

“’Such a person then will not consider death as something terrifying either?’

”’No, not at all.’

“’Then it would appear that a cowardly and niggardly nature would have nothing of true philosophy in it.’

“’I don’t think so.’

“’What then?  Is there any way in which anorderly person, who is not passionate about money, or mean-minded, or a charlatan, or a coward, can turn into someone who drives a hard bargain and is unjust?’

“’No, there isn’t.’

“’And another thing; while you are looking at the philosophical soul and the one which isn’t from earliest youth, look carefully to see if it is just and gentle, or intractable and undisciplined.’

“’I certainly will.’

“’And there’s something else I think you won’t overlook.’

“’What’s that?’

“’Whether he is quick or slow to learn.  Or do you expect anyone to love something enough who does whatever he does with painful effort and the little he achieves is done with great difficulty?’

“’That couldn’t happen.’

“’What if he were completely forgetful and couldn’t retain whatever he learns?  Could he fail to be empty of knowledge.?’

“’How could he fail to be?’

“’So if he toils without profit, don’t you think he’ll be forced finally to despise himself and such activity?’

“’Of course he will.’

“’Then let us never count a forgetful soul among competent philosophers, but insist tha the one we’re looking for be retentive.’

“’Certainly.’

“’Moreover, we would also agree that the unrefined, ill-formed nature would lead nowhere but to disorder?’

“’What else?’

“’Do you consider truth is akin to disorder, or proportion?’

“’Proportion.’

“’Then, in addition to everything else, let’s look for a mind with a natural sense of proportion and grace, whose innate disposition will make it easy to direct toward the concept of every aspect of reality.’

“’Of course.’

“What then?  I hope you don’t think that the characteristic we have gone through are not essential and compatible with each other for the soul which is going to participate competently and fully in reality?’

“’No, we have covered the most essential points,’ he said.”

(Plato, Republic Books 6-10, edited and translated by Christ Emilyn-Jones and William Preddy, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2013, pages 7-13, 485b – 487, ISBN: 9780674995419)

1.  I appreciate the way this section starts out by emphasizing that the philosopher is seeking for knowledge of eternity and does not wander between growth and decay.  In a previous post I referred to this kind of learning as ‘distinguishing eternity’ and I think of it as foundational for a philosophical life.

2.  I also appreciate how this passage points out the significance of asceticism when it points out that the student of philosophy will be led to the pleasures of the soul and, by experiencing them, will turn away from the pleasures of the body.

3.  The qualities that are listed are profoundly admirable and, in most cases, difficult to find in everyday life.  Yet I still find myself thinking that these qualities do not have to be fully manifest for someone to begin the study of philosophy; rather I see these qualities as capable of cultivation and growth.  This reflects my own philosophical journey, but not only my own; I have observed that this is the case for many people.  For example, Porphyry had ups and downs in his life and seems to have been overwhelmed by negative irrational feelings at times.  And Boethius pursued worldly political power with unfortunate results.  I therefore see the qualities spoken of here as ideals that give the student of philosophy a sense of what it means to live a philosophical life and offers specific ideals that can be used to reform a life that is less than ideal. 

4.  People like a challenge; people are competitive by nature.  I can see these qualities as the basis for friendly competition and rivalry among students of philosophy.  They could also be used as a way of challenging one’s self, that is to say, competing with one’s self.  Musicians and artists often challenge themselves by placing constraints on their creativity.  For example, a complex poetic form is a challenge to the poet, and when the challenge is met the result is often pleasing to the reader (think of Dante).  In the same way, these qualities can serve as a challenge to students to instantiate the life of a philosopher in their everyday life.

5.  I like the way that the Handbook by Alcinous is securely rooted in the Platonic tradition of his time.  I think the condensation found in the Handbook is skillful and, once again, I can see why it was used for a long period of time to introduce students to the Platonic tradition.

Alcinous's Handbook of Platonism, Chapter I

13 March 2023

Alcinous's Handbook of Platonism, Chapter 1

“I.  Definition of Philosophy and the Philosopher

“1.  The following is a presentation of the principal doctrines of Plato.  Philosophy is a striving for wisdom, or the freeing and turning around of the soul from the body, when we turn towards the intelligible and what truly is; and wisdom is the science of things divine and human.

“2.  The term ‘philosopher’ is derived from ‘philosophy’ in the same way as ‘musician’ from ‘music’.  The first necessity is that he be naturally apt at those branches of learning which have the capacity to fit him for, and lead him towards, the knowledge of intelligible being, which is not subject to error or change.  Next, he must be enamoured of the truth, and in no way tolerate falsehood.  Furthermore, he must also be endowed with a temperate nature, and, in relation to the passionate part of the soul, he must be naturally restrained.  For he who devotes himself to the study of reality and turns his desires in that direction would not be impressed by (bodily) pleasures.

“3.  The prospective philosopher must also be endowed with liberality of mind, for nothing is so inimical as small-mindedness to a soul which is proposing to contemplate things divine and human.  He must also possess natural affinity for justice, just as he must towards truth and liberality and temperance; and he should also be endowed with a ready capacity to learn and a good memory, for those too contribute to the formation of philosopher.

“4.  These natural qualities, if they are combined with correct education and suitable nurturing, render one perfect in respect of virtue, but if one neglects them, they become the cause of great evils.  These Plato was accustomed to name homonymously with the virtues, temperance and courage and justice.”

(Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism, translated by John Dillon, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993, page 3, ISBN: 0198236077)

 

The Handbook of Platonism by Alcinous was a Middle Platonist work that scholars date to the second century of the common era.  This Handbook offers us a glimpse of how Platonists understood their tradition before Plotinus and subsequent Platonists appeared.  The Handbook was used in the Byzantine Empire and during the Italian Renaissance, and on into the 1700’s.  The Handbook has 36 topics all of which are presented briefly, in outline form.  Some scholars suggest that this Handbook was written for teachers of Platonism, as opposed to a Handbook for students, though I don’t see that stated in the Handbook itself.  Still, there is a certain logic to that idea as the Handbook could serve as a kind of series of prompts for a teacher of Platonism.

I have enjoyed reading this handbook and I think it has a lot to offer the contemporary reader and Platonist.  We may not agree with this or that item; that is understandable.  But I think it shows us the core continuity of the Platonic tradition.  I say this because core ideas are presented in ways that are familiar, and at the same time come to us from a period of time other than our own.  Here are a few comments on Chapter 1 of the Handbook:

1.  1.1 is, I think, inspired by Phaedo, with its emphasis freeing the soul from the body.  This is done by turning the soul to the ‘intelligibles’, what we would refer to as the ‘forms’. 

2.  In 1.2 Alcinous suggests that a student of Platonism should have a natural affinity for learning.  Plotinus discusses this in one of his Enneads and suggests that different types of people will access the intelligible in somewhat different ways.  For example, Plotinus talks about the mathematician and those attracted to music as two examples. 

It’s interesting to me that Alcinous argues that the student should have a natural disposition towards temperance and be inclined to exercise restraint of the passions.  This likely indicates that Alcinous does not think that his is something that can be taught or cultivated.  That might be true.  I am rather inclined to think that life might teach the value of restraint and temperance.  I have seen this happen, for example, with people who discover that their love of alcohol leads to negative consequences and because of this they become temperate in general. 

3.  In section 3 Alcinous describes the qualities of an ideal student, but I had to chuckle at some of these, since I lack some of these qualities.  For example, I don’t have a good memory which I discovered at an early age.  What this has meant is that I often have read something numerous times in order to understand it and for what is being said to find a secure place in my mind.  I’m not complaining, and I understand what Alcinous is saying about memory.  On the other hand, I do think it is possible for students who do not fit these ideals perfectly to overcome a lack here and there.  A good guide would be able to spot these lacks and suggest strategies around them.

4.  In section 4 I enjoyed the emphasis on virtue; a continuity to later Platonists such as Plotinus and Porphyry.  The centrality of virtue for the Platonic tradition is, I think, something that needs to be more strongly emphasized in modernity because without virtue learning about various doctrines will not bear fruit.  Alcinous goes so far as they could lead to ‘great evils’.  This makes sense to me; without the cultivation of restraint and temperance even the most seemingly sublime ideas will become servants of base and destructive desires that are unrestrained by the training in the virtues.  Even ideas like altruism and compassion can be negatively transformed in this way.

5.  I think this is a well-written opening.  I can understand why it served as the first item for a Handbook that was used for over a thousand years.