Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 24.1

17 August 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 24.1

1.  This is a short digression that has its stimulus in the closing remarks of my previous post, #24 in the ‘Notes and Comments on Phaedo’ series.  Socrates describes the soul that has studied philosophy, which means studied how to separate the soul from the body, as a soul that “goes away into that which is like itself, into the invisible, divine, immortal, and wise, and when it arrives there it is happy, freed from error and folly and fear and fierce loves and all the other human ills . . . “

2.  What Socrates is speaking of is the salvific purpose and function of philosophy.  I think this needs pointing out because the modern conception of philosophy is very far from this kind of vision.  Modern philosophy is, for the most part, materialistic in nature (there are some significant exceptions).  A materialistic philosophy does not believe in salvation in the way that Classical Philosophy thought of salvation; meaning the transcendence of the material realm.  Materialistic philosophy does, at times, offer a program for salvation, but it is a material salvation, like that offered in the French Revolution, or the various Marxist revolutions of the 20^th century.  The idea is that there can be such a thing as material perfection if we just remove and eliminate the obstacles to such a utopia.

In contrast, Platonism views the material realm as essentially deficient, as what Christianity would call ‘fallen.’  That is to say that the material realm is inherently imperfect because of its metaphysical distance from the One. 

3.  When I was a student of philosophy, many decades ago, students who brought to their Professors questions about the ultimate meaning of life, or about how to overcome the material world, were usually mocked.  It has been a very long time since I have been at University, but my feeling is that this is still true today.

4.  The salvific nature of Platonism is intimately connected with Platonism’s view of rebirth and how it works.  Those who have practiced philosophy (and ‘practice’ means in this context cultivating virtue and learning how to distance oneself from material existence through contemplation) will be reborn in more auspicious circumstances.  In contrast, those who have neglected virtue and the cultivation of the soul, will receive inauspicious rebirths.

This very much resembles the way Dharmic traditions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, et al, see how rebirth works.  This is a primary reason why I think that Platonism is more clearly understood when it is viewed as a Dharmic tradition.

5.  Dharmic traditions understand philosophy to be salvific and Classical Western Philosophy also saw itself as salvific.

6.  Part of the reason this is difficult to understand is that for centuries in the West philosophy has been viewed as the ‘handmaid’ of religion.  This is the view of traditional, orthodox, Christianity, a view that has been held for a long time.  What this means is that Philosophy is not salvific when looked at in this way.  From this perspective philosophy is understood to be deficient, and that deficiency is completed in Christianity.

7.  But that is not how Platonism saw itself (just as that is not how Buddhism or Jainism see themselves.)  Instead, Platonism views itself as a complete system.  By ‘complete system’ I mean that Platonism is a guide to daily life through the cultivation of virtues and purifications such as vegetarianism and other ascetic practices, as well as teaching the way to the transcendental.  There is nothing that needs to be added to the Platonism of Plato and Plotinus that will make them complete because it is already complete.

8.  Recovering the salvific nature of Platonism takes some time.  This perspective is not one that will be offered in an ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ class, unless you have a very unusual teacher.  But as one becomes more and more familiar with the Dialogues and the Enneads this gradually becomes clear; that Plato and Plotinus were serious about the possibility of the soul's return to the One, that this was possible, and that it is the ultimate purpose of life.

9.  Platonism is a guide to a life well lived that culminates in union with the One.