15 December 2023
Misunderstanding Our Situation
“So true it is that no two things agree in this world of ours: everyone shares a single desire for the Good, but they make their way towards it by many and various routes, according to the different rank and status of the occupation each has been allotted. Desire for the Good is common to all, but for all that no one man has more success than any other in achieving this goal. They are just like people searching for gold and silver in the dark, unable to secure light to reveal what they are searching for and reduced to fallible guesswork by weight and touch, bumping into each other and snapping at each other, not daring to let go in case they really have something, nor able to cease their labours in case they have not. Hence there is a tumult of quarrelling and exhortation, and of the cries of people searching, groaning, chasing, lamenting, snatching, and being robbed: everyone is calling out and shouting in triumph, as if they have stumbled on the Good, though no one actually has it; but at the same time everyone mistrustfully examines his neighbor’s findings to be on the safe side.
“It is these experiences that make chaos of land and sea, it is these that pack the Assembly and convene the courts, these that fill the prisons and build navies and launch triremes, these that start wars and mount the cavalry on their horses and the charioteers on their chariots and install tyrants on the Acropolis. These are what make men condottieri and mercenaries,
Killing the men, while fire razes their city to the ground,
Many thousands of other ills besides men suffer, from no other cause than their hopes for the Good and their ignorance. God has breathed expectation of the Good into the human race like a spark of life, but has concealed the Good itself and made it hard to find.”
(Maximus of Tyre, translated by M. B. Trapp, The Philosophical Orations, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997, pages 242 and 243, ISBN: 0198149891)
1. The human condition is difficult. What is the source of these difficulties? Maximus offers an analysis which suggests that the source of difficulties is that human beings desire the Good and the One, but are unable to access it because they are blind as to how to gain that access. This is a Platonic way of looking at the human condition. It is an argument that the difficulties of the human situation arise because of ignorance of the transcendental, and, more specifically, how to access the transcendental, meaning the Good and the One.
2. This is a different way of looking at causation. Material analysis of human difficulties would go into material history, economics, political theory, psychology, evolutionary theory, and other, similar, topics to establish a causal chain that eventually manifests in discord and strife whether at the individual or social levels. In contrast, Platonism in general, and Maximus in particular, views strife and conflict as arising out of ignorance as to the actual condition of the metaphysical cosmos and that the only solution to rancor and strife is the peace that is found in the transcendent.
3. “Desire for the Good is common to all.”
If this is true, why does this desire for the Good not manifest? From the Platonic perspective, the reason that the desire for the Good does not manifest is attachment to the body and its desires as taught in Phaedo. The soul is immortal and because of this is, in a sense, naturally inclined to that which is immortal as found in nous and the Good. But the soul is concerned with the welfare of the body and because of this is also naturally drawn to the material domain in order to maintain the body. This can result in the body and its desires becoming the ruler of the soul as it demands more and more sensory gratification. This in turn causes the soul to forget its immortal nature and its home in that which is eternal. That is why Platonism advocates for separation of the body and soul as far as it is possible to do so while still having a body. And this separation is accomplished through asceticism. Asceticism is the means whereby people can return to the Good and the One.
4. “Many thousands of other ills besides men suffer, from no other cause than their hopes for the Good and their ignorance.”
I have read similar teachings in other traditions, such as Buddhism. Both Buddhism and Platonism view ignorance of ultimate nature, and ignorance of the path to ultimate nature, as the cause of strife and suffering. Other traditions see human nature is flawed or ‘fallen’ and therefore structurally incapable of awakening to higher, or ultimate, reality. In Phaedo there is a brief passage where Socrates is describing the specifics of the afterlife journey and the journey to a new birth that suggests that some souls are beyond redemption, that their accumulated attachments and hindrances, and their subsequent behaviors based on these, have condemned them to eternal separation from the Good. Socrates does not dwell on this; like I said it is a passing suggestion. As I have grown older, I have become more inclined to give weight to the idea of a fallen human nature that requires some assistance, or grace, to overcome its condition. Perhaps both views are true; I mean by this that it may be impossible for some to overcome their negative karma, because it is so extensive and thick, without the intervention of grace. On the other hand, others, whose karmic burden is not so extreme may not require such intervention, or they may need only a modest amount of grace, to overcome their ignorance. In other words, I can see value in both interpretations (by ‘both interpretations’ I mean the view that human beings are trapped in samsara/genesis solely by ignorance and the view that human beings are trapped in samsara/genesis by their fallen nature.)
5. “God has breathed expectation of the Good into the human race like a spark of life, but has concealed the Good itself and made it hard to find.”
This is a beautiful way of talking about the human condition. The Good is a spark that resides in all people; it is the spark of life itself. But that spark is difficult to find. Why is it difficult to find? The expectation is that we can access the Good easily, but that is not the case. At times this can create frustration and it may feel that God has deliberately concealed the presence of this spark. But I don’t think we can blame God, or the Good, for our situation. Instead I think we should take responsibility for our own situation, our own actions, beliefs, and activities that cast the spark into deep shadows. When we take responsibility for our own difficult situation then we are motivated to live a life of asceticism whereby we can overcome that situation and ascend to the Good, the One and the Beautiful.
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