Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 11

9 March 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics – 11

1.  I don’t think of Platonism as a solution to the problems of the world.  I mean that I don’t think that Platonism can transform the world into some kind of paradise.  My feeling is that the problems of material existence are intractable.  This is one of the primary reasons that I don’t consider Platonism to be an ideology.  But Platonism does show us how to transcend this realm of intractable, which is to say unending, difficulties.  That is its great blessing.

2.  There has not been, as far as I know, in the history of Platonism, a Rule, or Vinaya, for a dedicated Platonist Ascetic.  The material for such a disciplined life can be found in the Dialogues, scattered amongst a number of them.  It would be possible, I think, to come up with a Platonist Ascetic Discipline by gleaning such teachings and organizing them topically. 

There is some precedent for this; I am thinking of the early Quaker books of Discipline.  Most of these disciplines were gleaned from biblical, or other Christian sources, or deduced from core teachings of the Quaker understanding of the Christian tradition.  I think something similar could be done for the Platonic tradition.

3.  Over the centuries Platonists have explained how Platonic Forms work in various ways.  One is to view the Forms as exemplars that material things seek to, in some sense, live up to or replicate.  Another is that the Forms are like a blueprint that the material world ‘follows’ to construct material instantiations of Forms; the entity doing the constructing would be the Demiurge.  Still another way of talking about the Forms is that the Forms are necessary and sufficient causes for the material things that they are connected to.  These days I tend to see Platonic Forms in the third sense; that is to say I view them in terms of causation rather than as exemplars that are replicated, or reflected, in material existence; nor do I think of them as blueprints for the Demiurge.  Sometimes when talking to someone about the Forms, I still use the exemplar approach because it is very widely used in philosophical literature, including Platonic literature, and because it seems to make intuitive sense to people.  And I will at times, though less often, use the blueprint way of talking about the Forms on occasion; always adding that it is ‘just’ an analogy and should not be taken too literally.  But more and more I tend to present the Forms in terms of causation. 

The greatest difficulty in talking about the Forms, or Ideas, is that in Platonism, Noetic realities, such as the Forms, are more real than the material manifestation.  I think that is one reason why the exemplar approach is popular; because one can then talk about how material derivations of an exemplar are ‘bad copies’ of the exemplar.  That isn’t always clear when you use a causation approach so you have to take time to explain that aspect of the theory of Forms.

4.  Fairly often I notice people talking about a contemporary ‘crisis of meaning.’  There is a pervasive, and I believe growing, sense of nihilism that I think is directly linked to materialism and reductionism.  Platonism undermines the nihilist foundations of modernity and offers people a sense of meaning by guiding people to the transcendent source of the Good, the One, the Beautiful, and the Eternal.  Even a brief experience of this timeless transcendental reality, the only thing that is actually and fully real, infuses those who have that experience with a sense of meaning, purpose, and, for want of a better word, holiness.

5.  There is a folk saying, that I believe comes from China, but I first heard in Korea, that says, “It is easier for a dog to become enlightened than a human being.”  Keep in mind that East Asian culture has a very low opinion of dogs.

This saying contrasts with the idea of a ‘precious human birth’ that is taught in various Buddhist traditions; I first ran into it when reading some Tibetan Buddhist literature.  The preciousness of a human birth is based on the idea that human beings are particularly well suited for spiritual practice.

The question is, is it true that human beings are particularly well suited for awakening to the transcendental?, or are other types of existence such as animals, plants, or deities, better off in this regard?  I don’t have an answer, though I sometimes think that at least some plants may have an opportunity in their lifetime to develop patience, acceptance, and equanimity, as well as related virtues. 

But given the fact that I am born a human, and given the fact that a human birth offers the possibility for transcendence, it is best to take advantage of knowing that and strive to purify oneself of negativities, cultivate wisdom, practice contemplation, and return to the Good and the One.