Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 18

12 April 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics – 18

1.  “Plato came to hold the startling view that philosophy itself had a religious purpose, assimilation to God.”  (Robin Waterfield, Plato of Athens, page 31)  I like that Waterfield understands that Platonism has a “religious purpose” or “spiritual purpose” if you prefer.  This is often ignored in modern presentations of Platonism so it is good to see this explicitly stated. 

But I’m not sure that this is a “startling view”; it depends on how one interprets the history of Ancient Greek philosophy.  If you see philosophy as rooted in traditions such as Pythagoreanism and Orphism, and possibly other mystery traditions, then this view isn’t startling; it is simply the natural unfolding of the dominant view towards philosophy in the Ancient Greek world.  In contrast, if you view Ancient Greek philosophy as a kind of proto-materialist, or proto-scientific, effort and evaluate this tradition on how closely it aligns with contemporary science then you would find Plato’s view to be startling.  (As an aside, I think Pierre Hadot’s work on Ancient Philosophy supports the idea that Plato’s view should not be startling.)

2.  I think that the primary thing that continues to irritate me about analytic philosophy is that the tradition does not understand how words work, or perhaps we could put it that analytic philosophy doesn’t understand the nature of words.  Ambiguity is built into the nature of words; it’s not a sign of weak thinking that needs to be ‘cleared up’ through analysis.  Things like metaphor, simile, allegory, and so forth, are just as powerful tools of reason as are syllogistic and analysis.

3.  Platonism is a shelter in the storm of modernity. 

4.  It appears to me that there is growing interest in Plotinus in the world today.  This is impressionistic; I don’t have data to back this up.  It’s based on things like the widespread availability of translations of the Enneads (not just translations into English, but also many languages, including non-European languages), conferences on Plotinus and various aspects of his heritage, and the overall observation that his work seems to be taken seriously by many contemporary philosophers and classicists.  And I have observed that the ideas of Plotinus seem to be a regular topic on social media like Youtube.  I wonder if this will result in something similar to when the thought of Plotinus was introduced to the European Renaissance through the translation by Ficino? 

5.  I think reincarnation is a more complicated process than is often presented.  The idea that a human rebirth is better than an animal birth which is better than a plant rebirth for the unfolding of the soul and accessing wisdom is a view I no longer take on face value.  I first started having this perspective when I encountered Buddhist critiques of rebirth in heavenly realms as some kind of god or deity.  The Buddhist view is that because deities live so long they do not feel the presence of impermanence which gives an impetus to spiritual practice among beings who have shorter lives.  Gods and deities think they are immortal, but this is a delusion, a delusion that makes it difficult for them to practice spiritual cultivation and purification.  From this perspective, a human rebirth is superior to a birth as a god or deity.

This started me thinking of rebirth in other realms and the opportunities for spiritual development that these other, non-human, non-deity, realms might offer.  This is pure speculation, of course, but, on the other hand, I find it worth considering.  I like to think, for example, that life as an oak tree might be a particularly advantageous birth in terms of spiritual development.  And even consider that it might be more advantageous a birth than that of a human being.