Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 28

26 May 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics – 28

1.  A lot of books on Platonism are very expensive.  Partly this is due to the rising costs of books in general.  Partly this is due to some of these books being written by authors who do not have an academic position; they may be very knowledgeable in Greek, in the Classics, and in Platonist philosophy, but they are, to an extent, outside of the academy and because of this some routes to publication are not open to them.  Such authors sometimes rely on publishers who print academic literature by those who are not necessarily academics themselves, but these publishers have a very high price point.  When I say ‘very high’ I recently ran across such a book that was almost $300.00 for a book that was under 300 pages (hardback edition.)  This is not a problem confined to Platonism.  It is a general problem for academic literature including University publishers who often publish exclusively for the purposes of library placement and because of this the price of these presses can be very high.

This has been going on for decades but there does not seem to be any group seeking to alleviate this difficulty.  That’s too bad.

2.  It is natural that Platonists disagree with each other regarding the specifics of their philosophical tradition.  It is natural because we live in a realm where differentiation and strife are dominant and this manifests as an inability to maintain unity. 

But I think that these differences are, at times, exaggerated.  Here’s an analogy:  the classical symphony begins in the 1700’s.  Composers like C. P. E. Bach and others of his time, wrote early symphonies.  Haydn pivotally shaped the form.  And many others followed including Beethoven, Schubert, and so forth to Bruckner and further on into the contemporary period.  They all share a common history and they are all writing in the same form.  But they have their differences in style which are easy to hear.  Even so, we recognize the unity of their endeavors and the shared task that the composers set themselves when deciding to compose a symphony.

In a similar way, I see Platonists as involved in the same basic task; that being to illuminate the nature of the transcendental.  But there are differences among the philosophers who take on the task of writing a metaphysical symphony.

3.  Ennead VI.6 contains an extended discussion on number.  At one point Plotinus writes about the order of the basic Noetic triad of Being, Intellect, and Life.  A. H. Armstrong writes, “The order of the primary triad: Being before Intellect, Intellect before Life; the real numbers are in and prior to Being . . .” (page 9)  This differs from understanding the Noetic triad as in some sense functioning at the same level; that is to say that they mutually entail each other (meaning if you have Being you necessarily have Intellect and Life, if you have Intellect you necessarily have Being and Life, and if you have Life you necessarily have Being and Intellect.)  This also differs, I think, with how Proclus would impose his triadic scheme of unfolding on the Noetic triad, but going into that would make this too complicated and I’m not confident that I understand what Proclus is suggesting.

I think what Plotinus is saying is that number is the principle of differentiation and looked at as a principle, you could say that number both precedes Being and is in Being.  However, if we can say that number is in Being, I think it would make sense to say that number is also in Intellect and Life because both Intellect and Life are governed by the principle of differentiation and differentiation arises from number.

These are thought experiments; the different ways of looking at the Noetic triad are not necessarily exclusive; that is to say they do not necessarily contradict each other because in the Noetic these realities would be transparent to each other and not separate from each other.  This can happen because Noetic realities do not have material content.  One could say that these various ways of understanding the Noetic triad and its relationship to number are facets of that reality which are in the Noetic domain a unity.

4.  When referring to strife as a basic reality of the material realm, it occurs to me that this is so because strife is exciting and stimulating to the senses.  The antidote to this is the ascetic practices of the Platonic tradition which means withdrawing from sensory stimulation.

5.  I think I mentioned before that I worked for a time at a prison for the criminally insane as a Buddhist Minister.  When I was first there I had the idea that the inmates would meditate in silence.  It was a complete failure.  The silence and stillness was simply an opportunity for various delusions to emerge, including hallucinations.  I changed the program and switched to chanting instead of silent contemplation, along with using the Jataka Tales as the basis for Dharma talks.

What this taught me long term is that the practice of silent contemplation, sometimes known as interior silence, is not for everyone.  For some, such a practice will only increase delusions and attachment.  I don’t think this is appreciated enough among meditation teachers.