Do you believe in God?
01-30-2016, 01:38 PM
Below are some mostly Platonic concepts that are pertinent to theology. Any philosophical assertions, attributed or not and unless otherwise noted, are those of Nicolas Laos who is first cited about half-way down:
The unique characteristic of the ancient Greek polis consists in a collective attempt to institute a community whose telos, or existential purpose, is an attempt to live in harmony with the principle of truth, rather than in the management of needs.
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X.
"Divinity is the direct object of the love (universal magnetism) of the eternal physical beings (of the celestial spheres) which imitate divinity's perfect life through their harmonious motion"
- Aristotle, Physics
The ultimate goal (telos) of collective life is truth that, according to Plato and Aristotle,consists in the imitation of true being (the mode of existence that is free from corruption, alterations, and annihilation).
-Plato, Republic, and Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
Plato’s Myth of the Cave in the book Republic symbolizes humanity’s relationship with the Good as a process of education and psychological remodeling.
-Plato, Republic
In the context of the Cave allegory, the shadow means lack of communication, lack of society, and an entity that remains closed toward the rays of the light (Sun = the Good).
-Plato, Republic
Plato was not familiar with abstract thinking. Abstract thinking was invented by Aristotle… In Plato’s philosophy, idea and species display the visible rational form of the life-giving Universal One. It follows that the truth of the world of ideas is identical with the essence of reality. Thus, a dialectical philosopher reduces a multitude of phenomena to the archetypal One instead of analyzing phenomena. Under the Light of the Good, truth is the disclosure of being in its perfection (idea) as opposed to its imperfect empirical reality (phenomena). The Good is absolutely transcendent, and thus external to human consciousness, but it is available to be known by the human psyche that turns toward the good.
- Laos, The Metaphysics of World Order
In Platonic philosophy, the individual is neither absorbed nor nullified by the ‘universal’, since Platonic ideas are not concepts, and therefore the knowledge of Platonic ideas is not based on a leveling principle of logical coercion, but is a process of entering True Being rather than logically mapping it from the outside…
- ibid
Modernity has differentiated truth from reality and seeks truth, as a concept, through abstract reasoning.
-ibid
For both Plato and Aristotle, the immortality of the soul is the ontological presupposition and foundation of their theory of knowledge.
-ibid
In Plato’s philosophy, ideas are neither one’s own concept of things nor images of things, but they are the fundamental values of things, which hold universally, regardless of whether some persons (eg: the prisoners in the Platonic myth of The Cave) want to know them or not.
-ibid
The following is a bit dense but important:
Ideas hold universally because within their context life holds an intrinsic value. Every other existential condition lacks an intrinsic value because it is potentially self-destructive. For instance, prisoners in the Platonic Cave Myth could establish an order of things based on their illusions, but such an order of things would be threatened with collapse immediately after the first expression of doubt about its merits, which would only be a matter of time since the illusions preclude the knowledge of truth qua universal value, which could underpin an ontologically stable order of things.
-ibid
The Myth of The Cave explains the way in which the problem of knowledge is experienced by humans. It is a symbol of humanity’s relationship with truth. The levels of knowledge become steps of spiritual life. Thus the myth is not merely an object of abstract thinking, but corresponds to an existential condition, a way of life, and a struggle.
-ibid
The Four Levels of Knowledge According to Plato. He describes these as types of seeing, which are four different types of knowledge, states of consciousness, and thus existential conditions:
i. Illusion or conjecture – primitive, unreliable opinions. Unable to distinguish reality from what one desires to be real. Illusions are often purposefully cultivated. Indicated by emotional thinking, uncontrolled emotions, and spiritual chaos.
ii. Belief – empirical knowledge that allows one to distinguish objects from their shadows, but that lacks methodological rigor.
iii. Rule based reasoning / Logic – the liberated prisoner is in the sunlight and aware of it. Math. Testing and confirmation of his method of discerning shadows from reality. However, its coordinate system is determined by variables of the reality only perceived by the senses, and therefore this type of knowledge is not sufficient to perceive and discern the heights of the mental (intelligible) world, where Plato’s Idea of the Good resides. Thus, this logic cannot lead to the first, most absolute principle (The Good). Kurt Gödel mathematically proved that the Truth transcends every possible formal (deductive) system.
iv. Intelligence – the comprehension of the true nature of reality. Corresponds to knowledge of the Good. It transcends logic, aware of its limits, and acquires knowledge as a result of an experience of enlightened intuition.
-ibid
Plato’s Republic is a methodological study of the metaphysical idea that should inspire and guide the actual republic in the historical sphere (my note: for extra points start drawing ancient parallels).
-ibid
Note: I don’t hold Plato’s Cave allegory to be necessarily wholly ‘true’ in the context of knowledge of the Good, perhaps in the more subtle parts of some of the definition of the last stage (though I can’t discount it either at this time), but what is true is that you will find the DNA of Plato and his allegory wholly intertwined within Western theology; in spite of what the Jehova’s Witnesses or Mormons might say in regard to their own theologies. There are also philosophers who hold Plato’s philosophy to be a somewhat corrupted version of earlier theology, perhaps in that he holds the last stage of knowledge, intelligence, to be a result of the process of the dialectic (whereas some philosophers, like Laos, point to the first corruption in Augustine of Hippo’s theology, and others still later (Milbank?). Though, it makes a fine basis for study, as any corruption should be extremely subtle in comparison to later theologies, and as no mainstream Christian theologian of which I know will own up to any influence earlier than Plato. In other words, learning Platonic philosophy as a reference foundation in any theological study is smart and completely worthwhile in my opinion. No adjustment may be needed, metaphysically speaking, or you can walk out the theology from this starting point while fully aware of the nature of the changes being made instead of accepting a theology as "true" without being aware of where it falls on the philosophical spectrum.