As one becomes specialized in a field, it is natural to put more emphasis on one’s specialty for importance. Connections can be seen better, correlations drawn, and mastery can happen to the point where if the specialty is a hammer, all problems look like nails. This is a blessing and a curse of early specialization within current culture because problems get fixed faster, but advancements are slower. There was a time when education was not so fragmented, but all subjects were considered within the context of all the other subjects. Specialized and connections were endless because each master had to know all there was to know. Subjects morphed into one another. In Ancient Greece, a person was not educated until the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul, were both completely educated. An example can be seen from the study of medicine being concerned with the healing of the body and the soul in Charmides (3). Education was not good or completed until an individual excelled in all the realms of knowledge because knowledge was seen as a whole. In the writings of Plato, the line between religion and philosophy was blurred to the point that Plato even tied them together in the education of guardians in the Republic (339). The schools of knowledge did not compete with one another but had a symbiotic relationship: where one advanced, so did the other.
When it comes to Plato, where should the line be drawn between religion and philosophy? Plato’s idea of Forms is a perfect starting point. One does have to take into account all of Plato’s references to the Forms in order to handle the subject well. In the Sophist, the dialogue between the Stranger and Theaetetus seem to clearly put the idea of Forms into the area of religion. “I suppose that we, and the other animals, and the elements out of which things are made—fire, water, and the like—are known by us to be each and all the creation and work of God” (578). This is immediately followed up by “The appearances which spring up of themselves in sleep or by day, such as a shadow when darkness arises in a fire, or the reflection which is produced when the light in bright and smooth objects meets on their surface with an external light, and creates a perception the opposite of our ordinary sight” (578). This draws a clear line between creation and the Forms that are above creation, informing how things were to be made as shadows of what is real. Since all creation stories are based in myth, this would put the idea of Forms into the camp of myth, making it a part of Plato’s religion and not his philosophy. Any creation story cannot be proved by empirical science as it cannot be observed. There are plenty of times that Plato does refer to his Forms as a philosophic idea as in Republic Book VII with his example of The Cave. The next question is how to handle the way that Plato talks about his own idea. An argument could be made that because Plato does talk more about his Forms from a philosophic, instead of religious, perspective it settles into philosophy and not religion. This confusion has more to do with the early time period that Plato is in and less to do with the actual argument. Philosophy was simply the love of wisdom at this point in time. While Plato did spend plenty of time thinking and debating about what wisdom is, he saw that wisdom was only from God (pg. 202) and God was the root cause of it. The line was naturally blurred at this point in history between religion and philosophy because the gods were so involved in life. It is not that Plato thought that they were different but that they were very much related. The Forms is a creation/created order account. It is meant to explain the physical world from the beginning, from God, from the Idea. It is looking for a singular answer to the big truth before going to the lesser truths. The wisdom of Plato is on display here because he knew that the beginning of the story is so important because from there, everything else flowed. This was his answer to the first why question: why are we here?
The outflowing of Plato’s religion touched upon all of life through his philosophy. To look at things the way that he looked at them based upon his works in The Great Books of the Western World, the impact Plato made should be looked at through his work on virtue, politics, and physics. To give a definition of Plato’s Forms drawing from Sophist (578) and The Republic in Book VII and X (388 and 428), there is a three-stage system for how we get the world that we see. The first stage is from “the One’s” perspective. Plato generally refers to “the One” simply as “God”. He is not super clear about “God”, but it always appears as “the One” above the Greek gods and titans. It is the one that is before them and will last after them. It has the plans or ideas for everything. Everything is seeking to please “the One” and become the true nature of themselves. Stage two is the perspective of “the creating,” whether this be a Greek god or a man is a question. This is Zeus creating man but also the human carpenter creating the chair or bed. “The creating” takes the original Idea from “the One” and puts it into physical form. How “the creating” get the Idea is a little foggy. This physical form may or may not be perfect, but it is all striving to be perfect after “the One’s” Idea. The final stage is from the perspective of “the copier.” The example that Plato gives is that of a painter, but parents to children also work in this example. “The copier” is a third step removed from “the One.” “The copier” is still trying to make their thing as close to “the One’s” Idea, yet they have a harder time with it because they are removed another step from the original. They are basing their work on shadows and not the original Idea. “The creating” and “the copier” are both trying to do the same thing and that is to mimic “the One.”
Plato on Virtue
From the grand Idea that is behind everything, one must start at man, for “man is the measure of all things” (522). This is not to say that man is above everything, but since man is the normal sentient being that other men have to deal with, man is the jumping point. Man is the filter that all knowledge flows through. This is why the senses take on so much importance later on in philosophy. Plato makes no clear statement on the state of man’s soul when he is born, whether it be good or bad. Rather, he starts from what he knows, that “Every man is good in that in which he is wise, and bad in that in which he is unwise” (34). This reference is from a dialogue about bravery and courage, but Socrates does apply it to all virtue. From this statement, it can be inferred that man can be trained and educated to be good or if left on his own, continue to be unlearned and thus bad. Education is key here. Plato, through Socrates’ Dialogues, is looking for a definition of virtue and how to distinguish it from all its attributes. Courage, friendship, temperance, wisdom, love, politics, piety, rhetoric, and pleasure are some of the attributes of virtue that are discussed. Plato arrives at no conclusions on what any of them are but rather questions what is known and is left looking for answers. He uses this as proof that no one else really knows but because he knows that he does not know, he is the wisest person. As in Apology, “He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing. (203).
There was one practice that Plato saw as divine and that was the practice and creation of the Arts by way of the divine poetry and song. He elevated Homer to scripture and thought him inspired. True art is that which is true, good, and beautiful, and one should mold and sculpt their life to be true, good, and beautiful. This was the aim of education (333). Virtue through education was the goal but to what end? The perfection of the soul to its true Form. The dialogue of Phaedo (220-252), is about the intertwined journey of the soul and death. The body is a cage for the soul with the soul seeking perfection in order to be released from the body at the beckon of the gods. The soul could reach perfection with education, through philosophy, the love of wisdom, and be united with “the One” in the afterlife. If the soul did not end up reaching perfection in this life, it would be sent back in a different body, having to relearn the lessons of life, because “all learning is but recollection” (180).
Plato on Politics
By making virtue the end goal of the soul, this set up philosophy and education as the means to the end of the ideal Form of the soul. All of life was thus set around this, which curiously leads Plato to the study of politics. As virtue is the control of a man over himself, politics is the control of a group of men and the interactions between. Plato’s Republic is his best-known work and that might perhaps be because is it full of his Forms. The entire work is aimed at the ideal man and ideal society, not a society that could actually work in reality. If man were perfect the way that Plato set man out to be perfect, then the Republic could have a chance of working out. Plato does his best to set his society up for success. He does suggest and encourage equal education for all including women (357). This is to allow those who are worthy to rise to the top as guardians as well as to sort the lesser men into their rightly place. Women are included for the sake of making the best mating citizens for the betterment of culture and society. Plato saw this as an important job. Men would have to believe fully into Plato’s grand plan for society. Otherwise, no man would follow Plato’s system. There would be no way that a normal, jealous man would willing share his wife with another man, let alone his children except perhaps for a greater good (401). The guardians would take their place at the top of society as the aristocracy, the ruling of the best. The military class would come in below the guardians as the middle, with the lowest class, the tradesmen and husbandmen rounding out the bottom. Plato does notice a pattern in governmental systems and how they rise and fall in a cyclical pattern. Aristocracy falls way to timocracy, which falls to oligarchy, then to democracy, and finally to tyranny (403). The final stage must be overthrown at the end to instill an aristocracy again. This pattern followed man’s cycle of growing apathetic by blessing and discomfort by greed. In The Republic, Plato thought that education was the key to solve this. Education could break the natural cycle of man.
Plato on Education
The Republic is full of Plato’s Forms which is interesting when contrasted with his later work Laws. The ideal Forms is still the goal of this work, but it is brought about by a very different way. In The Republic, education is given to all and ability sorts the people into their rightful place. People would naturally fall into line after that. In Laws, education is still given to all, but legislation, not education, was then a key factor in virtue that was missing from The Republic. For example, “I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, the discipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is a principle of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted in human life” (653). The idea of using pleasure and pain to direct education, behavior, and virtue was totally missing in The Republic. It is almost as if Plato came to realize in his old age that natural man would not choose the best on his own but needed more prodding along the way. The guardians would have to lead by example and by carrot and stick.
Plato on Physics
Finally, having moved from virtue to politics, the next subject to consider is that of physics. In Plato’s time, physics or astronomy was the highest and most advanced science. It was often referred to as number in space and time. It was the perfect and immovable thing (447). Throughout the work Timaeus, Plato starts the dialogue by talking about education, gender roles, and government (442-443) and then fairly quickly moves into the sciences on page 447 and spends the rest of the dialogue talking through the various sciences included but not limited to: astronomy (447), chemistry (448), motion (449), ratios and music (450), nature of time (451), and biology (454-456). In each of these cases, Plato draws connections between all of these physical sciences in the way that “the One” set all these things into motion, while also blending all the subjects together, moving back and forth between them in the dialogue. In each of these cases, he connects a physical phenomenon to one of the Quadrivium (number, geometry, music, and astronomy) and connects it directly to the Creator. He does refer to “the One” as God in this dialogue, yet the way that Plato refers to these things as immovable and immutable leads one to believe that he is referring to his idea of “the One” and not the Greek gods in the majority of the work.
There is a fascinating quote towards the end of Timaeus on page 466 that really helps to connect all these lines:
“As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created in each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation to each other, all the measures and harmonies which they could possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion except by accident; nor did any of the things which now have names deserve to be named at all—as, for example, fire, water, and the rest of the elements. All these the creator first set in order, and out of them he constructed the universe, which was a single animal comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and immortal. Now of the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation of the mortal he committed to his offspring.”
There are a few things to point out here. First, that there was something, disorder, before God created anything. God then put things into order to make the universe and from the universe, which was cognizant, came the rest of creation, immortal and mortal. The gods creating things that are immortal and mortal while the mortal, man and animals, create other mortal things.
In four sentences, Plato connects his belief in God and his idea of Forms directly to his science and knowledge of the world and then back again. How does he do this logically and be consistent with himself? By going through his philosophy. He saw that everything was connected because he saw that religion and philosophy were so connected. Not only to themselves but also to everything else. The advancements that he made were not in spite of his religion as many people like to believe today but were because of his religion. The Forms was his starting premise for how to interpret the world around him. Without this starting point, he would have been lost. One must be like Plato and have faith in something in order to see the connected picture of the world. Otherwise, one is left without a foundation and the house will crumble and fall when the first wind hits it. Yes, the house will stand in springtime, but winter is coming. How will it fair then?
Sources: Plato. The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter. Great Books of the Western World. Ed. Mortimer J. Adler and Philip W. Goetz. Trans. Benjamin Jowett and J. Harward. Second Edition. Vol. 6. Chicago: Robert P. Gwinn; Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990. Print.