A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home.[31]

When, in the Meno, the Sophistic dilemma was proposed to Socrates, “How can inquiry be made into what we know or into what we don’t know?” Socrates pointed out that the only escape from the dilemma was the process of recollecting, and that knowledge is the thing recalled. Socrates then called a slave to him, and by skillfully questioning him found that the slave recognizedthe mathematical relationship between the square on the hypothenuse of a right triangle and the sums of the squares on the other two sides. “The ignorant slave can only have been recollecting,” says Socrates. Mathematical knowledge is extracted from the sense-perception of the slave only because the slave has through such perception the opportunity of recollecting Ideas present in himself and not hitherto suspected by himself. In Plato’s system, mathematical forms have an important place. They are the links by means of which the Idea shapes space teleologically into the sense world.

2. The Immortality of Post-Existence. Plato’s ground for belief in the existence of soul after death is practically the same as that for its previous existence. Its destiny hereafter depends upon how far it has freed itself in this earthly life from the sensuous appetite. As proofs for future existence Plato mentions the soul’s possession of the Ideas, the simplicity and unity of the soul, the soul as the principle of life, and the goodness of God. However weak Plato’s arguments may be for the existence of future immortality, his absolute belief in it is one of the chief points in his teaching. It is interesting to note that the modern western world seems to have no concern in the previous state of the soul, but through the influence of the Christian religion has focused its attention upon the future life. Oriental religions contain the doctrine of pre-existence and the transmigration of souls, but not in the same sense as Plato. In Plato the soul possesses an identity that persists. It has all the qualities of the Ideas, but is also an entity possessing these qualities. It has non-origination, indestructibility, unity, and changelessness. The doctrine of the immortality of post-existence hadappeared in the Greek religion, but this is the first time that we have found it as a part of philosophic teaching. The student will, of course, feel the difficulties in Plato’s conception as he has presented it. For how can the soul preserve its individuality as a unity, when the soul belongs in part to a world which is temporal?

The Two Tendencies in Plato. From the doctrine of the two worlds there are two distinct tendencies running through the entire teaching of Plato. These are (1) the tendency to glorify nature, and (2) the tendency to turn away from nature to ascetic contemplation. On the one hand, Plato felt within himself the light heart-beat of the artist, and the Hellenic love of life was strong within him. He felt that the Idea of the Good was realized even in the world of sense, that there was pleasure in the sensuous imitation of the Idea, in practical artistic skill, and in an intelligent understanding of mathematical orderings. These were at least preparations for the highest Good, which consisted in knowledge of the Ideas. On the other hand, one finds beside this the ascetic tendency to be repelled by nature, a negative ethics that would leave the world of sense and would spiritualize the life. The Theætetus sets up an ideal of retirement for the philosopher, and points out that he should find refuge as soon as possible from the evils of the world in the divine presence. The Phædo pictures the whole life of the philosopher as a dying, a purification of the soul, an existence in prison, from which escape is only by virtue and knowledge. This ascetic tendency seems very anti-Greek; and yet is it foreign to Greek life? In Greek history do we not find, by the side of the Epic and the glorification of nature, the Mysteries and the withdrawal of the individualfrom the world? Both these historic tendencies appear in Plato, and on the whole the ascetic tendency is stronger. The Ideas are contrasted with the nature world more often than they transfigure it. The dualism of Heaven and earth is emphasized, and the contrast is strongly drawn between the reality of the Ideas and the temporality of sense.

Platonic Love. Described in technical terms, in both Socrates and Plato, Love (Eros) is the philosophic and not a purely intellectual impulse. Its rather more didactic character in Socrates of an attempt to engender knowledge and virtue in others appears in Plato in a larger way as the personal and practical realization of the truth. Reduced to its simplest terms, Platonic Love is the longing of the human being in his imperfectness for perfectness and completeness. It is the innate desire for immortality.

True love, according to Plato, takes its beginning in the astonishment or pain at the presentment of the Ideas through remembrance, and the starting-point of Love in an individual is the principle fundamental in pre-existence. The philosophic impulse for the Ideas takes the form of Love, because visible beauty has a special brightness and makes a strong impression on the mind. Love belongs only to mortal natures; for they, since they do not possess the divine unchangeableness, have to propagate themselves continually. Love may be described therefore as the propagative impulse. On the one side it may be viewed as an inspiration from above, springing from the higher, divinely-related nature in man; on the other hand it may be viewed as an aspiration from below of the sensuous and human in man. On this side it is a yearning and not a possession; andit presupposes a want. Analyzed in this way, Love is the middle term between having and not having. It is the union of the higher and lower natures in man, and throughout the universe there stirs this longing for the eternal and imperishable.

What is the object of this Love,—of this desire of the finite to fill itself with the eternal and to generate something enduring? That object is the possession of the Good, which is happiness. The possession of the Good is immortality. What is the external condition of Love’s existence? The presence of Beauty; for this alone, by its harmonious form, corresponds to our desire and awakens it. Does this Love appear first in its complete realization? No; there are many kinds of beauty, and Love is as various in degree and kind as beautiful objects. Love rises step by step, and is realized in a graduated series of forms. There is Love for beautiful shapes, sexual love; Love for beautiful souls, and this appears in works of art, education, and legislation; Love for beautiful sciences, the seeking of beauty wherever found; and finally Love for the pure, shapeless, eternal, and unchangeable—the Idea, which is immortality. All else is preliminary to the dialectical knowledge of the Ideas. In all this, man is reaching out from his sense of want for satisfaction, from his poverty to the completed riches of life. Love bears him on from height to height until, in religion and Love of the Good, man gains his immortality. In Platonic Love all kinds of Love have place in pointing the soul onward to the divinely perfect. Yet this Love for the divinely perfect is the soul’s aspiration from the beginning, and all the preliminary stages are only the uncertain attempts to seize the Idea in the copies. Love, therefore, is this universal struggleof the finite to inform itself with the Idea;and delight in any one object of beauty is a stage in the development of this impulse.[32]

Plato’s Theory of Ethics. Plato’s Theory of Ideas is, after all, fundamentally only an outspoken ethical metaphysics, and his Ethics is his most fruitful accomplishment. Plato’s ethical teaching is therefore involved in all that we have said about him up to this point. An understanding of his ethics includes an understanding of the formation and growth of his dialectic, an insight into his physical theory, knowledge of the two tendencies which run through his teaching, and especially an understanding of his doctrine of Love. If some of the previous exposition is repeated, it will be only to bring out more fully his ethical teaching as a special science. We shall speak of three topics under this general subject of his ethics: (1) his development of his theory of the Good; (2) the four cardinal virtues; (3) his theory of political society.