THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (_continued_.)
THE SOCRATIC SCHOOL (_continued_).
PLATO.
II. THE PLATONIC DIALECTIC.
The Platonic Dialectic is the Science of Eternal and Immutable
Principles, and the _method_ (organon) by which these first principles
are brought forward into the clear light of consciousness. The student
of Plato will have discovered that he makes no distinction between logic
and metaphysics. These are closely united in the one science to which he
gives the name of "_Dialectic_" and which was at once the science of the
ideas and laws of the Reason, and of the mental process by which the
knowledge of Real Being is attained, and a ground of absolute certainty
is found. This science has, in modern times, been called _Primordial_ or
_Transcendental Logic_.
We have seen that Plato taught that the human reason is originally in
possession of fundamental and necessary ideas--the copies of the
archetypal ideas which dwell in the eternal Reason; and that these ideas
are the primordial laws of thought--that is, they are the laws under
which we conceive of all objective things, and reason concerning all
existence. These ideas, he held, are not derived from sensation, neither
are they generalizations from experience, but they are inborn and
connatural. And, further, he entertained the belief, more, however, as a
reasonable hypothesis[554] than as a demonstrable truth, that these
standard principles were acquired by the soul in a pre-existent state in
which it stood face to face with ideas of eternal order, beauty,
goodness, and truth.[555] "Journeying with the Deity," the soul
contemplated justice, wisdom, science--not that science which is
concerned with change, and which appears under a different manifestation
in different objects, which we choose to call beings; but such science
as is in that which alone is indeed _being_.[556] Ideas, therefore,
belong to, and inhere in, that portion of the soul which is properly
ousia--_essence_ or _being_; which had an existence anterior to time,
and even now has no relation to time, because it is now in
eternity--that is, in a sphere of being to which past, present, and
future can have no relation.[557]
[Footnote 554: Within "the eikotôn mythôn idea--the category of
probability."--"Phædo."]
[Footnote 555: "Phædo," § 50-56.]
[Footnote 556: "Phædrus," § 58.]
[Footnote 557: See note on p. 349.]
All knowledge of truth and reality is, therefore, according to Plato, a
REMINISCENCE (anamnêsis)--a recovery of partially forgotten ideas which
the soul possessed in another state of existence; and the _dialectic_ of
Plato is simply the effort, by apt _interrogation_, to lead the mind to
"_recollect_"[558] the truth which has been formerly perceived by it,
and is even now in the memory though not in consciousness. An
illustration of this method is attempted in the "_Meno_" where Plato
introduces Socrates as making an experiment on the mind of an uneducated
person. Socrates puts a series of questions to a slave of Meno, and at
length elicits from the youth a right enunciation of a geometrical
truth. Socrates then points triumphantly to this instance, and bids Meno
observe that he had not taught the youth any thing, but simply
interrogated him as to his opinions, whilst the youth had recalled the
knowledge previously existing in his own mind.[559]
[Footnote 558: "To learn is to recover our own previous knowledge, and
this is properly to _recollect._"--"Phædo" § 55.]
[Footnote 559: "Meno," § 16-20. "Now for a person to recover knowledge
himself through himself, is not this to _recollect_."]
Now whilst we readily grant that the instance given in the "_Meno_" does
not sustain the inference of Plato that "the boy" had learnt these
geometrical truths "in eternity," and that they had simply been brought
forward into the view of his consciousness by the "questioning" of
Socrates, yet it certainly does prove that _there are ideas or
principles in the human reason which are not derived from without--which
are anterior to all experience, and for the development of which,
experience furnishes the occasion, but is not the origin and source_. By
a kind of lofty inspiration, he caught sight of that most important
doctrine of modern philosophy, so clearly and logically presented by
Kant, _that the Reason is the source of a pure_ à priori _knowledge_--a
knowledge native to, and potentially in the mind, antecedent to all
experience, and which is simply brought out into the field of
consciousness by experience conditions. Around this greatest of all
metaphysical truths Plato threw a gorgeous mythic dress, and presented
it under the most picturesque imagery.[560] But, when divested of the
rich coloring which the glowing imagination of Plato threw over it, it
is but a vivid presentation of the cardinal truth that _there are ideas
in the mind which have not been derived from without_, and which,
therefore, the mind brought with it into the present sphere of being.
The validity and value of this fundamental doctrine, even as presented
by Plato, is unaffected by any speculations in which he may have
indulged, as to the pre-existence of the soul. He simply regarded this
doctrine of pre-existence as highly probable--a plausible explanation of
the facts. That there are ideas, innate and connatural to the human
mind, he clung to as the most vital, most precious, most certain of all
truths; and to lead man to the recognitions of these ideas, to bring
them within the field of consciousness, was, in his judgment, the great
business of philosophy.
And this was the grand aim of his _Dialectic_--to elicit, to bring to
light the truths which are already in the mind--"a maieusis" a kind of
intellectual midwifery[561]--a delivering of the mind of the ideas with
which it was pregnant.
[Footnote 560: As in the "Phædo," §§ 48-57; "Phædrus," §§ 52-64;
"Republic," bk. x.]
[Footnote 561: "Theætetus," §§ 17-20.]
It is thus, at first sight, obvious that it was a higher and more
comprehensive science than the art of deduction. For it was directed to
the discovery and establishment of First Principles. Its sole object was
the discovery of truth. His dialectic was an _analytical_ and _inductive
method_. "In Dialectic Science," says _Alcinous_, "there is a dividing
and a defining, and an analyzing, and, moreover, that which is inductive
and syllogistic."[562] Even _Bacon_, who is usually styled "the Father
of the Inductive method," and who, too often, speaks disparagingly of
Plato, is constrained to admit that he followed the inductive method.
"An induction such as will be of advantage for the invention and
demonstration of Arts and Sciences must distinguish the essential nature
of things (naturam) by proper rejections and exclusions, and then after
as many of these negatives as are sufficient, by comprising, above all
(super), the positives. Up to this time this had not been done, nor even
attempted, _except by Plato alone, who, in order to attain his
definitions and ideas, has used, to a certain extent, the method of
Induction_."[563]
[Footnote 562: "Introduction to the Doctrines of Plato," vol. vi. p.
249. "The Platonic Method was the method of induction."--Cousin's
"History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 307.]
[Footnote 563: "Novum Organum," vol. i. p. 105.]
The process of investigation adopted by Plato thus corresponds with the
inductive method of modern times, with this simple difference, that
Bacon conducted science into the world of _matter_, whilst Plato
directed it to the world of _mind_. The dialectic of Plato aimed at the
discovery of the "laws of thought;" the modern inductive philosophy aims
at the discovery of the "laws of nature." The latter concerns itself
chiefly with the inquiry after the "causes" of material phenomena; the
former concerned itself with the inquiry after the "first principles" of
all knowledge and of all existence. Both processes are, therefore,
carried on by _interrogation_. The analysis which seeks for a law of
nature proceeds by the interrogation of nature. The analysis of Plato
proceeds by the interrogation of mind, in order to discover the
fundamental _ideas_ which lie at the basis of all cognition, which
determine all our processes of thought, and which, in their final
analysis, reveal the REAL BEING, which is the ground and explanation of
all existence.
Now the fact that such an inquiry has originated in the human mind, and
that it can not rest satisfied without some solution, is conclusive
evidence that the mind has an instinctive belief, a proleptic
anticipation, that such knowledge can be attained. There must
unquestionably be some mental initiative which is the _motive_ and
_guide_ to all philosophical inquiry. We must have some well-grounded
conviction, some _à priori_ belief, some pre-cognition "ad intentionem
ejus quod quæritur,"[564] which determines the direction of our
thinking. The mind does not go to work aimlessly; it asks a specific
question; it demands the "_whence_" and the "_why_" of that which is.
Neither does it go to work unfurnished with any guiding principles. That
which impels the mind to a determinate act of thinking is the possession
of a _knowledge_ which is different from, and independent of, the
process of thinking itself. "A rational anticipation is, then, the
ground of the _prudens quæstio_--"the forethought query, which, in
fact, is the prior half of the knowledge sought."[565] If the mind
inquire after "laws," and "causes," and "reasons," and "grounds,"--the
first principles of all knowledge and of all existence,--"it must have
the _à priori_ ideas of "law," and "cause," and "reason," and "being _in
se"_ which, though dimly revealed to the mind previous to the discipline
of reflection, are yet unconsciously governing its spontaneous modes of
thought. The whole process of induction has, then, some rational ground
to proceed upon--some principles deeper than science, and more certain
than demonstration, which reason contains within itself, and which
induction "draws out" into clearer light.
[Footnote 564: Bacon.]
[Footnote 565: Coleridge, vol. ii. p. 413.]
Now this mental initiative of every process of induction is the
intuitive and necessary conviction _that there must be a sufficient
reason why every thing exists, and why it is as it is, and not
otherwise_;[566] or in other words, if any thing begins to be, some
thing else must be supposed[567] as the ground, and reason, and cause,
and law of its existence. This "_law of sufficient_ (or _determinant)
reason_"[568] is the fundamental principle of all metaphysical inquiry.
It is contained, at least in a negative form, in that famous maxim of
ancient philosophy, "_De nihilo nihil_"--"Adynaton ginestai ti ek
mêdenos prouparxontos." "It is impossible for a real entity to be made
or generated from nothing pre-existing;" or in other words, "nothing can
be made or produced without an efficient cause."[569] This principle is
also distinctly announced by Plato: "Whatever is generated, is
necessarily generated from a certain aitian"--_ground, reason_, or
_cause_; "for it is wholly impossible that any thing should be generated
without a cause."[570]
[Footnote 566: "Phædo," § 103.]
[Footnote 567: _Suppono_, to place under as a support, to take as a
ground.]
[Footnote 568: This generic principle, viewed under different relations,
gives--
1st. _The principle of Substance_--every quality supposes a subject
or real being.
2d. _The principle of Causality_--every thing which begins to be
must have a cause.
3d. _The principle of Law_--every phenomenon must obey some uniform
law.
4th. _The principle of Final Cause_--every means supposes an end,
every existence has a purpose or reason why.
5th. _The principle of Unity_--all plurality supposes a unity as
its basis and ground.]
[Footnote 569: Cudworth's "Intellectual System," vol. ii. p. 161.]
[Footnote 570: "Timæus," ch. ix.]
The first business of Plato's dialectic is to demonstrate that the
ground and reason of all existence can not be found in the mere objects
of sense, nor in any opinions or judgments founded upon sensation.
Principles are only so far "first principles" as they are permanent and
unchangeable, depending on neither time, nor place, nor circumstances.
But the objects of sense are in ceaseless flux and change; they are
"_always becoming_;" they can not be said to have any "_real being_."
They are not to-day what they were yesterday, and they will never again
be what they are now; consequently all opinions founded on mere
phenomena are equally fluctuating and uncertain. Setting out, therefore,
from the assumption of the fallaciousness of "_opinion_" it examined the
various hypotheses which had been bequeathed by previous schools of
philosophy, or were now offered by contemporaneous speculators, and
showed they were utterly inadequate to the solution of the problem. This
scrutiny consisted in searching for the ground of "contradiction"[571]
with regard to each opinion founded on sensation, and showing that
opposite views were equally tenable. It inquired on what ground these
opinions were maintained, and what consequences flowed therefrom, and it
showed that the grounds upon which "opinion" was founded, and the
conclusions which were drawn from it, were contradictory, and
consequently untrue.[572] "They," the Dialecticians, "examined the
opinions of men as if they were error; and bringing them together by a
reasoning process to the same point, they placed them by the side of
each other: and by so placing, they showed that _the opinions are at one
and the same time contrary to themselves, about the same things, with
reference to the same circumstances, and according to the same
premises_."[573] And inasmuch as the same attribute can not, at the same
time, be affirmed and denied of the same subject,[574] therefore a thing
can not be at once "changeable" and "unchangeable," "movable" and
"immovable," "generated" and "eternal."[575] The objects of sense,
however generalized and classified, can only give the contingent, the
relative, and the finite; therefore the permanent ground and sufficient
reason of all phenomenal existence can not be found in opinions and
judgments founded upon sensation.
[Footnote 571: "The Dialectitian is one who syllogistically infers the
contradictions implied in popular opinions."--Aristotle, "Sophist," §§
1, 2.]
[Footnote 572: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xiii.]
[Footnote 573: "Sophist," § 33; "Republic," bk. iv. ch. xii.]
[Footnote 574: See the "Phædo," § 119, and "Republic," bk. iv. ch.
xiii., where the Law of Non-contradiction is announced.]
[Footnote 575 "Parmenides," § 3.]
The dialectic process thus consisted almost entirely of
_refutation_,[576] or what both he and Aristotle denominated _elenchus_
(elenchos)--a process of reasoning by which the contradictory of a given
proposition is inferred. "When refutation had done its utmost, and all
the points of difficulty and objection had been fully brought out, the
dialectic method had accomplished its purpose; and the affirmation which
remained, after this discussion, might be regarded as setting forth the
truth of the question under consideration;"[577] or in other words,
_when a system of error is destroyed by refutation, the contradictory
opposite principle, with its logical developments, must be accepted as
an established truth_.
[Footnote 576: Confutation is the greatest and chiefest of
purification.--"Sophist," § 34.]
[Footnote 577: Article "Plato," Encyclopædia Britannica.]
By the application of this method, Plato had not only exposed the
insufficiency and self-contradiction of all results obtained by a mere
_à posteriori_ generalization of the simple facts of experience, but he
demonstrated, as a consequence, that we are in possession of some
elements of knowledge which have not been derived from sensation; that
there are, in all minds, certain notions, principles, or ideas, which
have been furnished by a higher faculty than sense; and that these
notions, principles, or ideas, transcend the limits of experience, and
reveal the knowledge of _real being_--to ontôs on--_Being in se_.
To determine what these principles or ideas are, Plato now addresses
himself to the _analysis of thought_. "It is the glory of Plato to have
borne the light of analysis into the most obscure and inmost region; he
searched out what, in this totality which forms consciousness, is the
province of reason; what comes from it, and not from the imagination and
the senses--from within, and not from without."[578] Now to analyze is
to decompose, that is, to divide, and to define, in order to see better
that which really is. The chief logical instruments of the dialectic
method are, therefore, _Division_ and _Definition_. "The being able to
_divide_ according to genera, and not to consider the same species as
different, nor a different as the same,"[579] and "to see under one
aspect, and bring together under one general idea, many things scattered
in various places, that, by _defining_ each, a person may make it clear
what the subject is," is, according to Plato, "dialectical."[580]
[Footnote 578: Cousin's "Lectures on the History of Philosophy," vol. i.
p. 328.]
[Footnote 579: "Sophist," § 83.]
[Footnote 580: "Phædrus," §§ 109, 111.]
We have already seen that, in his first efforts at applying reflection
to the concrete phenomena of consciousness, Plato had recognized two
distinct classes of cognitions, marked by characteristics essentially
opposite;--one of "_sensible_" objects having a definite outline, limit,
and figure, and capable of being imaged and represented to the mind in a
determinate form--the other of "_intelligible_" objects, which can not
be outlined or represented in the memory or the imagination by any
figures or images, and are, therefore, the objects of purely rational
conception. He found, also, that we arrive at one class of cognitions
"_mediately_" through images generated in the vital organism, or by some
testimony, definition, or explication of others; whilst we arrive at the
other class "_immediately_" by simple intuition, or rational
apperception. The mind stands face to face with the object, and gazes
directly upon it. The reality of that object is revealed in its own
light, and we find it impossible to refuse our assent--that is, it is
_self-evident_. One class consisted of _contingent_ ideas--that is,
their objects are conceived as existing, with the possibility, without
any contradiction, of conceiving of their non-existence; the other
consisted of _necessary_ ideas--their objects are conceived as existing
with the absolute impossibility of conceiving of their non-existence.
Thus we can conceive of this book, this table, this earth, as not
existing, but we can not conceive the non-existence of space. We can
conceive of succession in time as not existing, but we can not, in
thought, annihilate duration. We can imagine this or that particular
thing not to have been, but we can not conceive of the extinction of
Being in itself. He further observed, that one class of our cognitions
are _conditional_ ideas; the existence of their objects is conceived
only on the supposition of some antecedent existence, as for example,
the idea of qualities, phenomena, events; whilst the other class of
cognitions are _unconditional_ and _absolute_--we can conceive of their
objects as existing independently and unconditionally--existing whether
any thing else does or does not exist, as space, duration, the infinite,
Being _in se_. And, finally, whilst some ideas appear in us as
_particular_ and _individual_, determined and modified by our own
personality and liberty, there are others which are, in the fullest
sense, _universal_. They are not the creations of our own minds, and
they can not be changed by our own volitions. They depend upon neither
times, nor places, nor circumstances; they are common to all minds, in
all times, and in all places. These ideas are the witnesses in our
inmost being that there is something beyond us, and above us; and beyond
and above all the contingent and fugitive phenomena around us. Beneath
all changes there is a _permanent_ being. Beyond all finite and
conditional existance there is something _unconditional_ and _absolute_.
Having determined that there are truths which are independent of our own
minds--truths which are not individual, but universal--truths which
would be truths even if our minds did not perceive them, we are led
onward to a _super-sensual_ and super-natural ground, on which they
rest.
To reach this objective reality on which the ideas of reason repose, is
the grand effort of Plato's dialectic. He seeks, by a rigid analysis,
clearly to _separate_, and accurately to _define_ the _à priori_
conceptions of reason. And it was only when he had eliminated every
element which is particular, contingent, and relative, and had defined
the results in precise and accurate language, that he regarded the
process as complete. The ideas which are self-evident, universal, and
necessary, were then clearly disengaged, and raised to their pure and
absolute form. "You call the man dialectical who requires a reason of
the essence or being of each thing. As the dialectical man can define
the essence of every thing, so can he of the good. He can _define_ the
idea of the good, _separating_ it from all others--follow it through all
windings, as in a battle, resolved to mark it, not according to opinion,
but according to science."[581]
[Footnote 581: "Republic," bk. vii. ch. xiv.]
_Abstraction_ is thus the process, the instrument of the Platonic
dialectic. It is important, however, that we should distinguish between
the method of _comparative_ abstraction, as employed in physical
inquiry, and that _immediate_ abstraction, which is the special
instrument of philosophy. The former proceeds by comparison and
generalization, the latter by simple separation. The one yields a
contingent general principle as the result of the comparison of a number
of individual cases, the other gives an universal and necessary
principle by the analysis of a single concrete fact. As an illustration
we may instance "the principle of causality." To enable us to affirm
"that every event must have a cause," we do not need to compare and
generalize a great number of events. "The principle which compels us to
pronounce the judgment is already complete in the first as in the last
event; it can change in regard to its object, it can not change in
itself; it neither increases nor decreases with the greater or less
number of applications."[582] In the presence of a single event, the
universality and necessity of this principle of causality is recognized
with just as much clearness and certainty as in the presence of a
million events, however carefully generalized.
[Footnote 582: Cousin's "The True, the Beautiful, and the Good," pp. 57,
58.]
Abstraction, then, it will be seen, creates nothing; neither does it add
any new element to the store of actual cognitions already possessed by
all human minds. It simply brings forward into a clearer and more
definite recognition, that which necessarily belongs to the mind as part
of its latent furniture, and which, as a law of thought, has always
unconsciously governed all its spontaneous movements. As a process of
rational inquiry, it was needful to bring the mind into intelligible and
conscious communion with the world of _Ideas_. These ideas are partially
revealed in the sensible world, all things being formed, as Plato
believed, according to ideas as models and exemplars, of which sensible
objects are the copies. They are more fully manifested in the
constitution of the human mind which, by virtue of its kindred nature
with the original essence or being, must know them intuitively and
immediately. And they are brought out fully by the dialectic process,
which disengages them from all that is individual and phenomenal, and
sets them forth in their pure and absolute form.
But whilst Plato has certainly exhibited the true method of
investigation by which the ideas of reason are to be separated from all
concrete phenomena and set clearly before the mind, he has not attempted
a complete enumeration of the ideas of reason; indeed, such an
enumeration is still the grand desideratum of philosophy. We can not
fail, however, in the careful study of his writings, to recognize the
grand Triad of Absolute Ideas--ideas which Cousin, after Plato, has so
fully exhibited, viz., the _True_, the _Beautiful_, and the _Good_.
PLATONIC SCHEME OF IDEAS
I. _The idea of_ ABSOLUTE TRUTH or REALITY (to alêthes--to on)--the
ground and efficient cause of all existence, and by participating in
which all phenomenal existence has only so far a reality, sensible
things being merely shadows and resemblances of ideas. This idea is
developed in the human intelligence in its relation with the phenomenal
world; as,
1. _The idea of_ SUBSTANCE (ousia)--the ground of all phenomena, "the
being or essence of all things," the permanent reality.--"Timæeus," ch.
ix. and xii.; "Republic," bk. vii. ch. xiv.; "Phædo,"§§ 63-67, 73.
2. _The idea of_ CAUSE (aitia)--the power or efficiency by which things
that "become," or begin to be, are generated or produced.--"Timæus," ch.
ix.; "Sophist," § 109; "Philebus," §§ 45, 46.
3. _The idea of_ IDENTITY (auto to ison)--that which "does not change,"
"is always the same, simple and uniform, incomposite and
indissoluble,"--that which constitutes personality or
self-hood.--"Phædo," §§ 61-75; "Timæus," ch. ix.; "Republic," bk. ii.
ch. xix. and xx.
4. _The idea of_ UNITY (to en)--one _mind_ or intelligence pervading the
universe, the comprehensive conscious _thought_ or _plan_ which binds
all parts of the universe in one great whole (to pan)--the principle of
_order_.--"Timæus," ch. xi. and xv.; "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xiii.;
"Philebus," §§ 50-51.
5. _The idea of the_ INFINITE (to apeiron)--that which is unlimited and
unconditioned, "has no parts, bounds, no beginning, nor middle, nor
end."--"Parmenides," §§ 22, 23.
II. _The idea of_ ABSOLUTE BEAUTY (to kalon)--the formal cause of the
universe, and by participation in which all created things have only so
far a real beauty.--"Timæus," ch. xi, "Greater Hippias," §§ 17, 18;
"Republic," bk. v. ch. 22.
This idea is developed in the human intelligence in its relation to the
organic world; as,
1. _The Idea of_ PROPORTION or SYMMETRY (symmetria)--the
proper relation of parts to an organic whole resulting in a
harmony (cosmos), and which relation admits of mathematical
expression.--"Timæus," ch. lxix.; "Philebus," § 155
("Timæus," ch. xi. and xii., where the relation of numerical
proportions to material elements is expounded).
2. _The idea of_ DETERMINATE FORM (paradeigma
archetypos)--the eternal models or archetypes according to
which all things are framed, and which admit of geometrical
representation.--"Timæus," ch. ix.; "Phædo," §112 ("Timæus,"
ch. xxviii.-xxxi., where the relation of geometrical forms
to material elements is exhibited).
3. _The idea of_ RHYTHM (rythmos)--measured movement in time
and space, resulting in melody and grace.--"Republic," bk.
iii. ch. xi. and xii.; "Philebus," § 21.
4. _The idea of_ FITNESS or ADAPTATION
(chrêsimon)--effectiveness to some purpose or end.--"Greater
Hippias," § 35.
5. _The idea of_ PERFECTION (teleiotês)--that which is
complete, "a structure which is whole and finished--of whole
and perfect parts."--"Timæus," ch. xi., xii., and xliii.
III. _The idea of_ ABSOLUTE GOOD (to agathon)--the final _cause_ or
_reason_ of all existence, the sun of the invisible world, that pours
upon all things the revealing light of truth.
The first Good[583] (_summum bonum_) is God the highest, and Mind or
Intelligence (nous), which renders man capable of knowing and resembling
God. The second flows from the first, and are virtues of mind. They are
good by a participation of the chief good, and constitute in man a
likeness or _resemblance_ to God.--"Phædo," §§110-114; "Laws," bk. i.
ch. vi., bk. iv. ch. viii.; "Theætetus," §§ 84, 85; "Republic," bk. vi.
ch. xix., bk. vii. ch. iii., bk. x. ch. xii.[584]
[Footnote 583: "Let us declare, then, on what account the framing
Artificer settled the formation of the universe. He was GOOD;" and being
good, "he desired that all things should as much as possible resemble
himself."--"Timæus," ch. x.]
[Footnote 584: "At the utmost bounds of the intellectual world is the
_idea of the Good_, perceived with difficulty, but which, once seen,
makes itself known as the cause of all that is beautiful and good; which
in the visible world produces light, and the orb that gives it; and
which in the invisible world directly produces Truth and
Intelligence."--"Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.]
This idea is developed in the human intelligence in its relation to the
world of moral order; as,
1. _The idea of_ WISDOM or PRUDENCE (phronêsis)--thoughtfulness,
rightness of intention, following the guidance of reason, the right
direction of the energy or will.--"Republic," bk. iv. ch. vii., bk. vi.
ch. ii.
2. _The idea of_ COURAGE or FORTITUDE (andria)--zeal, energy, firmness
in the maintenance of honor and right, virtuous indignation against
wrong.--"Republic," bk. iv. ch. viii.; "Laches;" "Meno," § 24.
3. _The idea of_ SELF-CONTROL or TEMPERANCE
(sophrosynê)--sound-mindedness, moderation, dignity.--"Republic," bk.
iv. ch. ix.; "Meno," § 24; "Phædo," § 35.
4. _The idea of_ JUSTICE (dikalosynê)--the harmony or perfect
proportional action of all the powers of the soul.--"Republic," bk. i.
ch. vi., bk. iv. ch. x.-xii., bk. vi. ch. ii. and xvi.; "Philebus," §
155; "Phædo," § 54; "Theætetus," §§ 84, 85.
Plato's idea of Justice comprehends--
(1) EQUITY (isotês)--the rendering to every man his due.--"Republic,"
bk. i. ch. vi.
(2.) VERACITY (alêpheia)--the utterance of what is true.--"Republic,"
bk. i. ch. v., bk. ii. ch. xx., bk. vi. ch. ii.
(3.) FAITHFULNESS (pistotês)--the strict performance of a
trust.--"Republic," bk. i. ch. v., bk. vi. ch. ii.
(4.) USEFULNESS (ôpheltmon)--the answering of some valuable
end.--"Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii., bk. iv. ch. xviii.; "Meno," § 22.
(5.) BENEVOLENCE (eunoia)--seeking the well-being of
others.--"Republic," bk. i. ch. xvii., bk. ii. ch. xviii.
(6.) HOLINESS (osiotês)--purity of mind, piety.--"Protagoras," §§ 52-54;
"Phædo," § 32; "Theætetus," § 84.
The final effort of Plato's Dialectic was to ascend from these ideas of
Absolute Truth, and Absolute Beauty, and Absolute Goodness to the
_Absolute Being_, in whom they are all united, and from whom they all
proceed. "He who possesses the true love of science is naturally carried
in his aspirations to the _real Being_; and his love, so far from
suffering itself to be retarded by the multitude of things whose reality
is only apparent, knows no repose until it have arrived at union with
the _essence_ of each object, by the part of the soul which is akin to
the permanent and essential; so that this divine conjunction having
produced intelligence and truth, the knowledge of _being_ is won."[585]
[Footnote 585: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. v.]
To the mind of Plato, there was in every thing, even the smallest and
most insignificant of sensible objects, a _reality_ just in so far as it
participates in some archetypal form or idea. These archetypal forms or
ideas are the "_thoughts of God_"[586]--they are the plan according to
which he framed the universe. "The Creator and Father of the universe
looked to an _eternal model_.... Being thus generated, the universe is
framed according to principles that can be comprehended by reason and
reflection."[587] Plato, also, regarded all individual conceptions of
the mind as hypothetical notions which have in them an _à priori_
element--an idea which is unchangeable, universal, and necessary. These
unchangeable, universal, and necessary ideas are copies of the Divine
Ideas, which are, for man, the primordial laws of all cognition, and all
reasoning. They are possessed by the soul "in virtue of its kindred
nature to that which is permanent, unchangeable, and eternal." He also
believed that every archetypal form, and every _à priori_ idea, has its
ground and root in a higher idea, which is _unhypothetical_ and
_absolute_--an idea which needs no other supposition for its
explanation, and which is, itself, needful to the explanation of all
existence--even the idea of an _absolute_ and _perfect Being_, in whose
mind the ideas of absolute truth, and beauty, and goodness inhere, and
in whose eternity they can only be regarded as eternal.[588] Thus do the
"ideas of reason" not only cast a bridge across the abyss that separates
the sensible and the ideal world, but they also carry us beyond the
limits of our personal consciousness, and discover to us a realm of real
Being, which is the foundation, and cause, and explanation of the
phenomenal world that appears around us and within us.
[Footnote 586: Alcinous, "Doctrines of Plato," p. 262.]
[Footnote 587: "Timæus," ch. ix.]
[Footnote 588: Maurice's "Ancient Philosophy," p. 149.]
This passage from psychology to ontology is not achieved _per saltum_,
or effected by any arbitrary or unwarrantable assumption. There are
principles revealed in the centre of our consciousness, whose regular
development carry us beyond the limits of consciousness, and attain to
the knowledge of actual being. The absolute principles of _causality_
and _substance_, of _intentionality_ and _unity_, unquestionably give us
the absolute Being. Indeed the absolute truth _that every idea supposes
a being in which it resides_, and which is but another form of the law
or principle of substance, viz., _that every quality supposes a
substance or being in which it inheres_, is adequate to carry us from
Idea to Being. "There is not a single cognition which does not suggest
to us the notion of existence, and there is not an unconditional and
absolute truth which does not necessarily imply an absolute and
unconditional Being."[589]
[Footnote 589: Cousin's "Elements of Psychology," p. 506.]
This, then, is the dialectic of Plato. Instead of losing himself amid
the endless variety of particular phenomena, he would search for
principles and laws, and from thence ascend to the great Legislator, the
_First Principle of all Principles_. Instead of stopping at the
relations of sensible objects to the general ideas with which they are
commingled, he will pass to their _eternal Paradigms_--from the just
thing to the idea of absolute justice, from the particular good to the
absolute good, from beautiful things to the absolute beauty, and thence
to the ultimate reality--_the absolute Being_. By the realization of the
lower idea, embodied in the forms of the visible universe and in the
necessary laws of thought, he sought to rise to the higher idea, in its
pure and abstract form--the _Supreme Idea_, containing in itself all
other ideas--the _One Intelligence_ which unites the universe in a
harmonious whole. "The Dialectic faculty proceeds from hypothesis to an
unhypothetical principle.... It uses hypotheses as steps, and
starting-points, in order to proceed from thence to the _absolute_. The
Intuitive Reason takes hold of the First Principle of the Universe, and
avails itself of all the connections and relations of that principle. It
ascends from idea to idea, until it has reached the Supreme Idea"--the
_Absolute Good_--that is, _God_.[590]
[Footnote 590: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xx. and xxi.]
We are thus brought, in the course of our examination of the Platonic
method, to the _results_ obtained by this method--or, in other words, to
III. THE PLATONIC ONTOLOGY.
The grand object of all philosophic inquiry in ancient Greece was to
attain to the knowledge of real Being--that Being which is permanent,
unchangeable, and eternal. It had proceeded on the intuitive conviction,
that beneath all the endless diversity of the universe there must be a
principle of _unity_--below all fleeting appearances there must be a
permanent _substance_--beyond all this everlasting flow and change, this
beginning and end of finite existence, there must be an eternal Being,
which is the _cause_, and which contains, in itself, the _reason_ of the
order, and harmony, and beauty, and excellency which pervades the
universe. And it had perpetually asked what is this permanent,
unchangeable, and eternal substance or being?
Plato had assiduously labored at the solution of this problem. The
object of his dialectic was "to lead upward the soul to the knowledge of
real being,"[591] and the conclusions to which he attained may be summed
up as follows:
1st. _Beneath all_ SENSIBLE _phenomena there is an unchangeable
subject-matter, the mysterious substratum of the world of sense, which
he calls the receptacle (ipodochê) the nurse (tithênê) of all that is
produced_.[592]
It is this "substratum or physical groundwork" which gives a reality and
definiteness to the evanescent phantoms of sense, for, in their
ceaseless change, _they_ can not justify any title whatever. It alone
can be styled "_this_" or "_that_" (tode or touto); they rise no higher
than "_of such kind_" or "_of what kind or quality" (toiouton or
opoionoun ti).[593] It is not earth, or air, or fire, or water, but "an
invisible _species_ and formless universal receiver, which, in the most
obscure way, receives the immanence of the intelligible."[594] And in
relation to the other two principles (_i.e._, ideas and objects of
sense), "it is _the mother_" to the father and the offspring.[595] But
perhaps the most remarkable passage is that in which he seems to
identify it with _pure space_, which, "itself imperishable, furnishes a
_seat_ (edran) to all that is produced, not apprehensible by direct
perception, but caught by a certain spurious reasoning, scarcely
admissible, but which we see as in a dream; gaining it by that judgment
which pronounces it necessary that all which is, be _somewhere_, and
occupy a _certain space_."[596] This, it will be seen, approaches the
Cartesian doctrine, which resolves matter into _simple extension.[597]
[Footnote 591: "Republic," bk. vii. ch. xii. and xiii.]
[Footnote 592: "Timæus," ch. xxii.]
[Footnote 593: "Timæus," ch. xxiii.]
[Footnote 594: Ibid., ch. xxiv.]
[Footnote 595: Ibid., ch. xxiv.]
[Footnote 596: Ibid., ch. xxvi.]
[Footnote 597: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
171.]
It should, however, be distinctly noted that Plato does not use the word
ylê--matter. This term is first employed by Aristotle to express "the
substance which is the subject of all changes."[598] The subject or
substratum of which Plato speaks, would seem to be rather a logical than
a material entity. It is the _condition or supposition_ necessary for
the production of a world of phenomena. It is thus the
_transition-element_ between the real and the apparent, the eternal and
the contingent; and, lying thus on the border of both territories, we
must not be surprised that it can hardly be characterized by any
definite attribute.[599] Still, this unknown recipient of forms or ideas
has a _reality_; it has "an abiding nature," "a constancy of existence;"
and we are forbidden to call it by any name denoting quality, but
permitted to style it "_this_" and "_that_" (tode kai touto).[600]
Beneath the perpetual changes of sensible phenomena there is, then, an
unchangeable subject, which yet is neither the Deity, nor ideas, nor the
soul of man, which exists as the means and occasion of the manifestation
of Divine Intelligence in the organization of the world.[601]
[Footnote 598: "Metaphysics," bk. vii. ch. i.]
[Footnote 599: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
178.]
[Footnote 600: "Timæus," ch. xxiii.]
[Footnote 601: Ibid., ch. xiiii]
There has been much discussion as to whether Plato held that this
"_Receptacle_" and "_Nurse_" of forms and ideas was eternal, or
generated in time. Perhaps no one has more carefully studied the
writings of Plato than William Archer Butler, and his conclusions in
regard to this subject are presented in the following words: "As, on the
one hand, he maintained a strict system of dualism, and avoided, without
a single deviation, that seduction of pantheism to which so many
abstract speculators of his own school have fallen victims; so, on the
other hand, it appears to me that he did not scruple to place this
principle, the opposite of the Divine intelligence, in a sphere
independent of temporal origination.... But we can scarcely enter into
his views, unless we ascertain his notions of the nature of _Time_
itself. This was considered to have been created with the rest of the
sensible world, to finish with it, if it ever finished--to be altogether
related to this phenomenal scene.[602] 'The generating Father determined
to create a moving image of eternity (aiônos); and in disposing the
heavens, he framed of this eternity, reposing in its own unchangeable
unity, an eternal _image_, moving according to numerical succession,
which he called _Time_. With the world arose days, nights, months,
years, which all had no previous existence. The past and future are but
forms of time, which we most erroneously transfer to the eternal
substance (aidion ousian); we say it was, and is, and will be, whereas
we can only fitly say _it is_. Past and future are appropriate to the
successive nature of generated beings, for they bespeak motion; but the
Being eternally and immovably the same is subject neither to youth nor
age, nor to any accident of time; it neither was, nor hath been, nor
will be, which are the attributes of fleeting sense--the circumstances
of time, imitating eternity in the shape of number and motion. Nor can
any thing be more inaccurate than to apply the term _real being_ to
past, or present, or future, or even to non-existence. Of this, however,
we can not now speak fully. _Time_, then, was formed with the heavens,
that, together created, they may together end, _if indeed an end be in
the purpose of the Creator_; and it is designed as closely as possible
to resemble the eternal nature, its exemplar. The model exists through
all eternity; the world has been, is, and will be through all
_time_.'[603] In this ineffable eternity Plato places the Supreme Being,
and the archetypal ideas of which the sensible world of time partakes.
Whether he also includes under the same mode of existence the
_subject-matter_ of the sensible world, it is not easy to pronounce; and
it appears to me evident that he did not himself undertake to speak with
assurance on this obscure problem."[604] The creation of matter "out of
nothing" is an idea which, in all probability, did not occur to the mind
of Plato. But that he regarded it as, in some sense, a _dependent_
existence--as existing, like time, by "the purpose or will of the
Creator"--perhaps as an eternal "generation" from the "eternal
substance," is also highly probable; for in the last analysis he
evidently desires to embrace all things in some ultimate _unity_--a
tendency which it seems impossible for human reason to avoid.
[Footnote 602: See _ante_, note 4, p. 349.]
[Footnote 603: "Timæus," ch. xiv.]
[Footnote 604: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
171-175.]
2d. _Beneath all mental phenomena there is a permanent subject or
substratum which he designates_ THE IDENTICAL (to auto)--_the rational
element of the soul--"the principle of self-activity" or
self-determination_.[605]
There are three principles into which Plato analyzes the soul--the
principle of the _Identical_, the _Diverse_, and the _Intermediate
Essence_.[606] The first is indivisible and eternal, always existing in
_sameness_, the very substance of _Intelligence_ itself, and of the same
nature with the Divine.[607] The second is divisible and corporeal,
answering to our notion of the passive _sensibilities_, and placing the
soul in relation with the visible world. The third is an intermediate
essence, partaking of the natures of both, and constituting a medium
between the eternal and the mutable--the conscious _energy_ of the soul
developed in the contingent world of time. Thus the soul is, on one
side, linked to the unchangeable and the eternal, being formed of that
ineffable element which constitutes the _real_ or _immutable Being_, and
on the other side, linked to the sensible and the contingent, being
formed of that element which is purely _relative_ and _contingent_. This
last element of the soul is regarded by Plato as "mortal" and
"corruptible," the former element as "immortal" and "indestructible,"
having its foundations laid in eternity.
[Footnote 605: "Laws," bk. x. ch. vi. and vii.; "Phædrus," § 51; "archê
kinêseôs."]
[Footnote 606: "Timæus," ch. xii.; tauton, thateron, and ousia or to
symmisgomenon.]
[Footnote 607: "Laws," bk. v. ch. i.]
This doctrine of the eternity of the free and rational element of the
soul must, of course, appear strange and even repulsive to those who are
unacquainted with the Platonic notion of eternity as a fixed state out
of time, which has no past, present, or future, and is simply that which
"always _is_"--an everlasting _now_. The soul, in its elements of
rationality and freedom, has existed anterior to time, because it now
exists in eternity.[608] In its actual manifestations and personal
history it is to be contemplated as a "generated being," having a
commencement in time.
Now, that the human soul, like the uncreated Deity, has always had a
distinct, conscious, personal, independent being, does not appear to be
the doctrine of Plato. He teaches, most distinctly, that the "divine,"
the immortal part, was created, or rather "generated," in eternity. "The
Deity himself _formed the divine_, and he delivered over to his
celestial offspring [the subordinate and generated gods] the task of
_forming the mortal_. These subordinate deities, copying the example of
their parent, and receiving from his hands the _immortal principle_ of
the human soul, fashioned subsequently to this the mortal body, which
they consigned to the soul as a vehicle, and in which they placed
another kind of soul, mortal, the seat of violent and fatal
affections."[609] He also regarded the soul as having a derived and
dependent existence. He draws a marked distinction between the divine
and human forms of the "self-moving principle," and makes its
continuance dependent upon the will and wisdom of the Almighty Disposer
and Parent, of whom it is "the first-born offspring."[610]
[Footnote 608: See _ante_, note 4, p. 349, as to the Platonic notions of
"Time" and "Eternity."]
[Footnote 609: "Timaeus," ch. xliv.]
[Footnote 610: See the elaborate exposition in "Laws," bk. x. ch. xii.
and xiii.]
That portion of the soul which Plato regarded as "immortal" and "to be
entitled divine," is thus the "_offspring of God_"--a ray of the
Divinity "generated" by, or emanating from, the Deity. He seems to have
conceived it as co-eternal with its ideal objects, in some mysterious
ultimate _unity_. "The true foundation of the Platonic theory of the
constitution of the soul is this fundamental principle of his
philosophy--the _oneness of truth and knowledge_.[611] This led him
naturally to derive the _rational_ element of the soul (that element
that _knows_), that possesses the power of noêsis from the _real_
element in things (the element that _is_)--the nooumenon; and in the
original, the final, and, though imperfectly, the present state of that
rational element, he, doubtless, conceived it united with its object in
an eternal conjunction, or even identity. But though intelligence and
its correlative intelligibles were and are thus combined, the soul is
_more_ than pure intelligence; it possesses an element of personality
and consciousness distinct to each individual, of which we have no
reason to suppose, from any thing his writings contain, Plato ever meant
to deprive it."[612] On the contrary, he not only regarded it as having
now, under temporal conditions, a distinct personal existence, but he
also claimed for it a conscious, personal existence after death. He is
most earnest, and unequivocal, and consistent in his assertion of the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The arguments which human
reason can supply are exhibited with peculiar force and beauty in the
"Phædo," the "Phædrus," and the tenth book of the "Republic." The most
important of these arguments may be presented in a few words.
[Footnote 611: See Grant's "Aristotle," vol. i. pp. 150, 151.]
[Footnote 612: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
209, note.]
1. _The soul is immortal, because it is incorporeal_. There are two
kinds of existences, one compounded, the other simple; the former
subject to change, the latter unchangeable; one perceptible to sense,
the other comprehended by mind alone. The one is visible, the other is
invisible. When the soul employs the bodily senses, it wanders and is
confused; but when it abstracts itself from the body, it attains to
knowledge which is stable, unchangeable, and immortal. The soul,
therefore, being uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, must be
indissoluble--that is to say, immortal.[613]
[Footnote 613: "Phædo," §§ 61-75.]
2. _The soul is immortal, because it has an independent power of
self-motion_--that is, it has self-activity and self-determination. No
arrangement of matter, no configuration of body, can be conceived as the
originator of free and voluntary movement.
Now that which can not move itself, but derives its motion from
something else, may cease to move, and perish. "But that which is
self-moved, never ceases to be active, and is also the cause of motion
to all other things that are moved." And "whatever is continually active
is immortal." This "self-activity is," says Plato, "the very essence and
true notion of the soul."[614] Being thus essentially _causative_, it
therefore partakes of the nature of a "principle," and it is the nature
of a principle to exclude its _contrary_. That which is essentially
self-active can never cease to be active; that which is the cause of
motion and of change, can not be extinguished by the change called
death.[615]
3. _The soul is immortal, because it possesses universal, necessary, and
absolute ideas_, which transcend all material conditions, and bespeak an
origin immeasurably above the body. No modifications of matter, however
refined, however elaborated, can give the Absolute, the Necessary, the
Eternal. But the soul has the ideas of absolute beauty, goodness,
perfection, identity, and duration, and it possesses these ideas in
virtue of its having a nature which is one, simple, identical, and in
some sense, eternal.[616] If the soul can conceive an immortality, it
can not be less than immortal. If, by its very nature, "it has hopes
that will not be bounded by the grave, and desires and longings that
grasp eternity," its nature and its destiny must correspond.
In the concluding sections of the "Phædo" he urges the doctrine with
earnestness and feeling as the grand motive to a virtuous life, for "the
reward is noble and the hope is great."[617] And in the "Laws" he
insists upon the doctrine of a future state, in which men are to be
rewarded or punished as the most conclusive evidence that we are under
the moral government of God.[618]
[Footnote 614: "Phædrus," §§ 51-53.]
[Footnote 615: "Phædo," §§ 112-128.]
[Footnote 616: Ibid., §§ 48-57, 110-115.]
[Footnote 617: Ibid., §§ 129-145.]
[Footnote 618: The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or transmigration of
souls, can scarcely be regarded as part of the philosophic system of
Plato. He seems to have accepted it as a venerable tradition, coming
within the range of probability, rather than as a philosophic truth, and
it is always presented by him in a highly mythical dress. Now of these
mythical representations he remarks in the "Phædo" (§ 145) that "no man
in his senses would dream of insisting _that they correspond to the
reality_, but that, the soul having been shown to be immortal, this, or
something like this, is true of individual souls or their habitations."
If, as in the opinions of the ablest critics, "the Laws" is to be placed
amongst the last and maturest of Plato's writings, the evidence is
conclusive that whatever may have been his earlier opinions, he did not
entertain the doctrine of "Metempsychosis" in his riper years. But when,
on the one hand, the soul shall remain having an intercourse with divine
virtue, it becomes divine pre-eminently; and pre-eminently, after having
been conveyed to a _place_ entirely holy, it is changed for the better;
but when it acts in a contrary manner, it has, under contrary
circumstances, placed its existence in some _unholy spot_.
_This is the judgment of the gods, who hold Olympus._
"O thou young man," [know] "that the person who has become more wicked,
_departs to the more wicked souls;_ but he who has become better, to the
better both in life and in all deaths, to do and suffer what is fitting
for the like."--"Laws," bk. x. ch. xii. and xiii.]
4. _Beyond all finite existences and secondary causes, all laws, ideas,
and principles, there is an_ INTELLIGENCE _or_ MIND, _the First
Principle of all Principles, the Supreme Idea on which all other ideas
are grounded; the Monarch and Lawgiver of the universe, the ultimate
Substance from which all other things derive their being and essence,
the First and efficient Cause of all the order, and harmony, and beauty,
and excellency, and goodness, which pervades the universe, who is called
by way of pre-eminence and excellence the Supreme Good_, THE GOD (o
Theos), "_the God over all_," (o epi pasi Theos).
_This_ SUPREME MIND,[619] Plato taught, is incorporeal,[620]
unchangeable,[621] infinite,[622] absolutely perfect,[623] essentially
good,[624] unoriginated,[625] and eternal.[626] He is "the Father, and
Architect, and Maker of the Universe,"[627] "the efficient Cause of all
things."[628] "the Monarch and Ruler of the world,"[629] "the sovereign
Mind that orders all things, and pervades all things,"[630] "the sole
Principle of all things,"[631] and "the Measure of all things,"[632] He
is "the Beginning of all truth,"[633] "the Fountain of all law and
justice,"[634] "the Source of all order and beauty,"[635] "the Cause of
all good;"[636] in short, "he is the Beginning, the Middle, and End of
all things."[637]
[Footnote 619: "Phædo," §§ 105-107.]
[Footnote 620: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives," bk. iii. ch. 77.]
[Footnote 621: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xix.; "Timæus," ch. ix.]
[Footnote 622: "Apeleius," bk. i. ch. v.]
[Footnote 623: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xx.]
[Footnote 624: "Timæus," ch. x.; "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.]
[Footnote 625: "Timæus," ch. ix.-x.]
[Footnote 626: Ibid., ch. xii.]
[Footnote 627: Ibid., ch. ix.]
[Footnote 628: "Phædo," § 105.]
[Footnote 629: "Laws," bk. x. ch. xii.; "Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.;
"Philebus," § 50.]
[Footnote 630: "Philebus," §51.]
[Footnote 631: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xix.]
[Footnote 632: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. viii.]
[Footnote 633: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xxi.]
[Footnote 634: "Laws," bk. iv. ch. vii.]
[Footnote 635: "Philebus," § 51; "Timæus," ch. x.]
[Footnote 636: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.; "Timæus," ch. x.]
[Footnote 637: "Laws," bk. iv, ch. vii.]
Beyond the sensible world, Plato conceived another world of
intelligibles or _ideas_. These ideas are not, however, distinct and
independent existences. "What general notions are to our own minds,
ideas are to the Supreme Reason (nous basileus); they are the _eternal
thoughts_ of the Divine Intellect."[638] Ideas are not substances, they
are qualities, and there must, therefore, be some ultimate substance or
being to whom, as attributes, they belong. "It must not be believed, as
has been taught, that Plato gave to ideas a substantial existence. When
they are not objects of pure conception for human reason, they are
attributes of the Divine Reason. It is there they substantially
exist."[639] These eternal laws and reasons of things indicate to us the
character of that Supreme Essence of essences, the Being of beings. He
is not the simple aggregate of all laws, but he is the Author, and
Sustainer, and Substance of all laws. At the utmost summit of the
intellectual world of Ideas blazes, with an eternal splendor, the idea
of the _Supreme Good_ from which all others emanate.[640] This Supreme
Good is "far beyond all existence in dignity and power, and it is that
from which all things else derive their being and essence."[641] The
Supreme Good is not the truth, nor the intelligence; "it is the Father
of it." In the same manner as the sun, which is the visible image of the
good, reigns over the world, in that it illumes and vivifies it; so the
Supreme Good, of which the sun is only the work, reigns over the
intelligible world, in that it gives birth to it by virtue of its
inexhaustible fruitfulness.[642] _The Supreme Good is_ GOD _himself_,
and he is designated "the good" because this term seems most fittingly
to express his essential character and essence.[643] It is towards this
superlative perfection that the reason lifts itself; it is towards this
infinite beauty the heart aspires. "Marvellous Beauty!" exclaims Plato;
"eternal, uncreated, imperishable beauty, free from increase and
diminution... beauty which has nothing sensible, nothing corporeal, as
hands or face: which does not reside in any being different from itself,
in the earth, or the heavens, or in any other thing, but which exists
_eternally and absolutely in itself, and by itself;_ beauty of which
every other beauty partakes, without their birth or destruction bringing
to it the least increase or diminution."[644] The absolute being--God,
is the last reason, the ultimate foundation, the complete ideal of all
beauty. God is, _par excellent_, the Beautiful.
[Footnote 638: Thompson's "Laws of Thought," p. 119.]
[Footnote 639: Cousin, "Lectures on the History of Philosophy," vol. i.
p. 415. "There is no quintessential metaphysics which can prevail
against common sense, and if such be the Platonic theory of ideas,
Aristotle was right in opposing it. But such a theory is only a chimera
which Aristotle created for the purpose of combating it."--"The True,
the Beautiful, and the Good," p. 77.]
[Footnote 640: "Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.]
[Footnote 641: "Ibid.," bk. vi. ch. xviii. and xix.]
[Footnote 642: "Republic," bk. vii. ch. iii.]
[Footnote 642: Ritter's "History of Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
275.]
[Footnote 644: "Banquet," § 35. See Cousin, "The True, the Beautiful,
and the Good," Lecture IV., also Lecture VII. pp. 150-153; Denis,
"Histoire des Théories et Ideés Morales dans l'Antiquité," vol. i. p.
149.]
God is therefore, with Plato, _the First Principle of all Principles;_
the Divine energy or power is the _efficient cause_, the Divine beauty
the _formal cause_, and the Divine goodness the _final cause_ of all
existence.
_The eternal unity of the principles of Order, Goodness, and Truth, in
an ultimate reality--the_ ETERNAL MIND, is thus the fundamental
principle which pervades the whole of the Platonic philosophy. And now,
having attained this sublime elevation, he looks down from thence upon
the _sensible, the phenomenal world_, and upon _the temporal life of
man;_ and in the light of this great principle he attempts to explain
their meaning and purpose. The results he attained in the former case
constitute the Platonic _Physics_, in the latter, the Platonic _Ethics_.
I. PLATONIC PHYSICS.
Firmly believing in the absolute excellence of the Deity, and regarding
the Divine Goodness as the Final Cause of the universe, he pronounces
the physical world to be an _image_ of the perfection of God.
Anaxagoras, no doubt, prepared the way for this theory. Every one who
has read the "Phædo," will remember the remarkable passage in which
Socrates gives utterance to the disappointment which he had experienced
when expecting from physical science an explanation of the universe.
"When I was young," he said--"it is not to be told how eager I was about
physical inquiries, and curious to know _how the universe came to be as
it is_; and when I heard that Anaxagoras was teaching that all was
arranged by _mind_, I was delighted with the prospect of hearing such a
doctrine unfolded; I thought to myself, if he teaches that mind made
every thing to be as it is, he will explain _how it is_ BEST _for it to
be_, and show that so it is." But Anaxagoras, it appears, lost sight of
this principle, and descended to the explanation of the universe by
material causes. "Great was my hope," says Socrates, "and equally great
my disappointment."[645]
[Footnote 645: "Phædo," §§ 105, 106.]
Plato accepted this suggestion of Anaxagoras with all his peculiar
earnestness, and devoted himself to its fuller development. It were a
vain and profitless theory, which, whilst it assumed the existence of a
Supreme Mind, did not represent that mind as operating in the universe
by _design_, and as exhibiting his intelligence, and justice, and
goodness, as well as his power, in every thing. If it be granted that
there is a Supreme Mind, then, argued Plato, he must be regarded as "the
measure of all things," and all things must have been framed according
to a plan or "model" which that mind supplied. Intelligence must be
regarded as having a _purpose_, and as working towards an _end_, for it
is this alone which distinguishes reason from unreason, and mind from
mere unintelligent force. The only proper model which could be presented
to the Supreme Intelligence is "the eternal and unchangeable model"[646]
which his own perfection supplies, "for he is the most excellent of
causes."[647] Thus God is not simply the maker of the universe, but the
model of the universe, because he designed that it should be an IMAGE,
in the sphere of sense, of his own perfections--a revelation of his
eternal beauty, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth. "God was _good_,
and being good, he desired that the universe should, as far as possible,
_resemble_ himself.... Desiring that all things should be _good_, and,
as far as might be, nothing evil, he took the fluctuating mass of things
visible, which had been in orderless confusion, and reduced it to
_order_, considering this to be the _better_ state. Now it was and is
utterly impossible for the supremely good to form any thing except that
which is _most excellent_ (kalliston--most fair, most beautiful").[648]
The object at which the supreme mind aimed being that which is "_best_,"
we must, in tracing his operations in the universe, always look for
"_the best_" in every thing.[649] Starting out thus, upon the assumption
that the goodness of God is the final cause of the universe, Plato
evolved a system of _optimism_.
The physical system of Plato being thus intended to illustrate a
principle of optimism, the following results may be expected:
1. That it will mainly concern itself with _final causes_. The universe
being regarded chiefly, as indeed it is, an indication of the Divine
Intelligence--every phenomenon will be contemplated in that light.
Nature is the volume in which the Deity reveals his own perfections; it
is therefore to be studied solely with this motive, that we may learn
from thence the perfection of God. The _Timæus_ is a series of ingenious
hypotheses designed to deepen and vivify our sense of the harmony, and
symmetry, and beauty of the universe, and, as a consequence, of the
wisdom, and excellence, and goodness, of its Author.[650]
[Footnote 646: "Timæus," ch. ix.]
[Footnote 647: Ibid.]
[Footnote 648: Ibid., ch. x.]
[Footnote 649: Ibid., ch. xix.]
[Footnote 650: "Being is related to Becoming (the Absolute to the
Contingent) as Truth is to Belief; consequently we must not marvel
should we find it impossible to arrive at any certain and conclusive
results in our speculations upon the creation of the visible universe
and its authors; it should be enough for us if the account we have to
give be as probable as any other, remembering that we are but men, and
therefore bound to acquiesce in merely probable results, without looking
for a higher degree of certainty than the subject admits of"--"Timæus,"
ch. ix.]
Whatever physical truths were within the author's reach, took their
place in the general array: the vacancies were filled up with the best
suppositions admitted by the limited science of the time.[651] And it is
worthy of remark that, whilst proceeding by this "high _à priori_ road,"
he made some startling guesses at the truth, and anticipated some of the
discoveries of the modern inductive method, which proceeds simply by the
observation, comparison, and generalization of facts. Of these prophetic
anticipations we may instance that of the definite proportions of
chemistry,[652] the geometrical forms of crystallography,[653] the
doctrine of complementary colors,[654] and that grand principle that all
the highest laws of nature assume the form of a precise quantitative
statement.[655]
2. It may be expected that a system of physics raised on optimistic
principles will be _mathematical_ rather than experimental. "Intended to
embody conceptions of proportion and harmony, it will have recourse to
that department of science which deals with the proportions in space and
number. Such applications of mathematical truths, not being raised on
ascertained facts, can only accidentally represent the real laws of the
physical system; they will, however, vivify the student's apprehension
of harmony in the same manner as a happy parable, though not founded in
real history, will enliven his perceptions of moral truth."[656]
[Footnote 651: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
157.]
[Footnote 652: "Timæus," ch. xxxi.]
[Footnote 653: Ibid., ch. xxvii.]
[Footnote 654: Ibid., ch. xlii.]
[Footnote 655: "It is Plato's merit to have discovered that the laws of
the physical universe are resolvable into numerical relations, and
therefore capable of being represented by mathematical
formulæ."--Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p. 163.]
[Footnote 656: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
163.]
3. Another peculiarity of such a system will be an impatience of every
merely _mechanical_ theory of the operations of nature.
"The psychology of Plato led him to recognize mind wherever there was
motion, and hence not only to require a Deity as first mover of the
universe, but also to conceive the propriety of separate and subordinate
agents attached to each of its parts, as principles of motion, no less
than intelligent directors. These agents were entitled '_gods_' by an
easy figure, discernible even in the sacred language,[657] and which
served, besides, to accommodate philosophical hypotheses to the popular
religion. Plato, however, carefully distinguished between the sole,
Eternal Author of the Universe, on the one hand, and that 'soul,' vital
and intelligent, which he attaches to the world, as well as the spheral
intelligences, on the other. These 'subordinate deities,' though
intrusted with a sort of deputed creation, were still only the deputies
of the Supreme Framer and Director of all."[658] The "gods" of the
Platonic system are "subordinate divinities," "generated gods," brought
into existence by the will and wisdom of the Eternal Father and Maker of
the universe.[659] Even Jupiter, the governing divinity of the popular
mythology, is a descendant from powers which are included in the
creation.[660] The offices they fulfill, and the relations they sustain
to the Supreme Being, correspond to those of the "angels" of Christian
theology. They are the ministers of his providential government of the
world.[661]
[Footnote 657: Psalm lxxxii. I; John x. 34.]
[Footnote 658: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
164.]
[Footnote 659: "Timæus," ch. xv.]
[Footnote 660: Ibid.]
[Footnote 661: "Laws," bk. x.]
The application of this fundamental conception of the Platonic
system--_the eternal unity of the principles of Order, Goodness, and
Truth in an ultimate reality, the Eternal Mind_--to the elucidation of
the _temporal life_ of man, yields, as a result--
II. THE PLATONIC ETHICS.
Believing firmly that there are unchangeable, necessary, and absolute
principles, which are the perfections of the Eternal Mind, Plato must,
of course, have been a believer in an _immutable morality_. He held that
there is a rightness, a justice, an equity, not arbitrarily constituted
by the Divine will or legislation, but founded in the nature of God, and
therefore eternal. The independence of the principles of morality upon
the mere will of the Supreme Governor is proclaimed in all his
writings.[662] The Divine will is the fountain of efficiency, the Divine
reason, the fountain of law. God is no more the creator of _virtue_ than
he is the creator of _truth_.
And inasmuch as man is a partaker of the Divine essence, and as the
ideas which dwell in the human reason are "copies" of those which dwell
in the Divine reason, man may rise to the apprehension and recognition
of the immutable and eternal principles of righteousness, and "by
communion with that which is Divine, and subject to the law of order,
may become himself a subject of order, and divine, so far as it is
possible for man."[663]
[Footnote 662: In "Euthyphron" especially.]
[Footnote 663: "Republic," bk. vi. ch. xiii.]
The attainment of this consummation is the grand purpose of the Platonic
philosophy. Its ultimate object is "_the purification of the soul_," and
its pervading spirit is the aspiration after perfection. The whole
system of Plato has therefore an eminently _ethical_ character. It is a
speculative philosophy directed to a practical purpose.
Philosophy is the _love of wisdom_. Now wisdom (sophia) is expressly
declared by Plato to belong alone to the Supreme Divinity,[664] who
alone can contemplate reality in a direct and immediate manner, and in
whom, as Plato seems often to intimate, knowledge and being coincide.
Philosophy is the aspiration of the soul after this wisdom, this perfect
and immutable truth, and in its realization it is a union with the
Perfect Wisdom through the medium of a divine affection, the _love_ of
which Plato so often speaks. The eternal and unchangeable Essence which
is the proper object of philosophy is also endowed with _moral_
attributes. He is not only "the Being," but "the Good" (to agathon), and
all in the system of the universe which can be the object of rational
contemplation, is an emanation from that goodness. The love of truth is
therefore the love of God, and the love of Good is the love of truth.
Philosophy and morality are thus coincident. Philosophy is the love of
Perfect Wisdom; Perfect Wisdom and Perfect Goodness are identical; the
Perfect Good is God; philosophy is the "_Love of God_."[665] Ethically
viewed, it is this one motive of _love_ for the Supreme Wisdom and
Goodness, predominating over and purifying and assimilating every desire
of the soul, and governing every movement of the man, raising man to a
participation of and communion with Divinity, and restoring him to "the
_likeness_ of God." "This flight," says Plato, "consists in resembling
God (omoiôsis Theo), and this resemblance is the becoming just and holy
with wisdom."[666] "This assimilation to God is the enfranchisement of
the divine element of the soul. To approach to God as the substance of
truth is _Science_; as the substance of goodness in truth is _Wisdom_,
and as the substance of Beauty in goodness and truth is _Love_."[667]
The two great principles which can be clearly traced as pervading the
ethical system of Plato are--
1. _That no man is willingly evil_.[668]
2. _That every man is endued with the power of producing changes in his
moral character_[669]
[Footnote 664: "Phædrus," § 145.]
[Footnote 665: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
61.]
[Footnote 666: "Theætetus," § 84.]
[Footnote 667: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
277.]
[Footnote 668: "Timæsus," ch. xlviii.]
[Footnote 669: "Laws," bk. v. ch. i., bk. ix. ch. vi., bk. x. ch. xii.]
The first of these principles is the counterpart ethical expression of
his theory of _immutable Being_. The second is the counterpart of his
theory of phenomenal change, or _mere Becoming_.
The soul of man is framed after the pattern of the immutable ideas of
the _just_, and the _true_, and the _good_, which dwell in the Eternal
Mind--that is, it is made in the image of God. The soul in its ultimate
essence is formed of "the immutable" and "the permanent." The presence
of the ideas of the just, and the true, and the good in the reason of
man, constitute him a moral nature; and it is impossible that he can
cease to be a moral being, for these ideas, having a permanent and
immutable being, can not be changed. All the passions and affections of
the soul are merely phenomenal. They belong to the mortal, the
transitory life of man; they are in endless flow and change, and they
have no permanent reality. As phenomena, they must, however, have some
ground; and Plato found that ground in the mysterious, instinctive
longing for the _good_ and the _true_ which dwells in the very essence
of the soul. These are the realities after which it strives, even when
pursuing pleasure, and honor, and wealth, and fame. All the restlessness
of human life is prompted by a longing for the _good_. But man does not
clearly perceive what the _good_ really is. The rational element of the
soul has become clouded by passion and ignorance, and suffered an
eclipse of its powers. Still, man longs for the good, and bears witness,
by his restlessness and disquietude, that he instinctively desires it,
and that he can find no rest and no satisfaction in any thing apart from
the knowledge and the participation of the Supreme, the Absolute Good.
This, then, is the meaning of the oft-repeated assertion of Plato "_that
no man is willingly evil_;" viz., that no man deliberately chooses evil
as evil. And Plato is, at the same time, careful to guard the doctrine
from misconception. He readily grants that acts of wrong are
distinguished as voluntary and involuntary, without which there could be
neither merit nor demerit, reward nor punishment.[670] But still he
insists that no man chooses evil in and by itself. He may choose it
voluntarily as a means, but he does not choose it as an end. Every
volition, by its essential nature, pursues, at least, an _apparent_
good; because the end of volition is not the immediate act, but the
object for the sake of which the act is undertaken.[671]
[Footnote 670: "Laws," bk. ix. ch. vi.]
[Footnote 671: "Gorgias," §§ 52, 53.]
How is it, then, it may be asked, that men become evil? The answer of
Plato is, that the soul has in it a principle of change, in the power of
regulating the desires--in indulging them to excess, or moderating them
according to the demands of reason. The circumstances in which the soul
is placed, as connected with the sensible world by means of the body,
present an occasion for the exercise of that power, the end of this
temporal connection being to establish a state of moral discipline and
probation. The humors and distempers of the body likewise deprave,
disorder, and discompose the soul.[672] "Pleasures and pains are unduly
magnified; the democracy of the passions prevails; and the ascendency of
reason is cast down." Bad forms of civil government corrupt social
manners, evil education effects the ruin of the soul. Thus the soul is
changed--is fallen from what it was when first it came from the
Creator's hand. But the eternal Ideas are not utterly effaced, the image
of God is not entirely lost. The soul may yet be restored by remedial
measures. It may be purified by knowledge, by truth, by expiations, by
sufferings, and by prayers. The utmost, however, that man can hope to do
in this life is insufficient to fully restore the image of God, and
death must complete the final emancipation of the rational element from
the bondage of the flesh. Life is thus a discipline and a preparation
for another state of being, and death the final entrance there.[673]
[Footnote 672: "Gorgias," §§ 74-76.]
[Footnote 673: "Phædo," §§ 130, 131.]
Independent of all other considerations, virtue is, therefore, to be
pursued as the true good of the soul. Wisdom, Fortitude, Temperance,
Justice, the four cardinal virtues of the Platonic system, are to be
cultivated as the means of securing the purification and perfection of
the inner man. And the ordinary pleasures, "the lesser goods" of life,
are only to be so far pursued as they are subservient to, and compatible
with, the higher and holier duty of striving after "the resemblance to
God."