Platonic dualism
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Contents |
Introduction of Terms
From the outset it is helpful to the reader to be familiar with two major subdisciplines within philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, as well as variations of dualism. Schools of thought such as dualism or rationalism have taken on different forms throughout history and have modified versions. The following are broad definitions:
Metaphysics is the study of the main catagories or constituents of reality and asks what truly exists? A single reality such as the physical realm of material objects,matter ; or an idealistic world view of only ideas, thought(monism), two realities of thought and matter(dualism)or many realities(pluralism)? Some philosophers prefer to call the study of reality ontology. Ontology derives from the Greek word ontos, which means being.
Materialism: contends that all that exists is material in nature and has only the properties of matter.
Dualism: reality consists of two irreducible realms intelligence or rational thought and matter, whereas one reality does not full or adequetely explain the other. For example, physicists in the essay "Information Theory: Finding the Immaterial Properties of Life", argue that niether chemistry nor physics, i.e. materialism, cannot explain the immaterial attribute or properties of information.(See Teleology bibliography)
Platonic Dualism asserts true knowledge belongs to the realm of unchanging being universals( ideals/Forms) ,mathematical propositions, laws of life and physical sciences, e.g.' geometry, planetary, geophysical) exist independently of our minds, time and space. Epistemologically, knowledge is attained through reaching sound,valid hypothetical deductive conclusions from syllogistic dialogue, hence recollecting innate ideas contained in the immortal soul. Forms are multiplied into otherworldly actual objects.
Psychophysical Dualism contends reality consists of mind/thought or spirit and matter. Cartesian "thinking substance" or mind, and "extended substance", physical objects. A dualistic ontology of thought and matter yet absent Plato's realism of universal-particular schema and exaggerated essential properties of a thing.
Epistemology, the study of knowledge, asks how knowledge is attained, what is it to know something, what is knowledge?
Empiricism asserts all knowledge is acquired through sense experience, wherein inate ideas are nonexistent.(see Locke: Tabula Rasa; or Hume: Empiricist Meaning Criteria)
Rationalism claims that knowledge is obtained by means of rationality or reasoning. Plato held that reasoning is the only source of knowledge. From things that are known such as "every effect has a cause" other things can be known through logical analysis. (see rationalism in Kant or Aquinus--Thomists)
Plato of Athens
Plato was born in Athens in 428 b.c. to an aristocratic and highly prominent family at a time when Athens was a major democratic trading and military power rich in culture with literature, sculpture, the Festival of Dionysis; tragedies and comedies, artisanry and thriving marketplaces. As a student of Socrates, Plato was highly influenced by the Pythagorians who revered mathematics and reason and proposed the idea of reencarnation and moral responsibility. One of Plato's chief doctrines is that of the immortality of the soul--an ontological theme present in both his metaphysical and epistemilogical schemas as well. Dialectic, common sense dialogue through syllogistic reasoning, Plato thought, enables the human mind to attain or grasp ultimate knowledge and hence "see" the Forms. Syllogistic conclusions one makes are like a dim light from the soul or recollection of things contained in the soul. Plato writes in his dialogue entitled Meno"The soul knows all things because it has lived many lives." Plato completed most of his majors works at the age of forty and about this time founded the Academy.
Metaphysics: Universals and Particulars
Plato was more than a metaphysical dualist--he was a "realist" or an "exaggerated realist." Above and beyond his dualistic worldview of two distinct realms of a Parmenidean intelligible world and a Heraclitian visible world--he thought that material objects which he called particulars, are copies of and participate in a universal unchanging ideal known as a Form, at the top of the intelligible world. Observables such as a pine tree or a circle in geometry, Plato held, are copies of some abstract and perfect universal form in a distant reality. He thought that there exists a "perfect circle" which all observable circles copy or a perfect tree that all trees participate in. Plato's treatment of a things essential properties, say of a tree, is "exaggerated" in that he thought its essensial properties derive from a distant, actual object like a "perfect tree." Aristotle thought otherwise saying that the form or essential properties that make a thing what it is exists in the thing itself rather than out in some "land of the Forms" independent from man and the world. Aristoteleans dismiss Plato's excess metaphysical baggage of "exaggerated realism" of his Forms, perfect circles and trees, and argue as William of Ockham (nonminalism) that abstract general terms which do not refer to any particular object, terms such as equal, tree, person, knowledge, justice, and beauty exist objectively yet are mere names of classes which do not exist in some otherworldly reality.
Epistemology: The Soul Knows All Things
Plato is clearly a "rationalist" since he thought that man is born with innate ideas(knowledge) in his soul. His theory of knowledge, based on the intelligible and visible worlds, thought and matter, describes the metaphor of "the divided line" showing four states of mind and their corresponding objects which progress from the lowest degree of reality in the visible world to the most real, perfect intelligence at the top of the intelligible world. Forms, universals, Man, species, truth, beauty, mathematical propositions, H--D syllogism, physical laws, causal explanations, theories, hypotheses, primary properties of substances and their objects are more real and are true reality which he called Being, whereas the visible, sensible world is less real and constantly Becoming, that is, always changing or coming into and going out of existance (Taylor). Thinking, rationation, deduction move man's mind beyond not only the visible realm and Aristotles causal first principles, but out to the distant reality of the Forms. Knowledge for Plato is to go beyond the changing world of visible objects, by means of reasoning, to perfect intelligence, an unchanging realm which exists independently of our minds, time and space. Below is Plato's metaphorical schema of how the human mind progresses from the senses and material realm into a supersensible realm of first, thinking, and second, perfect intelligence where ones mind sees the Forms. For the rationalist(Plato), sense perception does not qualify as knowledge. In fact, Aristotle in addition to many other PreSocratic and Socratic philosophers thought that true knowledge exists beyond the visible world of material objects as in Aristotles first principles, causal explanations why something exists.
Objects-------------------------------------------------------------------States of Mind
The Forms/Universals Perfect Intelligence,
ideals,intelligible objects, e.g., mind works directly with the
Man, perfect circle or tree, Forms (exaggerated realism: Plato violates
triangle. Ockham's Razor by multiplying properties of things
into actual real objects, the Forms)
Math and Deduction Thinking syllogistically;logic, geometry mathematical propositions scientist, reasoning from hypothesis laws, theories, explanations proposition or premise with hypothetical deduction, exist independently from man yet we are not certain of how explanations are related
Thought, Intelligible World
Material Visible World
Physical Objects/Particulars Believing
higher degree of reality though without certainty, we see secondary
qualities, the reflections of primary qualities;
Aristotelean first principles
Images e.g.,shadows Imagination
lowest degree of reality reflections of material objects,yet taken as true
Bibliography
Samuel Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy, 1975, ISBN 0070623260
Alfred Taylor, Platonism and its Influence, 1924
