1.2.2.  Science connected with transcendence.

          When the rational and reasonable faculties as "leading principle" in the human soul succeeds in its desire to take charge of its conducts, then this person will focus on transcendent realities and his insights will be that of truth, wisdom and justice. Socrates posits in the Phaedrus dialogue that this inner constitution is the principal condition for the 'beautiful and good writing and speaking of speeches' (259e). With regard to the metaphor of the line in the Politeia we have reached the level of knowledge by reason and insight and the transcendent forms it uses. The words these people utter are called by Plato 'rightly a kind of image' (276a), which seems related with Plato's definition of 'reason' of the hypothetical knowledge in the line metaphor (Politeia VI 501d-511b). The only difference however is that the so-called hypothetical knowledge is based on axioms that are by their clarity and evidence to be deduced from the material reality. The geometricians for instance are searching for the things-in-themselves, but they derive these from the material reality. The highest possible kind of the knowledgeable arises only after tuning in with the highest universal principles of the transcendental order (such as the Idea of the Good). The true scientist uses the hypothesis and its rational and reasonable knowledge as a springboard to go even higher to these highest universal principles and forms on top of it all. This level of knowledge is only concerned with the transcendent forms. The Sophist dialogue tells about the proper assertion that it is achieved when the right rational inner constitution reasons and depicts the proper proportion amongst the transcendent forms, detached from any sensory perception. And with this definition of the highest possible knowledge we have reached the highest possible extremity of the line metaphor, which deals with the purest rational intuitive insight of the nous (nouj).
          Anyway Plato did not entrust the highest rational insight to be conveyed through the authority of the written word that by its ambiguous and fixed nature did not have the capacity to explain the subtleties of the truth at its deepest level (Seventh Letter 344c-e).  It only could serve as a reminder to freshen up our memory about affairs that we already know. He therefore considered writing to be a playful pastime, which ought not to be taken too seriously. Clarity, perfection and true value are only to be found in the spoken word of the philosophical master (Phaedrus 276d-e ).
          We have to realize that Plato's concept of science was different from and in its essential features completely opposite to our modern point of view. When we hear him debate about the rational and reasonable order of numbers and its relation with the cosmos such as in the Timeaus, we tend to identify this with our modern attempts for objective and impartial knowledge using the numerical structure of the physical nature to control and manipulate this by means of our modern technology.
          Though Plato was not blind for the possible practical and technical use of this numerical knowledge, it was definitely not what he considered to be true science (Epinomes 977e). He reckoned this type of knowledge to be mere instrumental to our physical and instinctive desires and needs, and he valued it therefore to be inferior with respect to what he regarded as the true sciences. In his treatment in the Politeia with regard to the true sciences that have to be studied like arithmetic's, geometry, astronomy and harmony he is definitely not interested in their pragmatic use (VII 521c-534e). Arithmetic's can be used for commercial accounts of merchants, geometry for measuring land property and harmony can be studied for its use in tuning musical instruments; all these material appliances were of no relevance for the philosopher! They had to study these science insofar as they could give us insight in their immaterial and transcendent qualities, and only insofar as this knowledge could give us insight in the 'ultimate transcendent reality' that ordered the whole of the cosmos.
          The ancient transcendental philosophers and especially Plato had no notion of the 'abstract' in our modern atheistic sense of understanding. Basically they reckoned everything one could see, touch, hear or smell with our senses to be part of the material phenomenal reality; all the things that could not be perceived with our sensory perception like our mental operations and the rational order and its forces that structured the cosmos were divine and transcendental. A such the divine was present in the transcendental 'realm of true being' but also in ourselves, viz. the rational and reasonable capacities of our consciousness. That is why Plato had such a high esteem for the sciences that had their rein in our reasoning capacities and that he reckoned these to be in some manner to be closely related with the ultimate transcendent reality. During the souls' rise to the "Field of Truth" that is there on top of the super celestial sphere that they will get aquatinted with the ultimate transcendent reality and there they will be able to obtain a sight on science filled with 'true being' instead of the science that was related with 'the material realm of becoming' (247d-e). The sciences related with the material realty and with their pragmatic application showed only the most mundane qualities of knowledge and were considered inferior because of their instrumental usefulness that could only serve only our material needs and necessities¹, instead of that of the soul like wisdom, justice, courage and level headedness.
          In the Epinomes we can perceive the same disregard for the practical sciences which serve our practical and necessary needs and are therefore indespendible but do not bring any wisdom or true science (974d-976a). When for instance the philosophers in the Epinomes dialogue study the transcendent and everlasting rational and proportional numerical order and movements of the ensouled stars and planets in the sky, they are trying to grasp how these transcendent realities can teach us something about how the (reasonable) movements in our mind and soul are to be analysed, valued and directed (982a-982e; 986c; 988c-d; 991e-992a). This movements of the ensouled stars bring us knowledge of the transcendent rational order of the cosmos that produces harmony which can serve us in gaining moral insight and virtues in ourselves (Laws 966e-968a). The close relation the Platonists perceived in the rational order of the macrocosms had to serve our understanding of its close relation with the microcosms, viz. ourselves as ensouled rational and physical human beings.
          The same emphasis and strong relation between microcosm and macrocosm we can perceive in Plato's search for the definition of Justice in the Politeia and the parallelism he reckons to exist between the inner constitution of man and the state he lives in. There the search for justice in man is considered to be too difficult and complicated and therefore Socrates decides to look and search how Justice can be found, and how it functions in a society. Finally the answer is found in a definition of Justice of "doing one's own business and not to be a busybody" in relation to the cosmic order inside us and outside us in society (to e(auton prattein) (VI 432b-434a; IV 443b). Following the natural order everybody should do the things he is at best at. On a personal level this means that each faculty of the soul should do what it is made for. Following the national order the rational and reasonable part of the soul should be in command and the irrational part has to follow and obey. This inner psychological constitution will produce a proper 'command structure' and thereby harmony in ourselves. On a macrocosmic scale this means that the people with the highest and purest rational and reasonable capacities should -following the natural order- take care of the conduct of the state. While the bulk of the people that are solely dominated by their irrational desires should -following the natural order- have to surrender themselves to the guidance and leadership of these most gifted philosophers. In its social context this natural order and command structure will produce harmony in a state (IV 431; IV 442-443). The Politeia posits that justice is the cardinal moral virtue that has to be executed by all our psychological faculties in ourselves, and by all the social classes in society to make the existence of the other three possible (IV 432b-e)².
          This links up with his vision of an 'ideal state' were the true philosophers are the kings. who aided by the guardians, posses the right transcendent and rational ideals to rule and minister the poets, merchants and the common folk to the benefit of all. The Phaedrus dialogue entails the prelude to this social ideal by its explication of the hegemonistic struggle between the two opposite "leading principles" in the human soul and the natural order of dominance of the rational "leading principle" that has to be found to realize the transcendent ideals like truth, justice and wisdom, and the malicious effects that inevitably occur when the opposite is the case. As has been said before at paragraph 1 of this chapter there is no contradiction to associate Plato's definition in the Phaedrus of 'two leading principles' with the 'three leading principles' of the Politeia. The 'irrational leading principle" can be further split into 'two autonomous leading principles', viz. the high-spirited desires and its counterpart existing of the instinctive desires. In the Politeia the three social classes in his ideal state (the philosopher-kings; the guardians; the merchants) run parallel with the three leading principles in the human soul (the rational and reasonable desires; the high-spirited desires; the instinctive desires).
          What matters is that when the rational and reasonable "leading principle" (read: the philosopher kings) succeeds in its desire to conduct the irrational parts of the soul (read: the guardians and merchants) this will have desires that keep its inner eye fixed on transcendent realities like truth, justice, beauty and wisdom, and its guidance by means of their reasonable arguments and laws will therefore be able to neutralize and harmonize and even use the irrational "leading principle" (especially the guardians but also later on the merchants) and its insatiable desires, which will inevitably lead the conduct of the soul as a whole (read: the whole of society) to the highest possible moral standards of harmony to the benefit of all. It should not be forgotten how Plato tells in the Laws that the high-spirited desires are indispensable for helping the rational and reasonable desires to achieve justice in the soul; just as in the ideal state the guardians are indispensable for helping the philosopher-kings to install justice in the state!
          If however the irrational emotional and instinctive "leading principle" (read: the irrational soldiers and the merchants and in general the bulk of the common folk) succeeds in its desire to conduct the rational and leading part of the soul (read: the gifted political leaders³) this will have desires that are completely obsessed by and hooked on the goods that exist in the finite material reality, and its guidance and leadership will corrupt and even use and manipulate the capacities and desires of the rational and reasonable "leading principle" (read: the democratic and tyrannical political leaders), leading by means of its corrupted 'reasonable' arguments and laws the conduct of the soul as a whole (read: the society as a whole) to even greater morally questionable standards (read: the democratic and tyrannical state), with its slavish obsessions like covetousness of honour by envy, a desire for victory by violence, ill-temper by indulgence in anger, and by an insatiable desire for finite material pleasures like luxury, food and sexual gratification, without regard to true reason and rational insight, causing the greatest possible catastrophes and havoc for all.
          This relation of microcosm and macrocosm can even be taken a step further at the level of  the material reality as a whole, if we identify the 'two leading principles' with the two ontological and opposite dimensions that Plato introduces in Symposium with his 'demoniac principle' (202e-203a). The immortal Gods are to be identified with the transcendent ontological realm of true 'Being', while the mortal human beings are to be identified with the material ontological realm of 'Becoming'. When the Gods are in charge of our material world as a whole this would imply that their innate rational and transcendental insight will produce desires to master and control the 'realm of Becoming' by means of 'demoniac people' who transfer their transcendental reasonable laws and principles. Eventually that would lead the whole of the material world (viz. the realm of 'Becoming') to the best possible extend resulting in harmony.
          If however the mortal human beings with no regard for the natural transcendental order in the realm of 'Becoming' take charge of the conduct of the whole of the material reality, this would imply that their corrupted and impure rational capacity and insight (because of its obedience to finite and material desires and pleasures) would produce corrupted 'reasonable laws and principles' that would lead the finite material dimension of 'Becoming' to all sorts of moral and unnatural mishaps.
          Anyway if we go back to the level of individual human beings Plato evidently reasons that what matters with regard to our conduct in the material reality is not the quantity and sharpness of our knowledge  but rather the quality it expresses through the (transcendent or material) nourishment it takes in and feeds on. Socrates' most famous and at the same time most notorious student and friend had been Alkibiades who is exemplary for a mentally gifted natural leader with a corrupted internal moral attitude inclined to obedience to his 'irrational desires' like that for power and greed and "a proof that it is not a poor vision which it has, but once forcibly enlisted in the service of evil, so that the sharper its sight the more mischief it accomplishes" (Politeia 519a). Perversio optimi pessima.
          The science Plato sought after was evidently not concerned with the ideals of our scientific and so-called objective and impartial knowledge for technological control of the material reality. On the contrary, his search for the numerical and rational order of the cosmos and society like for instance in the Epinomes was instrumental to the obtaining of knowledge to understand and care for the soul. The final goal of true would be the achievement of truth with regard to moral virtues like justice, wisdom, courage and level-headedness; these qualities Plato reckoned to be constitutive elements with regard to the structure of the ultimate transcendent reality in the "Field of Truth" (247d-e). The stories handed down by the pupils of Socrates stress his strong affiliation with Delphic wisdoms such as 'Know thyself' and 'Nothing too much'. In this sense we can understand why Aristotle tells about Plato that he followed the footstep of his master in his strive for and articulation of rational definitions of moral truths.
          This will end the comprised survey of Plato's convictions concerning art, science and transcendence.
 
 

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Last updated April 29, 1999 author: Drs. T. J.  Kuijl ©1995-1999. Comments are welcome and can be send via e-mail (click on e-mail) Quotations of the content of this article should mention the author's name and its source. Copies of this article must leave the text unaltered including the copyright reference. Dissemination of  electronic copies is not allowed.

1. We would be misunderstanding Plato if we conclude that he rejected all pragmatic sciences in an absolute manner. The point is that these pragmatic sciences are supplying our proper physical needs with their material goods, and they will serve their proper purpose when kept in sight of their natural bounds. And the higher transcendental sciences with their moral knowledge and insights are able to provide this knowledge and to avoid excess. See Politeia VIII 558d-559c.
2. Compare Aristotle, Virtues and Vices, 1249a30-1250b30. Justice as a general condition of the soul makes 'wisdom' in the rational part, 'courage' in the high-spirited part and 'sobriety' in the instinctive part of the soul possible. Compare for Justice and the proper natural 'command structure' the Nicomachean Ethics, V, XI, 9.
3. These leaders first had been the representatives of democratic regimes who had been elected. They were representative of the bulk of the common folk and as such were the zenith of their inner constitution, viz. being enslaved by the emotional and instinctive inside them. According to Plato this democratic regime would eventually evolve in a dictatorship because it had to keep the finite desires of the bulk of the common folk at any price in some ways satisfied. These dictatorial leaders were themselves totally enslaved under the dictatorship of their own finite and mundane desires; this made them victims of their own insatiable greed for money, power, status and sensual pleasures, and led them personally to the greatest possible unhappiness (Politeia IX 577c-592a). It could be said that these leaders are themselves quite gifted with rational insight but they use this talent to be able to court the favour of the common folk by means of their methodical demagogic knowledge. However this gifted people that somehow succeed in getting elected by the people because of their morally questionable 'science' certainly do not posses wisdom (Epinomes 976b-c). In the Phaedrus dialogue((238b) Plato calls drunkenness a tyrannical mood in the soul, explaining this as when the irrational part of the soul is in total control and the mind totally blurred.