Amos's River of Justice

Tag: Plato

  • Plato’s Influence on Our World

    Plato's Influence on Our World
    Rethinking Plato’s Influence on the Modern World

    Plato has ruled the world for 2500 years through his lasting influence on philosophy, politics, and religion. It’s time we paid attention to Plato’s influence on our world. He is considered an authority on politics, even though in his lifetime, his writings were not compatible with the politics of his home country, Athens. Some of the worst attitudes of the modern world can be traced to him. He proposed a so-called link between societal ‘decay’ and race. He was also a misogynist. And yet he can’t be easily discarded. He is too much a part of us. Instead, I believe Plato’s influence has to be explored, discussed, and evaluated for its usefulness to contemporary society.

    I am going to try to follow Karl Popper’s moderate approach to Plato. Popper admits there is some good in Plato’s works, but objects to specific ideas which have caused lasting damage. On page 517, for example, he talks about the mischief–a term used by Samuel Butler–done to mankind by our secondary schools and universities. These were virtually invented by Plato. In this article, I would like to discuss Plato’s emphasis on perfectionism.

    Plato’s Influence and Motives

    Plato took his cue from Hesiod and other early Greek philosophers, but especially Heraclitus. Heraclitus ‘discovered’, during a period of political turmoil, that every sensible thing changes constantly. He eventually became disillusioned about the changes he observed and argued against the belief that the existing social order would remain forever. But Heraclitus was not giving up on the existing social order. This fact becomes clear in another element of his philosophy with the potential for a new kind of turmoil. According to Popper, 1 the emphasis on change in Heraclitus’s philosophy was combined with a belief in an immutable law of destiny.

    After Heraclitus, philosophers including Parmenides, Democritus, Plato and Aristotle dedicated themselves to solving the problem of a changing world. Both Parmenides and Plato relegated this world world to a phantom-like existence. They theorized ‘that the changing world in which we live is an illusion and that there exists a more real world which does not change‘. (p. 127) In other words, the world we live in is just a copy of that perfect world. The world we can’t see is more real than the world we live in.

    The Capture of Western Thought

    One wonders how, in 2500 years, this has not been identified as blatant trickery. How odd that we never get around to questioning the relevance or theoretical usefulness of perfection itself. How strange that no one objects to their world being superseded by an ideal world in Plato’s head.

    It is true that Plato didn’t invent the idea of perfection. Previous to the ancient Greeks, Hinduism saw perfection as its primary spiritual goal. But in the Western world it was Plato’s realm of perfect things that influenced Christianity.

    Plato wrote that one had to transcend the imperfection of reality; Aristotle defined perfection as potential being fully realized and expressed; St. Thomas Aquinas concluded from Aristotle that perfection should be one of Christianity’s highest goals.

    Plato’s ideas have also mingled with Jewish and ancient Greek mystical cults to create the tradition of Western mysticism, including Hermeticism and Gnosticism, Theosophy, Freemasonry, and some forms of modern Paganism. In addition, Theosophy influenced the early Western perception of Tibetan Buddhism.

    Plato’s Influence on Education and Career Choices

    Fortunately, context is becoming more clear regarding the effect on individuals of perfectionist beliefs. In an article entitled The Illusion of Perfection, Robert Fritz acknowledges that perfectionism carries built-in assumptions that remain unquestioned. For example, he questions Richard Bach who said, “There is such a thing as perfection… and our purposes for living is to find that perfection and show it forth…”

    One common result of this belief is the responsibility it puts on people to strive for unreachable or undesirable goals. “It reminds me of what Lucy said to Charlie Brown when he told her that we are here to help others. ‘What are the others here for?’ She asked.” (as cited by Fritz)

    Fritz’s article follows perfectionist thinking to its cultural conclusion. “Schools give their students aptitude tests designed to measure their abilities. Then, guidance counselors sit down with these students, and give them advice. Their advice usually suggests pursuing a career based on their aptitude. If the student is good at math, become an engineer; if you are organized, become a manager...”

    In this way many end up in careers they never cared about because they thought they were obligated to develop their talents and abilities without regard to other possibilities.

    Another result of this approach is that many people believe they can’t learn and develop unless they already have gifts to develop. And if they do have gifts, their identity becomes tied to this purpose. They think they are defined by how well they develop their gifts. Since there is no way to reach the ideal of perfection, there is no way to win.

    Democratic Utopias

    If may be that the idea of perfection can be discarded without any great loss of culture or history, but we don’t know that yet. We haven’t explored it thoroughly enough. Democratic versions of utopianism also exist. For example, Sir Thomas More’s book, Utopia. In addition, American colonists created several utopian communities. They all emphasized spiritual perfection, although they differed in their beliefs. From the American example, we can see that the meaning of perfection differs from one group or individual to another, and also from one era to another.

    Today, it is assumed that ‘the American Dream’ is economic. However, that is not how it started out. “The concept of the ‘American Dream’ was created by Puritans in the early 18th Century American colonies. It was also based on the idea of perfectionism. Puritans viewed this New World as a fresh start from the old World of Great Britain and strived to create a society of elite people held under the highest standard of God.”

    The Link Between Puritanism and Transcendentalism

    It is time we paid attention to Plato’s influence on our world.

    1. The Open Society and its Enemies, Routledge, London and New York, 1994 ↩︎
  • Plato Has Ruled the World for 2500 Years

    Plato Has Ruled the World for 2500 Years

    Plato has ruled the world for 2500 years through his lasting influence on philosophy, politics, and religion. It’s time we paid attention to what he actually said. He is considered an authority on politics, even though in his lifetime, his writings were not compatible with the politics of his home country, Athens. Some of the worst attitudes of the modern world can be traced to him. He proposed a so-called link between societal ‘decay’ and race. He was also a misogynist. And yet he can’t be easily discarded. He is too much a part of us. Instead, I believe his influence has to be explored, discussed, and evaluated for its usefulness to contemporary society.

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  • Plato’s War on Women

    The foundation of the ancient Greeks’ project for civilization was to turn the female sex into a subject population.  But there were unintended consequences. This article argues that there is a connection between Plato’s war on women and the end of monarchy.

    Philo

    We have evidence that the Greeks were toying with the idea of subjecting women before Plato, but it was Plato who influenced Philo, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher born in 25 BC who used allegory to harmonize Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy.   If we were to judge Plato by today’s standards for hate speech we would conclude that he was a hater of women.  However we don’t judge Plato or any other misogynist by that standard.  One reason the world accepts Plato’s animosity toward women is that Philo enshrined it in the Bible’s creation story.

    Aristotle

    This story led some religious leaders to conclude that nothing is due women for their role in reproduction because they are merely repaying their debt to God.  This seems to have been the goal of Plato’s student Aristotle who added his own special touch by denying women credit for their part in the creation of life.  (This points to the importance of childbearing in the status of women.)  The suspicion that certain influential men claimed God as a partisan gendered being with the sole aim of ruling will be disturbing for many readers, but for those of us who want to defend biblical religion there is an escape from that conclusion.

    The Bible

    There are three ways to read the story of the Fall of Man.  It can be read as a model for the way society should work; as a description of the way things are; or as warning or a prediction about a human tendency.  The second and third possibilities are more revealing than Plato could have imagined. That is, revealing of patriarchal intention. These possibilities are never used to interpret the Fall of Man, although they are used to interpret other biblical stories.  The Tower of Babel for example is interpreted as an explanation for different languages and a warning against hubris.  Likewise, it is ironic how well the story of the Fall of Man describes human behavior, regardless how we choose to interpret it.

    Customs that Guard Against the Subjection of Women

    It’s likely that human societies have always had some degree of patriarchal authority.  However ancient cultures purposely remedied the disadvantages of women.  For example, according to the biblical creation story, inequality between men and women is established in marriage. In ancient times this protection was accomplished through customs involving the extended family.

    Bride Wealth

    The fundamental understanding of ancient cultures was the value of children (and their mother) to the marriage and to the extended family.  This value was acknowledged in various ways.  One was the custom of bride wealth.   Another was the dowry. (Hardship can lead to a breakdown in this custom. In some parts of the world today the dowry is used to justify abuse against women).

    Matrilineal Kinship

    Another custom that has been shown to benefit women and their children is matrilineal kinship.  This is a system in which lineage and inheritance are traced through women.

    The structure of matrilineal kinship systems implies that, relative to patrilineal kinship systems, women have greater support from their own kin groups and husbands have less authority over their wives.  ((Sara Lowes, Matrililneal Kinship and Spousal Cooperation: Evidence from the Matrilineal Belt, Stanford University and CIFAR, 25 February 2020)).

    Sara Lowes tested the hypothesis that matrilineal kinship systems reduce spousal cooperation and found that men and women from matrilineal ethnic groups cooperate less with their spouses in a lab experiment.  However she also found that matrilineal kinship has important benefits for the well-being of women and children.  The children of matrilineal women are healthier and better educated, and matrilineal women experience less domestic violence and greater autonomy.

    Matrilineal kinship is not only a remedy for the inequality of women in marriage (Lowes didn’t measure for the effect of bride wealth or bride price), I believe it was the original system for royal succession in Egypt.  I base this on the tendency of pharaohs to marry their sisters.  Marriage to sisters was not a natural part of matrilineal succession.  It was a way for an ambitious pharaoh to escape the limits of matrilineal succession, which makes it impossible to form dynasties.  The only way around this obstacle would have been for the son of a pharaoh to wed an heiress.  However even this would have gone against custom, if not law.   Furthermore, succession by the offspring of a sister (the daughter of the former pharaoh) probably broke the law as well.  Normally the son of a pharaoh’s daughter would not have been eligible to succeed him.

    This patriarchal strategy can be demonstrated in other countries besides Egypt.  The Achaean invader Menelaus married Helen, a kidnapped heiress, because without her he had no right to be king.  That’s why Helen’s rescue by Paris led to the Trojan War ((J. F. del Giorgio, The Oldest Europeans, A. J. Place, Caracas, Venezuela, 2006)).

    Finally, Patrilineal systems inevitably lead to a narrowing of the gene pool for succession.  This narrowing of the gene pool has played out in the lineage of European kings.  This breakdown in the system of royal succession points to a departure from ancient custom and law.

    Plato’s Anti-Democratic Focus

    Plato did not only weaken the monarchal ideal. His writings are anti-democratic. Patriarchy weakens participation by women.

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