I think that if anyone were to start looking into philosophy, Plato would be one of the first thinkers you would come across. He is a rather easy philosopher to read, and if one is open-minded, it is also rather easy to comprehend.
Now, I do believe that one would probably have to be a bit TOO open-minded to comprehend his views. His “Ideenlehre”, the idea that everything already exists as an idea in the world of ideas. It is through our spirit that we get to comprehend the things in front of us. So, is our spirit all-knowing? In a way, yes. And no?
Before the spirit enters the human body, it already has knowledge. It learns things beforehand. In the world of ideas. Perhaps the spirit’s knowledge got enriched in past lives. However, once it enters the human body, it forgets everything it once learned. It swims through the river of forgetfulness… A beautiful tale. Easier said (or made-up, even) than proven, Plato. Well, let’s continue.
Once the spirit is “inside” a human body (grrr), it gets distracted. By the senses. Food. Sex. Emotions. Intellect. And yet, it re-learns things it has already seen in the world of ideas… and in past lives. The idea that the spirit learns things both through the world of ideas, which is oh so pure, and through past lives, bothers me a tad bit. I am feeling judgmental and petty right now. Why not? It just feels like Plato thought “Well, if the idea of the world of ideas is wrong, then the past lives idea has to be the winner for sure!”
Make a choice, old man! Yikes, it really irks me that he came up with thoughts I already had while I was still pooping in diapers… (Just to make sure that you are informed, I have not pooped in a diaper in over 22 years, or so… who knows… maybe one day I shall go back to the good old days. But not yet! Let’s continue…)
Now, can you guess what sits on the top of the hierarchy in the world of ideas…? The “good”. Aww, how very cute and naïve of Plato. What you might think now is “But Evelyne, does this mean that Plato meant the moral good or what is seen as good (in a selfish way) to the individual himself?” (I can’t bother with neutral pronouns and them-nouns right now. So, leave me alone.)
Both. BOTH. Ugh, what an easy thing to say. Finding a common moral good would have been too hard for Plato to find. Though this may have been rather smart of him to believe. Why? The world changes continuously. And so does the idea of the good.
Once the physical body perishes, the spirit goes back into this fairytale world of Plato’s. If he did well, then he gets a reward. And if he did wrong, he gets punished. Googoo gaga. That is something I would tell my toddler if he would not stop smearing his warm diaper load on the living room walls.
After a thousand years of living in heaven or hell (per se), it gets to choose its next life. Once again, this is a test. Will it choose a virtuous life or a life where he can be a stupid orange monkey (such as Trump)? What would you choose? Well, I do not care about your opinion right now, really…
However, if the spirit did soooooo amazingly well in the physical world, then it gets forever liberated and it can live among the Gods in the world of ideas… YAYYYYYYY! But wait… how does it do good? By philosophizing. Ahhhhhh! Understood! So, according to Plato himself, he was a good dude. We love elitism. In a way, everything makes sense now. I would also make up a fairytale that made me look like I was this amazing, top-notch human being, doing only good deeds. But at least I can admit that I am a bad person (at times, at least), unlike Plato apparently. He philosophizes. “But Evelyne”, you say, “so do you…”
Yes, I do philosophize, but I do that by writing a hateful blog post about a dead dude… who wrote fairytales.
Evelyne's Thoughts 