Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 36

[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 (???? as??e??); 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_ G.o.d _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--G.o.d, is the last reason, the ultimate foundation, the complete ideal of all beauty. G.o.d 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 Theories et Idees Morales dans l'Antiquite," vol. i. p.

149.]

G.o.d 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 const.i.tute 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 p.r.o.nounces the physical world to be an _image_ of the perfection of G.o.d.

Anaxagoras, no doubt, prepared the way for this theory. Every one who has read the "Phaedo," will remember the remarkable pa.s.sage 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: "Phaedo," ---- 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 a.s.sumed 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 G.o.d 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. "G.o.d 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 ma.s.s 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_ (?????st??--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 a.s.sumption that the goodness of G.o.d is the final cause of the universe, Plato evolved a system of _optimism_.

The physical system of Plato being thus intended to ill.u.s.trate 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 G.o.d. The _Timaeus_ 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: "Timaeus," 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"--"Timaeus,"

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 _a priori_ road,"

he made some startling guesses at the truth, and antic.i.p.ated some of the discoveries of the modern inductive method, which proceeds simply by the observation, comparison, and generalization of facts. Of these prophetic antic.i.p.ations 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 a.s.sume the form of a precise quant.i.tative 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 s.p.a.ce 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: "Timaeus," ch. x.x.xi.]

[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 formulae."--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 ent.i.tled '_G.o.ds_' 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 "G.o.ds" of the Platonic system are "subordinate divinities," "generated G.o.ds," 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 lx.x.xii. I; John x. 34.]

[Footnote 658: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.

164.]

[Footnote 659: "Timaeus," 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 const.i.tuted by the Divine will or legislation, but founded in the nature of G.o.d, 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. G.o.d 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.]