1. "I am about to tell you ... only what I have been always and everywhere repeating in the previous discussion and on other occasions. I want to show you the nature of that cause which has occupied my thoughts, and I shall have to go back to those familiar words which are in the mouth of every one, and first of all assume that there is an absolute beauty and goodness, and greatness, and the like. Grant me this, and I hope to be able to show you the nature of the cause, and to prove the immortality of the soul."
2. "Are not all things which have opposites generated out of their opposites? I mean such things as good and evil, just and unjust and there are innumerable other opposites which are generated out of opposites. And I want to show that this holds universally of all opposites. I mean to say, for example, that anything which becomes greater must become greater after being less."
3. "Then may we not say, Simmias, that if, as we are always repeating, there is an absolute beauty, and goodness, and essence in general, and to this, which is now discovered to be a previous condition of our being, we refer all our sensations, and with this compare them assuming this to have a prior existence, then our souls must have had a prior existence; but if not, there would be no force in the argument? There can be no doubt that if these absolute ideas existed before we were born, then our souls must have existed before we were born; and if not the ideas, then not the souls."
About Dr Johansen's book, the publisher says: "Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretive philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented upon are Plato's concepts of 'necessity' and 'teleology', the nature of the 'receptacle', the relationship between the soul and the body, the use of perception in cosmology, and the dialogue's peculiar monologue form. The unifying theme is teleology: Plato's attempt to show the cosmos to be organised for the good. A central lesson that emerges is that the Timaeus is far closer to Aristotle's physics than previously thought."
In his Introduction, the author begins by quoting Jacques Monod:
"The ancient covenant is in pieces; man knows at last that he is alone in the universe's unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below, it is for him to choose."
Johansen continues:
"Reading Plato we are brought back to a world in which the 'ancient covenant', the moral agreement between man and the universe, still holds. It is a tenet of Plato's thought that man is not alone in the universe with his moral concerns. Goodness is represented in the universe. We can therefore learn something about goodness by studying the cosmos. Cosmology teaches us how to live our lives. It is therefore a recommended course of studies if we are to become better people. This is Plato's claim in the Timaeus-Critias."
"Does the universe support our moral endeavours? Does the world, as we know it, give us reason to think that we will be better off, happier, more thriving, if we pursue a course of moral probity than if we do not? Does the universe make us feel at home as moral agents? Does goodness or beauty figure in the world independently of us? Can we learn something about how to live our lives from observing the universe? Many today would agree with Jacques Monod in answering 'no' to all of these questions. We live in an 'unfeeling' universe. The world is insensitive to our moral concerns. Values are mere human 'constructs', which the universe at best is indifferent to and at worst undermines.
It is taken as a working hypothesis that there is a divine specification for the Universe; that everything in the Universe, including man, has a purpose; and that striving to recognise and attain the intended purpose is the way to happiness and ultimate satisfaction.
Introducing the discussion, Socrates summarises the principal features of the ideal state as specified in The Republic and says:
"I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's art or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing. There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her training and education."
Dr Johansen makes the point that, whether it be mythical or historical, Critias' story of a defensive war fought by Athens (representing the ideal Republic) against big bully Atlantis meets Socrates' requirement as an example of the ultimate test of the moral fibre of a nation. [See also "Just" War Ed.]
This is the view which Timaeus expresses and which appears again and again in various guises throughout what can be gleaned of the story of mankind. See, for example, Man's Place in the World.
Critias' account of Solon's visit to Egypt draws attention to the importance of that country as a repository and distributor of philosophical thought and scientific knowledge accumulated during many centuries of undisturbed development. Many Greek scholars, notably Pythagoras and Plato himself, are reputed to have completed their own education in Egyptian "finishing schools".
Those of us who sense a purpose in the Universe can only attribute it to what Professor Kapp might call an Absolute Diathete.
For further light on this subject, please see Man in Search of Himself.
Does this not strongly suggest that ancient philosophers had a premonition of the kind of space-time of which present-day cosmologists are gradually becoming aware as being not merely a receptacle or container for physical forms but as an omnipresent "living" or "spiritual" energy constantly manifesting itself to our senses in an infinite variety of guises.
Nearly all of the books listed in my suggestions for a Personal Library represent attempts to unravel the mysteries of formation and creation.
The second quotation from Socrates at the head of this essay implies that the idea of perfection can arise only by contrast with its opposite. A living Universe cannot be other than a conscious Universe, and contrast is the essence of consciousness. [See, e.g., The Stream of Consciousness. Ed.]
When we turn our attention as objectively as possible to our own experience, it must become clear that all our data concerning the physical manifestations of the Universe reach us through the limited and selective channels of our five senses. Conversion of these fragmented data into what we call "reality" is a mysterious process which proceeds "behind the scenes" in our brains and nervous systems prior to the appearance of "reality" on the screen of our consciousness. [See Seeing Ed] Thus each of us makes his or her own "reality". Reality is what we realise: and we must admit that we may sometimes be mistaken in our interpretations of the data provided by our senses.
Thus each of us is in a small way a demiurge, craftsman, or creator of "reality". As ably pointed out by Thomas Troward, several of whose works are to be found in The Ardue Library, involution in mind precedes evolution in manifestation, and most of us greatly underestimate our own inborn capacity for creative activity.
Conscious of the limitations that confinement in a localised body temporarily imposes on a human demiurge, ancient philosophers imagined a hierarchy of "spiritual powers" angels, archangels, etc. between us and the Absolute. These powers may be correlated with the ideas summarised in The Ray of Creation. A similar hierarchy based on relative powers of creativity has been postulated among human beings themselves. [See Categories of Man. Ed.]
The same idea is expanded in The Planes of Correspondence.
It is well known that mathematics and physics are closely associated. It is as if mathematics mediates between metaphysics and physics, revealing the metaphysical reality beneath the physical appearance or, as Plato might have said, revealing the form generating the shape.
Although Timaeus' use of geometrical imagery in his account of sensory experience may to most readers be more suggestive than explanatory, the Pythagorean revelation of frequency ratios in music introduces the application of mathematics to physics, thereby setting a trend which shows no sign of abating. [See, e.g., Vibrations The Rationale of Mysticism.]
By virtue of its powers of rapidly finding solutions to complex equations, the advent of the electronic computer has revolutionised some aspects of physical research. I was greatly excited by the appearance in 2007 of a book entitled Zero to Infinity, The Foundations of Physics by Peter Rowlands of the University of Liverpool. Although it is an intensely mathematical book and the mathematics involved are for the most part unfamiliar to me, Dr Rowlands and his co-authors show that the mathematics needed for physics can be generated from the idea of zero. The author says:
"Mathematics is shown to be derivable from a zero totality, without assuming numbers, by structuring it by analogy with a computer re-write system. Here we see that any deviation from the zero state (a 'creation') forces a continued attempt to recover the original zero totality."
Is this not a perfect analogy for mental creation as described, for example, in The Dorι Lectures on Mental Science, especially in chapters 5 and 6?
Does it not also encourage us to accept Professor Kapp's ideas about the appearance and extinction of matter as expressed in Towards a Unified Cosmology?
In an essay entitled The Planetisation of Mankind (1945), de Chardin summarises social developments that are still in progress:
"We see Nature combining molecules and cells in the living body to construct separate individuals, and the same Nature, stubbornly pursuing the same course but on a higher level, combining individuals in social organisms to obtain a higher order of psychic results. The processes of chemistry and biology are continued without a break in the social sphere. This accounts for the tendency, which has been insufficiently noted, of every living phylum (insect and vertebrate) to group itself towards its latter end in socialised communities. Above all, in the case of Man (the only living species in which the variety, quality, and intensity of individual relationships enables the phenomenon to achieve its full extent) it explains the rapid psychic rise accompanying socialisation, which takes the following forms:
"So what finally lies ahead of us is a planetary arrangement of human mass and energy, coinciding with a maximal radiation of thought at once the external and internal 'planetisation' of mankind. That is what we are inexorably heading for, in the tightening embrace of the social determinisms. The Earth could more easily evade the pressures which cause it to contract upon itself, the stars more readily escape from the spatial curve which holds them on their headlong courses, than we men can resist the cosmic forces of a converging Universe!
"And why should we seek to resist these unifying forces which are essentially benevolent? Is it because we are afraid that in the process of super-creation they will render us less human?
"The basic characteristic of Man, the root of all his perfections, is his gift of consciousness in the second degree. Man not only knows; he knows that he knows. He reflects. But this power of reflection, when restricted to the individual, is only partial and rudimentary. As Nietzsche has rightly observed, although he put the wrong construction on it, the individual faced by himself alone cannot know himself exhaustively. It is only when opposed to other men that he can discover his own depth and wholeness. However personal and incommunicable it may be at its root and origin, Reflection can be developed only in communion with others. It is essentially a social phenomenon. What can this mean except that its eventual completion and wholeness must exactly coincide (in full accord with the Law of Complexity) with what we have called the planetisation of Mankind?
"Some hundreds of thousands of years ago, consciousness achieved the stage of its own centration and thus the power of thought in a brain that had reached the limit of nervous complication: this was the first stage in the hominisation of Life on earth.
"In due course, after the passage of thousands or even millions of years, it can, and must, super-centre itself in the bosom of a Mankind totally reflexive upon itself.
"Instead of vainly opposing or meekly submitting to the creative forces of the planet which bears us, should we not rather let our lives be illumined and broadened in the growing light of this second stage of hominisation?"
"All round us, tangibly and materially, the thinking envelope of the Earth the Noosphere is adding to its internal fibres and tightening its network; and at the same time its internal temperature is rising and, with this, its psychic potential. [Compare Cosmic Influences. Ed.] These two associated portents allow of no misunderstanding. What is really going on, under cover and in the form of human collectivisation, is the super-organisation of Matter upon itself, which as it continues to advance produces its habitual specific effect, the further liberation of consciousness. It is all one and the same process. And, by very reason of the elements involved, the process cannot achieve stability until, over the entire globe, the human quantum has not merely closed the circle upon itself (as it is doing at this moment, in a penultimate phase) but has become organically totalised.
In the meantime, each of us must strive to raise the level of his or her own consciousness so that, should such a Superperson or higher demiurge appear at a time when our souls happen to be animating earthly bodies, we shall be ready, willing, and able to assist him or her in the Magnum Opus of raising Planet Earth to ever higher levels of goodness and beauty.
"...Plato's closest associates took the view that Timaeus' narrative of the divine craftsman imposing order on chaos is a vivid way of presenting an analysis of what Plato took to be the fundamental structure of the whole Universe. He wanted to see the entire Universe as the product of order imposed on disorder, and by order he meant above all mathematical order. This, of course, is very different from the Book of Genesis [But see, e.g., A Rational Approach to Genesis, Part 1. Ed.]. Plato's divine craftsman is mathematical intelligence at work in the world.
"Of course, such a general proposition as the proposition that the whole Universe is the product of imposing order on disorder is not something you can prove either in general or in all its detailed ramifications. Plato is well aware of this; it is a further reason for his clothing the proposition in a myth. All the same, the myth served as the guiding inspiration for something that Plato was very serious about indeed: a research programme for which he enlisted at the Academy the leading mathematicians of his day. Every advance in geometry, in mathematical astronomy, in mathematical harmonics, even a medical theory which exhibits disease and health as resulting from the proportions between the constituent elements in the body each such step forward is further proof of something Plato cared deeply about, the idea that mathematical regularities and harmonics and proportions are what explain things. And since these mathematical harmonics and proportions are for Plato the prime examples of goodness and beauty, this is a scientific programme which is designed to show that goodness and beauty are the fundamental explanatory factors in the world at large."
Can we not say that Plato's project is still some way short of completion and still presents us with opportunities to improve our personal contributions to its ultimate realisation?
A Platonic Project
In a televised discussion in, I think, 1986, between Bryan Magee and Miles Burnyeat, then Professor of Ancient Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, the latter says: