The otherworldliness of Plato

An examination of Plato's worldly focus born from a duty to one's republic

On 'fleeing from the world'

Platonic philosophy is often attacked as disconnected from reality. A cursory glance of Plato's work can support the reading that he recommended a turning away from the world as the most just way of living. A commonly quoted passage from the Theaetetus seems to illustrate this. Plato compares the worldly man to the philosopher, drawing a classic portrait of the absent-minded intellectual.

'But bad things cannot be destroyed, Theodorus, for there must always be something opposed to the good... That's why one must try to flee from here to there as quickly as possible. Fleeing is becoming like god so far as one can, and to become like god is to become just and pious with wisdom.' (176A 5-B 2)

On the criticism of Nietzsche

Nietzsche is a foremost critic of this Platonic attitude to 'flee the world'. He negatively describes Plato's recommendation to 'become like God' as unrealistic, as it grounds moral value in his Forms that are not directly experienced by the senses. These Forms represent pure ideals of all that is Good and Just, of which our physical world are a pale reflection. All humans may aspire to and access them through reason and self-examination, an idea that Nietzsche criticized as childish and optimistic. He concludes that Plato devalued the here and now by directing one's focus to these Forms, rather than focusing on the world around us.

He concludes by calling Plato 'a coward in the face of reality'. He describes his ideas as an attempt to abstract away from evil in the world, an attitude he believes is rooted in a contempt for the sensory. He feels it is an error that one could come to know the nature of one's actions, and describes Plato as making reason a tyrant out of fear of his own base passions.

His ideal of the Overman is a man who embraces his passions, who does not flee the world but moves towards it. He exhibits the 'will to power' through courage and firmness in one's dealings in the world. He exhibits mastery over his domain, flourishing by never being beholden to others, with the ability to make choices with the whole of his being that is not at variance with his motives. He has scorn for the weak, and contempt for the 'slave morality' forwarded by Plato that champions what is good for the community rather than the strong.

On the Overman

There are a few retorts that Plato has in mind for the 'Overman'. The man that Nietzsche glorifies is an exact match for Callicles from his Gorgias dialogue, who attacked Socrates for practising 'childish philosophy' and instead championed his worldview of the strong exercising their advantages over the weak. Like Nietzsche, he champions passion and appetite over a man who is guided by reason, which he likens to a 'corpse'. He states that such a man has large appetites and the means to satisfy them, and only 'a weakling would praise temperance and justice'.

Plato replies that a man who feeds his appetites is worse off than a man of reason. Such a man has strong need, while a self-controlled man has no need. Their appetite shifts back and forth, it is persuadable and suggestible, and they are therefore insatiable. He likens such a man to a 'leaky jar', stating the appetite driven man must satisfy their hunger their whole life. His argument focuses on self-examination to come to conclusions about what is just in the world such that one can live a temperate life that satisfies one's needs in harmony with others.

He critiques Callicles' ideal as one that is concerned primarily with pleasure, paying no mind to discerning what is good and bad, aiming at gratification without regard for what is best. The ethos of the strong ruling over the weak implies a law that pays no mind to justice, or to the 'health of their soul'. Plato goes so far to say that a man who does what is unjust is the worst there is, far more so than suffering it. For a man who pays his dues has good things done to his soul, he learns what to correct and benefits. The man who exercises power over others without judgment receives only seeming benefit. Such a path leads to addiction to one's vices, and thereby corruption of the soul. He is like a man who contracts serious illness but avoids treatment, not knowing what health and bodily excellence are actually like.

On Plato's man of the world

It is this focus on reason as a means for developing the soul and thereby 'becoming like God' that distinguishes Platonic philosophy. Nietzsche focuses solely on 'the will to power' as a means to exercise his will over others and achieve seeming success. However by looking more deeply into Plato's ideas, we also find his ideal resembles many of the positive aspects of Nietzsche's Overman. We see Plato in fact championed a this-worldliness focus. But rather than exercising power for one's own gain, this turn towards the world is born out of a duty to one's society and republic.

Nietzsche does not touch on this in his criticisms of Plato, for he cannot move past the idea that Plato's discussions of the soul and the afterlife could be born from anything other than escapism. In reality, we find Plato's arguments to become like God is not born from an urge to turn away from the world, but rather to improve it. This is done by equating God with his 'nous' principle, the intelligence of the good and just Craftsman. The 'fleeing from this world' is now understood as fitting ourselves to dwelling where there is no evil, becoming virtuous rather than repeating the same cycles of injustice.

This fleeing to the heavens is done through a practice of 'dying while still alive'. It is the unordered parts of ourselves that die off and are replaced by a likeness to the divine. In this respect, the divine is actually born into the world. Aspiring to the beautiful in this world causes the soul to 'recollect the Beauty it once saw', inspiring one to reach evermore for it's likeness so as to see it more clearly.

On the Timaeus and Philebus

A more sophisticated notion of 'returning to God' is expanded on in Plato's later dialogues, the Timaeus, Philebus and Laws. The Philebus presents God as an 'intelligence' that is aimed always at what is best, calling it 'the thing that constructs or fashions', similar in all respects to the divine craftsman of the universe from Timaeus. He argues the intelligence we use to produce health and order are a smaller scale version of the creativity employed by the craftsman. This intelligence is acquired by avoiding excess, for they impede understanding of the Good. Therefore he is effectively championing temperance and harmony in one's affairs.

The Philebus therefore states we are like God in the respect that we are efficient agents of change in the world. However we can be more or less intelligent about creating order in the world and ourselves. Becoming like God then is to effect order in a world of change, and the greater the likeness, the more efficient the cause. This is not flight, instead it is applying one's knowledge to the world, creating harmonious mixtures.

In the Timaeus, Plato shows it is possible to effect change as we all share a spark of the Divine intelligence through the agency of our soul, and the soul interacts with the world by means of the body. Our body disrupts our natural circular motions, but one recovers our natural condition by discipline and devoting self to wisdom. Where the Philebus instructed good in terms of a well-proportioned mixture, the Timaeus advises to imitate the motions of the world soul in order to understand it.

On the citizen of the Laws

The Laws grounds these ideas even further, stating that as a citizen of the city, we must know the good and demonstrate such understanding through argument and action. All knowledge must be applied through our work and all other aspects of civic life. For the citizen, the law is the surrogate for the divine. The citizen abides by the will of his ruler and community, such that he turns away from his self-involved pursuits. Virtue is acquired by ordering one's self in accordance with the city's laws, which are a reflection that embody intelligence from above. The correct feelings are effected in response to actions, rather than rebelling against them.

To conclude, the temperate man is dear to God for he is similar, he applies the appropriate measures, and he is obedient to the law, playing one's chosen part in a well-ordered city. Such an attitude likens him to the skilled Divine Craftsman, for he attends to the smallest details in order to achieve value and beauty. Such care is evident in his attending to the smallest needs of the citizenry, and the ability to finely articulate all that is required to do one's duty as a guardian and citizen.