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 pronounces the physical world to be an image of the perfection of God. Anaxagoras, no doubt, prepared the way for this theory. Every one who has read the “Phædo,” will remember the remarkable passage 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: (return) “Phædo,” §§ 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 assumed 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 God 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. “God 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 mass 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 (κάλλιστον—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 assumption that the goodness of God is the final cause of the universe, Plato evolved a system of optimism.
The physical system of Plato being thus intended to illustrate 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 God. The Timæus 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: (return) “Timæus,” ch. ix.
Footnote 647: (return) Ibid.
Footnote 648: (return) Ibid., ch. x.
Footnote 649: (return) Ibid., ch. xix.
Footnote 650: (return) “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”—“Timæus,” 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 à priori road,” he made some startling guesses at the truth, and anticipated some of the discoveries of the modern inductive method, which proceeds simply by the observation, comparison, and generalization of facts. Of these prophetic anticipations 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 assume the form of a precise quantitative 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 space 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: (return) Butler’s “Lectures on Ancient Philosophy,” vol. ii. p. 157.
Footnote 652: (return) “Timæus,” ch. xxxi.
Footnote 653: (return) Ibid., ch. xxvii.
Footnote 654: (return) Ibid., ch. xlii.
Footnote 655: (return) “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 formulæ.”—Butler’s “Lectures on Ancient Philosophy,” vol. ii. p. 163.
Footnote 656: (return) 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 entitled ‘gods’ 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 “gods” of the Platonic system are “subordinate divinities,” “generated gods,” 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: (return) Psalm lxxxii. I; John x. 34.
Footnote 658: (return) Butler’s “Lectures on Ancient Philosophy,” vol. ii. p. 164.
Footnote 659: (return) “Timæus,” ch. xv.
Footnote 660: (return) Ibid.
Footnote 661: (return) “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—