GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CONTINUING STUDIES BACHELOR OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM ELECTRONIC THESIS RELEASE FORM Student name: _________Lillie Snyder________________________________________ Thesis title: ___________Parallels___________________________________________ I hereby grant to Georgetown University and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation, including the right to use it in whole or in part in future works. I authorize Georgetown University to archive my electronic thesis and to release the entire work immediately for access worldwide. Student signature:____________ __________________________ Date:___4/30/2010__________ Snyder 1 Parallels: Plato, St. Augustine, Galileo and Kandinsky Lillie C. Snyder Georgetown University Professor Arnold Bradford May 2010 Snyder 2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 4 CHAPTER 2: PLATO: THE SIMILES OF THE SUN AND DIVIDED LINE 6 Simile of the Sun 7 The Divided Line 8 CHAPTER 3: ST. AUGUSTINE 11 Shadows 11 Objects 13 Reason 13 The Two Cities 17 City of God 18 City of Man 19 In Context 20 CHAPTER 4: PLATO'S THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE 23 The Education Process 23 Politics 24 CHAPTER 5: GALILEO 28 Contributions and Challenges 29 The Scientific Method 29 Heliocentrism 30 The Struggle of Separation 33 CHAPTER 6: PLATO'S PHAEDO 38 CHAPTER 7: KANDINSKY 41 Abstraction 41 Snyder 3 The Separation 43 The Essence 46 In Comparison 47 Plato 47 The Spiritual Triangle 48 St. Augustine 50 Galileo 51 In Context 51 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 53 WORKS CITED 56 APPENDIX 59 Snyder 4 Chapter 1: Introduction People often ask me what my "major" is at Georgetown University. The short answer is history and philosophy, but, like all short answers, the truth is more complicated. My diploma will say "Individualized Study," and my courses were predominately the core courses required by the BALS program. That still doesn't really describe the education I received. The core courses of the BALS program taught me how to look at history, how to place people within a cultural context, and how to recognize and write about the truth. We learned history through the eyes of philosophy. I was constantly struck by how people of different epochs and cultures spoke of the same truth. For my thesis, the culmination of my Georgetown education, I took four seemingly unrelated philosophers, and connected them through a common perspective on the truth. Plato, St. Augustine, Galileo and Kandinsky, the four thinkers of this essay, all preach same truth through different lenses. Plato uses the perspective of philosophy, Augustine uses religion, Galileo uses science, and Kandinsky uses art. The same truth is by christened different names. Plato calls it the Form, Augustine calls it God, Galileo sees a form of it in science, and Kandinsky calls the truth the Essence. Even within one version of the truth, the truth can be called by many names. For example, God is called by dozens of names in the in the Hebrew bible including YHWH (Yahweh), 'adonai, 'elohim and LORD. God is omnipotent and indescribable, and therefore cannot truly be named. Before emancipation, slaves took the name of their masters as a symbol of ownership. No one can own the truth, and therefore no one can really name it. Snyder 5 The thinkers of this essay had a dualistic philosophy. They all believed that there is the empirical world, where mankind dwells, and the theoretical world, where the truth resides. The truth, in other words, is separated from the material world. Plato believed that death frees the soul from the body and brings man closer to enlightenment. St. Augustine believed that love of God lifts man beyond the material world. Galileo believed that scientific truth brought mankind closer to God, and Kandinsky challenged men to look beyond form for the raw expressive truth. Each of these philosophers fundamentally sought the same truth. Besides a fundamental theory, these thinkers are connected through their position in history. Plato revolutionized the teachings of philosophy, St. Augustine defined a budding religion, Galileo smashed open scientific truth, and Kandinsky questioned beauty itself. Each man was a leader in his chosen field, and changed the course of history. Plato, as the first of these thinkers, was especially influential in changing the course of philosophy. Plato, in all of his modesty, said, "I, as it seems, give motion to the works of others as well as my own." (Euthyphro 43). He inspired future generations to uncover the truth. Snyder 6 Chapter 2: Plato: The Similes of the Sun and Divided Line Plato spoke the truth, a truth that seeded inspiration in countless succeeding philosophers. A.N. Whitehead, a prominent 20th century western philosopher, said that all western philosophers are merely a series of extended footnotes to Plato. Plato is commonly regarded as the starting point to philosophy, and "has both the gift and the inclination to inspire" all readers (Flew 42). "Plato is the first major figure in the history of Western philosophy" (Adams 11). Plato's truth resonated through generations, and still rings true today. Plato had a particular ability to draw out intelligence. His didactic method continues to challenge modern readers and developing philosophers. Plato's dialogues consist of two characters. Socrates plays the role of the teacher, and Socrates' followers, the role of the pupil. Socrates believed that it was the responsibility of philosophers to draw out instinctual knowledge within his pupils (Plato, "The Republic" 262). He believed that knowledge was not learned, but remembered, and it is the obligation of the philosopher to remind the pupils (Plato, "The Republic" 263). The modern reader can relate to Plato's truth because each reader of Plato's dialogues embodies the pupil, and so it is as if Socrates is next to you, allowing you to formulate his intellectual conclusions while guiding your intellectual process. Historians argue whether Socrates or Plato is the source of this philosophy. There is not a single surviving written document by Socrates' hand, but his philosophy was preserved in the writings of followers such as Plato, Xenophon and Antisthenes (Stone 14). The philosophy within Xenophon and Antisthenes' works differs from the philosophy within Plato's. This leads modern philosophers and historians to conclude Snyder 7 that at least part of the philosophy within Plato’s dialogues is Plato's own ideas, inspired by his teacher. "Plato's theory of Forms developed out of the Socratic search for absolute definitions" (Stone 75). In other words, Plato's philosophy is a mix of Platonic and Socratic ideas. Plato challenges his readers to go deeper, to question, and to uncover the truth. For Plato, this truth is called the Theory of the Forms. The Theory of the Forms is not explicitly explained in any of the dialogues (Flew 46). Plato often refers to and builds upon this theory, but does not assume that his readers require a concise explanation of the theory (Flew 46). The Simile of the Sun, the Analogy of the Divided Line, the Allegory of the Cave and the dialogue Phaedo will be explored in this essay. In them, Plato describes aspects of the Forms, the process of understanding the Forms, and knowledge of the Forms. Simile of the Sun In the Simile of the Sun, Plato describes the Good, and compares man's knowledge of the Good to the eye's ability to intake light. The difference between "Good" and "good," and "Form" and "form" is the same difference between justice imposed by the courts and Justice imposed by the gods. The Form of Justice can never be attained on the sublunary sphere, because the justice is limited by material form (Phaedo 257). For example, one culture's social standard is another culture's unjust civil liberty violation. Justice on earth is subject to man's perspective. Throughout Plato's writings, "the Form" is called by many names. In this particular simile, he writes of the form of the Good. Like Zeus on Mount Olympus, surrounded by lesser gods, the Form of Snyder 8 the Good reigns over all other Forms. The following analogy compares the relationship between the eye and the sun to the relationship between the mind and the Good. The sun gives light to the earth, and the eye acts as the receptacle. The eye interprets light, and allows man to visualize the earth (Plato, "The Republic" 247). Plato says, "Apply this analogy to the mind. When the mind's eye is fixed on objects illuminated by truth and reality it understands" (The Republic 247). The form of an object exists whether man can see it or not, just as the Good exists regardless of man's ability to perceive it. Everything in this material world has a Form that exists only in the realm of the Forms. A true Form cannot exist in this material world because it is limited by its material constraints. The mind is the receptacle for the Good. Plato says, "the good . bears the same relationship to sight and visible objects in the visible realm that the [G]ood bears to intelligence as intelligible objects in the intelligible realm" (The Republic 247). Just as the eye perceives the light of the sun, the mind perceives knowledge of the Good. The Form of the Good illuminated the intelligible world. The Good is the "source of reality and truth" and "gives intelligibility to objects of thought and power of knowing to the mind." Without the Good, the mind would be unable to reason and categorize the world. The Good "is the cause of knowledge" and truth and "gives the mind the power of knowing" (Lee 248).