Appearance and Reality: The One-Many Problem (65)

tonight the one in the many of all the subjects that I explore always go back to one in many therefore I'd like to bring together a lot of reflections on this most interesting subject first theological a first level terminology God the one and the good is there some way in which we can say without some philosophical blasphemy mixing of terms to say that the idea of the God of the idea of God needs to be understood as the one or it is diminished in its capacity in some way let's try it if we talk about the one as a primary idea then it's quite simple to reason and say well if one is your primary term then why did the one become or cause a many where they fit together one and many so if you start out with the highest term being the one then you have to account for a multiplicity you have to account for a process you have to account for some way in which this can do that you then must search for ideas to try to understand that but when you have the idea of God then to talk about a many news it doesn't follow that if there is a God you necessarily have a problem of many knows as you have with one in many indeed with the problem of God and many news you need the idea of creation when you have the idea of creation then you have the idea of men eNOS because creation is a multiplicity of forms but there are many views of God that don't entail God being the one image of God as being a source of good gives us the problem of good and evil you don't have the problem of good and evil as a primary set of ideas with the one in the many you have the problem of good and bad when you have the idea of good and evil in any religion then you're opposing a counterforce a demonic force that's opposing the good and therefore you invariably have and must have a clash a war a conflict but good and bad doesn't entail a clash now nearly all religions say that God is one but when they say that God is one that's not the same thing is to say that God is the one because God is one doesn't preclude the fact that there can be other ideas of God as one or other things being ones but when we say God is about one then we mean that God is the one and that preclude any other oneness the one because as you move from a 1 and put in the word duh you move from a particular a 1 what you move from a adjective a 1 something to a substances the one that makes it a substantive and it is the one only 1.1 now in the kinds of reflection that we're going to engage and then we want to know whether or not we can talk about why it is that the idea of the good is linked with the one if you have an idea of the one doesn't entail the good necessarily how do we reason about this could it be that one of these either one is higher than the other well let's assume that's the case and see what would follow if therefore the ultimate term is the one and the second term derived from it the good and then other terms following that's a metaphysical creation as it were a process or unfolding then we need to use just one idea whatever we want to be the highest term we want it to be the most ideal term that is to say a term for which no other term can be chosen better than it therefore the ideal term for the final ultimate term must also not only be better but the best so then if we put the one first and say necessarily it follows from this unfoldment the good then follows it so that this is the ultimate and this is derived then we can say well how can the ultimate term the one not be good not be good if it is the best because the best means the highest good so that won't work well let's turn it around and say suppose we put the good and the one derived secondary well if the good is the ultimate term and the next term derived from it is the one then the good would not be one but would be both it's not one if it is not one it would both be good and not and that's absurd for us because we want the highest term the most ideal term to be the best in the highest expression therefore from this consideration we're going to say that we can express the highest term as a hyphenated combination of these two terms now in order to play with us I think it's necessary to take a look at this idea of one not one first we're going to take it in terms of anything we look at when you look at anything me all right certainly I am one man but with anything that you see including this marker I have here now most strictly we want a reason as strictly as we can write we want to know whether what would describe most accurately your perception of those did you see the whole of it because when you see it would you not agree there parts of it that you don't see there for it you don't see the whole of anything that's three-dimensional because there's always a part you don't see so therefore in perception all you see is parts would you agree you don't see all of the parts and a unity you assume all the parts or any unity and you hope seriously enough that they will remain together but you don't see that you infer it you make a judgement you make a judgement that when I turn this around its parts that were not visible to you now will become visible so you infer a whole when we call it one marker we mean something curious because if there's a difference between a one and a unity and a parts and a whole in what way can we say one sees a one for from our reasoning what you really see your parts you infer it has a wholeness to it you infer the parts coming together as a whole has a unity and that the unity implies again a one know furthermore we do not agree anything that we're talking about is subject to change and if we wait long enough whatever we're talking about will fall apart and become parts of something else so therefore it looks like we can say that everywhere we do this curious thing calling things one it's not in the perceptual realm that we see the one no somehow we grasp it as one okay we grasp it as one would you not agree that all of the arts of chemical osh is to take something and blur the boundaries in such a way that it seems to flow into the surrounding merge with the surrounding therefore you don't see it you don't grasp it as one even though it's visible having all parts and a whole in a unity so therefore you need a boundary you need a boundary need some kind of boundary and you want to say something about the boundary that it's not itself apart it's not just a unity but it has a continuation something happens to it with the unity now maybe we can take this idea of one and apply it for a few moments to the idea of its symbolic representation that's what we're going to do next look here I have a name that I'm talking about it I'm talking about one I have a symbol Arabic I could also use Roman and other ways of symbolizing one right now let us now apply this idea for a moment to take another number two as a symbol and would you agree it has parts and it has a unity so the parts itself each must be a one each must be a one and they must come together and then in that unity we call them too because would you agree if I put one over here and one over here if I mean to consider that together I have to in some way embrace them together to call it a two so for each number regardless of what number we're talking about all that is our many ones that's all there the whole arithmetic is nothing other than many ones now the many ones wherever we stop counting as it were then we just have this don't an unending number of ones and if I say three I mean this collection if I mean four I take that collection and so on so therefore numbers are nothing other than a collection of ones brought together into it but this isn't enough there's an assumption we're making about representing this idea of one symbolically and I'd like to take a minute on to propose something and that will be this to represent symbolically the number one is extremely difficult and let me see if I can represent the difficulty suppose I put down this mark and say that's what I mean by one now we're going to take this as its field isn't that likely that's really insure that I mean by one that doesn't happen just now well this doesn't happen so therefore would you agree I mean by one no gosh this has to go on unendingly but by the same logic would you not agree we wouldn't want someone to do this or this and therefore to represent this adequately we need this again no I wonder whether that's enough because actually someone might do this my thing on and therefore to represent the idea of one symbolically to understand what we mean would you not agree it entails that we have this and by the same logic and by the same logic now occur if I have this what happens when I do those well and I've half well then therefore would you not agree this has to go on infinitely all of these have to go on infinitely and equally well what would happen if by the same frog process I were to do this and therefore would you not agree I have to continue my work and and therefore if I really want to write the number one we do not agree I need an infinite space to adequately represent what I mean by one No then there isn't room to add one and one is two you need another plane you need another plane and then you're adding in a different way you need to create different spaces to do these mathematical processes but what does this mean if we define one this way well let's go one more step we do not agree that any number we take from what we've just talked about it really isn't this way it's really every number if it is a number this number placed here denominator tells us how many parts there are how many parts there are four parts there are three four parts there are two three parts there's one two parts of two parts so one of two two of three but we only mean one of them don't worry I don't mean two of these sets therefore two really we need this stone way to make sure we know what we're talking about and not something else so therefore every number whenever it is understood properly it's really that the one must always be understood because you're only saying there is one five one six there for behind the entire arithmetic system there is a one which must be expressed or understood in this way at the base of all numbers therefore if then brings these together I saying one together as a unity that includes all its parts as a whole that's what this does Wow this means therefore that this series this series is unlimited yet each is a limit each is a limit this each is a limit each defines it limits it to that and nothing else therefore number is nothing other than an expression of the power of the limit and the unlimited alright because this is a continuous and each one of them is a limit therefore beneath the idea of one and the many numbers is the idea of limit and unlimited or continuous if that's the case then the necessary idea that follows if one is not one in many but limit and unlimited now we have just shown have we not that from this consideration once there is this thing called limit and unlimited from it we can derive all numbers or one and many so that therefore we can say the one the good the necessary intellectual as it were metaphysical creation if you prefer to talk about them this way or the necessary idea that follow once you posit the one in the good is limit and unlimited and from that you can derive one and many now what other ideas can we then generate from that well let's take a look to see once we have one and many from what we've just seen for each of these each of these things called number because one in many as an expression therefore a number for each of these there is necessarily would you not agree to understand them to understand them right whatever symbol there is to Arabic number two there must be something there for about it which is the same two marks something about the three as its members that must be the same and yet each one of those two and three is other or different therefore from the idea of one and many we can say you have same and other now look let's try it again in order to have same that means there must be something and something else which you are saying between them there is this curious property called sameness therefore it already presupposes a Tunis therefore since it presupposes a Tunis in order to have same at priest presupposes number Tunis therefore it's only after you can talk about one in many that you can talk about same another because you can derive same another from working with the ID of one and many now these are the three basic ideas sets of ideas that are called many things in one way or the other of course their basic ways of expressing things sometimes they're called forms sometimes they're called ideas primary ideas but you see if there is if you can say there exists then these kinds of primary ideas then these ideas must have existed prior to any creation well remember we talked a moment ago about creation let's talk about the demi or ghost the god that generates the universe or God the Creator and in order to created and God looks upon it and calls it good in Christian world to achieve Hebraic world right he looks upon it and calls it good he does it six times in a row therefore there must be an idea in the mind of God of what is good I looked upon it and called it good therefore prior to creation there must be this idea of good and the platonic world that's equally true but they go a step further right and the whole universe therefore many nests is produced not just one basic idea and that is God looked upon himself and created the universe to be as much as possible like himself well God is one he created in his universe as a one Ness and then this idea in the mind of God must be the model and this must be the copy and the relationship between a model and a copy is likeness therefore in the process of creation the most fundamental idea is likeness without which the universe could not come into existence therefore likeness is a primary idea which sometimes called the supreme originating idea of the cosmos therefore and us the idea the the idea the capacity to grasp the idea of likeness its clearance in the mind or in the nature of reality there could not be the reality itself or what then develops now therefore we have another set of ideas and these are sometimes called the productive ideas productive ideas let's do it this way right next in order to talk about model and copy as we have from which we got the idea of likeness three other ideas naturally follow three ideas naturally follow model copy what I do what is it Wow one must be greater than the other therefore if there is the capacity to create in the mind of God there must have been an idea in the mind of God upon which he modelled the universe and therefore since he had that model and he's creating the copy this must be greater than that therefore the idea of greatness must be the prior idea the condition for greatness must exist or you can never have modeling copy now in the same way right God looked upon it and saw it as good all right that means the judgment hey that is good and the Greek world God can only create or do an activity that is beautiful because that means therefore if it's beautiful all right let's see whether we can get some of the ideas here if God creates something and every act is is beautiful then necessarily the whole act must have symmetry order patterns balance for these are the formal properties of beauty therefore in creating and moving the universe from a one to a many from the nature of the one to the many mystic to the deme our goes to the universe necessarily if it is to be an ordered thing there must be the possibility of order and the idea of order must presuppose cemetry patterns balance and that's grasped together in one word called beauty now for these ideas to function in any kind of way and let's talk about in what way for the deme are goes therefore to create the universe there must already be the conditions for bringing it into existence right the conditions must be prior to the creation therefore before there is creation there must be the possibility of likeness greatness and beauty there must already exist the possibility of limit unlimited one many same another notice we can jump back and talk about it there must be something the same between the model and the copy or there wouldn't be a model and copy relationship but anything that has a model and copy it also presupposes other Ness all right model and copy this presupposes a one in a many limited unlimited the model is the limit that is what is it's possible to unfold the unfolding is the unlimited now for these ideas to function to function or the possibility of them coming together presupposes therefore that each one of these must must must function in the way in which they most properly are say what does that mean each of the ideas being what they are has preconditions for the universe each must have that capacity must represent that capacity in universe and therefore there must be something in there that allows each of these ideas to function ideally in the way in which they are that's the idea of justice therefore in the very nature of reality what I'm talking about now is reality is the condition prior to creation there must be these ideas or creation could never come into being for creation to come into being therefore these ideas must pre exist as the condition for creation and each must be function in their proper way but for each to function in their proper way is to properly function properly function function justly therefore there must be something in the very core the nature of reality justice is the most significant concept because behind it are all ideals because to have an ideal presupposes that the ideal is functioning on the most proper way possible and that's another way of expressing the idea of justice now I would like now to shift right and see whether we can bring this a little bit together and say from one the one the good for it in some way to be responsible for the cause of a universe coming into existence of an ordered universe there must be a model this must be the copy for the one to generate in any way a menace and therefore the very idea of one and many Mustique must pre-exists we saw that the idea of one in many presupposes limit and unlimited we saw how the idea of limit and unlimited one in many can from those necessarily you can derive the idea of same another sometimes called difference by the way and those are the basic ideas now for it anything to then generate right for anything to generate for anything to generate at all you need another set of ideas alright what are they like this greatness ah most importantly right I'll save justice for last beauty and justice these then are the ideas that must pre-exists the condition for creation as these are the very necessary conditions for anything emerging so these are the fundamental ideas for generation as these are the preconditions for anything at any in any way emerging from a primary unity or oneness now the idea of greatness we should talk about greatness in this sense means wherever there is something that can exhibit its highest qualities anything that is can exhibit most ideally a magnificence anything therefore that can show itself most fully what it is that's the idea of greatness therefore the idea of greatness necessarily involves the idea of excellence from the idea of greatness comes excellence from the idea of excellence necessarily comes the idea of virtue because when we can see this quite easily in Greek thought the English word excellence comes from it from it's not doesn't come from but it's a way of deriving or translating the Greek word I rehtaeh excellence another way of translating it is virtue but no one uses the word virtue or very few people in today's world when we talk about we can talk about the virtue of a horse without thinking that the horse may lie or may not lie right what we really mean when we talk about virtue in the 18th 18th century is the highest quality of a horse therefore its excellence we can ask therefore is there an excellence for a man is there something he must do so that whatever is potentially within him emerges as its highest expression what is the highest expression of man what is the highest expression for man if there is a highest expression for man then that must be the condition for that be for that to be must mean that there is an excellence that man can possess and can in some condition in some way manifest and that means of presupposes that the possibility for excellence must be built in the very fabric of the nature of the universe itself within the very conditions for the universe itself therefore if man therefore can find within himself some way to find his highest expression that would be an excellence that excellence therefore is a greatness because great from greatness you drive excellence therefore we must ask what is it about man that can exhibit that most interesting of all possible things excellence because would you not agree people do nothing but spend huge amounts in our culture in order to see excellence when people go to a sport event and they see their heroes function on the highest level in basketball during remarkable things they love to see that excellence don't they they pay money to see it they sit in the first row and spend enormous amounts of money in order to be present before excellence when people go to concerts when people go to before films what is it they want to see they want to see and be present I they want to be present before excellence would you not agree what's the reason people go to a sporting event when they could watch the same thing on a TV they want to be present before excellence that's the draw that's what you want to see you want to see it happening in front of you because when you see it happening in front of you you participate in some way in the display of excellence and that excites us and we find that the most awarding experience we can find now what is the highest therefore sport of man so there are many kinds of excellence and music and sports and theater etc etc etcetera in this game in this game in this game in Plato justice is the most significant ideal for a man that means every part of man must be working properly and that means the parts of the soul must be functioning in such a way that each is functioning the most ideal way and if each part is functioning in the most ideal way then one's reason is functioning in the highest way one spirited element then can be joined together in its pursuit and the desiring part off creates no opposition and therefore the three parts the soul then can work together in a unified way when it operates in a unified way in Plato's Republic look he says then what happens here is that man becomes man becomes a one out of many because there are times when we are in conflict between what reason proposes and the spirited part of our nature may not agree with it and our desiring part may be in conflict and therefore we're scattered and our energies and our goals reflect that kind of internal conflict but when our desires and our spirit and our reason all together towards some significant goal are brought together into a unity Plato says that is man is becoming a one out of a many and the practice that maintains that whatever it is that maintains that over a period of time this is not that is the practice that maintains this condition that's the name of wisdom that is wisdom what is it to know how to maintain that over a period of time towards the highest goals that's wisdom know that this I look at that striving for the highest greatness alright if there is a greatness to man and excellence to man and what would show it most clearly because when you are operating in that way where all the parts of functioning together as a as a unity in harmony and all in accord right then what is striving and what is exhibiting an excellence or inner greatness but towards what goal or what goal well at a great section in the Republic 540 a book 7 he said man man see man well maybe first moved to the symposium man can experience beauty a magnificent expression that man then encounters and the highest struggles for beauty itself he can experience the perfection of beauty in that he can then reach a greatness not the highest greatness we can reach a greatness to do that he has to bring himself together and has to be proper and fair with all things that must be there but there's something higher than that isn't it from what we've done because all of these are the conditions for the one generating a many moves or the condition for a many minutes and overflowing well when these things you see let's put one more name on this and then we can push together to the conclusion when these things and likeness when these things together can be best when these ideas can be best assigned to something what is that something what other word can we use for it for Plato in the symposium the rouse translation calls that reality touching reality as he calls it reaching out and touching reality that reality that reality which includes all of these ideas necessarily I must be inferred as a presence is then experienced as what we talked about many times before a luminous divine radiance having the most interesting of all properties no beginning and end I'm not here and there it permeates all reality it's beyond all space and time considerations it's the primary source of all beauty found in the physical universe this then is to behold reality watch the language now to behold reality is to experience it as beauty to behold reality in Plato takes on a peculiar interesting name and that is the idea of the good capitalized it's not the good it's beholding the good - behold the good - behold the good that's an experience - behold the good is called the idea the good what is that like luminous divine radiance therefore in Plato he said the way to approach the very nature of the highest term this light with it which is within us I am within the soul all right within the soul this light like a seed like a seed planted in our souls when we incline towards that light that's the language he uses when we incline towards it drawn to it incline towards it when we're drawn to it inclined towards it that very draw that very energy that very power that we that draws us to it that very power draws us to it that is the power that is the energy that is striving towards reaching this experience which is the luminous divine radiance he said that's the way in which you actually experience it it's already there it's already there it's not something I have to find it's already there it's in our souls and therefore when we're drawn or inclined to it that opens the possibility of the experience of the nature of the good which is another way of course we would put the one now one of the necessary ideas that follow from the presence of the one follows from the presence of the one somewhere in here as an eraser yeah here we are say why oneness unity unitary all of these ideas are a step further in a progression like a declension therefore like a paradigm a declension therefore as a reason as a consequence of the very nature of the one unity that everything in the universe therefore is preserved by unity which is a which is a shadow of the one now the other side of one oneness unity good remember these are really hyphenated terms one this is goodness one this is goodness therefore they're very the very overflowing of the good that produces the men eNOS necessarily there is necessarily a a outpouring of goodness because just as the one generates oneness or unity so the good naturally overflows in goodness since these are hyphenated it comes from it and another name for goodness which naturally flows through the universe is Providence right and the idea of Providence is as we mentioned last time is to see video to see problem to see before the intellect right it's prior to the intellect it's an overflowing goodness right it's an overflowing goodness and in that overflowing goodness the universe then can be created and that's the primary goodness that runs through the universe and that sense of goodness then can be experienced most directly in this overwhelming light experience because in it one then recognizes in behold another word for reality is that there is a primary goodness throughout the universe which one encounters directly when the mind is unified when the mind is unified when the three parts of the soul therefore striving towards this experience and in that experience one's philosophy has vindicated into a total unity there thank you had good time doing it now stop and ask questions I think we need maybe three blackboards so I could just move throughout it yes yes yes all of this comes out of Plato Latinas propolis and I'm glad you mentioned that I brought a copy of proculis Whitney he is one of the greatest figures in history and he is very seldom studied in colleges very silly problems he's the only he's the only systematic philosopher you see let me see if I can just portray something for you here you have Plato Latinos and proculis now Plato does all of those magnificent dialogues platini's looks back on Plato and is interested in how to use this platonic system as a spiritual system and therefore you can say that the whole he has a very beautiful section where he talks about it has happened often his soul has traveled in it and the soul descends back into the body he's a mystic he's a philosophical mistake right therefore he designed a spiritual system which emerges out of and it's a blend of and it includes the philosophy of Plato now here we're talking about 400 BC here we're talking about 270 ad and here we're talking about approximately 470 give or take a few years AD so we have approximately give or take 900 years in this tradition between especially between 270 and 470 in this period of time there are many very interesting philosophers and we don't have their writings anymore there were many interesting philosophers between Plato and latinas or sionis is one of them and we don't have any of their writings anymore they've all been destroyed one way or the other but with propolis what we have is we have him reviewing all of the major thinkers that he knows and therefore he brings them together into a beautiful chain a golden chain of it's worth so therefore crocus combines the Platonic tradition into a unity and he taps it as it were by showing how you can understand each of these people in a more complete way by going back to Plato and what he finds in Plato and he brings therefore the whole Hellenic traditions into a magnificent system one of the chief primary thinkers in Christian metaphysics the primary architect of all Christian metaphysics his danishes and Dionysius as writings became the very foundation of all metaphysics st. Thomas Aquinas by the way quotes tiny nation danishes 1700 times Albert Magnus quotes him and many many many hundreds of many times and this thinker Dionysius who was now called pseudo-dionysius sudo meaning false or fake was shown to be someone who must have studied with proculis and disguised his writings in such a way that they could be accepted by the Christian tradition which at that time was putting a formal end to all of the Platonic schools of philosophy closed them down philosophers were exiled they ought they went into Syria and therefore it appears that a student who totally familiar with Pro clothes was able to grasp this tradition reduce it in a very beautiful way compressed it and that became the architect the very foundation and the cornerstone of Christian metaphysics when this was disclosed by the way and shown to be the case it caused quite a bit of an uproar and there are some thinkers who would still like to consider him as a great Christian even though it was based upon a poor that's the whole thing was a forgery but in any case that platonic tradition then continued in Europe and the disguised abbreviated form through which we can then find and such thinkers as st. Thomas Aquinas now propolis did one one more thing which is really startling he debate several commentaries of Plato dialogues and he takes practically each sentence by itself or just a couple at a time and he shows how much philosophical richness is behind each one of his statements and so when you read proculis you have to go back into Plato and stand in awe because if pro kleh is correct about how to understand Plato Plato must have been such a startling profound thinker that there's been no one like him in the history of the world and the difficulty with Plato if I can add something is that there there is always a curiosity and this is the curiosity Jesus had Paul Jesus had mark Socrates had Plato if they could ever switch if there could have been a plate of four cheeses and a pall for Socrates they had a totally different kind of bull dome but the immense artistry and sophistication and insight into Socrates that Plato had brought the dialogues into an art form that are truly astonishing have astonished all people to get into them and master them vocalist was the great master of them opened them up in that splendid way in which he did which brings us to wonder at the possible profundity and some people think in fact he's demonstrated that and if that's the case then there's something going on in Plato Socrates Azera that is so enormous philosophically and of significance that it's difficult to gauge it or describe it with accuracy and here's a crocuses commentary on plato's Parmenides and I might as well like I'll read um get a nice part let's get a part about it the way he talks about how to reach the one what else is the one in ourselves except the operation and energy of the striving for the one the energy and power striving for the one that's the one what else is the one in ourselves except the operation and energy of the striving it is therefore this interior understanding of unity which is a projection as it were an expression of the one which is in ourselves in ourselves that we call the one so the one itself is not nameable but the one in ourselves by the divine but by means of this as to what is most appropriate to it we must speak of it and make it known to our peers like read that again because I don't like the way I act Center the sentence what else is the one in ourselves except the operation and energy of the striving it is therefore this interior understanding of unity which is a projection and as it were an expression of the one in ourselves that we call the one so the one itself is not nameable but the one in ourselves by means of this as what is most appropriate to it we first speak of it and make it known to our peers there are two activities in us one appetitive the other reflective that abiding activity that is common to all may not be absent from our souls but these must be responsible to the energies that concern the first principle so the love of the one must be inextinguishable this is indeed why this love is real even though the one is incomprehensible and unknowable but consciousness labors and falls short when it encounters the unknown so silent understanding is before that which is put into language and desire is before any understanding before that which is inexpressible as well as before that which is analyzable well then do we call the understanding of unity within ourselves one and not something else because I should say unity is the most venerable of all things we know for everything is preserved and perfected by being unified unity then is the most venerable thing which perfects and preserves everything and that is why we give this name to the concept that we have of the first principle now let me get another oh the quote I had to before is from from Brooklyn so Socrates says it's at the beginning that it is knowable the good but immediately adds a qualification saying how it is knowable namely to him to whom inclines his own light towards it what does he mean by light except the one in the soul for he said the good can be compared to the son and that this light is like a seed from the good planted in our souls the conditions where things are always prior to the action right the conditions for a fire must be present before a fire the conditions for growth must be prior to growth the conditions for creation must be prior to creation yeah that's right my reading of the dialogue Socrates this method since to be that they would seeing that Socrates were here today people well if we consider if we consider that the creative act it's a creative act occur that all of this did all of this must be present and prior to that greater back did I guess they're reaching up for no if I gather your point so if even if this is all an illusion there must be still some prior condition for the illusion there would have to be a trickster there has to be either a trickster or the possibility of something tricking us and we must be susceptible to the illusion therefore in the nature of man he may experience the illusion and call it real in that sense man man may have higher ideas within himself than we're in this illusionary world but therefore man with man would be gaining a prominence in nature beyond that which nature produced if nature is an illusion now you might say but that what he then would consider would be illusory oh yes but it would be representing the conditions for it and that must be real now that's that's one way that's right that's right all of this reflection follow is from a certain set of reasonings let's start with the appearance that's right no no no no let me see if I can show you something curious our culture of which we're all part we start our reflections with the appearances and we try then to try to find out the condition for it the rules that operate principles or rules to account for this appearance and from that then we want to then reach a total picture which we then can use with this total picture we can then use this total picture to understand man's place in it that's the way our culture works and the play tonic tradition that's not the case in the Platonic tradition it's this way from man's highest and most profound experience that's where they take off from say given man's highest and most profound experience and inside what does that say about the about the conditions for that the principles and rules that must operate if that's true sure oh then they get a total picture and this then begins to be right if the total picture must then come back and be verified and make sense of man's highest experience but see it starts with man that's that's quite true except for one thing suppose the highest experience discloses the nature of mind I suppose the nature of the most profound experience and insight not only gives an insight into mind but suppose in that insight you see there's no difference between mind and reality establish that the creation actually we don't assume that the curve is because man this women is is here so so the creation must have occurred but if the if man if the creation didn't occur if man's business curve what is that's right that's fine that's fine as a matter of fact that's a great statement attributed the same custom when someone asked him what was God doing before creation he said it creating a hell for people like you who asked that question but you see we can say in this system in this system the basic assumption basic assumptions right here that man that man generic man man and there are some men there are some who are willing to explore this kinds of states of mind so they then can make this identity that's either there it isn't don't the that aspect of the soul which we called eternal which we call the beaning which we call their Co that capacity of the mind to turn upon itself and know itself that's the eternal part of the mind and this is the essential assumption of all those that the mind has the capacity to turn upon itself and discover its own reality and that that is either that either can be verified or it can't be in Seoul right pardon yes that's right I don't know no no been there no no no I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say an unconditional creation that's right well you see the the other way of looking for a reality independent of man while man is looking for a reality independent of man has all kinds of inherent problems but whatever the whether they're resolved or not it's clear in this system that this is this is you see I think this is the real puzzle that brings to birth philosophy because it's only when someone has encountered hot very extremely high in profound states of mind that you wonder about the nature of what's going on with you you're driven to seek an explanation in the same way when one apprehends that beauty in the way in which we described it then one falls in love with that beauty one wants to experience it again and again and the highest desire is to step into it and be bathed in it once more it's out of that experience in that drive and that need gives birth to philosophy now in the modern world we modern world or this kind of modern thinking doesn't want to start here we want to start an independent event like there are all kinds of lectures into subatomic physics and I didn't mention mine tonight I'm man Wow tenor so that and also the final I hope I I we talked about how does he see the encounters with the one that's right that's right and I wanted but here's that this was the passageway it ended with man the soul right this light like a seed planted in our souls this was fear right yeah no well I would like next time yes we generate a bottle from that model we went to the rational process of saying why those conditions have to exist well you're quite right because this is micro and macro constant argument you know like what takes place in the universe takes place within ourselves on a lesser scale and therefore there's a analogy as the universe is to mind itself so the man is to his particular mind and that's why we're going to have to deal with that question which we didn't deal with up to this point about how you can talk about soul and many souls and it's still on my mind and I'd like to sneak it in one night maybe next week oh joy next point next time well it is like a Penrose tiles that's a mathematician physicist who has designed tiles that fit together in a remarkable way yeah yeah yeah yeah this is like taking ideas and fitting them together like Penrose might or some designer might putting tiles together in such a way that they put together or a mosaic or a tapestry or a symphony no no no we might be surprised that we've you agree no I'm one of his admirers well I enjoy penrose very much and I think that the mathematics the necessary mathematics to understand tiling this appreciation for shapes which is where mathematics is now going with chaos theories Systems Theory and oh no okay so at least that means okay just means until next time now I want to take the same subject and we're going to just read it and how Plato understands the same problem the one that's what we're going to do and it's only in a few pages so I would like you to know the pages we're going to deal with it's in Plato's Republic and let me get you those pages and yep okay air we want to deal with the problem of arithmetic and Plato's Republic book 7 and I would say 523 no no those are the numbers along the side called Stephanus numbers to 5:20 end of 526 or 527 okay Stefano's numbers essentially the study of arithmetic and Plato's Republic that is the study of the one and I would very much like to deal with it I think there's a way of understanding it and I'd like to present it for next time okay okay thank you you

Channel: PostNothingness

Views: 4,864

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

Keywords: Philosophy

Id: CHuB2jnPxOc

Length: 86min 6sec (5166 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 26 2015