PLATONIC EPISTEMOLOGY: THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION
A central theme in Platonic writings is knowledge. Plato drew a clear line between knowledge acquired through reason (
episteme) and opinion (
doxa). However, opinion was not just any opinion but
right opinion. For example, if somebody knew the way to Larisa (the city where Meno was born) without himself having travelled there, his knowledge would not be mere uninformed opinion but
right opinion (Meno 97b). A third form of knowledge is knowledge acquired through direct experience (
gnosis). As we shall see, there is a higher form of knowledge, namely, wisdom or
sophia.
In everyday life, knowledge is primarily obtained through sensory perception. The study of the process or phenomenon of perception enables us to understand how knowledge comes about.
The physical world consists of five primary elements or principles, earth, water, fire, air and ether (or space). Despite their names, these primary elements are not the physical substances earth, water, etc., but patterns of energy in which minute particles move, vibrate, or radiate in particular ways (
Timaeus 31b ff.). Combinations of elements make up all physical substances and objects.
The physical objects and their characteristics are perceived by the soul by means of its sense faculties, smelling, tasting, feeling by touch, hearing and seeing.
For example, through the physical organ “eye” and associated faculty of “sight”, etc., the sensual aspect (
epithymetikon) registers discrete sensory perceptions such as colour and combines them into a mental image (
eidolon). This image is taken up and analysed by the intellectual aspect (
logistikon), given a name and assessed in terms of its relevance to the self. The emotional part (
thymos) then reacts emotionally to the image and a decision is reached as to the course of action (if any) to be taken. All these mental functions or operations exist within, and are illumined by, the light of spirit or nous.
What becomes clear is that in ordinary perception we have no direct apprehension of the objects “out there”, but only of the mental image that the sensual aspect of our mind forms out of a multitude of points, minute particles, or atoms of perception such as colour, etc. What we perceive is not the actual object but a mental copy of it.
One question that arises is, how does our intellect know what the object of experience is? For example, on seeing an object such as a flower, on what basis does the intellect say or think, “this is a flower”? On the face of it, the answer might be “through experience”. We experienced an object called “flower” before and on perceiving it now, we recollect having experienced the same or a similar object in the past. The name and past experience stored in our memory are revived on contact with the current image and mentally associated with the object we perceive or experience now and this enables us to identify and name it.
However, Plato asserts that the physical world and its constituent substances and objects are in constant flux, which makes sensory input inaccurate and unreliable. True knowledge can only be acquired by referring to higher realities apprehended through a higher faculty of intuitive perception. Therefore, at this point, Plato introduces the concept of “ideas” or “forms”. The object we perceive is an imperfect copy of a perfect and unchanging “idea” (
eidos), or “pattern” (
paradeigma). The same applies to concepts or ideas and everything else that makes up the world of multiplicity: “fire”, “earth”, “man”, “beautiful”, “just”, etc. When we perceive a physical object, we recall our innate memory or knowledge of its ideal form and the name associated with it.
Critics have questioned the soundness of the Theory of Forms and Plato himself was aware that his theory was not perfect. Yet he kept it all the same and for a good reason. Philosophy does use logic, but it is not a slave to strict or pure logic. Like a true philosopher, Plato aimed to look at the mental processes and concepts behind perception and at the activities of consciousness behind mental processes and concepts in order to arrive at the ultimate source of all knowledge – consciousness (nous) itself.
Greek culture itself had a tendency to personify abstract concepts or universals. Time was personified by Cronus, Justice by Dike, Love and Beauty by Aphrodite, Sleep by Hypnos, Death by Thanatos, etc. So, the concept of eternal, ideal Forms or Patterns was in a sense implicit in Greek thought. What Plato actually proposes to do is to illustrate the fact that in the same way as the physical world is organized according to certain set patterns, so the intelligible world, the world of spirit, too, is ordered according to pre-established patterns.
As sunrays radiate from the Sun in waves of light, the physical World emanates from the World-Soul and is simultaneously made visible to man by its light, in a constant process. This constant emanation, projection or overflow of the World is not and cannot be random, otherwise a completely different world might be created every moment. Creation follows certain pre-existing patterns: the objects which make up the World belong to certain species or classes, possess certain qualities such as colour, quantity or size, stand in a particular relation to other objects, etc. These patterns are present in the ideal world of the Cosmic Mind (Nous).
Of course, man cannot expect to grasp the precise details of creation which are known only to the Creator. These teachings merely serve to point out the fact that the Natural World in which man lives is a world of appearances (the Greek word
phýsis, “nature”, also means appearance from
phýo, “to appear”) and that the reality behind it can be found only in the Divine World-Mind which has created it.
The problem that Platonism seeks to solve is how the absolute unity of spirit becomes the multiplicity of thought and matter.
The concept of abstract ideas (
eidea) such as “fire”, “earth”, “man”, “beautiful”, “just”, existing on a higher plane from which they are copied into the physical world serves in the first place to point to the fact that particulars can be reduced to universals.
Although specific objects are distinct from each other, they may share common properties or features such as colour. For example, the feature “blueness” is the universal shared by the chicory flower, blue paint and the sky. Thus, blueness enables us to grasp the concept of unity in multiplicity.
The Greek word “idea”,
eidos, is related to the verb “to see”,
eidon which is cognate with Latin
video, "to see". In the physical world of matter, to see means to perceive an object that is distinct and separate from ourselves. In the intelligible world of spirit, to see means to think, ideate, or bring into being a concept or thing. For Plato, knowledge was ultimately a form of being, or mental seeing in which intelligence becomes the object of experience while retaining awareness of itself at all times.
In order to understand the concept of “ideas” (
eidea), “patterns” (
paradeigmata) or “forms” it may be helpful to think of universals such as “colour”, “number”, “size”, “distance”, etc. However, it is important to understand that universals are posterior to particulars. We first perceive a number of particulars from which we abstract one (or more) universals. In contrast, Plato's ideas or forms are
prior to particulars. They are the "essences" and "patterns" from which particulars are formed.
The ideas themselves ultimately consist of creative intelligence. Contemplation on the ideas leads to a direct experience of how intelligence “projects” or “emanates” objects of experience and the soul realises its essential identity with the Cosmic or Divine Mind (Nous), in the same way the centres of two circles get closer and closer to each other until they become one.
From the individual soul’s point of view, contemplation of the One is the highest form of knowledge. In contrast to this, from the perspective of the One, the highest form of knowledge is self-contemplation. Therefore, the highest form of knowledge, wisdom (
sophia), is self-knowledge, that is, the knowledge that consciousness has of itself as self-aware, creative intelligence.
This is very clearly stated by Plato in
Phaedo (65a – 67b; 79c, d) and emphasised by Plotinus. In fact, this may be seen as the core of Plotinus’ and other Platonists' teachings.
Self-knowledge in the highest sense goes beyond normal forms of knowledge such as opinion, reason and experience. Therefore, it cannot be expressed in words or grasped mentally. It can only be experienced in an ecstatic state that our limited intellectual faculties cannot grasp or explain. For example, the most attempts to describe this state have produced are approximate depictions of "infinite light, love and joy" and of a sense of "becoming alive" for the first time and in a way that completely eclipses all experiences of ordinary life in the same way the light of a candle is eclipsed by strong sunlight. It is an experience that totally transforms you and makes you part of a much larger and more powerful reality of whose existence you were totally unaware (in any case not consciously or fully) until that point.
As such depictions are meaningless to those unfamiliar with the experience, this illustrates the difficulty or impossibility of conveying the experience to others. Moreover, the impact this experience can have on the untrained mind makes it imperative to undergo prior intellectual training. The prescribed progression from purification to illumination to oneness, is to be strictly followed and "short cuts" to be avoided.
In any case, Plotinus is said to have taught from his own experience of union with the One (
enosis). In the
Life of Plotinus, his disciple Porphyry relates that his master attained an exalted state four times in his life.
However, despite its mystical side, Platonism remains a practical philosophy. The purpose of attaining Oneness is not to become completely absorbed or submerged in Ultimate Reality, but, in Plotinus’ own words, “to give back the divine in us to the divine in all”.
Plotinus - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Internet Classics Archive | The Six Enneads by Plotinus (mit.edu)