A History of Greek Philosophy / PLATO

Page 11

We did not consciously possess these notions, or ideals, or ideas,[5] as he prefers to call them, at birth; they come into consciousness in connection with or in consequence of the action of the senses; but since the senses could not give these ideas, the process of knowledge must be a process of Recollection. Socrates carries the argument a step further. “Then may we not say,” he continues, “that if, as we are always repeating, there is an absolute beauty and goodness and other similar ideas or essences, and to this standard, which is now discovered to have existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this compare them—assuming these ideas to have a prior existence, then our souls must have had a prior existence, but if not, not? There is the same proof that these ideas must have existed before we were born, as that our souls existed before we were born; and if not the ideas, then not the souls.”

In the Phaedrus this conception of a former existence is embodied in one of the Myths in which Plato’s imaginative powers are seen at their highest. In it the soul is compared to a charioteer driving two winged steeds, one mortal, the other immortal; the one ever tending towards the earth, the other seeking ever to soar into the sky, where it may behold those blessed visions of loveliness and wisdom and goodness, which are the true nurture of the soul. When the chariots of the gods go forth in mighty and glorious procession, the soul would fain ride forth in their train; but alas! the mortal steed is ever hampering the immortal, and dragging it down.

Elpenor's note : [5] Wrong, unless by ‘notions, ideals, ideas’ we don’t mean just (or at all) concepts, but qualities, properties, virtues, realities, approachable by (cleaned and refined, spiritualised) senses rather than by reasoning. Cf. Guthrie (A History of Greek Philosophy, v. 5, Cambridge 1978, p. 159), “not merely concepts of the mind but realities with an objective and independent existence. ... The philosopher, through his devotion to the Form of Being, dwells in the brightness of the divine”.

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Cf.  Plato Complete Works, Plato Home Page & Anthology, Guthrie : Life of Plato and philosophical influences, Research a KeyWord in Plato's Works

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