The Sleepwalkers (24 page)

We
shall
have
to
hark
back
time
and
again
to
Plato,
to
pick
up
the
scent
of
some
particular
later
development.
For
the
time
being,
let
us
retain
this
essential
clue
to
Plato's
cosmology:
his
fear
of
change,
his
contempt
and
loathing
for
the
concepts
of
evolution
and
mutability.
It
will
reverberate
all
through
the
Middle
Ages,
together
with
its
concomitant
yearning
for
a
world
of
eternal,
changeless
perfection:

Then
agin
I
think
on
that
which
Nature
said
Of
that
same
time
when
no
more
change
shall
be,
But
steadfast
rest
of
all
things,
firmly
stay'd
Upon
the
pillars
of
eternity,
That
is
contrary
to
mutability.
⁹

This
"mutation
phobia"
seems
to
be
mainly
responsible
for
the
repellent
aspects
of
Platonism.
The
Pythagorean
synthesis
of
religion
and
science,
of
the
mystical
and
empirical
approach
is
now
in
shambles.
The
mysticism
of
the
Pythagoreans
is
carried
to
sterile
extremes,
while
empirical
science
is
ridiculed
and
discouraged.
Physics
is
separated
from
mathematics
and
made
into
a
department
of
theology.
The
Pythagorean
Brotherhood
is
transformed
into
the
Guides
of
a
totalitarian
Utopia;
the
transmigration
of
souls
on
their
way
to
God
is
debased
by
old-wife's
tales,
or
edifying
lies,
about
cowards
being
punished
by
feminine
reincarnations;
orphic
asceticism
curdles
into
hatred
of
the
body
and
contempt
for
the
senses.
True
knowledge
cannot
be
obtained
by
the
study
of
nature;
for
"if
we
would
have
true
knowledge
of
anything,
we
must
be
quit
of
the
body...
While
in
company
with
the
body,
the
soul
cannot
have
true
knowledge."
¹⁰

All
this
is
not
an
expression
of
humility
–
neither
of
the
humility
of
the
mystic
seeker
for
God,
nor
the
humility
of
reason
acknowledging
its
limits;
it
is
the
half-frightened,
half-arrogant
philosophy
of
the
genius
of
a
doomed
aristocracy
and
a
bankrupt
civilization.
When
reality
becomes
unbearable,
the
mind
must
withdraw
from
it
and
create
a
world
of
artificial
perfection.
Plato's
world
of
pure
Ideas
and
Forms,
which
alone
is
to
be
considered
as
real,
whereas
the
world
of
nature
which
we
perceive
is
merely
its
cheap
Woolworth
copy,
is
a
flight
into
delusion.
The
intuitive
truth
expressed
in
the
allegory
of
the
Cave
is
here
carried
to
absurdity
by
over-concretization
–
as
if
the
author
of
the
line
"this
world
is
a
vale
of
tears"
were
to
proceed
with
a
factual
survey
of
the
distribution
of
tear-drops
in
the
vale.

Once
again
one
must
remember,
that
in
the
surrealistic
cosmogony
of
the
Timaeus
it
is
impossible
to
draw
the
line
between
philosophy
and
poetry,
metaphorical
and
factual
statement;
and
that
long
passages
in
the
Parmenides
virtually
destroy
the
doctrine
that
the
world
is
a
copy
of
models
in
heaven.
But
if
some
of
my
previous
paragraphs
sound
like
a
harsh
and
one-sided
view
of
what
Plato
meant,
this
is
essentially
what
he
came
to
mean
to
a
long
row
of
future
generations
–
the
one-sided
shadow
that
he
threw.
We
shall
also
see
that
the
second
Platonic
revival,
in
the
fifteenth
century,
highlighted
a
quite
different
side
of
Plato,
and
threw
his
shadow
into
the
opposite
direction.
But
that
turn
is
still
a
long
way
ahead.

2.
Rise of the Circular Dogma

I
must
now
turn
to
Plato's
contribution
to
astronomy
–
which
insofar
as
concrete
advances
are
concerned,
is
nil;
for
he
understood
little
of
astronomy,
and
was
evidently
bored
by
it.
The
few
passages
where
he
feels
moved
to
broach
the
subject
are
so
muddled,
ambiguous
or
self-contradictory,
that
all
scholarly
efforts
have
failed
to
explain
their
meaning.
¹¹

However,
by
a
process
of
metaphysical
and
a
priori
reasoning,
Plato
came
to
certain
general
conclusions
regarding
the
shape
and
motions
of
the
universe.
These
conclusions,
of
paramount
importance
for
everything
which
follows,
were
that
the
shape
of
the
world
must
be
a
perfect
sphere,
and
that
all
motion
must
be
in
perfect
circles
at
uniform
speed
.