The whole chain of ideas

For many who have read something of Plato, there is a fairly simple schema known as the “theory of forms” which consists of two distinct orders of things–there is a powerful and active order of forms (or ideas), and then there is an order of material instantiations, or material things stamped with impressions of those forms. The first is active, the second passive; the first is the object of intellect and reason, the second is the object of sense and opinion. This is a useful but limited starting point, an understanding which presents the thinker with a number of difficult problems–all of which gather as one major question: how do the two very different orders interact?

We need a much more refined understanding of how the manifested and material world proceeds from, and returns to, the unmanifested and immaterial order. According to Proclus, both these processes–procession and return–work through the law and power of similarity: and since there seems to be a very great dissimilarity between the two orders, we must postulate a series of intermediaries. In this series, each intermediary must have a degree of likeness both to that which is immediately above itself, and to that which is immediately below.

Proclus, in his Commentary on the Parmenides of Plato, offers the serious student of ideas a scheme in which a series of intermediaries carry out just such a function, and thus allow a fruitful communication between the otherwise separated orders of reality. We will look at this passage and consider whether it holds together as a viable scheme, and how it informs our understanding of reality at its various levels.

The Prometheus Trust hold regular meetings in Manchester for those interested in the living philosophic tradition which traces its roots back to Plato and beyond. We meet at Bound & Infinity on the third Friday of each month, from 18:30 to 20:00 with time after for more informal conversation if so desired. These evenings include short talks and/or readings from Platonic writings which we hope are genuinely interactive, with all participants invited to contribute to our collaborative search for truth. No previous experience of philosophy is required.

Admission is free, but we do encourage those who are able to donate £5 in order to cover our costs.

You can find all the texts we are going to use as starting points for each evening on the Bound & Infinity website: www.anywhereoutofthe.world. For more information about the Trust including further meetings visit www.prometheustrust.co.uk.

The Prometheus Trust is a registered educational charity and exists to encourage, promote and assist the flowering of philosophy as the love of wisdom. It aims especially at re-introducing philosophy as a transformative activity, that is, one that gradually draws into activity all that is best in the human self, so that both the inner and outer life are directed towards that which is truly good, rather than that which only appears to be good.

“Beatific contemplation” says Prophyry, “does not consist of the accumulation of arguments or a storehouse of learned knowledge, but in us theory must become nature and life itself.”

The starting point of our studies and reflections are the writings from the Platonic tradition but we rely on the affirmation that every man and woman has within a connection to all the great truths which underlie reality: our joint discussions are aimed at bringing forth and into focus these truths, which otherwise might remain more or less obscured by the complexities of life. The Trust looks to follow the Platonic tradition’s general approach, that merely because Plato or any of the other renowned philosophers of the Platonic tradition have asserted something we should not simply accept it, but seek to see for ourselves whether or not (and in what way) any particular affirmation is true.

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