The discussion touching on Platonic idealism was fascinating.  Who is not captivated by an ideal, gleaming in transparent purity?  I certainly am.  Would I kill for an ideal?  Or to put it more plainly would I commit murder to advance an ideal?  I probably would, as many have.  I am admittedly a standard issue homo sapiens. 

Plato’s system of thought comes from the ancient Greek notion that what is most pure, the unalloyed singular essence of anything, is closest to god.  To say it more bluntly pure love, or pure faith, or pure _______ is divine, god-like.  In the dialog The Phaedo, Plato has Socrates advance metaphor after metaphor to illustrate, to assert that the soul exists eternally, survives the demise of the body.  The scene of the “discussion” is one of ultimate stakes: within a short time Socrates will drink lethal hemlock.  He will be separated from a circle of intimate friends.  The soul of Socrates will ascend, ethereal, the pure essence of Socrates released from his body.  Plato, the playwright has composed a scene of maximum intensity to contend for his proposal, that ideas are ultimately real, that everything in the material world is a flawed, imperfect, expression of an idea, or of ideas.  The soul is an intuitive example of a Platonic ideal. This is the nature of Platonic idealism. 

The Academy, the school which Plato founded continued for 900 years after Plato’s death, with some periods of closure.  Should we wonder that idealism became the mainstream Western point of view, informing Christian theology in the Middle ages, and then the humanism of Enlightenment thought?  Then came the elaboration of science, employing mathematics to successfully outline the “essential” nature of the material world, concurrent with the advance of the industrial age and mass production, improving the conditions of life for millions everywhere.

A toast to Plato, and to Socrates his teacher!  Bravo to a philosopher, one who-plays-with-ideas, whose work continues to influence our world!

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This tune will serve to tether us to earth as we journey today.  The devil is an idea, an icon of evil, what we mean when human purposes and action have malign consequences for other humans, and for Nature.  What is meant by evil is worth a long dialog, an extensive use of metaphor.  I am no Plato.  Others have done the job well enough.  This tune composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard sets the table for what we mean by evil.

Sympathy For The Devil

By The Rolling Stones

Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith

I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Tzar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank
Held a general’s rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

I shouted out,
“Who killed the Kennedys?”
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reach Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, hit it

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
Cause I’m in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste

Um yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

Um mean it, get down

Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down

Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
Tell me baby, what’s my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, what’s my name
I tell you one time, you’re to blame
Ooo, who
Ooo, who

Ooo, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who

Ooo, who, who
Oh, yeah
What’s my name
Tell me, baby, what’s my name

Tell me, sweetie, what’s my name
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who

Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who

Oh, yeah

Writers: Mick Jagger, Keith Richard