Why recontextualize?

Plato, a "world of forms," and looking for the ultimate truth within the everyday and the mundane

Plato, often referred to as the father of Western philosophy famously spoke of a “world of forms,” of which the physical world was a mere reflection. The usual interpretation suggests that this world of forms exists independently of our own physical world and contains the perfected archetypes of every object, person, or principle that can be found on Earth. The dog we see is a pale reflection of the “form” of the dog existing in this heavenly realm; the love we experience is just a fragment of perfect love. Read in this way, the theory seems a bit fantastical. Many of us, and understandably so, tend to be skeptical of immaterial realms that we have not experienced ourselves. However, I think Plato has something else in mind when he speaks of the “world of forms'' as the truth of things. As I read Plato, we do not need to rise above the physical and the mundane to discover this realm of ultimate truth but rather look deeply within the physical, the mundane, and the everyday. This realm of truth is not something we find outside of immediate experience, it is actually sitting right under our nose.

To find this “realm of forms,” we can start with any mundane, everyday object or experience, as the real realm silently but continuously persists within the very fabric of all our immediate experience. So let’s start with the computer I am typing on right now. At first glance, it’s just a computer, it seems as though there is really nothing more to it. Now, let’s look closer. Let’s start with the simple visual perception of the computer, what is going on here? In order to create a visual boundary around the object “computer,” to perceive it as independent from the desk on which it sits and the headphones that are right now attached to its audio jack, I must create divisions in my immediate visual experience of colors, forms, and shades into individual objects. I must demarcate certain groups of shade, color, and form from other groups, thus creating the boundaries necessary to perceive the environment as a set of singular objects rather than a fluid gradient of shapes, colors, and textures. This perceptual ability is a result of many biological and cultural processes. On the biological side, not all living things can do this. A bat, for example, navigates its world by using echolocation to perceive streams of sound and vibration. The bat’s visual capacities are insufficient to construct discrete and bounded objects. (If you are interested in exploring these perceptual differences further check out philosopher Thomas Nagel’s paper, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”) 

On a more personal level, I also cannot separate the perceptual cognition of the object “computer” from the practical and emotional affordances that arise in me along with its perception. Simultaneous with the cognition of the computer, I have a flood of practical, emotional, and behavioral associations; I might think of the work I need to get done, the social media posts I need to respond to, or some commitments I have made to lessen my technology use. Further, these associations and orientations that come with the cognition of the object “computer” do not arise in a vacuum, but are conditioned by my social circles, and commitments I have made to myself and my community. Even further, what commitments are worth making in my particular community are the result of a historical trajectory that has conditioned my culture to be the way it is. My culture’s valuing of productivity, mental health, or social interactions makes possible my valuing of these more personal commitments. We are not like a camera lens that simply takes in what it perceives. Objects, as they appear to our senses, are not “out there” in as straightforward a way as we think they are. Rather, the ability to perceive the computer, to perceive any object at all, is the result of a process of thousands of years of historical and cultural transformations that are embedded in an even longer time period of biological and cosmological changes. 

Any moment of life, no matter how solid and static it may seem, is a temporary crystallization and ossification of a fluid and processual set of natural laws and cultural and social forces that have been conditioned into their current form throughout the entire history of the cosmos and of human behavior. We could look at these natural laws and cultural forces that underpin and give structure to each moment as Plato’s realm of forms. However, it would be a misinterpretation of Plato to think of this realm of forms as separate from our own existence; the realm of forms is not some aspect of reality that exists independently of what we do and what we care about. Plato illustrates this by pointing to the form of the Good as the ground of all the forms, as the source which determines the nature of every form. For Plato, any particular set of forms its source in what fundamentally matters to the community in question. In other words, these forms and forces are brought into existence through our community's attempt to do and to create together.

This practical grounding suggests that any moment in life is not only a temporary crystallization and ossification of these natural and cultural forces and laws but also a crossroads that can act as a transitional conduit for these forces that determine their future direction. For example, as I look at this computer and have the association of my stressful job arise, I am faced with a choice. I can choose to continue to orient my life to that job or I can redirect that particular force, and choose to apply for another job. Further, my commitment to a particular job often has its origins in my commitment to a larger communal or cultural ethos; I may be working this job because I have bought into the cultural notion that making a lot of money will lead to happiness. In this way, each moment simultaneously acts as a personal and cultural crossroads; we have the responsibility to decide how to direct the cultural, historical, and communal causes and forces that have given us our personal orientation. Do we want to continue to embody, encourage, and manifest the forces that have determined our lives and experiences up to this point or do we want to redirect them towards a new trajectory? I see Plato’s realm of forms as a cognition of the entirety of the forces that are manifesting in the present moment that provides us with the ability to take full responsibility for either the continued embodiment and fostering of those forces or an intentional re-directing of them.

The clarity I have gained from seeing through to this “realm of forms” in many areas of life is what has inspired me to start this substack. I constantly see political issues, metaphysical questions, ethical concerns, and existential and spiritual dilemmas being discussed and treated in abstraction from the historical, cultural, and cosmological forces in which they have their origin. This abstract treatment that de-contextualizes a certain question, event, or concern obscures the wider context in which the phenomena gains its meaning and significance and by extension also obscures a clear understanding of the consequences any action we take in regards to the issue will have. In the spirit of Plato and many others who were committed to the truth throughout human history, my hope is to discuss these issues from a more wholistic, interdependent, and contextual point of view that aims not at justifying one view over the other but at a comprehensive understanding of the lay of the land. In the words of a more contemporary philosopher, Wilfrid Sellars, “The aim of philosophy…is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term.” 

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Please feel free to leave a comment if you have clarification questions, feedback, critiques, or anything to add. Philosophy is all about dialogue! I will do my best to respond to all questions and concerns.