Greek Philosophy: The Birth of Formalism

Plato s organic philosophy argues that world has a soul which inhabits the physical aspect of the universe, and this psyche is of female nature. In Timaeus, Plato gives special account of first cause, and draws his entire philosophy on this ground. In his mind, the universe, including our bodies, represents an image of the maker. Humans are endowed with Nous, e.g., intelligence, and this latter is located in Soul, and Soul in body. God made the Soul prior to the body in genesis and in intelligence. The Soul is invisible, comprising of reason and sensation. Daimon, e.g., supernatural power, favors Man with movement and thought, and all these epitomize the movement of the universe.
Plato s philosophy hinges on the hierarchical supremacy of the sphere of reason over the that of nature, and establishing it as foundation for every topic discussed: politics, love, beauty, knowledge, art, education, and cosmos. The abstract conception of the Form is separate and ruled out from the inferior ‘world of changes’. Nature here is barred in its formalist configuration. Nature is the abstraction of the non-human world, and it is separated from the world of biological and material life. It is the abstract nature what Plato adulates. It is the logos that governs rational thinking and material order, and glorifies its exploration and exploitation. The conflict between Cosmos vs Chaos is what interests Plato and his theory of Ideas. Platonic dualism separates the higher order of Logos from the lower order of nature. In Timaeus, Plato speaks of the world-soul and its distinction from the world-body. This relatum favors the soul abstraction as God created it before the body of the world, gave it priority, and made it the dominating force in the cosmos (Plato 34). Plato s account draws on the contrastiveness between the world of Forms´-or-Reality, and the world of changes. The world we can see, touch, feel, and smell is relative--;-- the passing-away world of nature. The real world imbricates the idealist, and explanatory superiority of the Forms´-or-reason over the material and biological sphere. Everything imbibing the body, animality, and nature, is seen outside of the realm of the Soul. We are imprisoned in the physical world as the Soul is the true self. Humans must seek death to find truth and relief. Escapism, therefore, offers a solution to the divided self. Existential homelessness favors Man as a celestial and not terrestrial creature. This is based on the ground that human beings s location is beyond Earth. Earth is not a place to inhabit´-or-enshrine, yet a fleeting and temporaneous getaway to an ultimate latibule. Death becomes the multifarious way for a philosopher to achieve distance and separation from the natural world.
In the Republic, the allegory of the Cave represents the friction between the two worlds of Forms and Appearance. Exiting the cave epitomizes the phase of separation, the establishment of maleness, and the triumph of the Logos. freedom of the Cave means the attainment of the eternal and unchanging forms. What he left behind is the shackled realm of femininity, materiality, senses--;-- the natural sphere. The metaphor remarkably symbolizes this phase of disunity and transcendence from the Earth itself. The Platonic theory overtly speaks of reason as the supreme good in the universe, and that this latter is to be viewed and used in the service of Mankind. This philosophy necessitates the devaluation of nature. Its ground is exceedingly anthropocentric and anti-ecological.
The extension of this philosophy can be traced in Phaedo. The study and glorification of death is central in Plato s view. The role of war and militarism, and its embodiment into the society of the polis justifies a world of slaves, incessant warfare, and the continuation of the means of production.
The warrior offers his life to death in order to assert his dominion over his body and despise towards life. Nature is death, disorder, and dissipation. The situation of the warrior-hero requires an ideology which provides a pathway to quell physical death and keep continuity. The Platonic otherworldly identity proffers a solution to this problem. It surmises a sort of continuity and a justified control by an intellectual elite identified with logos and reduction of the lower social sphere as lacking reason. Death offers continuity and not cessation. It is linked to the spiritual order. We, as natural beings die, but, as cultural beings, live.
In the same vein, Aristotle believes that the Soul is the essence of animal life. It consists of three basic elements: movement, sensation, and incorporeality. In De Anima, Movement is in the Soul, begins and terminates in it. Sensation and incorporeality start from the Soul and terminate in the movement, i.e., in the organs per se. the Soul, therefore, what brings the body together. Soul is the source of self-nutrition, sensation, thinking, and mobility. Humans have full potentiality, while other beings have less than all,´-or-nothing at all. Aristotle shares the same idealistic stance of Plato, that we perceive and experience the world around us through a medium--;-- that we do not sense elements in themselves, yet through a medium that lies beyond the neutral point. The place of forms characterizes humans as having the potentiality of the intellective Soul. The mind therefore indicates the essential nature of activity, because, in his mind, the active is always superior the passive aspect.

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