Platonism & Collapse

Why Platonism Reemerges During Times of Economic Crisis

Key Takeaways:

1. During the chaotic Fall of Rome, Plato’s philosophy had a profound influence on the rise of Christianity.

2. A thousand years after Rome, as the feudal system collapsed, Platonism re-emerged as Renaissance magic.

3. The Scientific Revolution evolved out of Renaissance magic and replaced religious authority.

Platonism during Antiquity

Around 375 BC, the Greek philosopher Plato presented his famous argument that the reality we experience through our senses is merely an illusion. He compared it to a shadow puppet show. He claimed that the material world is a transient and imperfect projection of a hidden realm. One that is eternal and perfect.

Plato’s philosophy became the foundation upon which much of early Christian theology was built. The New Testament was originally written in Greek and heavily influenced by Greek philosophy (particularly the Gospel of John). Early Christians adapted Plato’s dual realms of perfection and imperfection into their conceptions of heaven and earth.

Christianity, in turn, had a profound impact on the Roman Empire during its economic decline and fall. The new faith became enormously popular. Plato’s emphasis on the illusory nature of reality became the Christian idea of an idealized existence in the afterlife, which seemed appealing at a time when real life was uncertain and unrewarding.

The Roman adoption of Christianity marked a profound shift in their conception of reality itself, from polytheism to monotheism. In 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius made it official. He elevated Christianity to the state religion of an Empire that would vanish from Italy within a century.

Platonism during The Renaissance

The Roman Catholic Church endured as a powerful political force during the Middle Ages. After a thousand-year run, however, the Church began to decline. Just like the Roman Empire before it.

The Black Death dealt a mortal blow to the feudal system that had prevailed in Europe since the Fall of the Roman Empire. As the Church was a fixture of that feudal economic system, the authority of the Church fractured as that system collapsed.

Plato posited that the observable universe is an illusion. Empiricism, the opposite idea that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience, is generally associated with Plato’s protégé, Aristotle. The tension between these two views was dramatically captured by the Renaissance master Raphael in his famous fresco, The School of Athens, located in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican.

A photograph of this fresco, taken by the author, serves as the Title Card for this essay. At its focal point, Plato and Aristotle walk side-by-side. Plato’s finger points upward into the air to emphasize the primacy of his hidden, ideal realm. Meanwhile, Aristotle holds out an overturned palm to indicate the primacy of the observable material realm.

With his fresco, Raphael acknowledged the revival of Platonism that was occurring in his day. Thanks in large part to his patrons, the Medici family of Florence, this revival had a profound impact on Renaissance art and literature. It also became fertile ground for the advent of Renaissance magic.

The essence of Renaissance magic was the Platonic notion that reality is an illusion, akin to the dreamscapes that our minds simultaneously conjure and experience during sleep. Renaissance magicians sought to alter reality in the same way a lucid dreamer seeks to alter dreams.

The Corpus Hermeticum was an ancient text, reintroduced to Christendom by the Medici during the Renaissance. Like the New Testament, it was informed by Plato’s philosophy and originally written in Greek during the late Roman Empire. But unlike the New Testament, it contained empowering passages such as, “If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God; for like is known by like.”

For a thousand years, the people of Europe accepted that aspiring to be like God was an abject heresy. However, as the authority of the Church waned and the economic system it was part of collapsed, Europeans became increasingly fascinated by magic. Along with Raphael’s brilliant fresco, the Corpus Hermeticum vividly illustrates this intellectual controversy of the Renaissance.

The Scientific Revolution

The Scientific Revolution was born from Renaissance magic. Isaac Newton was a noted alchemist while he formalized the laws of gravitation and invented calculus. Alchemy evolved into chemistry, while astrology developed into astronomy. Copernicus and Galileo proved that the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around.

Before their discovery, anyone could see the sun “moving” across the sky. But once the illusion was broken, there was no going back. It was another profound shift in a popular conception of reality itself. And this paradigmatic shift came at the expense of Church authority.

The Roman Catholic Church had vigorously defended the old geocentric model of the solar system (sometimes known as the “Aristotelian” model). It had even placed Galileo under house arrest. But where Renaissance magic pushed the limits of Church authority, science shattered it forever. Today, scientists (rather than priests) differentiate heresy from gospel on behalf of the masses.

During the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance, the decay and collapse of existing economic systems made various forms of Platonism an attractive philosophical perspective. If our modern capitalist economic system is nearing the end of its lifecycle, and the historical pattern holds, we could see another paradigmatic shift. We’d be foolish to believe that all such shifts are already behind us.

Conclusion

The historical record presents a compelling pattern. The collapse of a dominant economic system has coincided with a powerful resurgence of Platonic thought on two notable occasions, during the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance. In each instance, the decay of the observable world made the promise of a hidden, truer reality irresistible. These philosophical shifts drove fundamental paradigm shifts that define our history. History suggests this pattern is not an accident, but a fundamental human response to systemic crisis.

Since you made it this far, patient reader, kindly consider hitting the ❤️ button above or below; it really helps!

Further Materials

If then you not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God; for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grow to a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond all measure; rise above all time, and become eternal; then you will apprehend God. Think that for you too nothing is impossible; deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and every science; find your home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights, and lower than all depths; bring together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave; grasp in your thought all this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God.
Corpus Hermeticum 11:20