SuitedPair;367160 wrote"christianity is Platonism for the masses" (And to a stronger degree islam is as well
Agree or no?
good times either way.
(sorry for the delay, but here it is!)
first off, we need to know what we mean by platonism. basically, it is the belief in the theory of forms. i made mention of this above, but i'll go into more detail here.
so one day sometime around 400BC, plato and his buddies are sitting around, naked, spooning little boys and talking philosophy (seriously, the ancient greeks did this). plato suddenly asks, "hey guys, what's a table?" his buddies laugh and are like, "wtf man, it's a flat surface with legs." but plato's like, "no man, those are just properties of a table, but what is the idea of a table? like how do i know what a table is even without thinking about a specific table?" and all his friends are like, "oh shit!"
plato is arguing that there are two types of reality. there's the physical, sensible reality and there's the intelligible reality that we cannot perceive. every object and thing in the universe has an ideal form according to plato. these forms exist outside of us. they actually exist within this intelligible reality that we cannot perceive. the only way we can access it is through rationality and reason. what we perceive in the physical reality are just imperfect copies of the absolute true forms of the objects. therefore, the forms are considered perfect archetypes (they may be even described as transcendent iirc). the highest form is the form of the good, btw, and this form is the source of all other forms.
quick side note: plato taught a school in ancient greece for while. he had numerous followers who came to be taught by him. after his death, his school continued for years, but there were a few changes over its history. we don't need to know all the details, but the important one is in the third century when plotinus came in and made some changes. he established what they call neoplatonism. this is the system of thought that had direct influences on christianity.
under neoplatonism the ultimate form of the good became the one, or god. good and evil became immaterial along with god. this was obviously a huge influence to christianity. also, neoplatonism placed an importance on mystical observation which some would argue is the attempt to communicate with god (i.e. praying or miracles). i'm
really glossing over these as it's not as simple as this, but i'm assuming we can see the influence and connection here.
now let’s turn to nietzsche. the quotation “christianity is platonism for the masses” comes from his book “beyond good and evil”. there are two main points we need to understand. first, nietzsche is arguing that pretty much all philosophers up to this point have been making stupid arguments about “truth” (this obviously includes plato’s philosophical theories as well). he states that we may not be able to find absolute truth about certain things (he also argues about the very nature of truth and falseness but i’m not getting into that here). therefore, according to him, all previous philosophers are just trapped and preaching this misunderstood dogmatism.
quick definition: dogmatism (noun): “the tendency to lay down principles as inconvertibly true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others”. nietzsche HATED the notion of dogmatism and anyone who posited their claims in such a manner.
the 2nd main point to consider is nietzsche’s position on morality and religion. he argues that our current understanding of morality is completely out on a limb and he blames religion (specifically judeo-catholics and christians). he gets more into it in his “on the genealogy of morals”, but basically he’s saying that the idea of morality has been turned on its head by religion. what used to be considered “good” is now evil and what used to be considered “bad” is now good. this stems from the whole “the meek shall inherit the earth” and that sort of understanding that was brought on through catholicism. (i can explain this more in another post if interested, but i’m keeping it short and sweet here. i pretty much took an entire class based on this specific topic in university, but it’s complicated stuff.) basically, our normal desires and understandings, which at first were considered good, have now become evil and we must repel ourselves from wanting/desiring them. (again, this is a very basic interpretation of nietzsche as he can get very complicated.)
so basically, when nietzsche said that “christianity is platonism for the masses”, he was arguing that christianity (or religion in general) took what was good and made it bad. furthermore, they made this change based on nothing but the argument that that was how god wanted it to be. therefore, religion is guilty of preaching pointless dogmatism to the masses (well, and much more than that according to nietzsche, but that’s for a different post – “god is dead” afterall, amiright?). nietzsche argued that plato’s theories were just the same. that is, religion is to the people as platonism is to misguided philosophers. also, as mentioned above, platonism, just like christianity, argued for these transcendent ideals that we can't fully explain nor understand - again, pointless dogmatism according to nietzsche.
personally, i don’t 100% agree with nietzsche here, although i understand the comparison he’s making. he was really judgmental of previous philosophical theories and the basis of their arguments, just as he was with respect to religion and the basis of their beliefs. i just think he’s a little too harsh towards previous philosophers. at least they use some form of rational thought and analytical thinking (despite making some assumptions of faith here and there). to suggest that their philosophical theories are “just as bad” as dogmatic religious doctrines is a stretch imho though.
(sorry, this was a long one and i didn't know how to shorten it more).
thanks for the question SuitedPair! there was a lot in this post but i can elaborate on parts if anyone is interested.