Metaphysical Dualism, Subjective and Objective Idealism: Freedom and Spontaneity

Ben Lazare Mijuskovic

Abstract

Platoâs position is initiated in the Theaetetus in which his is metaphysically dualistic, as he posits both the reality of an external world replete with extended material substances and immaterial active psyches. Platoâs doctrine of a paradigmatic soul however shifts from a metaphysically dualistic ontology to a more epistemic context, as he introduces a threefold conceptual distinction between (a) physical sensations; (b) immaterial conceptions; and (c) the soul, as it expresses an inherent capacity for making intentional subjective judgments regarding âobjects,â i.e., conceptual meanings. âSocrates: And do you accept my description of the activity of thinking? Theaetetus: And how do you describe it?â Socr. âAs a discourse that the mind self-consciously carries on with itself about any subject it is considering. You must take this explanation â¦ I have a notion that, when the mind is thinking, it is simply talking to itself, asking questions and answering them, and saying Yes or No. When it reaches a decisionâ-which may come slowly or in a sudden rush when doubt is over and the two voices affirm the same thing, then we call that âjudgement.â Thus, I should describe thinking as discourse, and judgment, as a statement pronounced not aloud to someone else, but silently to oneâs self.â Theaet: âI agreeâ (Theaetetus, 189E). Within Platoâs soul, there are immediate sensations; active mediating, i.e., relational thoughts; and intentional judgments constituting the concluding act. But notice, thinking is a temporal process, and the intentional act is the final teleological end, literally its purpose. This paradigm of reflexive self- consciousness is very different from the passive perceptual, sensory, empirical, behavioral model of a stimulus-response-cause-and effect reactions. Socrates also anticipates Aristotleâs tabula rasa causal reflective explanation. Socrates: Imagine then for the sake of argument, that our minds contain a block of wax, which in this or that individual may be smaller or larger, and composed of wax that is comparatively pure or muddy, and harder in some, softer in others, and sometimes the right consistency. Theaet: âVery well.â Socr. âLet us call it the gift of the Musesâ mother, Memory, and say that whenever we wish to remember something we see or hear in our own minds, we hold this wax under the perceptions and imprint it on our wax, as we might stamp the impression of a seal-ring. Whatever is so imprinted we remember and know so long as the image remains: whatever is rubbed off or has not succeeded in leaving an impression we have forgotten and do not know.â Theaet. âSo 5be it.â Theaetus, 191 E-D. Platoâs position supports metaphysical dualism, rationalism, active reflexive self-consciousness, subjective and objective idealism, and it opposes metaphysical materialism, and passive perceptual empiricism. In the chapter, the following thinkers are discussed because of their dependence on the intrinsic activity of self-consciousness under various principles and guises, including the concept of Spontaneity in Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Husserl, Sartre, and Stace; Emanationism in Plotinus and Proclus; Ecstasy in Augustine and in Sartre; Dynamism in Leibniz, Freud and Jung: qualitas occulta in Schopenhauer and Joseph Conrad; Intentionality in Brentano ad Husserl, etc. and all aligned against the scientific determinisms of the empirical sciences.

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Chapter 3 Metaphysical Dualism, Subjective and Objective Idealism: Freedom and Spontaneity

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History

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Chapter 3 Metaphysical Dualism, Subjective and Objective Idealism: Freedom and Spontaneity

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History