[Buddha-l] FW: Soteriology of universals

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

jkirk schreef:
> Here's a bit from a post to the Indology list. 
>
> "The realist-nominalist debate over the epistemology and metaphysics of
> universals (sAmAnya) was/is as robust in India as it was/is in the West.
> However, in a few places Plato defends real universals not only for their
> explanatory and even causative power, but also for their soteriological
> power, by which meditation upon them (e.g., beauty, wisdom, goodness) is
> transformative of the mind/soul. "
>
> Would philosophers on this list kindly add to the discussion of the
> proposition? 
> And was it really started by Plato, or by earlier thinkers, and any in
> India? that meditation on beauty (leaving out wisdom or goodness for now) is
> a redemptive practice?
>
>
>   
Hi Joanna,
Plato was strongly influenced by Pythagoras, who was convinced of the 
eternity of numbers. This was in line with Parmenides who thought to 
have shown that only nonchanging entities could exist. We only know the 
popular dialogues of Plato and among those the Symposion is, as far as 
I'm aware, the only one about the soteriological force of beauty. I 
wouldn't be surprised if Diotima's story came from other sources and 
simply is retold by Plato because he just loved it, but no one can tell.
In the academic writings of Plato, mathematics seem to have been 
predominant. Contemplating these eternal laws turned the mind away from 
the body and earhtly matters. The stars moved according to these laws. 
So Plato's beauty is best represented by the harmonious, eternal, 
unchanging majestic movement of the stars. The Indian discussion about 
sAmAnyas seems  to me more down to earth.

Erik

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