MONDAY, 15 MARCH 2004
A rediscovery of an ancient idea: Plato’s philosophy of “ideas” that are universal and timeless, the “original reality” and the “empirical reality” as manifestation of the original “form” or idea. “I, now” is thus a manifestation of the original reality/form/pattern/concept namely, “human”.
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At the beginning we are only ideas in each other’s heads. Only later do we become more concrete manifestations of who we really are.
SATURDAY, 20 MARCH 2004
To grapple with someone’s ideas is to engage with the spirit of that person.
Can it be said that to exist without proof is still to exist?
To have existed, without proof in the present for past existence, is still to have existed.
“Proof of existence”, in the sense of something that had been created by the one that existed, is an object in itself yet related to the creator of the proof – proving the past existence of something or someone, but also having an existence of its own.
It can therefore be said that Plato’s works are proof of his past existence, but the “Works of Plato” are also objects that exist independently of its creator … in practice if not in theory. I can read “Plato’s” ideas without ever being aware of “Plato-as-creator of ideas” or without ever having known the person that was called “Plato”.
Nevertheless, to engage with someone’s ideas is to communicate with the “spirit” of that person.
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