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The Demiurge

September 26 2000 at 2:40 PM
 
from IP address 64.12.104.28


Response to Forms and the Allegory

 

Something I do not understand about Plato's theory of Forms is Plato's insistence in using a supreme being, the Demiurge, or God, as the controlling force of the Forms. Using the Divided Line to dissect this theory, I come to a dead end. The Divided Line cuts up the different stages in one's journey to Absolute knowledge, i.e., the world of the forms. First, we have Imagination, used only to refer to the images of actual sensory objects. Second lowest is the realm of Belief, which is based on tangible objects. Next, we have Thought, represented by mathematical reasoning. This mode of thought is second only to the highest stage of knowledge, the realm of forms.
Here we come to the problem. Putting all doubts of the forms existence aside, there is another conflict to address. Plato states that these Forms are arranged by the Demiurge, or God. But, by using Plato's own Standard Analysis of Knowledge, we find that there is no Justification for God. There is no Mathematical formula for God. Furthermore, there is no VISIBLE proof, which sets the theory of God even farther back on the divided line, into the lowest caste of knowledge, imagination. It's not a question of whether or not I believe in God. What I want to know is this; How can a figment of the lowest order of knowledge can be in charge of Absolute Knowledge, the highest possible knowledge?

 
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