The modern conception of philosophy is something far different from how the ancients viewed it. Whereas today people have the image of a closeted intellectual or a bearded fellow sipping brandy atop an ivory tower debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, in the past, philosophy was serious business, with serious consequences.

Looking back at the first great philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, we see that the nature of philosophy was more akin to what we now think of as science. The realm of inquiry for the philosopher was vast, and would often include diverse interests like biology, politics, art, human behavior, economics, and so forth.

Because the sphere of interest held by ancient man was so vast, it’s not surprising that many ‘theories of everything’ seemed to crop up all over the place. Theories that delved into man’s understanding of the world around him were particularly popular, as they sought to understand how we know the things we know.

The Platonic theory of Forms is one of the first ‘big ideas’ to come from politics, and it’s useful for explaining the ordered structure of being in the universe, and in particular how our minds categorize things as being of the same type, or things different from one another. What exists within the qualities of the Tiger rice cooker that we lump it together with the food processor, but not a van?

Plato presented this issue with a dramatic parable in which men chained up in a cave are able to view the world only in the form of shadows cast from a fire located behind them. They only see the reflections of things. In the same way, when you see a chair, or baby cribs, you’re seeing only a shadow of the true nature of the object.

In a realm beyond the immediately physical, Plato holds to the existence of ‘Forms’, ideal representations of everything that exists in the universe. In creating a chair, we are attempting to replicate this ultimate Form, but can never totally do so, unless we pursue the philosophical path.

Plato assures us that the philosopher’s life will instill us with a sense of wonder tempered by reason that will allow us to know the world in its true form, whether we’re dealing with justice, surfboards, or girls polo shirts. Want a lesson in how far removed from the truth your worldview possibly is? The Dialogues might lend you a clue.

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