One of the problems philosophers have long debated concerns the ontological status of the Platonic world of ideas. Aristotle proposed a solution that is fruitful as far as it goes, although it does not go far enough. His solution was that the idea is immanent in the object, a doctrine called hylomorphism. That is, the object is not material (hyle) only, but is also informed by the idea (morphe). Hence, when we see a material object, we know it by grasping its form.

Drawing on metaphysical insights from Benedict Spinoza and Vladimir Solovyov, Fr. Matthew Raphael Johnson in his essay The Logos and Metaphysics shows a way to rethink the problem. For Spnioza, ultimate reality is Substance, beyond space and time. Although infinite and beyond direct experience, man knows Substance by two of its modes: Extension and Thought. These modes are appearances. Fr. Johnson goes further and proposes the Logos as the source of ideas.

Extension

Extension refers to things in Space and Time. Hylomorphism, therefore, accounts for our knowledge of ideas in Space and Time. So, when I look at a banana tree, I experience its material aspects through the senses, while judging it to be a banana tree through the Intellect. Discussions of this sort usually stop at the spatial aspect. However, a deeper seeing will unveil the temporal aspects. I then understand the banana tree to be a living being, unfolding in time. I can see the processes of germination, growth, and fruition. A real seer, or rishi, will see even deeper into the interiority of the plant, its nutritive soul.

Thought



Since thought is temporal, but not spatial, we can grasp ideas in the mind apart from any objects in space. Fr. Johnson points out that the ideas form higher and higher interconnected systems. Hence, grasping an idea in isolation falls short of understanding its full reality. We need to see the idea in its relationship to other ideas horizontally and also vertically in its relationship to higher and more general ideas. These ideas do not exist on their own in some ethereal realm. Fr. Johnson writes, “The bearer of an idea … must be a person.”

Logos

Beyond space and time, is the Logos, which is “the interconnection of forces [ideas] that are not material, but, by the nature of reality, purely spiritual.” As we follow an idea in its ascent to ideas of a higher order, “we reach the most general and broadest idea, which must inwardly cover with itself all the others.” The ultimate idea is the Logos, the “Idea behind the forces that make up our sensate universe in its relative unreality.”

Relating this back to Rene Guenon, we would say the possibilities [ideas] of manifestation appear in the modes of Extension or Thought. The possibilities of non-manifestation, or non-being, are ideas in the mind of God, since the Logos is the “very Thought of the Father”.

Occult History

So now we have a clue to the hidden aspects of history. In the material world of Extension, we need to see beyond Space into Time. This brings us into Thought. From the ideas arising from sense experience, we need to dig deeper and understand it in both in its broader and more general aspects. In this way, we move beyond outward appearances to understand seemingly contingent and unrelated events as manifestations of a larger system. Ultimately, it must relate back to the Logos itself.

Since Solovyov insists that Ideas are forces, Action follows Thought. Hence, by understanding Thought, we will understand the world. Nothing happens by accident, but rather as the result of a deliberate act. Fr. Johnson writes, “the idea without a personality is evil, since that would be the opposite evil, an inert force, content without a vehicle, without will. Hence, forces that act in nature, at some level, must have a personality.”

Fr. Johnson relates this to the work of angels, since so-called natural forces have personalities. As an aside, we should point out that Valentin Tomberg asserts the same thing, If nothing else, this leads credence to the idea that Orthodox and Hermetic philosophy share common elements.

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