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 Mason's
Meditations
If
you're looking for something to chew over, some thoughtful seeds
for mental cultivation, bookmark this page for Jeff Mason's monthly
meditations. To think in or take away...
Number
Thirty: Depth and Surface
Things
are not always what they appear to be. This is a truism of philosophy.
In fact, philosophy began with the perception that there is more
to the world and the human heart than meets the eye. What meets
the eye, or the ear, is just the surface of things. The inquiring
mind must delve beneath the surface to get to the reality that underlies
all the appearances. Plato identified a world of Forms, invisible
entities that make up true reality. The world of the senses, the
visible world, is but a snare and distraction. If he had his way,
Plato would have us live entirely in the world of the Forms, for
then we should grasp the unchanging reality of all things.
When
philosophers like Plato speak of reality, they want to speak of
it as immune to all the variations that plague the surface world.
The Numbers of Pythagoras, Plato’s Forms, Aristotle’s
Unmoved Mover, the Atoms of Epicurus, St. Augustine’s God and
Descartes’ Substance all remain the same despite the changes
we see around us. When we delve beneath the surface, we get to the
essence of things, that without which they would not be what they
are. I suppose it was meant to be comfort to us creatures of a day
to realize that underneath it all, there is something solid, a metaphysical
Reality.
In
life, too, there are a depth and surface. Things are not what they
appear. The person you trust most in the world betrays you. You
find you do not know yourself very well either, discovering your
own self-deception and unconscious motives. You learn that sometimes
people appear friendly, but are really filled with envy. They are
nice to your face but stab you in the back. Whom do you trust? Can
you even trust yourself? To stay at the level of appearances will
make anyone a sucker ripe for exploitation. To mistrust everyone
for what a few have done to you is also a mistake.
In
the political world, too, there is a depth and surface. To some
who live in the advanced industrial countries, the surface of life
can be quite pleasant, but this reality is nothing like that of
living in war and drought torn lands where the vast majorities live
in poverty, disease and ignorance due to the greed of big business
and the consumptive lifestyles of the richer parts of the world.
These people can, if they want, ignore the pain and suffering of
the world and, if lucky, look around at an acceptable mundane life.
There is no one starving on the streets where they live, not much
shooting or stabbing, and quiet personal pleasures to anticipate.
The depth is the horror, and the surface is the social scene that
unfolds before their daily eyes. Others lives in the horrors, and
for them this reality is the surface. After awhile in this state,
everyone forgets how people can live together in relative peace
and harmony.
It
is good to realize that we cannot take our experiences at face value.
We cannot always trust the ideas we derive from appearances. Science
is a good example of how strange the universe really is, having
little to do with how it appears to us, especially on a cosmic or
micro scale. We cannot always trust others or detect a truly good
will. We should not confuse a lucky social surface with the deep
injustice of the world. On the other hand, depth is not all there
really is. Appearances have their own reality for living human beings,
and no amount of explaining them away by pointing to another Reality
will satisfy us. It is a mistake to stop with appearances and look
no further, but it is an equal mistake to dwell in Reality in such
a way that the appearances disappear. The metaphysician has to eat.
Sceptics of the human heart must form some relations to others.
Seeing the reality of injustice in the world, we must not forget
to be just to those with whom we share a superficial social surface.
The surface, after all, is the surface of the depth, and the depth
is the depth of the surface. Remember the connection.
.
Mason's
Meditations will next be updated early March 2003
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Previous
Meditations
29.
28.
27.
26.
25.
24.
23.
22.
21.
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
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