The goal of the philosophical quest is to arrive at the most fundamental truth by which all else can be known, writes Dr Gaven Kerr
Philosophy originated with a group of thinkers known as the Pre-Socratics. They were known as such because they worked or flourished prior to Socrates, so prior to 469/70BC. The man credited with being the first philosopher is Thales of Miletus.
Thales was interested in astronomy, and he was reputed to have predicted an eclipse. One day he was walking along consumed with interest in the sky, so much so that he fell into a well directly in front of him. Some milkmaids nearby found this funny, as who could be so foolish to miss the well? The irony here is that it was precisely because Thales was not foolish but focused on matters more profound than the well in front of him that he fell in.
A similar moral can be drawn from Plato’s myth of the cave in the Republic. Here Plato asks us to think of a group of people imprisoned from birth in a cave. Behind them is a fire and between them and the fire their captors parade objects from the outside world so that the objects’ shadows are cast on the back wall of the cave.
The prisoners naturally assume that the shadows are real objects and that the voices of their captors are those of the shadows. A lucky prisoner escapes and makes his way out of the cave. At first, he is dazzled by the light and so can only come out of the cave at night. Gradually as his eyes acclimate, he is finally able to see reality as it is. Compared with his life in the cave, the life outside the cave is much more profound and significant. Yet returning to the cave, he will find himself not only blinded by the darkness but shunned by his fellow prisoners and treated as an outcast; indeed, his fellows will likely try to kill him if he attempts to free them from the cave.
Concerned
As with Thales so with Plato, the philosopher, represented by the freed prisoner, is concerned with the deepest of realities, so much so that it takes him away from the world of everyday experience to what lies behind that experience. The goal of the philosophical quest is to arrive at the most fundamental truth by which all else can be known.
There are truths that we can discover about created reality, and the knowledge of such truths is a good for human beings. We are animals capable of knowing the truth about reality. Christ reveals himself to us as the truth (John 14:6); those who hear the truth hear Christ’s voice (John 18:37). Christ is divine, and through him all things were made (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16). All created things are a participation in the being of God, so that all created truths manifest the divine truth, which Christ reveals. The mysteries of the starry heavens, the dazzling light beyond the cave, these are but imitations of the divine truth itself. The philosophical journey out of the cave has as its goal not simply a knowledge of created reality, but ultimately a knowledge of its uncreated source – God Himself.
Devotion
Very early in the history of Christianity, philosophers came to realise that the Christian devotion to God as the ultimate end of human life incorporates the philosophical quest for wisdom. In Christ, the wonder which characterises the beginning of all philosophy finds its satisfaction, since Christ is the truth itself. This is something that the early convert, St Justin Martyr (born circa 100AD), realised. St Justin was himself a follower of Platonism, but when he discovered Christ he converted holding that it is in Christ that the philosophical quest is brought to completion. Having converted, Justin retained the dress of the philosopher; for him the philosophical life was not eradicated in Christianity but perfected.
The stories of Thales, Plato, St Justin Martyr and many more disclose to us an unbroken line of continuity whereby the philosophical quest leads us to a consideration and, in the case of the saints, a devotion to God as the primary cause. When we come to follow Christ, we abandon something of our old life and put on the new man (Ephesians 4:24). But we do not abandon our humanity, only our sin. Our humanity, and with it our rational capacities, remains intact and indeed perfected in Christ. Hence, in Catholicism there is no denial of reason; rather the rational life is completed and perfected within the life of the believer. As St Thomas Aquinas points out in the Summa Contra Gentiles (Book. 1, Chapter 2), the pursuit of wisdom unites man to God in friendship. What this entails is that the philosophical life can be part and parcel of a life of holiness, and in fact contributes to the life of the saint; we can look to the fathers and doctors of the Church for evidence of this fact.
Men like St Justin Martyr, St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Anselm, St Albert the Great, St Bonaventure, St Thomas Aquinas etc., saw in Christ the ultimate goal of the pursuit of wisdom. Philosophy is so strong within the Catholic tradition because Catholic philosophers have seen it as a way to holiness and thus a way to God.
Dr Gaven Kerr is a lecturer in philosophy at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. This article is part of a new regular column where philosophers from Maynooth Drs Gaven Kerr and Philip Gonzales offer accessible introductory thoughts on perennial themes in the history of philosophy and the Catholic tradition.