12/08/2007
Eric Voegelin, Plato and Aristotle, vol. 3 - Order and History
Timaeus and Critias, chap. 5, pp. 170-214
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When we arrive at Plato’s Timaeus and Critias, we have not gone beyond the idea of the individual soul as the
"polis-writ-large." Plato’s use of myth enlarges our understanding of political reality. The Egyptian myth told by Solon deals with the
issue of the historical embodiment of the ideal society in Plato’s Republic. Critias, who is present in the Timaeus dialogue,
through anamnesis recounts his version of the tale learned at youth through the elder Critias. Both the Egyptian myth in Timaeus and
myth of the Atlantis in Critias are a-historical and yet true. The unconscious depth of the collective transmission of the myth from
youth to old represents the nature of the myth—that it is neither a subject nor an object, but a symbol of the soul with its own authority. As
Voegelin explains, "The myth itself authenticates its truth because the forces which animate its imagery are at the same time its subject
matter. A myth can never be 'untrue' because it would not exist unless it had its experiential basis in the movements of the soul which it
symbolizes." (184) These spiritual movements expressed in symbols communicate the process of being and becoming; of searching for truth in the depth
of the unconscious and in this "becoming" increasing one's consciousness of being in relation to the divine.
As Voegelin states, the myth in Timaeus operates "at the intersection of the ascent of the unconscious and the forming action of
consciousness." (194) The cosmos made in the image of the eternal represents "being-in-becoming," eternal and temporal, changeless and changing. In
the Republic, the emphasis was on the ascent to the Idea of the Good, the Agathon; in Timaeus the emphasis is on the descent to the actual
polis. Because the cosmos is intelligible its divine ground is transparent, but only in myth. The tension of existence in the intermediate
between being and becoming is given symbolic form in the myth. God has created a good order by linking nous with psyche and the body—a living
creature with soul and intelligence. As a symbol of the incarnation, the Demiurge is the process itself of being in the intermediate, of man's being
in a state of becoming towards the divine substance. Only the depth of our unconscious psyche can render this intelligible. We know our soul has a
divine ground and living in time is the process by which our soul is ordered toward eternal being. Our experience of this is self-authenticating.
Eros propels one toward the Agathon while Peitho, or persuasion, generates the embodiment of the good in descent to political reality. Since
being-space-genesis existed before the cosmos was created there is no ex nihilio Christian belief. Space or formlessness can submit to the
divine ordering nous through persuasion, and although man never reaches pure being, the state of becoming is permanent. Because the cosmos is in a
co-eternal state of becoming, the polis as a whole ought to follow, not merely a few elite philosopher-kings. The false Utopia of the Atlantis
in Critias checks our belief that Being can ever fully be realized in the polis. The rationality and planning of Atlantis is an internal
fall from the right order. As a counter-order, the semi-divine rulers of Atlantis possess divine lust in contrast to the divine wisdom of the true
Athenian order. There is hope because as the Royal Ruler in the Statesman can intervene and rescue the bad state, the Demiurge can reveal
the tension of the metaxy and need for divine substance.
In sum, Plato's ideal society in the Republic to be embodied in the historical reality of the Athenian polis needs the myth of Timaeus,
because nous and psyche, which are the human experiences of revelation in the unconscious, can only be rendered intelligible by myth. Divine
transcendence limits man's understanding. It is only in the spiritual depth of the unconscious that the divine ground of being is transparent, and
this experience of revelation can only be symbolized in myth. Through nous and psyche man can incorporate eternal being into the movements of the
soul and the polis. Persuasion is possible because the myth is self-validating—any man who opens his soul to the divine ground can experience nous
and a spiritual ordering. What follows is Plato's Laws as the empirical political reality of a polis enchanted by the divine spirit.
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