Page 72 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

B. The application of the theory of Ideas to natural Phenomena.
In view of the definition of the Idea, three doctrines have resulted:

(a) The doctrine of the real and unreal.

The things which we see around us are the phenomena of nature, they belong to the earthly
realm, they are only copies (Eidola) of their prototypes (paradeigmata), the Ideas and noumena,
which dwell in the heavenly realm. The Ideas are real and perfect, but the phenomena are unreal
and imperfect; and it is the function of philosophy to enable the mind to rise above the
contemplation of the visible copies of Ideas, and advance to a knowledge of the Ideas
themselves. (The Phaedrus 250). There is however, something common between them, because
the phenomena partake of the Idea (metechei). This participation is an imitation (mimesis), but it
is so imperfect that natural phenomena fall far short of Ideas. (Parmenides 132 D) (Aristotle's
Metaphysics I, 6; 987b, 9).

(b) The doctrine of the Nous or World Soul.

This teaches that the universe are living animals and that they are endowed with the most perfect
and intelligent souls; that if God had made the world as perfect as the nature of matter allowed,
that He must have endowed it with a perfect soul. This soul acts as mediator between the Ideas
and natural phenomena, and is the cause of life, motion, order, and knowledge in the universe.
(Timaeus, 30, 35).

(c) The doctrine of a Demiurgos in Creation (Cosmology)

In the myth of creation found in the Timaeus, we find the doctrine on Creation, as it is ascribed
to Plato's authorship, as follows:

Out of chaos, which was ruled by necessity, God the Demiurgos or Creator, made order, by
fashioning the phenomena of matter according to the eternal prototypes (i.e., the Ideas) in as
perfect a manner, as the imperfection of matter would allow. He next created the Gods, and
ordered them to fashion the body of man, while He himself, made the soul of man, from the
same material as that of the world soul. The soul of man is a self-moving principle and is
responsible for life, motion and consciousness in the body. (Myth of creation in Timaeus; Wm.
Turner's Hist. of Philosophy, p. 109–110).

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Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook