Holiday Form of the Good card

There's a great deal of essaying in this card! We essay much; not sure how much we succeed. Upon card open, one reads: This holiday season, may we all organize our thought-as-a-whole (ideas, feelings and the Light shining through all things [aka: The Form of the Good] -- all interacting imperfectly but still meaningfully together) better and better around The Form of The Good! And both the top flap and backside of the card then go at great pains to discuss the relationship between Plato's "Republic" and Bartleby Willard's "Something Deeperism". You can see this great effort below. If you want a subtler version of this basic idea, allow us to suggest "An Academic Holiday - Revised Version". Top: Cover: “Antrum Platonicum”. This is a 1604 print by Jan Saenredam from the original (now lost) painting by Dutch artist Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562 - 1638). The print depicts Plato’s cave analogy, described in Plato’s “Republic”. The people in the cave think Reality is the shadowy confused existence they perceive. Only the lucky few who are forced into the real Light know the glory of Reality as It really is. In Plato’s analogy, the lucky few are those philosophers who’ve advanced in wisdom to the point that they can study the Forms (not mere human notions about beauty, truth, goodness, and justice; but the actually essences of Beauty … ). The Form of the Good he likens to the sun: as the sun lights the visible world, the FotG lights up the world of pure thought, making all the other Forms and, eventually, Itself visible to the well-developed philosopher. Cheerfully setting to one side unimportant details like whether or not there exists perfect immutable ideas of things like “Beauty” or “mud”; the Something Deeperist agrees with Plato’s main point that the only hope for us human-things is to organize ourselves better and better around the Light within that alone knows that and in what way it is True to say “we are all in this together” (are we taking some liberties? Plato doesn’t care; he’s in a better place—one where he Knows we are all in this together). See back of card for more on Plato’s “Republic” and B. Willard’s “Something Deeperism”. First Century Roman Mosaic of Plato and his students at his school (The Academy [founded 387 BC in Athens by Plato], destroyed in 86 BC by the Roman dictator/idiot Sulla). Plato’s “Republic” and B. Willard’s “Something Deeperism” discussed on back of card. Back: In “The Republic” Plato reasoned that humans had three parts: the reason-loving, the honour-loving, and the appetites-loving parts; and that of these three only the reason-loving part was fit to rule one’s thought as a whole (the honour-loving and appetites-loving parts just lust mindlessly after their respective goods; only the reason-loving part can step back and take the long view). However, the reason-loving part doesn’t have it all figured out. What can guide the reason-loving part so that it makes decisions that are truly better? Well, how about the essence of Goodness? How about a Form of Goodness Itself? If the reason-loving part could study that, then it would have a standard of Goodness to guide its specific questions about which thought/action path would be better. Otherwise, it keeps floundering about chasing what “seems better” in any given moment. Plato’s ideas in “The Republic” are basically the outline of Something Deeperism, although Something Deeperism is a little quicker to critique the reason-loving part, as it also mindlessly lusts after its respective good (more and more intellectual well-foundedness). Accordingly, Something Deeperism suggests that all aspects of thinking/acting should organize themselves better and better around the Light within (aka: The Form of the Good / God / Buddha Nature — we’re pointing imperfectly but not therefore meaninglessly towards what is prior to ideas and feelings), growing evermore aware, clear, honest, competent, kind, joyfully sharing. In this way one can gain more and more whole-being insight into that and in what way it is True to say “Love is All”. For more on these topics, see From-Bartleby and PureLoveShop.com. Author: B. Willard; Editor: A. Whistletown; Copyright: AM Watson