Platos Design Systems - Essay Example

The writer has presented his views about the history of astronomy and cosmology in a novel form yet covered all bases. Plato and Aristotle are researched well and written about along with some other scientists. “In The Sleepwalkers, Koestler traced what he thought to be the mainstream of the development of science through exquisitely researched and written biographies of some of science's leading figures.” (Adler)

The author is of the opinion that science’s heroic time was finished by the third century B.C. there began a downward spiral from the time of Aristotle and Plato. “On the watershed that separates the heroic age of science from the age of its decline, stand the twin peaks, Plato and Aristotle.’ (KoestleFirst published in the United States of America By MacMillan 1959)

Plato writes in his book ‘Republic’ that stars form a section of the ‘visible world’ which is not the real or actual world. While being very beautiful they are a ‘copy of the real world’.  For Plato real world is the ‘world of ideas.  He would rather study the stars in abstract than find about their rotation and revolution. Only by paying full attention to the intellectual can we actually understand and capture the essence of astronomy.

Plato was a very prominent scientist till the last years of the twelfth century. But he lost to Aristotle for two hundred years. Plato did make a comeback but both these scientists complemented each other.

For Plato change goes hand in hand with deterioration and he describes the creation as a “ story of the successive emergence of even lower and less worth forms of life…” the ladder which he climbs down starts from god to ‘the world of reality which is made up of ‘perfect form and ideas’. Then comes ‘the world of appearance’ that is a pale reproduction of the real world.

Plato believes in the philosophy of decline and devolution rather than that of growth by ascent. To judge whether Plato is sarcastic or is to be believed word for word or symbolically is very difficult. Plato hated change and looked down upon the idea of evolution and changeability. The middle ages echoed this along with its simultaneous desire for everlasting and unchanging flawlessness. The author is very critical of Plato and his view seems like a tunnel vision phenomenon, but he feels that this is ‘what he came to mean to a long row of future generations- the one-sided shadow he threw. ‘Plato did make a different impact in the fifteenth century on the contrary track.

 In the Chapter ‘The Rise of the Circular Dogma ‘ the author discusses Plato’s influence on the study of astronomy or the lack of it. Plato had a fixed view of the form and motions of the cosmos i.e. to be perfect spheres with faultless motions in flawless circles at a constant speed. This was Plato’s jinx on astronomy because for the future scientist this was a challenge that kept them busy for the subsequent two thousand years. It was Kepler who proved that the planets move in elliptical orbits. This ‘circular philosophy’ is the only illustration of a mistake prominent for its tenacity for such a long time.

Plato symbolically suggests using semi –metaphorical language but it is Aristotle who is the proponent of the ‘idea of circular motion to a dogma of astronomy.’

 For Plato the figurative and the actual world amalgamate and run into each other. The main concern is the world of thought about thought itself. . It raises the thought in mind about ‘the relation of logic to life.’ How we should balance reason and science is the main theme.

The "sleepwalkers" of Mr. Koestler's title are the great figures in the history of modern cosmology- Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton… because they never quite know what they were doing. (Frankel)