Beyond Pure Forms: Reclaiming Platonic Power Through Evolutionary Lattices
I'm an amateur philosopher
epistemic status warning: Talking about academic philosophy without being an academic philosopher.
The concept of Platonic Forms—perfect, unchanging blueprints for everything we perceive—has always been a philosophical heavyweight. It offers an appealing sense of order, suggesting that behind the fleeting appearances of our world lies a deeper, more ideal reality. Idealized beauty, goodness, grace, quality-without-a-name, and so on. Yet, fully embracing a realm of pure Forms can feel like a significant metaphysical leap for many (myself included). You have to assume this other, ethereal realm exists. What if we could appreciate some of the mechanisms Platonism describes without necessarily adopting its full ontological claims?
Perhaps there's a valuable perspective to be found in considering these shared forms, cultural categories not as strictly defined hierarchies, but more like adaptable, interconnected webs. Each group, through its unique experiences, might develop fundamental understandings that resonate with others.
It seems plausible that these cultural mechanisms aren't entirely arbitrary. Instead, they might be subject to a kind of selective process, much like in biological evolution. If a group's way of understanding the world consistently leads to detrimental outcomes—say, misidentifying poisonous plants or failing to anticipate threats—that framework may simply not endure. The "effectiveness" of a cultural understanding could, in a sense, be tested by the practical realities of survival and flourishing. A group that, for example, develops robust categories for identifying edible versus toxic flora might simply have a better chance of lasting than one that doesn't. The group may develop a sense of “beauty” out of this, but the sense is grounded in fitness.
When we talk about something like "base classes" for taste—like sweet, sour, bitter—these fundamental categories might not be reflections of strict Platonic ideals. Instead, their widespread recognition could stem from the idea that the underlying cognitive and biological mechanisms that produce them have been selected for over long periods.
Consider how, in biology, similar solutions often emerge independently to similar problems. The development of eyes, for instance, has occurred multiple times in different lineages because the ability to detect light is incredibly advantageous. In a similar vein, perhaps certain core conceptual categories—like the distinction between a "tool" and a "natural object," or "friend" and "foe"—are widely shared because they represent highly effective ways for our brains to organize and interact with the world. These might be common "solutions" to recurring adaptive challenges that humans have faced.
This way of looking at things might allow us to appreciate some of the observations made by Platonic thought—such as the apparent commonality of certain fundamental concepts across cultures—without needing to posit a realm of pre-existent Forms. It suggests that these shared understandings might be less about reaching for an abstract ideal and more about convergent evolutionary paths to practical and effective ways of navigating reality.
Furthermore, it's interesting to consider how our minds, as social creatures, often seem to default to explaining phenomena by attributing agency. When confronted with something powerful and inexplicable, like a thunderstorm, it might be a natural cognitive shortcut to imagine a powerful entity behind it, rather than seeking complex meteorological explanations. This tendency to "personify" could be another example of an adaptive mental faculty that's been exapted for cultural and explanatory purposes.
Ultimately, this perspective isn't about dismissing Platonic ideas entirely, but perhaps about re-framing some of their observable effects through an evolutionary lens. It suggests that what might look like echoes of perfect Forms could also be the robust, tried-and-true solutions forged in the crucible of human experience and group survival.