Plato the poetic
People may think my ideas belong in the grave
Let them languish listlessly in their lonely cave
An idea is after all, more real than real
Three-way soul orgy or not, this much is clear
Or maybe I'm just a copy of an 'ideal' seer
No wonder he believed in a 'world of ideas' - that is exactly what he was to countless later luminaries. His love of metaphor and other wordplay has come to overshadow his originality; but to me he's the fountainhead of nearly all Western thought. His pupil Aristotle draws heavily from him, even as he cuts his teacher down to size and brings him down from heaven to earth. Even so, Plato exemplifies his own theory almost magically. What he actually said (wrote) may not be literally true or even relevant anymore; but the ideas 'hidden' in his words are everything he claimed ideas to be - eternal, extra-sensory, even extraterrestrial! Playing with words was a necessary technique to convey his real message: don't pay attention to the words, they are but imperfect copies of reality. In retrospect, his ethereal "heaven" of ideas may appear a deeply flawed approach. But the concept of an underlying 'invisible' principle governing all matter is a pretty intuitive insight in its own right. If the world of senses really is a physical 'version' of eternal laws (something most people still believe), it won't be wrong to say that it hides at least as much as it reveals. Though we've learnt a lot about these laws since his time, we keep discovering new devils in the detail. Through the concept of ideas, he wanted his students to gain a deeper understanding of reality than senses would allow them. One among them, in turn reminded his master that senses are our first contact with the world; indeed the very foundation of all knowledge.
Aristotle the astute
A theory of theories is a handy device
Rational and irrational are First Mover's dice
If there's form in reality, we must analyse it
Science of substance is some serious shit
(There are no shortcuts, though you're free to quit)
On the poet's ideas, I built my matter dry
They were hard to accept, still harder to deny
Laws of motion, knowledge, body and soul
Ethical or not, I was out of control!
Probably the earliest known geek in Western history, he was never satisfied with an explanation until he could test it. Many men in history have been called 'father of science' and other such cheesy things, but few, if any, deserve the title more than him. The depth of his study may not have always matched the sheer breadth of subjects that he covered - politics, ethics, psychology, biology, physics, and of course metaphysics (a term he accidentally coined). But his lesson never was to know it all, it was to test any truth against concrete empirical evidence without being swayed by opinion or belief. His true legacy is indeed his 'logical' method. It may not be the solution to any specific problem, but it's still good enough as a general principle for decision-making. Unlike Plato, his lessons are still directly relevant in many academic and practical endeavors. He really was all about the love of knowledge, and it helped that he was wicked smart. Both these things were also true of the mild-mannered math whiz who next revolutionized Western thought after almost two millenia! (that's kinda slow, West)
Descartes the doubtful
Do you recall that simple rule of thumb?
Existence is cogito, ergo sum
Senses are weak, perception may deceive
Creator exists, if it you conceive
Accept only that of which you're sure
Reason, however, can't reason endure
The mind is simply imperceptible
Even though it controls the tangible
Sir Newton should thank me, not the apple
He once thought, that he was because he thought. This simple yet strong assertion of individual identity now mostly serves as the setup for many-a lame jokes (I think, therefore I am hungry). His reluctant demeanor didn't sit too well with his revolutionary thoughts, and in a sense he actualized his own idea of mind-body dualism. For a man who turned around entire systems of dogmatic learning, he was surprisingly timid and almost in doubt of his own existence. He was, after all, French (sorry René, your countrymen will carry this stereotype at least till the next "great" war; ask the Germanator raising hell in Hell about it). But this humble wizard's "doubt" was actually his motivation - the desire to not just know more but know for sure. He searched in the real world for the certainty and precision of mathematics - his vocation of choice. When he didn't find that, he tried to explain mind as being separate from matter; then ascribed 'magical' laws to the former and 'mechanical' ones to the latter. People have been doubting and debating his ideas ever since, which is probably what he would have wanted them to do.
I actually wrote the last one first, about a couple of years ago. It was the result of a lowly rhyme-off among a few poetry nerds during their time off. This was also among the first few acrostics I tried to write, and thankfully I've now found use for it. It's amazing how easily some stupid lines stick in memory for no rhyme or reason. But for me, rhyme is usually reason enough!
