Outtake Version: Plato's Academy Holiday Card

The Revised Version of this card is a bit subtler. Our "Form of the Good Holiday" card has all this philosophizing and more. Combining those two factors, we decided this card should be shuffled off to Outtakes!, although of course if you like it, you can still buy it. I mean, it's OK or whatever. Oh, we give you an earful here. The card opens to: 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! But on the back, we hold forth: In “The Republic” Plato reasoned that humans had three parts: the reason-loving, the honor-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 honor-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. For more on these topics, see From-Bartleby and PureLoveShop.com. Author: B. Willard; Editor: A. Whistletown; Copyright: AM Watson