Philosophy Study,July 2017,Vo1.7,No.7,350-355 doi:l0.17265/2159.5313/2017.07.002 The Theory of Ideas and the Process of Thought Formation RobertaRio Member of the German Federation of Historians Francesco Alessandrini Independent Scholar Twenty four centuries after Plato’s formulation of the theory of ideas,it is revealed to us today in all its modernity and far-sightedness.In fact,confronting some of the elements of the theory with recent scientiic discoveries,one fcannot be anything but astounded by the magnificent capacity of the Athenian philosopher’s investigations of the perceptible and metaphysical world,a true precursor of the times. Keywords:theory of ldeas,principles of formation,thought formation,Plato At the centre of this our contribution,we place the Platonic concept of ideas,intimately connected to the concept of science.For Plato,science is of its nature perfect,and as such the object of his investigations cannot be the things of the world,comprehended by the senses which are imperfect and changeable:sensory experiences are de facto subjective. The object of science is ideas,unique and perfect models of the world which Plato placed in Hyperuranius or“above the heavens’’(from the Greek I=J兀£poup6lv o ,composed of I=J兀宅p above e o0pdvtog heavens). To each thing existing in the perceptible world,there is a corresponding idea or rather an unchangeable model from which it originated. Plato recognised two categories of idea:ideas of values(ethical principles,concepts such as beauty,justice etc.1 and mathematical ideas(arithmetic and geomety)r.0n the walls of the Academy was written,“Let no—one ignorant of geometry enter here.”For Plato,mathematics is the prelude to philosophy,a divine science which bestows order and harmony to the world,and also the ability to understand it.According to the testimony of Plutarch,the philosopher said God always uses geometry.For Plato,the world was ruled by mathematical laws: In fact Aristoteles reports that by ideas Plato meant what Pythagoras meant by numbers. Ideas respect a hierarchical order,at the summit of which is placed“The Good.’’ Discovering the world of ideas.Plato thus discovered transcendence or in other words an ultra sensory sDhere not belonging to the material world.Ideas are transcendent and universal,an objective reality independent of our mind.an eternal order of forms and values. Even if it is not given to us to understand ideas through the senses,we may nevertheless know them,or better,recognise them.In fact,according to the philosopher,the soul,during the phases in which it exists ROberta Rio.Ph.D..historian and member of the German Federation of Historians,Austria;main research fields:Develop of the New Historica1 Method--Implementation of the Classical Historical Method with New Elements and Capabilities Speciifcally Required at This Stage ofthe Human History. Fmncesco Alessandrini,Eng.,engineer and ree researcher,Itfaly;main research field:Thought and Consciousness. First published on February,5th 20 1 7 on WWW.academia.edu. THE THEORY OF IDEAS AND THE PROCESS OF THOUGHT FORMATION 35 1 disconnected from a bod%lives in the world of ideas,where it can contemplate them.At the moment in which it incarnates,it retains a vague memory of them,which little by little becomes clearer,thanks to the experiences inMatter. In everyday speech,an idea is a product of the mind,a mental representation--idea as a synonym of hought.But whatt is thought?For Plato,the idea is a universal reality which comes before thought:Without the idea,there cannot be thought. The general meaning we attribute to the word idea isks rmisleading us.If we resort to its original meaning, however,everything soon becomes not only clearer but also harmonises with several scientific discoveries of helast century.t The Greek word Plato uses for idea is eidos(dao ̄),which,first of all,means form.Therefore,the idea is he torfm ofa thing. If,as far as what has been writen so far,we substiutted he tword idea(for us a synonym ofthought)for orm,we fwould not be able to distinguish whether it regarded philosophical principles of the fourth century BC or some contemporary scientific discoveries relative to the function of Matter. Ideas pinpoint in the matrix forms or simply matrices,that something which furnishes Matter with a rameworfk with which to organise itself.The matrices are pieces of geometrical information which ranstmit the way in which Matter organises,and he Unitverse manifests,itsel ̄They are imperceptible geometrical forms,or, in other words,the framework behind all things visible and invisible;behind thoughts,all forms of life and every imaginable structure:from the atomic nucleus,to the cells,and as far as the galaxies.Some of hese-t-which we define more appropriately as symbols--are that Sacred Geomety rwhich is at he tbasis of the construction of he tUniverse. The etmolyogy of the word symbol suggests in part how Sacred Geometry works.The Greek word symbolon(o'rrtl3o ̄ov)is composed of the adverb syn(oUV),which means together,and the verb ,,0(pq九 ), which means put(throw,launch).Reading these two words together suggests that the symbol is something which unites,which is capable of constructing a bridge between two different realities. In fact,the matrices are that something which functions as an intermediary between the information of a hing-t-which resides in the Creator--and its manifestation,a kind of invisible weave on the basis of which Matter organises itself until it becomes visible in the objects of Creation. They reside in Hyperuranius--wrote Plato_一Or rather they are present in Creation.but they belong to none of he ditmensions of Creation itself."They do not constiutte any ype of tMatter,not even the most subtle and etherea1.The matrices are like containers:When Matter places itself inside them,it assumes a determined form and organisation which conditions the scope and the function of it.Like a cake tin into which we pour a runny mixture;if we change the cake tin(matirx orfm),the cake(Matter)will change its form-high,low,rectangular, round,heart—shaped etc. The matrix forms are organised according to a hierarchical orde ̄It should be noted that this point also coincides wih tthe Platonic theory.The first level is represented by what we call principles offormation (information and activating principles)and they are in fact the point of passage between the Creator and Creation.There are 3 8 and they represent all the fundamental possibilities of Creation,in other words,nothing can be realised which has not already been foreseen by these principles. 352 THE THEORY OF IDEAS AND THE PR0CESS OF THOUGHT F0RMATION There exists a geometrical representation of the principles of formation which many of you certainly know: The Flower of Life.There are 37 points of intersection of all the circles or portions of circle which make up the internal part of the flower,while the external circle which encloses the flower itself is the 3 8th element. Geometrical representation of the 37+1 principles of formation:The Flower of Life. The moment a matrix is recalled,a morphogenetic field is activated,in other words,a zone in time and space,in which the Matter present is forced to organise itself in a certain way.Something of the kind was sensed by the English biologist Rupert Sheldrake.Take,for example,our own personal morphogenetic field which guides the complete construction of our bodies,its development,modifications,and death,attempting to continuously organise the Matter which gradually enters its zone of influence:food,air,emotional matter etc. Everything starts with a thought or better the eidos or idea which is form,geometrical information. Creation is a thought of the Creator,just the same as our own individual reality,which is a creation that springs constantly from our thoughts.How often do we hear experts talk repetitively of personal development!Well, one of the first to tell US that was Plato even if it is only now that we are beginning to understand the profound implications of his theory. But what is thought?What is the mechanism of thought formation? In reply to these questions,we give the following brief report of our contribution,which we presented in Sweden in October 20 1 6 at the congress L/fe and Mind--Scientfc Chalilenges entitled‘‘The Process of Thought Formation and the Mechanic of Intuition.’’ In general,a thought is constructed via the following path of formation: (1)a sensory stimulus,in other words,something we can see,hear,taste etc.,activates our mind that then (2)goes to search among the matrices which it habitually consults for the most appropriate or fthe sensory stimulus it has received. (3)The appropriate matrix forms are then recalled and activated through a form of creative resonance. This gives life to a field,the SO—called thought—field. (4)In this field,those particles of emotional matter are recalled i.e.,emotionally charged memories,which harmonise best with the stimulus of the field jtse1 f THE THEORY 0F IDEAS AND THE PROCESS OF TH0UGHT FORMAT10N 353 (5)Within the thought—ifeld,re—elaboration of the emotional matter takes place,drawn into action by the matrix forms.They have sole responsibility for the ifeld.The re—elaborated emotional matter becomes,in effect, the new thought,which,in this phase,we can define as thought—memory.It is,in fact,the result of the interaction between the forms and the emotional material recalled.It should be noted that a thought cannot exist without making use of the preceding emotional memories.From this,you will understand the importance of having new experiences which allow US to register new memories(new emotional matter)or recall diferent matrices.Conversely,we would always move within a closed and repetitive circuit of thoughts,and SO generate an etemal realiyt of sameness. At this point,there are two possibilities:the thought—memory becomes a conscious thought(6)or it remains an unconscious thought(9).In both cases,however,the new thought manifests itself at a physical leve1. Conscious level (6)The new htought-memory is sent to the physical body. (7)This activates hte cerebral circuits.Their activation leads to a conscious thought,or rather,that which we are normally used to considering‘"thought.” (8)At htis point,the htought,which has become conscious,is going to exert a conscious or an nuconscious influence at a physical and energetic level of the body Unconscious level (9)The thought-memory establishes itself in the emotional memory corpus wihtout reaching the cerebral circuits.This situation corresponds,in most cases,to the formation of nuconscious thoughts,a topic of prime importance in the study of modem psychology. (1 0)Even though they are unconscious,these thoughts are capable of conditioning our healht and the energy status of our body.Often htey are responsible ofr the generation of physical and mental disease. (1)sensory (2)activation of (3)recall and activation ofthe stimulus ———+ mental body ———+ forms which go to constitute the thought-field Phases of the path of thought formation. 354 THE THEORY oF IDEAS AND THE PRoCESS OF TH0UGHT FORMATION As a conclusion and a synthesis of this to our contribution,we wish to dwell briefly on the following three points. (1)That which we generally understand to mean thought is not what Plato meant by idea even if idea and thought are closely connected.The Platonic idea,in other words,the matrix forms,in fact,determine the formation of a certain thought rather than another.And from that thought--conscious or unconscious--a process of creation is activated,or rather,a manifestation in reality.Furthermore we have said that a thought is always activated by a sensory stimulus:It should be noted that the word eidos(ei6o ̄)from which the word idea derives,originates in the verb eidon(ei6ov)which ifrst of all means I see.Sight is one of the possible senses. (2)Plato tells us that ideas—_or the matrix forms--are not cognisable through the senses but only through a process of recognition of the soul which,via the experience in Matter,remembers having seen them in its disincamate phase.Plato tells us that knowledge is in fact,re—cognising/remembering.The etymology confirms the Platonic thought:the“aoristo”—_the historic past tense in some languages-of eidon(ei6ov)in ancient Greek is oida(oi6a).Being a historic past oida(oi6a)should mean“I saw”but in fact it means I know in the present tense.Thus the verb oida(oiifa)gives us some more information about“know”which confimsr the Platonic thought:“I know because I have seen,I have seen therefore I know.”Also in other modem languages, such as English.the expression“I see’’is used as an equivalent of“I know.’’ Eidon(ei6ov)on the other hand derives from an Indoeuropean root“Vid”attested in the Latin“video,”in English“wit”(that is“to now”)and kin Sanskrit“veda.”The Vedas,as we now,are sacrked texts of nowlkedge for the Indian people,books of awareness and wisdom. 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