Where does the soul go after death? Plato described the "true face" of the world with great imagination. He said that according to Socrates, the earth is an incomparably huge sphere hanging in the center of the stars, which consists of twelve regions with different colors, some of which are white and snowy, some are luxurious purple, and some are brilliant gold.
The area where humans (Greeks) live is actually just a small depression on the earth, which is full of air, just like the ocean we see is a depression full of water. Living in a place like this is like a frog in a well.
We don't realize that we live in a hole in the earth, but we think that we live above it, just like someone lives in the middle of the sea floor, but thinks that we live on the sea surface and see the sun and other celestial bodies through the water surface, thinking that the earth is the sky. Plato's description of the earth can be cross-referenced with the cave metaphor in the Republic and Federico's theory of soul flight.
However, its imagination should be said to be far better than other dialogues. You know, Socrates said that the world familiar to the Greeks, that is, the vast area from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, is only a small part of a concave hole on the ground, so the land it depicts is much larger than the real earth. If the earth is really as big as Jupiter, as he said, a cave called "Great Red Spot" there can swallow three earths at the same time.
Since we only live in the cracks of the earth, what is the real surface like? Plato said that there is a superior "man" who has pure breath and long life, and his five senses are superior to ours, just as we are superior to the fish in the sea. They can see the true colors of the sun, the moon and the stars (we can only see what they look like after being refracted by dirty air), and they can also deal with real gods. Plato did not say whether they looked different from humans, but they were obviously very different in nature.
Although it is called a myth, the world described by Plato in this monologue is a reasonable inference without the help of the authority of the gods: if human beings can admire the fish at the bottom of the sea, how can we know that there are no other higher life in other parts of the world? In this way, Plato put forward a concept called "mediocrity principle" today: the world we live in is not the center of the universe, but perhaps just a corner.
Perhaps in other places, there is an intelligent life that we know nothing about, which is more civilized and progressive than us. There is a great danger of self-denial: if those "highland people" live a truly amazing and happy life, which is beyond human touch, then what is the significance of our existence? Maybe compared with them, people are just insignificant bugs.
Therefore, Plato opened up two worlds through the connection of soul rising: when a person dies, the clean soul before death can soar in the air, reach the real earth and be reborn in a better world. In this way, life here is not meaningless, but contains the possibility of reaching the other side of happiness.
The legend of "Highlander" did not really disappear, but changed its face and moved to a more suitable field-Plutarch in Roman times restated Plato's myth with a more practical picture of the universe. In a conversation on the moon, several characters are interested in discussing whether there are people living on the moon. Some people think that the conditions on the moon are completely different from those on the earth (for example, there are obviously no clouds and rain), and it is impossible for anyone to exist.
However, Plutarch believes that this possibility cannot be denied. Here he puts forward an analogy very similar to Plato's: If we can't get close to the sea and only know that it is boundless salt water, we will also doubt whether there is life on the seabed. They can live without breathing air. In that case, how do you know that there would be no human beings on the moon without clouds and rain?
On the contrary, in the eyes of the moon people, it may be that the earth cannot breed life! Those people on the moon will be more curious about the earth when they look at the sediments and debris in the universe. It's like a dim, dull, low, static point in humidity, mist and clouds. They will be surprised to find that it produces and nourishes animals that can move, breathe and have warm bodies.
In this passage, Plutarch almost came to the concept of "alien" today. But if there are people on the moon, what kind of people are they? What kind of world do you live in? These humans know nothing and cannot discuss. In the face of unknown strangers, Plutarch may also feel uneasy. He suddenly turned to another myth about the soul.
In mythology, the moon is a transit station between heaven and earth. After death, the soul decomposes and transforms there according to its own attributes. Some return to the earth, some stay there, and some rise to higher planets. Therefore, the moon world has become an extension of the earth world, completely rewriting the myth of soul reincarnation in Fido.
During the two thousand years from the classical era to the Middle Ages, the western world constantly conjured up a completely strange "Other" through the deduction and imagination of the external world, thus banishing itself from the position of the center of the universe. However, he quickly overcame this desperate situation through the rise and harmony of his soul.
But in modern times, the story is completely changed: God was expelled from the universe, and God's infinite spirit became a cold and vast space. With the deepening of the understanding of the universe, the earth has become an ordinary member of several planets, and the concept of "man" on other planets has revived. People are also clearly aware that if these alien residents exist, there must be a fundamental gap with human beings.
1898, Star Wars in Wales was the first theme of alien invasion of the earth. The beginning of this story is still extremely gloomy and cold. On the other side of the vast universe, there are smarter lives than us, just as we are smarter than extinct animals; There are developed and cold intelligent life, who covet our earth and are planning a plot to invade us slowly and steadily.
Naturally, human beings can not only be victims of aggression, but also develop more advanced technology to colonize other planets (Avatar), or regard the universe as a dangerous "dark forest" and launch an invisible arms race (three-body). Of course, we can also imagine that other kind aliens are willing to guide human beings (A Space Odyssey). But in any case, technology has replaced the soul and become the final form of communication between human beings and other intelligent life.
Everything else may be completely different. The only thing that can make human beings face the incomprehensible other with universal dignity and significance is technology. Plato's myth has not been abandoned, just put it another way. The soul can't fly out of the atmosphere, but technology can and does return to Fido. Socrates said a meaningful sentence after finishing the Myth of the Earth: "It may not be appropriate for a man with brains to rely entirely on what I say.
"Here suggests the fictional nature of the myth itself. But at the same time, it is also a "beautiful adventure", which allows readers to re-understand and shape themselves through their fascination with "highland people", and perhaps the same is true of modern alien myths. This is not to say that all the imaginations about them are the deformation and refraction of human beings themselves. On the contrary, through this adventure to the imagination of the opposite sex, we can create our most extreme possibilities according to what we see.