Meditation 29: Depth and Surface

Things are not always what they appear to be.  This is a truism of philosophy. In fact, philosophy began with the perception that there is more to the world and the human heart than meets the eye.  What meets the eye, or the ear, is just the surface of things. The inquiring mind must delve beneath the surface to get to the reality that underlies all the appearances.  Plato identified a world of Forms, invisible entities that make up true reality. The world of the senses, the visible world, is but a snare and distraction.  If he had his way, Plato would have us live entirely in the world of the Forms, for then we should grasp the unchanging reality of all things.

When philosophers like Plato speak of reality, they want to speak of it as immune to all the variations that plague the surface world.  The Numbers of Pythagoras, Plato's Forms, Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, the Atoms of Epicurus, St. Augustine”s God and Descartes Substance all remain the same despite the changes we see around us.  When we delve beneath the surface, we get to the essence of things, that without which they would not be what they are.  I suppose it was meant to be comfort to us creatures of a day to realize that underneath it all, there is something solid, a metaphysical Reality.

In life, too, there are a depth and surface.  Things are not what they appear.  The person you trust most in the world betrays you. You find you do not know yourself very well either, discovering your own self-deception and unconscious motives.  You learn that sometimes people appear friendly, but are really filled with envy.  They are nice to your face but stab you in the back.  Whom do you trust?  Can you even trust yourself?  To stay at the level of appearances will make anyone a sucker ripe for exploitation. To mistrust everyone for what a few have done to you is also a mistake.

In the political world, too, there is a depth and surface.  To some who live in the advanced industrial countries, the surface of life can be quite pleasant, but this reality is nothing like that of living in war and drought torn lands where the vast majorities live in poverty, disease and ignorance due to the greed of big business and the consumptive lifestyles of the richer parts of the world. These people can, if they want, ignore the pain and suffering of the world and, if  lucky, look around at an acceptable mundane life.  There is no one starving on the streets where they live, not much shooting or stabbing, and quiet personal pleasures to anticipate.  The depth is the horror, and the surface is the social scene that unfolds before their daily eyes.  Others lives in the horrors, and for them this reality is the surface.  After awhile in this state, everyone forgets how people can live together in relative peace and harmony.

It is good to realize that we cannot take our experiences at face value. We cannot always trust the ideas we derive from appearances.  Science is a good example of how strange the universe really is, having little to do with how it appears to us, especially on a cosmic or micro scale.  We cannot always trust others or detect a truly good will. We should not confuse a lucky social surface with the deep injustice of the world.  On the other hand, depth is not all there really is.  Appearances have their own reality for living human beings, and no amount of explaining them away by pointing to another Reality will satisfy us.  It is a mistake to stop with appearances and look no further, but it is an equal mistake to dwell in Reality in such a way that the appearances disappear.  The metaphysician has to eat.  Skeptics of the human heart must form some relations to others.  Seeing the reality of injustice in the world, we must not forget to be just to those with whom we share a superficial social surface.  The surface, after all, is the surface of the depth, and the depth is the depth of the surface.  Remember the connection.