User blog:Rotharion Anaera/Fullmetal Alchemist and Platonism

The purpose of this blog is to serve as a brief introductory piece to classical philosophy using Fullmetal Alchemist as a medium of facilitation. In addition to giving insight on how the alchemy in the world may work.

Plato's Theory of Forms
The alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist works according to a Law of Equivalent Exchange; however, this "equivalency" only applies to Matter. Equal Matter in and Equal Matter out. What changes before and after a transmutation is never Matter, but Form. In classical Greece the philosopher Plato in trying to reconcile the problem of Being and Becoming articulated and argued between Heraclitus and Parmenides, introduced a dualism to answer the problem. This Platonic Dualism he introduced was the distinction between Matter and Form. The former being material and the latter being immaterial or abstract. To get an idea of the distinction being drawn here: imagine a pile rubble next to a house. Now suppose the rubble was an identical house that was destroyed. Both of these objects are equal in matter, they both consist of the exact same quantities of the exact same materials. However, where they differ is Form. One is in the Form of a house, the other is in the Form of rubble. The relations between materials or parts is not itself a material, and as such, Form is immaterial, or an abstraction from the observed Matter.

To define three essential terms here: Being is that which exists. Becoming is the process of change or flux (an acorn Becoming a tree, for example). Being and Becoming are at odds with one another in the following way: If an object is (being) an acorn, it cannot Be a tree. And a tree cannot Be an acorn. So in order for an acorn to become a tree it has to stop being an acorn. Philosophers like Parmenides (who believed motion/change are an illusion) thought that this was impossible, as he believed Being is absolute, eternal, and unchanging. That things can't pass into non-being. A third term to define is Ontology, which is a theory of Being, a theory of that which really exists beyond mere appearances. In Plato's ontology, his theory of reality and existence, the world is Dualistic. He believed that there were two distinct realms: A realm of Being and a Realm of Becoming. As opposed to Parmenides monistic ontology where everything is Being, or the Heraclitian monistic ontology where everything is Becoming ("one can not step in the same river twice").

To Plato these were two sides to the same coin, and he developed a theory of mind (or soul) to explain how it is we can tell the world is dualistic. In his theory the soul (mind) has two methods of apprehension: sense experience and intellect. And these different methods of apprehensions percieve for us the two realms: the sensible and intelligible. The sensible world, that which is apprehended by our sense experience, is the world of Matter (a place of Becoming). It is constantly in flux and changing. And then there is the intelligible world, that which is apprehended by our rationality, or intellect. This realm is the realm of Forms, a realm of pure Being. Forms are eternal and unchanging, and so "Becoming" does not occur here. That which is true here is eternally true. Whereas of the material world Plato believed we could only have opinions, not knowledge. Since the material world is constantly changing, there are no eternal truths. For example, at one moment the proposition: "It is raining outside" may be true, at another moment it may be false. The transient state of the material world meant truth (in the absolute sense) was impossible. Whereas intelligible and abstract facts like: "a triangle has three sides", is true everywhere and under all circumstances.

These Forms that you access with your rationality are non-extensional: that is to say, they do not have any length, width, or height--nor are they subject to time. They are eternal abstract entities. A kind-of blueprint which Matter adheres to. The sensible world of matter  is constantly changing and in flux, and the various forms that matter takes in the world are supplied by the realm of Forms. In the world there are concrete, particular things. A chair here and a chair there, two particular objects. But the quality of them being "a chair" is universal, i.e. the form of chairness. Each chair is a particular instantiation of the form of chair. The idea of "a chair" is not the same as a particular, physical chair. Think about the difference between Chess and a Game of Chess. A Game of Chess is a concrete and observable occurrence, but "chess" in general is an abstraction, it is not itself a concrete thing. Plato believed all of these abstract entities and forms, including mathematics, exist in the realm of forms. And that is where "Truth" is.

Platonic Ontology in the world of FMA
When Alchemy is done in Fullmetal Alchemist, as mentioned, what one changes is not the Matter of an object, but its Form. However, it does not make any sense that they could encode complex types of forms in the simple alchemy circles they use. Take the one in the image here as an example. How could several intersecting squares and circles "tell" the wood in the floor to change from being a wooden floor to a wooden bird? It would seem the Circle is only a conduit for gathering the energy required to do the transmutation. The command, or knowledge of the form which you want to change something to must be something that is provided by the soul of the alchemist who is using the circle to perform the transmutation.

Circles on their own do nothing, in every instance in Fullmetal Alchemist it requires a human's interacting with them for Alchemy to occur. And we know (Because Als soul being bound to armor) that Fullmetal Alchemist works according to Cartesian Dualism as well (Mind-Body Dualism). So I would assume its the interaction between the soul and circle which allows the matter to be "commanded" to change form. And the type of circle used works as a focus to assist the soul in directing energy for reforming matter.

In the case Edward and Izumi who have seen The Truth; however, they need only to clap their hands together (forming a circle with their own body). My hypothesis is that "The Truth" is the Platonic "Good". Or rather the entirety of the realm of Forms. And so when Edward saw "The Truth", he gained a glimpse at the underlying Form of the whole of reality. As such, he intuitively possesses the knowledge of various forms, which is why he can transmute matter so quickly, and at a whim, into whatever he wants. And in the case of ordinary alchemists who haven't seen "the truth", they must slowly gain knowledge of these forms through study. Which is why there are specialists in either elemental alchemy, or bio-alchemy, etc. Bio-Alchemy requiring those who participate in it to experiment on, or dissect animals, and study anatomy. And so they gain knowledge of forms by this method.

Although, this is a more Aristotelian method. Plato believed Empirical investigation was not necessary for knowledge. That you could learn everything through sheer contemplation. Aristotle by contrast believed that Essence (his word for Form) could only be discovered through empirical investigation, not contemplation. So it seems that ordinary alchemists must rely on Aristotelian methods, whereas Edward and others who have seen The Truth have some degree of Platonic access to knowledge of forms. However, because Edward still has to study for things, means he only had partial access to the Forms, not complete access. For that which he didn't see, he must still perform Aristotelian investigation.

The Gate of Truth likewise is someone's "link" to the realm of forms. That one is able to contemplate the forms through the gate of truth. This makes even more sense if you consider that Edward's sacrifice of his own Gate of Truth resulted in him no longer being able to perform alchemy (as he no longer had access to the Forms). The blank white background as well that is seen when one encountered "Truth" or "God" could be a symbolic indication of the lack of Matter. That there is no material content in this realm, that it is pure form/contemplation. And the reason "Truth" appears in the form of whoever sees him, and he says "I am you", is his indicating he is their soul/form, devoid of any matter/content. And he speaks on behalf of "God" or "The Truth" as all forms are connected in the totality of the realm of forms. The "white room" where one sees the Gate of Truth is the interior of one's own soul, and the Gate is the access point to the forms, the bridge between the material and immaterial (which is required for Alchemy).



Truth/God's body is also reminiscent of John Locke's dichotomy between primary and secondary qualities. The continuous quantities of an object (its shape/form) are its primary qualities, and things like color, taste, smell, etc. are secondary qualities. So for a blue rectangular block, its primary quality is that its rectangular, its secondary quality is that its blue. Locke believed the primary qualities are what an object "really is", and secondary qualities are just generated by our perceptions. Truth/Gods body is devoid of any Lockean secondary qualities. Perhaps indicating that to see him means you are not "seeing" with your senses, but rather, are apprehending him with your intellect. In accordance to the Platonic dichotomy.

This Platonic take works well if you consider Father's place in this. He was an entity of pure Form, born from essence of The Truth. And only through Hohenheim was he able to have a material body. Father seemed to have already had access to the bulk of "The Truth" from the moment of his conception. Trapped in a flask, without reading anything, he already possessed the knowledge of how to create a philosophers stone. He had more advanced alchemy knowledge than nearly anyone else in the show just inherently. This would make sense if he being born from the Forms, was conceived having access to wide variety of them to begin with.

If the show does; however, use a Platonic ontology, then it is at the same time a scathing critique of Plato. Plato himself in his ethics resembles to an extent, Father. To Plato human excellence comes from being a philosophic soul which contemplates the Forms, until it reaches the ultimate Form--the Form of the Good. With Socrates as his mouthpiece he once said: To practice philosophy is to practice being dead. He was referring to the Philosopher foregoing the realm of senses for the realm of the intelligible. That knowledge only comes from Form, and that senses only give you appearances, or opinion. Plato at some points went so far as to say that the world of Matter isn't even the "real" world, that the Forms are what is real, and Matter is just a shadow, an illusion. Fullmetal Alchemist critiques this however, as Edward sacrifices "The Truth" for the sake of his family, and his friends. And The Truth/God himself is amused by this, congratulating Edward on figuring it out. Compared to Father who consumed God and knew "Everything", while at the same time knowing nothing. The critique would be saying then that all of this pure abstract knowledge is in the end useless. That the hunt for Truth disconnects one from what really matters--the people you love. And when you become absolutely engrossed in the hunt for Truth, you practice being dead, becoming disconnected from the world and everyone in it. A mass of intellectual greed and hubris, like Father.