Plato and the Idea of Beauty
Although our modern concept of symmetry appeared for the first time in the 18thcentury, Plato’s Idea of beauty seems to be strongly connected with the question of symmetry (Lloyd 2010). In the Timaeus, for instance, the concept of bodily “disproportion” is brought forward, whereas in the well-known Symposium, the character of Philebus distinguishes between a beauty “of animals or picture” and a “beauty of form”, which is the kind of true beauty, namely that characterising solid geometric forms. Still in the same dialogue, Socrates’ final speech, known to the many as “Diotima’s speech”, emphasises the role of “physical beauty” towards the contemplation of the ultimate kind of beauty, its principle itself, or, to put it with Plato’s own notorious vocabulary, its “idea”. As is well known, Plato considers physical experience as a less pure version of ideal experience: through the objects we reach the ideas. And beauty appears as one of the highest ideals, attracting people and leading them to knowledge. As brought up by David R. Lloyd, the concept of beauty as symmetry is put forward quite clearly in Plato’s Timaeus (33b), when it is stated that “similarity is ‘incomparably superior to dissimilarity’”, and then the so-called “harmonic series” – namely a combination of ratios derived from the mathematics of music – are introduced (ibid). Plato’s idea of perfection culminates in the “sphere”.
But this is not all. In the Republic (401a), Plato compares outer grace and harmony with inner temperance and goodness. However, whereas the body does not affect the quality of the soul, the opposite seems to be true: a good soul can improve the body’s appearance to a certain extent (ibid: 403d), and, as Alexander Nehamas (2007) puts it, “it is not possible to cure the body if something is wrong with it without curing the soul (156e–157a)”. Moreover, according to Plato, physical beauty leads to “the beauty of the Forms”, that is to say, to the idea of beauty itself (Symposium 211d1-2). Such an idea of beauty, ultimately, leads one to virtue and brings him or her closer to the divine, thus perfecting human existence. In Plato’s Symposium, the connection between beauty, goodness and happiness is predominant. In this sense, Nehamas draws an interesting parallel between the Symposium and the Republic:
“Each part of the soul, the Republic tells us, has its own appropriate pleasure (581c) and each, we learn from the Symposium, has its own appropriate erōs. But since the pleasures of the soul, despite the fact that they differ immensely in degree, are still for all that pleasures, so the beauty of the objects of erōs, however humble in comparison to the beauty of the Form of Beauty itself, is still the same sort of beauty and, however dimly, a reflection the Form’s light” (Nehamas 2007).
Greek Ideals in Bodybuilding
Although seemingly contrasting the Christian dichotomy between body and soul, such a linkage between beauty (in the sense of symmetry), virtue and the divine was subterraneanly carried forward by Plotinus and the Neo-Platonics and has somehow remained in certain Western subcultures, bodybuilding itself representing one of its most striking examples.
As acknowledged by the few scholars that have dealt with bodybuilding so far, a return to the Greek ideal of bodily symmetry as an expression of human superiority lies at he core of the first bodybuilding contests, such as Mr America (Fair 2015: 2 and 17-36). As the great Arnold puts it:
“At the end of the nineteenth century a new interest in muscle-building arose, not muscle just as a means of survival or of defending oneself, but a return to the Greek ideal — muscular development as a celebration of the human body” (Schwarzenegger 1985: 30).
Even deeper than a “celebration of the human body”, however, bodybuilding can be arguably regarded as a means to achieve a higher stage of human completion in the Platonic sense. First of all, symmetry plays a pivotal role in bodybuilding contests, and it’s the main characteristic to aim at when building one’s own body. In this sense, one can argue that bodybuilding’s idea of beauty is a platonic one. Second, a bodybuilder can’t build and sculpt his or her body, without a certain mindset and willpower; therefore, the bodybuilder’s soul reflects his or her body in a Platonic sense (as I wrote above in relation to Plato, “whereas the body does not affect the quality of the soul, the opposite seems to be true: a good soul can improve the body’s appearance to a certain extent”). Finally, when showcasing their impressive physiques, bodybuilders also let the viewers figure out all of the hard work and sacrifice they’ve put in, and, by so doing, the beauty of their bodies allows them to come across as higher human beings, gifted with virtue and godlike attributes.
Conclusive Thoughts
If one really wants to interpret bodybuilding in a Platonic sense, the question has also to be raised, as to whether bodybuilders reach a higher knowledge and, by virtue of this, happiness. My opinion is that, through the strenuous work on themselves and the estrangement from social life, bodybuilders surely achieve a level of introspection, comparable only to that of monks and holy men. Moreover, through their constant seek for self-improvement and their withdrawing their energy towards their inner space, they’re also more likely to detach from mundane issues and contingent happiness than the average man or woman, arguably reaching a more stable level of contentment.
At the core of Plato’s Republic is the analogy between the utopia of a perfect state and the perfect example of human being. As the state is characterised by 3 different classes, namely the producers, the auxiliaries and the guardians (the philosopher-kings), so the human soul is characterised by 3 parts: the rational or logical (λογιστικόν, logistykon), the appetitive (ἐπιθυμητικόν, epithymetikon), and the spirited (θυμοειδές, thymoeides). As in the perfect state the philosopher-kings rule over the other two classes and in perfect balance, so in the perfect soul, the rational part rules over the appetitive and the spirited parts, which have however the function of supporting the former and balancing it out. In a sense, Plato’s view can be compared to the Hindu distinction between the 3 guans (sattva, rajas and tamas), as portrayed by the Samkhya system and popularised by the Bhagavad Gita, which has become extremely popular among many enthusiastic yogis worldwide (myself included).
In my view, real bodybuilders represent Plato’s ideal of the perfect balance between the three parts of the soul and, because of it, can be considered virtuous and therefore happy (in a Platonic sense). The appetitive part of the soul is that controlling basic appetites, such as hunger or sleep, and bodybuilders have learnt to listen to it, without being controlled by it. The spirited part gives us the desires of honour and personal glory: bodybuilders are driven by such a desire, in order to pursue their goals, however without identifying with the desire itself. The rational part of the soul is the mind that sets goals, schedules meal plans and workout routines, plans prep in details and listens to the other 2 parts creating harmony and balance. In light of their relation to the 3 parts of the soul, bodybuilders represent the true platonic ideal of perfect human beings, even beyond their return to a Greek idea of muscular body and symmetry-based beauty.
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References
Fair, John D. 2015. Mr. America: The Tragic History of a Bodybuilding Icon. Austin: University Of Texas Press.
Hyland, Drew A. 2008. Plato and the Question of Beauty. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Levy, David. 2013. The Republic’sBlame of Eros. In: Eros and Socratic Political Philosophy. Recovering Political Philosophy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137342713_2
Lloyd, David R. 2010. ‘Symmetry and Beauty in Plato’. Symmetry 455-465.: https://doi.org/10.3390/sym2020455.
Nehamas, Alexander. 2007. ‘Only in the Contemplation of Beauty is Human Life Worth Living’ Plato, Symposium 211d. European Journal of Philosophy 1-18. doi:.10.1111/j.1468-0378.2007.00240.x
Plato, Republic.
— , Symposium.
–, Timaeus.
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. 1985. The New Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998 (2nd edition).