/lit/ - Literature

Notes on I.3:
>One should search for a demonstration of divinity such that the demonstration itself deifies.
"The end is not to be sinless, but to be a god."
>There are chiefly two methods for this.
The first is for those who have risen to the intelligible world from here below. The other for those who have reached their before and have already taken root there.
>We will focus on the first here. There are three paths to reach the intelligible world for such a man.
Namely the path of the philosopher, of the musician, and of the lover.
>The musician allows himself to be easily moved by beauty; but he is not able to himself achieve the intuition of the beautiful.
He is dependent on the stimulation of external impressions. He is what we call the sensitive soul; and he moves after the beauty of the voice and harmony.
>From these purely sensual intonations he eventually comes to distinguish form from matter, and to contemplate beauty existent in their proportions.
From this he is lead to philosophy by arguments (dialectics) that lead him to recognise truths he possessed instinctively.
>The musician can then rise to the rank of the lover. The lover has some innate reminiscence of the beautiful.
He must, by reason, embrace all bodies that reveal beauty; showing him what is identical in all, informing him that it is something external, that exists in even higher degree in objects of another, higher, nature.
>He will be shown that beauty is found in the arts, the sciences, the virtues, all of which are suitable means toward the discovery of a taste of the incorporeal.
From this he will see that beauty is one, and he will be shown the element which in every object constitutes beauty.
>From virtues he will be led to progress to intelligence and essence; from here he will have nothing more to do but progress towards the supreme goal, that of the philosopher.
The philosopher is naturally disposed to rise to the intelligible world. He needs not learn to disengage himself from sense-objects as other men do; he is born on light wings.
>His only uncertainty will be the road to follow: he needs a guide.
For this purpose he will apply himself to mathematics; and following this he will be taught dialectics, which will perfect him.