Elective Education

by Greg Kreisman

         None, of the elective education which Andrew was subjected to in his college days was of more use to him than Plato's theory of knowledge. Andrew could cynically disregard most philosophical conceptsÑsuch as the ones found in Aristotle's Physics--because they had, in the thousands of years since being fommed, been replaced by modern science. And with this modem science, Andrew was all too familiar. He was at the time a graduate physics student. But because Plato's theory of knowledge was so magical, complicated and far from modern thought, it was not cynically disregarded and intrigued Andrew immensely. Of course, for Andrew, it gave no insight into the 'real'Ñas Andrew was likely to sayÑproblems of knowledge, such as induction. It merely gave him the first insight into the portions of his life which he left unmanaged as he wondered at mathematical descriptions of sub-atomic particles which as Andrew would contend: were simply mental constructs and had no real existence outside the mathematical theory. Thus the picture of the atom which Mary, his love, drew on his notebook the day after they had first slept together, was to Andrew a blatant misrepresentationÑwith its orbiting electronsÑ even if you excused the heart shaped nucleus.       
			Further, Andrew did not treat the theoryÑwhich he was reluctant to call itÑwith great reverence. He would cut from the fairy-tale what he did not like or more often cr~ulch a large portion of the tale into an analogy of the experience. 
             Learning as Remembering:
         Andrew's non-metaphysical view of
                      Plato.

      Five years after the veil of ignorance was placed over Andrew's soul he had the experience which 20 years laterÑthat's nowÑwould serve as the starting point for Andrew's use of Plato. 

      This is then: 

      "Daddy's home, he's home," Andrew's mother said as she straightened Andrew's hair with damp fingers. The father's heavy stride on wood stairs echoed against the two story brick wall as he climbed. Andrew's mother then nuzzled her face between Andrew's soft cheek and his equally soft cotton shirt. Andrew again felt his mother's damp skin.       
			The screen door shut. He was home. But for long?       
			In the neighborhood stories could be heard. Yesterday MildaÑa woman who works at the bakery down the street spoke of him and his new "romantic interest," and added, "that's why he didn't come here after they shipped him back."       
			"You can't really blame them can you?" another woman added, "over there fighting for our country, the nights must get pretty lonely, and so what if a surgeon falls in love with a nurse."       
				He bent down and kissed Andrew. Andrew's mother burst into tears. She at this point must have felt as lights as a whisperÑin fact hel outright opposition to the affair was just that. She fell into his anns.       
			When you are a child you are ushered about and there is only so much of the story you get. Three hours had passed since he came home and Andrew was in his room playing G.I. Joe. He may have at first heard faint cries, or felt a need to see his fatherÑwho to him was 'G.I. Joe'Ñ regardless Andrew walked into the living room and saw his father choking his mother. 
      
			Now:            
			When Andrew looks back he sees that at the moment he left the room he had died. His little soul floated about, past the cupboard, through the kitchen, and there in the on paper thin wings encountered the forms and fell back. If you would have said "Andrew" he would of course answered, but this AndrewÑthe one who held his mother's hand as his father ran out the doorÑwas different than the one who called G.I. Joe, "daddy." He further sees that a veil of ignorance had fallen upon himÑif you like, you could call it repression. 

		Then:
  	If by chance BettyÑAndrew's motherÑwould have met up with a person who was uncommonly argumentative, with a claim that her husband (who has now been gone for two years) never existed, she could have easily shown them pictures of vacations, and five years of photos with Andrew's, in sum, 300 photos.       
			Maybe proof of existence was a reason for her to take the photos, or maybe she fe1t she was obligatedÑa home maker should have pictures of the home, she may have thought. However now that a predominant portion of that home was missing, a majority of the 300 photosÑthe ones containing Andrew's fatherÑseemed to paint an incorrect view of the world. she believed the photosÑas did ha husband when he took the vowÑlied. I think of them as now being out of context. Regardless, she took to cutting.       			
			In some photos, the early ones, she carefully cut the images of her husband's face out of the picture, leaving his body and hands. Later however this chore became too difficult so she began removing the entire body. She would slice vertically to the left and right of his body, subsequently cutting pieces of her and Andrew's body. Both types of the reworked photos were very much in context, although Betty did not notice this. Sometimes Betty would have unconscious longings for his bodyÑhe was a very good loverÑand masturbate thinking of his hands and body but blurring the face. However, most of the time she and Andrew felt the great void in their life thus they would scoot awkwardly close together, like the redone photo of the family trip to Mexico. 

      Now:
		  On a paper in front of himself, Andrew listed the times he has died, seen the forms and then returned to his body only to be veiled with ignorance.       
			His grandpa's death, the first time he masturbated, early relationships, and his grandmother's death are all listed. He then groups the experiences into categories, such as Love, Aesthetics, Sex, or Death and begins to make descriptions of the essential characteristics of each experience. Thus Andrew is now learning by remembering in a non-metaphysical yet analogous way to Plato's theory of knowledge.       
			AndrewÑwith additional aid from PlatoÑcan also make a description of the grand category experience. Andrew says he was bound in a cave experiencing situations but not looking past them. His father's leaving was just experienced and repressed. If you would have asked Andrew what was behind it he would have shrugged the questions off and began to talk of fundamental particles. Andrew says now: "Just as the prisoners in Plato's cave mistook the shadows for the realÑI experienced in a conventional manner and mistook that way of experiencing as the 'real'." If Andrew would have continued to study philosophy he would have most likely come across a chapter in Heidegger's Being and Time, where Heidegger talks of the "They" and found his fellow prisoners (but not individual people, just abstraction): 

We take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they take pleasure; we read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge; we find shocking what they find shocking. The "They" which is nothing definite and which all are, though not as the sum, prescribes the kind of Being of everydayness (p.164). 

      However, Andrew merely closed the notebook that was in front of himselfÑthus revealing Mary's valentine atomÑand with his forefinger traced a path of an orbiting electron.