In the context of Plato's Theory of Forms, he insists there is a realm higher than this one where perfect ideals exist that the mind conceptualizes when we think of a thing. These idealized forms are eternal, and unchanging, and exist in a system of interdependencies and relations to each other.
Plato goes on to state that through dialectical inquiry we can come to understand the interdependencies and relations between these forms, which exist in a hierarchy of relations to each other, and the insights we gain from this understanding is the key to all knowledge. He insinuates that the mind serves as an antennae for these thoughtforms, which we can only imperfectly actualize in the lower realm of 4-dimensional "reality" we live in.
For example, consider "Love". The mind intuitively knows what Love is "supposed" to be, but all attempts at reifying Love in this lower plane results in an imperfect approximation, or a perversion of the perfect love we intuitively conceptualize and strive towards in our relationships with others, be that familial, romantic, or "platonic" (which is a revealing term in and of itself but we can talk about that some other time)
Originally, Plato only conceived of these forms as "positive" perfections, things like the Form of Truth, the Form of Beauty, the form of Virtue, with the highest form being the form of "The Good" but he was shortsighted in this approach so he didn't communicate the concept very effectively, especially in the context of language that has passed through 2500+ years of linguistic evolutions.
Now, with that said, consider the concept of Dualism.
In the perspective of Dualism everything that exists has a conjugate, an anima to the Animus, a yin to the yang
So if Wisdom is a Form then it must, necessarily have a conjugate inverse.
Consider Pride, as a negative conceptual trait. What is "Pride" exactly? In order to come to any sort of agreement or understanding of what "Pride" is we have to understand how it is exemplified in a person we esteem as "Prideful" and what projectionary markers that "prideful" person projects onto others to signal to us that he is a "Prideful" individual despite the fact that we can easily identify a person who is prideful almost intuitively.
How is pride exemplified? Most people would agree pride in a prideful person is exemplified in Arrogance, or Ignorance, and if you carefully observe several prideful persons you will see they tend to project certain characteristic traits onto others signalling to us they are prideful. The projections are generally projected in the form of the conjugate of their exemplifications
Arrogance, an air of (unfounded or unjustified) superiority is projected as weakness onto others who he sees as below him. Because he is prideful he projects weakness or lesser-ness onto others.
Ignorance, a refusal to acknowledge truth is projected as it's conjugate; "Knowledge" which he pridefully "lords" others which also serves to reinforce his arrogance, likewise his arrogance projected as weakness over others is used to boost his feelings of being in possession of knowledge that makes him, in his mind, "better", 'or "stronger" than you.
So these forms of "Arrogance" "Ignorance" "Weakness" and "Knowledge" Orbit around Pride in the platonic realm of Mind.
So, the mind, being a sort of inversing mirror of meaning-making puts Pride in the "crosshairs" "between" these four forms which orbit it on two axes with arrogance opposite weakness and ignorance opposite knowledge with pride at the "origin" of the quadratic (axiomatic) graph that two axis' meeting at a right angle insinuates.
Arrogance---------\|/--------Knowledge
---------------------Pride-------------------
Ignorance---------/|\---------Weakness
So we can imagine this "Axiom" exists like a pyramidal structure with pride at the apex and the four sub-forms orbiting it constituting the four corners of its base.
So what is the "opposite" of Pride?
|