What is a tree?
If you are not some kind of NPC who can’t form images in their mind then it is likely you pictured a tree of some kind. It could have been a cartoon sketch of a tree, it could have been a realistic looking tree of a type you are most familiar with. Perhaps a pine tree or an Oak tree. The tree in your mind’s eye is derivative of your experiences and if we were able to magically share them with each other I expect there to be dramatic differences. Yet I think all of them would still fit into the category of tree.
Where it might get confusing would be if someone was unclear about say the difference between a shrub or a tree. Perhaps if plucked some hypothetical human who had only lived in a scrubland environment and had never seen an actual large tree their ‘tree’ would be a shrub.
We can leave the shrub to one side for a moment and return to the idea of the tree. Platonic thought, per my incomplete understanding, posits that there exist perfect forms of things. The Platonic Ideal is a term most would be familiar. In this we are driven towards the essence of the object. It is in its idealized form, a perfect form if you will. Distilled. These forms are timeless and eternal and represent the true world. Both objects, like trees, and abstract concepts, like beauty, have an underlying form that is their true nature of being. This points towards a number of avenues of thought. It is not hard to see why Christian intellectuals in the centuries after Plato found his thinking so compelling as it reinforces many of their central theological notions and ideas about the nature of the Christian God.
It is about a oneness that lurks behind a kind of veil. The idea that this world, this existence is a kind of fake reality. That this life is then necessarily one that takes place on a fallen world and that upon death and if you have been faithful you are released towards the true reality. Heaven and this afterlife are perfect. There is harmony. It matches up with Platonic ideas about perfection of forms. In such a world there is no strife, disease, hardship or ugliness. This world behind the veil of death is one where the essence of all things is realized. In such a world what does a tree look like?
A tree is not just a tree. Even the most simple minded amongst us usually understand that different trees impart different properties to their wood upon being harvested. The famous Firewood Poem which is a paen to the Ash perhaps captures this in the most beautiful and educational way:
Beechwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year, Chestnut's only good they say, If for logs 'tis laid away. Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house will be; But ash new or ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last, it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E'en the very flames are cold But ash green or ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke, Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter's cold But ash wet or ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by.
This poem is all about explaining to us the qualities of wood that we may wish to use in the hearth of our homes. One would not be remiss to observe that were one only looking to have a single tree for heating purposes then the ancient and holy Ash tree fits the bill perfectly. The intent of the user here is a critical component though. Were I seeking another quality in wood then this poem offers some clues but perhaps not the answer. Ash’s qualities are in fact numerous, it is a stout wood and well carved. Truly it is a Kingly wood but it might not always be the best choice in all instances. Is our Platonic tree, the essence of a ‘tree’ then all things to all people in their time of need?
The perfect tree as it exists differs from time and place. The vitamin c in pine needles that we extract by making a tea is not always needed. Each tree has its uses and benefits. Willow makes baskets and cricket bats. I could go on but the picture should be clear. There is never just ‘a tree’. When there is “a tree” it is a signifier of knowledge lost or it is laziness. A weak descriptive effort. A tree is the starting point not the unified end of what we are talking about or understanding. In the same way if there is a Platonic form of a tree then it’s very nature will be contradictory. Some trees produce a soft wood and others intensely hard wood. Which is good? Which is the Platonic Good? Well that depends entirely on the use case that is being sought for. That is only knowable to the person seeking or attempting to use it. Maybe this Platonic tree generates whatever wood the user seeks? Maybe the form of the tree shifts depending on the mood of the viewer? One day it appears as a shimmering mountain Aspen the next as an Umbrella Thorn as if in Africa? No to me this Platonic tree doesn’t make sense in the understanding of our world, it by necessity requires an understanding of the world of forms that I don’t have.
Can anyone of this world have that understanding though? Unclear to me. This notion is understandable and relatable. Here I am writing and thinking about it. The Forms are intriguing and we attempt to understand them with the language and experiences that we have today. It promises a oneness, a perfection, a unity in the same way the Christian God offers his omniscience. On inspect for myself though it often ends up raising more questions than it answers as I allude to above. To me the escape route is towards that of energy. Energy is an eternal force that takes on different qualities. Why do we have different trees in the first place? Is this the whim of a God or of Gods. Is it an acknowledgement that the universality of a form does not translate to this one? Perhaps, if this notion of Forms is correct, that it is all only revealed in the next life. That there as a being of something not myself and not human this Platonic tree will make sense.
Or.
Perhaps the notion of the perfect object has been shrunken. The world made small. A silly idea to say there is a Platonic tree. Rather there are in fact Platonic ideal forms of every tree we know. A perfect Scots Pine. A perfect Oak. That there is not a oneness that makes sense at the scale of tree but only that perfection is possible in every moment for every single unique thing. An infinity of possibilities. The Forms as an idea make more sense considering not objects but ideals. The path towards them is appealing. Platonism has many believers, followers, and appreciators. It can be a compelling drive towards a universalist form of truth that can be appealing. To me though ultimately there is a weird kind of laziness present in thinking about a Platonic tree. It seems to miss much of the point of trees itself. If the Platonic tree is all trees to all people as and when they need why even be a tree in the first place? What is the shared tree essence that is connected when we know trees can have almost opposite qualities. Think of the Cottonwood vs Mahogany. There is of course an argument about the innateness. The “you just know” it factor. This essence, this idea shared through language though does not have to equate into a theory of Forms of unity though. Language is a public game, sharing the essence of objects through it is required as part of the game.
How you think about the notion of Plato’s forms says a lot about your own world view and deeper spiritual beliefs. There is a part of me that thinks people instinctively make a gut call on whether they think such a thing is viable or true. That is where the lines of division first form. A Platonic tree to some will exist as an ideal, a unifying one to orientate around. To others they will reject this notion outright. That the essence of a thing can’t be dissolved into this form. This is one of those breaks that people often never understand about the other. It forms a chasm and is why so many religious debates are flawed from the start.