Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Psychology, Qoheleth, and Plato?

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY: The Ancient Cure for 'Is This Really It?' What Ecclesiastes and Plato agree about the mind (Chester H. Sunde, Psy.D.).

Well, that's something different. The threefold summary of Qoheleth's message is pretty good, as long as you accept the final colophon to be by the author. I tend to think it isn't, but I could be wrong. In any case, it does fit the book in its canonical form.

As for Plato, I am baffled as to why a specialist in "Platonic psychology" would publish such an article without a single citation of a Platonic dialogue. This contrasted with the many citations of Qoheleth.

I think one can make a fair Platonic case for something like Qoheleth's trajectory as Dr. Synde sees it:

The trajectory: Everything you chase will disappoint you — engage fully anyway — orient yourself toward something beyond yourself.
In the Apology (20E-23B), Socrates reports that the Oracle of Delphi declared that there was no one wiser than he. Baffled, he set out to test the claim by trying to find someone wiser. But he found the wisdom of the reputedly wise to be Qoheleth's hevel, vanity or emptiness. Socrates was wisest by default, because he knew he didn't know anything.

After that, he set his hand to interrogate everyone who had a reputation for being wise, in the hope of either finding one who was or showing them that they weren't.

He pursued this course with all his might. Not surprisingly, it made him exceedingly unpopular. But faced with the choice of abandoning his divine mission or being executed for it, he chose the mission and execution. The rest, as they say, is history.

Some such example would have been helpful in this rather interesting essay. That's the best I can do off the top of my head. You're welcome.

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