I am typing thing, not as a means to gain sympathy, but for therapeutic purposes.
1. Plato's Tripartite Theory and Mathematics: Letting Her Be Happy
Tripartite Theory
Plato wrote of what he called the tripartite theory of soul: "Appetitive", "Spirited", and "Rational"- "Appetitive":
- "The aspect of the soul that is responsible for the base desires within people.
- "Spirited":
- The spirited soul is the source of the desires that love honor and victory. Emotions such as anger and indignation are the result of the frustration of the spirit.
- "Rational":
- It the aspect of soul that rationally commands and restrains the other two.
If rationality is taken out of the equation, then "Spirit" and "Appetitive" would drive a person to makes selfish decisions. This is why Plato said that the "Rational" should be the goal for all people. A foundation built upon the embracement of the "Appetitive" and the "Spirited" cannot stand.
Mathematics
Plato was one who believed that mathematics could and should be applied to every aspect of life. He even went as far as to attempt to find a "theory of everything". He saw mathematics as a product to exhibit abstract relations.Applying the Tripartite Theory and Mathematics to the Ending of a Romantic Relationship
Scenario: X and Y are in a romantic relationship. The goal of X is to make Y the happiest person in the world at all cost. X is only happy when Y is happy. Y no longer receives happiness from having a relationship with X, but rather Z brings Y happiness. Y also believes that the mixing of X and Z will not bring happiness. Rationally in order for all to be happy, Y should be with Z because X will be happy if Y is happy.Formula:
Y (Happiness) = X (Happiness)
Y+X ≠ Happiness
Y+ Z = Happiness
Y + L = (∞) (Resentment)
According to this formula, if X were to seek direct happiness with Y it would be based on an emotional level ("Spirital" + "Appetitive") and not a "Rational" one. Rationality, makes it clear that if [Y (Happiness) = X (Happiness)] and [Y+X ≠ Happiness = Y + Z], X being in a relationship with Y will not bring happiness. Y, in the past, had L (variables who forced Y into unhappy relationships) (2*) and this caused Y to feel resentment towards L. If X does the same as L, X will be looked upon as L by Y in the future. (3*)
Applied to There's Something About Mary
There's Something About Maryis about a character Ted (X) who loves Mary(Y), but realizes he is just one of many of Mary's stalkers (L) and if he ends up with Mary, she will not be happy. Upon this, Ted reintroduces Mary to her exboyfriend Brett Favre (Z).
X acts "rationally" by seeing that Z is best suited for Y. X does this out of fear of being L.
Applied to La Jetee
In the French film La Jetee a man fixates upon a memory from when he was a boy when he witnessed both an assassination and a beautiful women. The person assassination was himself, who had time traveled from the future. He is assassinated when trying to protect the woman from being assassinated.
When the man (X) travels back in time, he is shot trying to save the woman (Y) despite him knowing (since he had seen it all happen before) she will not be the one who is shot. The man was acting out of the "Appetitive" and the "Spirited" not the "Rational". At that point, X becomes L. Since, the man (X) as a boy (X-time) witnesses this occurrence and yet does not apply the knowledge obtained over "time", the cycle will never end.
Not acting upon knowledge causes X <: L and then Y + L = (∞) (Resentment).
2. Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Not Thinking About the Past
Allegory of the Cave
Deep inside a cave a group of prisoners are chained to a wall since their childhood. Not only are their limbs immobilized by the chains but their heads are also chained so that their eyes are fixed on a wall and can only see the shadows that are projected in front of them. These shadows are what they believe is the truth. Then one of the prisoners escapes the darkness of the cave into the light of a new world and realizes that the truth lies beyond his chains. However, when he returns to the cave to free his peers with his new found truth, the other prisoners refuse to believe him.
Plato would go on to explain that only those who embraced the "Rational" can leave the cave, and those who were content with "Appetitive" and "Spirited" could never escape.
Applying the Allegory of the Cave to the Ending of a Romantic Relationship
When X leaves Y for Z, X cannot help but think what it might have done differently to keep making X happy. This means that X is wishing for Y to be with X and not Z, dispute knowing that it will bring only unhappiness.
Formula:
The Past = The Cave
Memory = Shadows ≠ Reality
Applied to There's Something About Mary
Ted first met Mary in high school, and after a single tragic night, he never say her again. He spent the rest of his life wondering "What might have been."
Ted was living in the Past, creating truth though memory. It was not until he became "Rational" that he was able to step outside of this.
Applied to La Jetee
The man literal went into his past, and saw the memory as "reality" and reality has undetermined variables. Because he saw the past as "reality" the fact that the woman will not be shot was undetermined. If he would have looked as the past as a fixed state and not change able, he and she could still be alive.
The man saw the shadow of the woman as real, and because of that he was unable to stop himself as X from becoming L.
It is not "rational" to think of the past.
Conclusion
What Ted says breaks the normal convention of love as being "Appetitive" and "Spirited", by saying that those two only create "fixation". This film takes a risk by stating that for love, rationality is needed.
The "Rationality" is what makes X different from L.
No amount rationality in the world can stop the initiation reaction of a break-up from being THIS:
However, this reaction will pass much quicker with rationality as opposed to blind rage cause by the "Appetitive" and the "Spirited".
1*: There are more reason which are much more complex, but I do not wish to speak of these matters since they are more person to other parties involved.
2*: They are call "L" because they are Legion and they are many.
3*: This also proves that Ayn Rand completely misinterpreted Plato's The Republic)
