Platonism pits the perceptual and conceptual levels against each other, opposing spirit to matter, mind to body, intellectuality to worldly concerns, theory to practice. For Platonists, man’s consciousness is split between mind and body — between a faculty directed toward a “World of Forms” (heaven, in effect) and a faculty dealing with this earth. Man is caught in an internal war between his “higher” and “lower” nature; Christianity took over and intensified this Platonic dichotomy, damning outright all things earthly.
