Simplicity occupies a contested and multi-valent position across the depth-psychology corpus. Far from designating mere plainness or reduction, it functions as a philosophical ideal whose meaning shifts dramatically depending on the tradition invoking it. In Platonic and Neoplatonic streams, simplicity names the irreducible unity that underlies manifest multiplicity — Ibn Sina's metaphysical quest for beings that are 'irreducibly themselves,' Plotinus's account of the One whose absolute simplicity generates Mind and Soul, and Plato's identification of beauty, harmony, and virtue with 'the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind.' Here simplicity is ontologically primary and epistemically supreme. In contrast, McGilchrist reverses the valuation: simplicity is not the ground of reality but a special, diminished case of complexity — a feature of our models, not of the reality modelled. The Taoist current, represented through the I Ching commentaries, locates simplicity in the 'natural endowment of heaven and earth,' an innate capacity lost when the human mentality becomes conditioned and artificial. Marcus Aurelius treats it as a moral quality whose authentic form needs no proclamation, while Hillman warns that the seduction of simplicity pacifies the mind and saps power. John Climacus names it 'the first characteristic of childhood,' recoverable through hard spiritual labour. Taken together, these positions reveal a fundamental tension: simplicity as originary ground versus simplicity as epistemic reduction, and simplicity as virtue versus simplicity as naïveté.
In the library
14 passages
simplicity represents a special case of complexity, achieved by cleaving off and disregarding almost all of the vast reality that surrounds whatever it is we are for the moment modelling as simple (simplicity is a feature of our model, not of the reality that is modelled).
McGilchrist argues that simplicity is not ontologically primary but is an epistemic abstraction — a property of our models imposed on a reality that is fundamentally complex.
McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021thesis
simplicity represents a special case of complexity, achieved by cleaving off and disregarding almost all of the vast reality that surrounds whatever it is we are for the moment modelling as simple (simplicity is a feature of our model, not of the reality that is modelled).
A parallel statement of McGilchrist's inversion of the traditional hierarchy, establishing complexity as the norm and simplicity as derivative.
McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021thesis
beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity,—I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only an euphemism for folly.
Plato distinguishes authentic simplicity — the ordered integration of soul — from its counterfeit, establishing the term as the aesthetic and ethical signature of virtue.
We are continually looking for simplicity, therefore, for beings that are irreducibly themselves. It was an axiom of Falsafah that reality forms a logically coherent whole; that meant that our endless quest for simplicity must reflect things on a large scale.
Armstrong's account of Ibn Sina presents the mind's quest for simplicity as a cosmological axiom: our cognitive drive toward irreducible unity mirrors the actual structure of being.
Simplicity is the first characteristic of childhood. Good and blessed is that simplicity which some have by nature, but better is that which has been goaded out of wickedness by hard work.
Climacus frames simplicity as an ascetic achievement: while natural innocence carries its own grace, the simplicity recovered through spiritual combat is superior.
Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 600thesis
the simplicity and harmony of the soul should be reflected in them all. This principle of simplicity has to be learnt by every one in the days of his youth, and may be gathered anywhere, from the creative and constructive arts, as well as from the forms of plants and animals.
Plato establishes simplicity as a foundational pedagogical and aesthetic principle whose expression must pervade all cultural forms in the just city.
Mind (nous), the first emanation, corresponded in Plotinus's scheme to Plato's realm of ideas: it made the simplicity of the One intelligible, but knowledge here was intuitive and immediate… Soul corresponds to reality as we know it… it lacks absolute simplicity and coherence.
Armstrong maps the Plotinian hierarchy as a graduated departure from absolute simplicity — the One — through Mind toward Soul, where simplicity is finally lost to discursive knowing.
Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, 1993supporting
The seduction of simplicity tempts ever more as issues become more and more complex, so that voices of simplicity, like Reagan and Perot, offer mental peace without mental effort. Simple ideas feel comfortable; they don't give trouble.
Hillman diagnoses the appeal of simplicity as a political and psychological regression that pacifies the mind and, in doing so, evacuates rather than activates genuine power.
Hillman, James, Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its Intelligent Uses, 1995thesis
the affectation of simplicity is nowise laudable. There is nothing more shameful than perfidious friendship… true goodness, simplicity, and kindness cannot so be hidden, but that… in the very eyes and countenance they will show themselves.
Marcus Aurelius distinguishes performed simplicity from its genuine form, which is involuntarily legible in character and therefore cannot be feigned without moral disgrace.
nature becomes deranged and life is destabilized, losing the natural endowment of simplicity and readiness of heaven and earth, losing the innate goodness of knowledge and capacity.
The Taoist commentary treats simplicity as the primordial condition of human nature — a 'natural endowment' forfeited when the human mentality turns artificial and conditioned.
Thomas Cleary, Liu Yiming, The Taoist I Ching, 1986supporting
We should rely instead on simplicity and humility to find the correct way to proceed.
Anthony's I Ching commentary positions simplicity alongside humility as the practical orientation through which right action emerges, in contrast to egotistic contrivance.
Carol K. Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988supporting
the doctrine of utility must be so transfigured that it becomes altogether different and loses all simplicity.
The Philebus introduction notes that moral doctrines adequate to imaginative natures inevitably sacrifice simplicity — suggesting that simplicity and philosophical depth exist in tension.
simple capacity is the innate capacity in people. Ready knowledge is the innate knowledge in people… Innate knowledge is rooted in heaven.
Liu I-ming's commentary equates 'simple capacity' with the primordial, heaven-rooted endowment that artificial conditioning displaces — aligning simplicity with spiritual authenticity.
We need only drop the effort to secure and solidify ourselves and the awakened state is present.
Trungpa's account of non-striving implies a functional simplicity — the dropping of elaborative ego-effort — as the condition of awakening, though he does not name it as such.
Trungpa, Chögyam, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, 1973aside