This statement is at once too grand and not grand enough. Man is a direct product of nature and an indirect product of the society created.
All people share a curiousity of things different. The most unnecessary frivolities and customs go more easily unnoticed than a useful originality.
What is more natural than life itself? It takes an animal strange to nature, strange to the universe and strange to itself to question the nature of existence. The woman feels more naturally a woman than a man feels a man. Their separate temperaments often direct them towards different questions. Or different ways of looking at the same questions. One reason that most of the genius's throughout history are men is their constant need to impress. An early man could be enthralled by the movement of a young woman's hand, just as the modern man can be. Men are put through traction to impress. Some individuals of peculiar talent have it in them to be original. This is more often the trait of a man because of the required ingenuity that is part of his natural sexual selection.
Peculiarly talented women, no longer repressed by society, look at the questions of creation differently. Keep in mind, I only count a few genius's per century. And all create something original and strange.
So, unusual occurrences cause people to ask questions. It takes idle hours and useless excursions for us to question life itself. The very nature of existence is inexplicable and therefore strange. But who with little time for idleness can be brought to wonder at what is common?
Our natural propensity to anthropomorphize the wonders of reality first created the gods. Myths interlaced themselves throughout these ancient products of wonder. Religions rose, some without falling, in a developmental process reminiscent of life in nature. Stronger assurances of faith replaced the early gods. Such is idleness. Such is wonder.
We create, through idleness, ideas so large. Passions preserve them long enough, that they become our commonalities. Curiousity concerns merely what is different. Thus, nonsensical conceptions of nature sustain themselves. We find great comfort in reliability.
Yet there remains the peculiarly talented individuals. Especially some men, who must impress. They have a need to impress beyond all bounty or measure. Their passion is as inexhaustible as their cognitive acuity. And so against the natural strain of acceptance, there are some who fly beyond the stars. Who climb and climb beyond themselves. They are the product of idleness and comfort. Most create mindless fantasies when their hours are empty. Many of these people fill the bookshelves with discrepant nonsense. Yet, again, some go beyond. Through whatever process they have enacted the flame of their soul creates something original. In Science. In Literature. In Music. In Art. They go far beyond.
And some, of taste, that recognise the mindfulness and strangeness of their wisdom can relish in it. The fruits of society are many. Most turn black and whither to an end. Few bear the seeds of original creation.
And so to the question of this piece. Plato's announcement of the superiority of understanding the world. Spurred on by the questions of Socrates, he ordered his conceptions into a beautiful framework. He could not forgo this beauty. It is a higher state of being to lose the common assumptions of culture. With idleness we can reach an examination of existence itself. Our passion always directs to a 'Higher State of Being'. There is no more direct road to this idea, than truth. As Plato feels superior to the busy common lot, so Truth holds its rightful throne above the dynamics of religiosity and fairytales.
There is no further height than the correct natural state of the world, truth. While we are busy we achieve a feeling of superiority for one task or area of our life. Through idleness and wisdom, only original and true creation can deliver us higher. This is where are passions lead us. Ever striving, ever young. Our passions change temperament as we age. But emotional reactions always direct us toward the idea of superior truth.
So, idle Plato found a curious strangeness in existing. And strove towards truth and an order. The unexamined life contrasted in its lower and more ignorant state of being. His passions could not except the idea of that lower state of being. Plato lost any conception of worth in this inferior mode of existence.
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