2023-10-15 08:17:32
“Fullmetal Alchemist” is the love story between two brothers, it is the search for a philosopher’s stone made at the cost of human lives, and it is also the decision to renounce being a god to become just another mortal.
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Two children, Edward and Alphonse Elric, try to bring their mother back to life using an alchemy technique known as human transmutation. They try to use the law of equivalent exchange: carbon, water and nitrogen in exchange for their mother’s body. However, the experiment turns out to be a tragedy. Alphonse loses his body and Edward sacrifices his right arm and left leg to seal his brother’s soul in a suit of armor. In this way, the plot of Fullmetal Alchemist unfolds and focuses on the search for the philosopher’s stone to recover their bodies.
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This is a very brief summary of one of the most viewed and acclaimed anime series, and perhaps this is because, behind that apparently simple plot, the series draws on philosophy to build its theme.
The first philosophical question we encounter is one that has been repeated throughout history, literature, and human thought: science versus religion. In the first episodes, the brothers travel to the city of Leor, which is controlled by Father Cornello and is apparently capable of performing miracles. In this part of the story, we see what Edward’s view is on religion, creation and God: “alchemists are scientists, you see. We don’t believe in the creator, or in God, or anything like that. We observe the physical laws that govern this world and seek the truth.”
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Opening 1 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Alchemists search for the “truth,” but that search is dangerous, as Edward knew when trying to revive his mother. When trying to perform human transmutation, for a moment the boy saw himself in the middle of a completely empty and white dimension. In front of him, an equally white silhouette looked at him and smiled at him, despite having no eyes or mouth. “I am what humans call the universe, the truth, everything, nothing, god,” that silhouette tells him, and invites him to know what he has sought, what all alchemists seek. She invites him to taste the truth in exchange for a sacrifice, which turns out to be her arm and his leg. An arm and a leg that, later in the series, Edward can see that he uses that silhouette, which are nothing more than the reflection of what he wishes to have.
That dimension, that silhouette, that truth, that entire universe contrasted with the world through which the Elric brothers walk, are analogous to the world of ideas and the sensible world of Plato. The sensible world cannot be the object of true knowledge, since it is experienced through the senses, which are deceptive. Instead, the world of ideas is known through reason. By approaching the world of ideas we know the Truth or even God, that god that we see represented in Fullmetal Alchemist and who is equal to the Truth. Those who perform human transmutation enter this dimension and acquire alchemical knowledge proportional to the sacrifice they are willing to make. This other dimension is the home of Truth, there are no physical objects, there are no sensible objects, only abstraction, reason, pure knowledge that is gained through pain.
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The role of philosophers in ancient Greece was to acquire knowledge. Something, even if it were little, of that Truth to transmit to humans. Similarly, alchemists who attempt human transmutation are literally dragged to the Gate of Truth and gain knowledge of alchemy in exchange for a sacrifice. In this way, they get closer to God, to the Truth, to Everything, or to Nothing. However, in the end, Edward renounces that knowledge and alchemy, to which the silhouette responds that it was the right decision. Fullmetal Alchemist is the love story between two brothers, it is the search for a philosopher’s stone made at the cost of human lives, and it is also the decision to renounce being a god to become just another mortal. Fullmetal Alchemist is, in essence, Platonic philosophy made blood.
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