anyone have an opinion on it?
Re: allegory of the cave
My take on this is that it shows:
a) The world of sight is limited
b) There are different levels of sight
c) The people who have higher sight - for example the philosophers should be in charge of the affairs of the people
I believe scientific work to be sight of a certain kind above visually looking, however, I believe there are worlds of knowledge that go beyond science as well.
In this scenario it is possible to entertain the existence of God. I'm not sure every detail is congruent but the general idea is sound.
Re: allegory of the cave
Discussed this in intro to philosophy a few semesters ago. The main thing I took away from it is that there is just so much that we are ignorant of. We seem to think that everything that we know is all there is, not realizing that if we just turn around and look at things from another perspective we can discover so much more.
Re: allegory of the cave
Although I really enjoyed reading the allegory Plato doesn't outline how it is one is to free him/herself from the chains and come out in search of truth it just happens! I thought that was a bit confusing because if one doesn't know how to start on the path then everything that is described is useless to know
Re: allegory of the cave
How one frees himself is symbolic, in the sense that the restraints are culturally and traditionally, set upon us. Most of us don't have the capacity to go out in the real world and discover all those things that are going on outside, so they take comfort in the familiar, known, present. Some seek more out of life and break free from the norm and take a risk and free up their brain and open it to the wilderness.
Now I will probably start connecting these people to the adventurers of history so I should stop. :)