Plato and the escape from the cave's darkness

in #story6 years ago

The escape from the cave's darkness

Plato tells a parable that illustrates precisely these reasoning. We call it the "Myth of the Cave". Imagine people living in an underground cave. They turned their back to the entrance, their arms and legs tied, and they see nothing but the cave wall in front of them. Behind them is a tall wall, behind which pass many human figures, highlighted various images above the wall. And behind the image line fire burns and throws shimmering shadows on the cave wall. The only thing the tied people can see is this shadow theater. They have been in the cave since they were born, and therefore consider the shadows the only thing that ever exists.

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Imagine now that one of these cave dwellers manages to escape from captivity. First he wondered where the shadows came from on the wall of the cave. What do you think will happen when turning to the images that stick out over the wall? Of course, the bright light and sharp contours of the figures will dazzle him first-he has seen only shadows so far. If he could jump over the wall, pass by the fire and go out in the open sky, he would be even more blinded. But after rubbing his eyes, he will see how beautiful everything is around. For the first time he will see the colors and sharp outlines. He will see the real animals and flowers, whose bad imitations were those reflections in the cave. Now he will ask himself where the animals and the flowers come from. He will see the sun in the sky and will understand that it gives life to the flowers and the animals in nature, just as in the cave until recently he has seen the shadows thanks to the fire.From now on, the happy cave dweller could go out of nature and enjoy his newly acquired freedom. But he remembers people down in the dark. So he returns and tries to explain to the other cave dwellers that the shadows on the wall are just shimmering imitations of reality. But nobody trusts him. People point to the wall of the cave and say there is nothing else but what they see. They finally beat him to death.

In The Myth of the Cave, Plato describes the path of the philosopher from the vague ideas to the true ideas of natural phenomena. It probably hints at Socrates, whom the cave dwellers have killed because he tried to get them to think about their usual notions and to point the way to true knowledge. Thus, "The Myth of the Cave" becomes a story of the courage and responsibility of the philosopher as a Buddhist. Plato's goal is to show that the relationship between cave darkness and nature corresponds to the relationship between the forms of nature and the ideal world. He did not claim that nature is bleak and sad, but that it is dark and sad in comparison with the clarity of ideas. The picture depicting a beautiful girl is neither gloomy nor sad, but rather the opposite. But it is just a picture. That was Plato. For over two millennia, people have been discussing and criticizing his strange teachings about ideas. His first critic was his student at the academy. He was called Aristotle, the third great Athenian philosopher.

Philosopher and scientist

Serious critical remarks to Plato's teachings have also been made by Aristotle (384-322 BC). For twenty years he studied at his Academy.Aristotle himself was not Athenian. He came from Macedonia and entered the Academy when Plato was 61 years old. His father was a prominent physician - hence a scientist naturalist. This suggests what Aristotle's philosophical focus has been. Living nature was most interested in him. He was not only the last great Greek philosopher, but also the first great biologist in Europe. We can say that Plato was so absorbed in the eternal forms or "ideas" that he could hardly accept the changes - or what we call natural processes today. Likewise, we can safely say that Plato turned away from the sensual world and too grimly perceived what we see around us. Aristotle did the opposite: Out of nature, he studied fish, frogs and poppies under open sky. We will not be wrong if we say that Plato used only his mind while Aristotle also served with his senses. Clear differences are found not least in their literary style. While Plato was a poet and a mythologist, Aristotle's works are dry and circumstantial as a reference book. However, as a compensation, many of his works are built upon the tireless study of nature. The ancient sources speak of no less than 170 titles attributed to Aristotle. Up to now, 47 essays have been preserved. But they are not finished books - most of Aristotle's compositions consist of notes and lectures. Because his philosophy was mostly oral. Aristotle's significance for European culture lies not least in the fact that he has created a specialized style with which the various sciences continue to serve now. He was the great systematizator and founder of many of today's sciences.

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