Plato's Cave

Notes

Claim

Each object, whether real or imaginary (both "dogs" and "justice") are only representations of a flawless essence which exists in the world of ideals/forms.

Explanation

So there is a "perfect dogness", which all dogs are partial, imperfect imitations, like Python classes. That's why we can associate all dogs to the same species although the differences since we can detect that "perfect dogness" within them.

Most people are focusing on the representations, forgetting the ideals.

In the allegory of Plato's cave, we confuse the representations with the actual ideals behind them. Subjective perception filters how we see external reality

Why it Matters

The process of philosophy is to wake our "mental senses", and see the true light instead of the reflections, to free ourselves from the cave, a process that will be both hard and confusing. Only through exercising our rationality can we ignore our senses and see the actual ideals. Objects imitate a perfect version of themselves Truth

Examples

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