Okay. Time for a very brief rundown of Plato’s Cave, and how it relates to our diocese today. I even have a diagram! (Diagram courtesy of Mr. Rick Martin of Cardinal Gibbons High School. Not-typed scribblings and notations are mine.)
At the bottom, we have pictures projected onto a wall. People are sitting there, trapped and bound, raised in darkness, staring only at the wall for their entire lives. They are pleasure-seekers.
On the second level, we find a fire, which projects these pictures onto the wall. People are parading puppets along in front of the fire, projecting pictures down to the pleasure-seekers. They are fame-seekers.
Outside of the Cave, we find the real objects represented by the puppets, along with the true light of the sun, which is the Good (aka God). Anyone who makes their way out of the Cave into this blinding, true light, is a truth-seeker.
Diagram (click to enlarge):
Haha, doing what you can to bring the shackled ones into the abounding light of the good, the true, and the beautiful, hm, Ink? Couldn’t be more proud. It is the worthiest of causes, after all. (Pardon the “potential” Aristotelian pun. I suppose it is– only slightly– out of place replying to a Platonic post.)
I’ll admit – I had to do some background research on wikipedia first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
ya know, wikipedia is like the modern day version of cliff notes.
Ink, this is excellent. You’ll win me every time w/ diagrams.
No fair, Ink. I didn’t run into Plato’s cave (and the rest of his philosophy) until college.
(That diagram sure would have been helpful, though.)
Well done, Ink! I remember loving The Republic in high school. I should really see if I still have a copy of it lying around and reread it. I particularly like the parallels you draw into Christianity. Reading more deeply into the allegory and its details is a richly rewarding experience and may help illustrate for us some of the reactions we get from those who haven’t been catechized. (That isn’t to say that I’m wholly out of the cave, but rather that I’m ever more aware of my own short-comings.)
Thanks, everyone. ^_^ Just wait till I learn more–we’re on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas right now.
Ben: diagrams are my saving grace when dealing with philosophy… half the terms are the same word meaning different things. I swear I’m going to start looking up the Greek and Latin terms so I don’t get confused. >_>; And I’m a visual person anyway.