Plato's Cave

Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato

Also the analogy of the divided line - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy_of_the_divided_line

And the Metaphor of the sun - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato


The metaphor of the sun talks about how the presence of light makes things easier to comprehend, and how the sun is the ultimate source of light.

"When [the soul] is firmly fixed on the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent it apprehends and knows them and appears to possess reason, but when it inclines to that region which is mingled with darkness, the world of becoming and passing away, it opines only and its edge is blunted, and it shifts its opinions hither and thither, and again seems as if it lacked reason." (The Republic bk. VI, 508d; trans. Paul Shorey)

In the divided line Plato discusses the visiblle world, consisting of visible objects and their shadows, representations and so on, along with the intelligible world, similarly divided into higher and lower forms.

Plato's cave discusses how people react to representations of things - in this case shadows, but it could be photographs, drawings, reflections, videos etc - instead of the thing itself. They understand the effect of the object but not the object itself.

COMMENTRY ON PLATOS CAVE
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0915144921&id=o9d4dOfdID8C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&ots=jg1f3nmkCG&dq=the+republic&sig=cko-kL_MoQsA16NlaZXjOocLtHo#PPA183,M1
514a-517c "It would be difficult and painful for someone released from his chains to see when turned toward the fire. It would more difficult still for someone led out of the cave to see in the sunlight. At first he would have to look at shadows and reflctions of things in water; then he would be able to look at the things themselves; and finally he would be able to look at the sun. He would much prefer this state to being in the cave; and if he went back down again his sight would at first be poor in the darkness, and he would be despised for this"
Companion to Plato's Republic By Nicholas P. White
Published 1979 Hackett Publishing
ISBN 0915144921