Philosophy: Mind, Soul, Consciousness, Body - Part 5
Plato's doctrine was almost diametrically opposed to this view, even if at a first glance it appears to be only slightly different from it. Plato took the view that the ideal world is not identical with the real world. Rather, the real world is merely an incomplete, erroneous copy of the ideal world; all really existing objects, whether we perceive them or not, are incomplete copies of the ideal objects. This ideal world, the "world of ideas", is divine in nature, and mathematics is the "ultimate ideal", the eternal essence of reality. Hidden behind the physical world lies the true world of ideas, of fundamental truths and of mathematical beauty.
Plato says that normally we are content to live in the world of imperfect copies, and usually do not even attempt to discern the "true world;" we actually do not want to see what may be called the "behind-the-scenes." We would rather be content with the illusion that the world we perceive with our five senses is the true world. It is the task of philosophy, so Plato taught, to recognize the true, ideal world by the use of the mind. Plato tried to make that clear with his famous cave allegory:
In a cave, which has only one entrance, there are prisoners who, since early childhood, are chained to a wall with their backs to the entrance of the cave so that they can only look at that wall, however not to the entrance. Outside the entrance to the cave, a road passes by, on which people travel on foot and by carts. There are also animals passing by, etc. Beyond the street a fire is burning. This fire casts shadows on the wall, both the shadows of the prisoners as well as the shadows of everything that happens outside in the street. The prisoners have had to watch these shadows all their lives until the present day. Day by day, month by month, year by year, they have seen these shadows and only these shadows, and nothing else. And so they finally will arrive at the conclusion that there is nothing but these shadows; they will be sure that the world is made up of these shadows. They will live in this illusion until one of them succeeds in escaping from the cave and making it to the outside. What he will feel when he will see the true world for the first time will amount to a tremendous experience of enlightenment! But what problems will he have if he returns to the cave going to tell his former fellow sufferers from his experience! They will think he's crazy, won't they?
In fact, modern science, in particular neurophysiology and physics, has realized that with our senses, we are not just perceiving the world but are projecting our ideas of the world (our ideals) into the world when we try to interpret what we perceive ("interpretation" here is meant to be a process that runs unconsciously).
To be continued
Plato says that normally we are content to live in the world of imperfect copies, and usually do not even attempt to discern the "true world;" we actually do not want to see what may be called the "behind-the-scenes." We would rather be content with the illusion that the world we perceive with our five senses is the true world. It is the task of philosophy, so Plato taught, to recognize the true, ideal world by the use of the mind. Plato tried to make that clear with his famous cave allegory:
In a cave, which has only one entrance, there are prisoners who, since early childhood, are chained to a wall with their backs to the entrance of the cave so that they can only look at that wall, however not to the entrance. Outside the entrance to the cave, a road passes by, on which people travel on foot and by carts. There are also animals passing by, etc. Beyond the street a fire is burning. This fire casts shadows on the wall, both the shadows of the prisoners as well as the shadows of everything that happens outside in the street. The prisoners have had to watch these shadows all their lives until the present day. Day by day, month by month, year by year, they have seen these shadows and only these shadows, and nothing else. And so they finally will arrive at the conclusion that there is nothing but these shadows; they will be sure that the world is made up of these shadows. They will live in this illusion until one of them succeeds in escaping from the cave and making it to the outside. What he will feel when he will see the true world for the first time will amount to a tremendous experience of enlightenment! But what problems will he have if he returns to the cave going to tell his former fellow sufferers from his experience! They will think he's crazy, won't they?
In fact, modern science, in particular neurophysiology and physics, has realized that with our senses, we are not just perceiving the world but are projecting our ideas of the world (our ideals) into the world when we try to interpret what we perceive ("interpretation" here is meant to be a process that runs unconsciously).
To be continued
