Assignment 2, Plato's Cave

September 23^rd, 2002

Assignment 2, Plato’s Cave

            From my immediate memory about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave was in my art theory class.  The “goodness” in term of art is known as the ideal or the truth as compared to everything which is considered representations of the ideal.  Even with “goodness” it could only be in itself a form when compared to something else that is known and understood to be the opposition to the form such as “badness.”  It’s relative to a convention in mass cultural way of thoughts and also in language.  Language holds a representation or an understanding of representation by convention.  One example I had in mind was Rene Magritte’s Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe).  It is a painting with an image of a pipe with ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ written underneath the image of the pipe.  The image of the pipe in truth will not be the realities of a physical object hence the actual pipe because you will not be able to use it.  It’s an image of one particular pipe representing all pipes merely the preference of the artist.  The text works well with the image because the pipe is a form just as language represents another kind of form to communicate. 

            We are prisoners in Plato’s Cave because we are thinkers of sorts.  We draw from the Ideal, but nothing is perfect in reality.  It could also be put in term of what is considered “goodness” which is an illusion to become the ultimate truth that could not be reached.  Because “goodness” is out of the limit and only ideas could slightly touch it.

            After reading Tao-Teh Ching and comparing it to Plato’s Cave, there were some similarities that struck me on the surface. Both are about the balance of life and sharing of wisdom with in a community.  In deeper thoughts they want to make things simple in understanding the world from the grandeur to the minute.  Nature works well with the example of the grandeur workings within where life is structured and how human beings should work with nature of things in harmony.  These thoughts could not be denied because they hold truth within that contains simple facts.