Plato's Thoughts On Reality

One of the greatest and oldest questions of the world, "Is reality ultimately one or ultimately many things." Plato brought together both of these ideas. Plato believed that reality was in the form of two separate worlds, otherwise known as a two-tiered metaphysics. He believed that something was an individual object, but could be put together into a larger group. In instance, there are beagles, terriers, collies, hounds, and so forth, but all these are known as the group of dogs.

Plato presents an arresting analogy of the Sun as a literary metaphor of his two-tiered theory. In the realm of sensible things the eye can see the sight of colors only in the medium of light, that emanates from the Sun. Likewise, in the realm of Ideas the mind can achieve rational insight into the truth only in the medium of Ideas, which emanates from the highest and brightest of them, that of the Good. As the Sun is the source of both light and life in our physical world, so is the Good the source of all intellectual light and all spiritual life in the world of Ideas.

Another analogy that Plato came up with was the allegory of the cave. Here the physical world is in the form of a cave, in which the humans are trapped from the beginnings of our life, where we are stationary and cannot move our heads, so we perceive only shadows and sounds. Without reason, one of us is released and is encouraged to travel upward to the entrance of the cave. This revelation is very confusing to the person. Then he is pulled to the entrance of the cave, where the light is hurting his eyes that are accustomed to the dark, which threatens the only security his life has known. The world of daylight represents the realm of Ideas. His eyes grow accustomed to the light and he can look up to the sun, and understand what the ultimate source of light and life is. This is symbolic of the Idea of the Good in the Realm. This gradual process is a metaphor of education, and enlightenment. Yet the real lesson of Plato is that the enlightened person now has a moral responsibility to the unfortunate people, still in the cave, to rescue them and bring them into the light. This lesson brings about Socrates' famous quote, "As for the man who tried to free them and lead them upward, if they could somehow lay their hands on him and kill him, they would do so." This is ironic in nature. The fact that this man is trying to help these people and they are so uneducated masses will resent him and threaten his life.