The Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave
Many of you are probably familiar with Plato09s famous allegory of the cave. But I09ve always had a problem with it: how does one know if he has not simply gone out of one cave into another?
It is not rare for someone to say (or imply) that they are 08enlightened09. People often claim to have enlightening experiences. Ptolemy surely felt enlightened when he came up with his geocentric model. But now, with our heliocentric model, we know he did not know truth. Yet it was impossible for him to see hundreds of years in the future when science and technology had advanced, so his feeling of enlightenment was rationally justified 04 it was the best theory people had at the time. Now, we have quantum physics and natural selection, but these are probably ephemeral too. (No natural selection? Sort of puts a twist on my previous entry. <grin>). So that09s what I wonder about. We are limited by our senses and our lifespan in our perception. So I doubt if we can ever be truly enlightened 04 truly see the sun. Well, unless you say you09re not enlightened, which some people say is an enlightened idea. And that09s a paradox.
I have Ralph Ellison on the brain right now (I'm reading Invisible Man). Here's a cool and applicable quote from him:
"I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more
efficient blinding."