Editing Allegory of the cave (section)

==Scholarly discussion==
Scholars debate the possible interpretations of the allegory of the cave, either looking at it from an [[Epistemology|epistemological]] standpoint—one based on the study of how Plato believes we come to know things—or through a political ([[politeia]]) lens.<ref name=hall/> Much of the scholarship on the allegory falls between these two perspectives, with some completely independent of either. The epistemological view and the political view, prominently represented by [[Richard Lewis Nettleship]] and A. S. Ferguson, respectively, tend to be discussed most frequently.<ref name=hall/>

Nettleship interprets the allegory of the cave as representative of our innate intellectual incapacity, in order to contrast our lesser understanding with that of the philosopher, as well as an allegory about people who are unable or unwilling to seek truth and wisdom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nettleship |first1=Richard Lewis |title=Lectures On The Republic Of Plato |date=1955 |publisher=Macmillan & Co |location=London |chapter=Chapter 4 - The four stages of intelligence|edition=2nd |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.260758/page/n245/mode/2up/search/cave}}
</ref><ref name=hall>{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Dale |title=Interpreting Plato's Cave as an Allegory of the Human Condition |journal=Apeiron |date=January 1980 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=74–86 |id={{ProQuest|1300369376}} |doi=10.1515/APEIRON.1980.14.2.74 |jstor=40913453 |s2cid=170372013 }}</ref> Ferguson, on the other hand, bases his interpretation of the allegory on the claim that the cave is an allegory of human nature and that it symbolizes the opposition between the philosopher and the corruption of the prevailing political condition.<ref name=ferguson/>

Cleavages have emerged within these respective camps of thought, however. Much of the modern scholarly debate surrounding the allegory has emerged from [[Martin Heidegger]]'s exploration of the allegory, and philosophy as a whole, through the lens of human freedom in his book ''The Essence of Human Freedom: An Introduction to Philosophy and The Essence of Truth: On Plato's Cave Allegory and Theaetetus''.<ref name=mcniell>{{cite journal |last1=McNeill |first1=William |title=The Essence of Human Freedom: An Introduction to Philosophy and The Essence of Truth: On Plato's Cave Allegory and Theaetetus |journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews |date=5 January 2003 |url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-essence-of-human-freedom-an-introduction-to-philosophy-and-the-essence-of-truth-on-plato-s-cave-allegory-and-theaetetus/ |access-date=6 September 2022 |archive-date=11 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230511220801/https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-essence-of-human-freedom-an-introduction-to-philosophy-and-the-essence-of-truth-on-plato-s-cave-allegory-and-theaetetus/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In response, [[Hannah Arendt]], an advocate of the political interpretation of the allegory, suggests that through the allegory, Plato "wanted to apply his own theory of ideas to politics".<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Abensour |first1=Miguel |title=Against the Sovereignty of Philosophy over Politics: Arendt's Reading of Plato's Cave Allegory |journal=Social Research: An International Quarterly |date=2007 |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=955–982 |id={{Gale|A174238908}} {{Project MUSE|527590}} {{ProQuest|209671578}} |doi=10.1353/sor.2007.0064 |jstor=40972036 |s2cid=152872480 }}</ref> Conversely, Heidegger argues that the essence of truth is a way of being and not an object.<ref name=powell>{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A288874147}} |last1=Powell |first1=Sally |title=Discovering the unhidden: Heidegger's Interpretation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave and its Implications for Psychotherapy |journal=Existential Analysis |date=1 January 2011 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=39–50 }}</ref> Arendt criticised Heidegger's interpretation of the allegory, writing that "Heidegger{{nbsp}}... is off base in using the cave simile to interpret and 'criticize' Plato's theory of ideas".<ref name=":0" />

Various scholars also debate the possibility of a connection between the work in the allegory and the cave and the work done by Plato considering the [[analogy of the divided line]] and the [[analogy of the Sun]]. The divided line is a theory presented to us in Plato's work the [[Republic (Plato)|''Republic'']]. This is displayed through a dialogue given between Socrates and Glaucon in which they explore the possibility of a visible and intelligible world, with the visible world consisting of items such as shadows and reflections (displayed as AB) then elevating to the physical item itself (displayed as BC) while the intelligible world consists of mathematical reasoning (displayed by CD) and philosophical understanding (displayed by DE).<ref name="Republic">[[Plato]], ''[[Plato's Republic|The Republic]]'', Book 6, translated by [[Benjamin Jowett]], [http://www.filepedia.org/files/Plato%20-%20The%20Republic.pdf online] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418215659/http://www.filepedia.org/files/Plato%20-%20The%20Republic.pdf |date=18 April 2009 }}</ref>

Many see this as an explanation for the way in which the prisoner in the allegory of the cave goes through the journey, first in the visible world with shadows such as those on the wall,<ref name="Republic" /> then the realization of the physical with the understanding of concepts such as the tree being separate from its shadow. It enters the intelligible world as the prisoner looks at the sun.<ref name=raven>{{cite journal |last1=Raven |first1=J. E. |title=Sun, Divided Line, and Cave |journal=The Classical Quarterly |date=1953 |volume=3 |issue=1/2 |pages=22–32 |doi=10.1017/S0009838800002573 |jstor=637158 |s2cid=170803513 }}</ref>

[[Image:DividedLine.svg|frame|center|The divided line – ('''AC''') is generally taken as representing the visible world and ('''CE''') as representing the intelligible world<ref name="CDP">"divided line," ''The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy'', 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-63722-8}}, p. 239.</ref>]]
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The Analogy of the Sun refers to the moment in book six in which Socrates, after being urged by Glaucon to define goodness, proposes instead an analogy through a "child of goodness". Socrates reveals this "child of goodness" to be the Sun, proposing that just as the Sun illuminates, bestowing the ability to see and be seen by the eye<ref name=Pojman>{{cite book|last1=Pojman|first1=Louis|last2=Vaughn|first2=L.|name-list-style=amp|title=Classics of Philosophy|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press, Inc|location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|169}} with its light, so the [[Form of the Good|idea of goodness]] illumines the intelligible with truth, leading some scholars to believe this forms a connection of the Sun and the intelligible world within the realm of the allegory of the cave.