Overall I like Plato's cave as an allegory, but it's inaccurate in several respects. The classic is the fact that truth is far more like darkness than light, though this plays havoc with the lovely metaphor of Plato's sunburn...
A more serious error is identifying the shadows as beliefs instead of the population themselves. The mortals of Plato's cave don't see the shadows, they are the shadows. They can survive neither the darkness nor the light.
In the darkness, they become invisible, indistinguishable. They become a difference of no difference. With no end to a shadow, there is no beginning.
Outside in the sun, a fire casts no shadows. They become washed out, invisible, etc.
If you mistakenly try to drag away one of the poor "misguided" fools, you will end up pawing uselessly at shadows. Your irresponsible meddling will "help" no-one. Maybe you'll get some bemused shadow-puppeteers.
Even if you somehow hack the situation and grab a shadow, naturally they will mightily resist being moved any distance from the false fires which give them life.
Another way to kill shadow-puppets is to drag one of the shadow-puppeteers away from their fires.
No comments:
Post a Comment
New failcomment system also fails to publish my comments, it's not limited to yours. Keep trying, it will usually work, eventually.
Blogger deliberately trying to kill itself, I expect.
Captchas should be off. If it gives you one anyway, it's against my explicit instructions.