Using Stored Inventory

[Constance Peregrine]

Fascinating. I think I had read this, or similar, and of course off the topic here...lol...but who cares!!

I have seen this expressed by many who find one certain thing, or one certain grid, to be that which they find to be "better than all others", even despite the availability of much information to the contrary. This lack of a true "seeing" of reality.

Of course, we all have our own perceptions of reality, but to be totally blind, of ones own free will [even if they do not recognize this, often the case] is really a fascinating aspect of the human condition I have noted often.

As expressed here, also, those who see things more clearly, or realistically, than those who think the shadows are the true reality, often come under many forms of abuse for having the temerity to point this out, or even attempt to show others.

I often compared this to why police officers investigating an accident or crime try to get as many statements from witnesses as possible, because they all perceive the situation differently, in order to try and get to the best real truth they can, for their reports.

I also compare it to my own "awakening" with this current VR iteration[s], in that, I started with SL simply due to it coming up much more often in my search for "something to do", then I learned of other sl type iterations, then I learned there was a vast interconnected Metaverse by way of hypergating. Each step along the way "opened my eyes" to the possibilities, and thus I found that "place" to which I feel most suits me [see my sig for clues...lol]

But being "aware" also comes with it the knowledge, or suspicion, that my own reality might not be true either, and that other peoples' perceptions are their own, and may, in fact, be more in tune with true reality. We are only simply the result of our own lives at the moment.

You got me philosophizing, it will pass...lol

"Imprisonment in the Cave

Socrates begins by asking Glaucon to imagine a cave inhabited by prisoners who have been imprisoned since childhood. These prisoners are chained in such a way that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing them to gaze at the wall in front of them (514a–b). Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway. Along this walkway is a low wall, behind which people walk carrying objects "...including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials." (514c–515a). In this way, the walking people are compared to puppeteers and the low wall to the screen over which puppeteers display their puppets. The people walking are behind the wall on the walkway, so their bodies do not cast shadows on the wall, but the objects they carry do. The prisoners cannot see any of this behind them, and are only able to view the shadows cast upon the wall in front of them. The sounds of the people walking echo off the shadowed wall, the prisoners falsely perceive these sounds to be that of the shadows.

Socrates suggests that, for the prisoners, the shadows of artifacts would constitute reality, because they have not seen the light. They would not realize that what they see are shadows of the artifacts, which are inspired by real humans and animals outside of the cave. Furthermore, Socrates suggests that the prisoners would "assign credit and prestige" to whomever among them could quickly remember which shadows came before, predict which shadows would follow and name which shadows were normally found together. Plato is conveying in the imagery of this game that the prestige of winning this game is not in fact an honor at all, because the prisoner is lacking the knowledge of the world outside the cave.

Departure from the Cave

Allegory of the Cave. Left (From top to bottom): Sun; Natural things; Shadows of natural things; Fire; Artificial objects; Shadows of artificial objects; Allegory level.

Right (From top to bottom): "Good" idea, Ideas, Mathematical objects, Light, Creatures and Objects, Image, Analogy of the Sun, and the Analogy of the Divided Line

Socrates then supposes that one prisoner is freed, being suddenly compelled to stand, turn, walk and look towards the fire. The light would hurt his eyes, and cause great difficulty for him to see the object's shadows he had seen before. In his pain, Socrates continues, the freed one would turn away and run back to what he can make out; the shadows of the carried objects. He is then told that what he has formerly seen has no substance, and that what he now sees (the carried objects) constitutes a greater reality. When he sees the world outside the cave he begins to question his previous beliefs.

The freed one is then dragged in pain and irritation up and out of the cave. Upon exiting the cave, this discomfort only intensifies as the radiant light of the sun overwhelms his eyes. The sunlight is representative of the new reality and knowledge the freed one is experiencing.

Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. He is first able to see only shadows of things. Next he can see the reflections of things in water and later is able to see things themselves. He is then able to look at the stars and moon by night and finally he is able to look upon the sun.

He is then able to behold the sun and deduces that it is the "...source of the seasons and the years, and is the steward of all things in the visible place, and is in a certain way the cause of all those things he and his companions had been seeing." (See also Plato's Analogy of the Sun, which occurs near the end of The Republic, Book VI.)

Return to the Cave

Socrates next asks Glaucon to consider the condition of this man.

"If such a man were to come down again and sit in the same seat, on coming suddenly from the sun wouldn't his eyes get infected with darkness?...And if he once more had to compete with those perpetual prisoners in forming judgments about those shadows while his vision was still dim, before his eyes had recovered, and if the time needed for getting accustomed were not at all short, wouldn't he be the source of laughter, and wouldn't it be said of him that the went up and came back with his eyes corrupted and that it's not even worth trying to go up? And if they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead up, wouldn't they kill him?".

Socrates mentions that returning one's eyes, that have become acclimated to the light of the sun, would be overcome by the darkness of the cave. This is analogous to what happened to his eyes when they were first exposed to the radiant light of the sun (516e-518a). The darkness the freed one experiences in the return to the cave signifies the ignorance of one's thoughts before he is able to see all things through the light of the sun.

The prisoners, according to Socrates, would infer from the returning one's disorientation (on account of the cave's darkness) that the upward journey out of the cave had damaged his eye sight and that they should not undertake a similar journey. Socrates concludes that the prisoners, if they were able, would even reach out and kill any who attempted to drag them out of the cave. (517a)

Socrates insists that the enlightened must return to the cave in order to share their enlightenment with the prisoners, even if it results in death. By analogy, Socrates is implying that the enlightened philosopher must descend from a continuous intelligible contemplation of the good to share in the visible lives of his fellow citizens for the well-being of the whole.