Plato's Republic - Book 6
Metaphysics I: The Sun
"As the good is in the intelligible region with respect to intelligence [intellection or dialectical-thought: noēsis] and what is intellected [form: eidos], so the sun is in the visible region with respect to sight and what is seen" (508c).
What are the levels of the "Divided Line"?
(Top-Bottom), understanding, reasoning, conviction, and imagination
Metaphysics I: The Sun
*In other words, just as the sun generates light which illumines objects, allowing them to be seen, so the good generates truth which illumines the forms (eidē), allowing them to be intellected (508d)*. This is how knowledge is achieved: by means of noēsis, a kind of "second sight.
Ship Analogy
*The shipowner is the people (demos), "deaf and somewhat shortsighted, [with a] knowledge of seamanship pretty much on the same level,"+ frequently "enchain[ed]" with "mandrake, drink, or something else" by the sailors.•+The sailors are the politicians, who claim that piloting isn't teachable and who struggle with each other and with the shipowner to gain control of the ship-of-state's rudder*.•*The skilled sailors, so called, are the successful sophist-politicians, who are "clever at figuring out how they will get the rule," either through persuasion or force.•The true sailor, on the other hand, is he who actually knows the art of piloting but is considered a useless "stargazer," who lacks the skills required to seize control of the ship.*•True vs. False Crafts (Gorgias): the art of governing vs. the art of seizing power.
Metaphysics II: The Divided Line
1.Eikasia (Perceptual-Thought or Imagination), set over eikones (Images or Qualities): "I mean by images first shadows, then appearances produced in water and in all close-grained, smooth, bright things, and everything of the sort...." (510a) The meaning of this is fairly clear: *Images are shadows, reflections, etc., of Things.*
Metaphysics I: The Sun
As the "cause" of knowledge and truth, the good deserves a place of honor (509a). (He says in Book V that "there is something fair itself [the good] and [one] is able to catch sight both of it and of what participates in it [the forms]" [476d], i.e., the forms may constitute the good.)
Pistis
Conviction
What is in the realm of appearance?
Conviction and Imagination
Metaphysics II: The Divided Line
Dianoia (Scientific-Thought or Thought), set over ta mathēmatica (Figures or Mathematical Objects): We now move out of the visible region and into the intelligible region. *Dianoia is the process of "using as Images the Things that were previously imitated [, and it is] compelled to investigate on the basis of hypotheses and makes its way not to a beginning but to an end"* (510b-c). What does this mean? To better understand, think about two fields and how they use "suppositions" or "hypotheses" (FN 37), geometry and science:a.In geometry, you begin with axioms that cannot themselves be proven and then work from them to desired outcomes (e.g., a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem).↑ Geometrical objects in the world (e.g., a square drawn on paper) can be thought of as a kind of Image (shadow or reflection) of the Figure of a square, which is thought and not seen.↑ (Counterintuitive?) b.In science, you pose hypotheses and then test them; hypotheses that survive repeated testing are elevated to the status of theories and even laws. These hypotheses are always tentative: to be scientific claims, they must be falsifiable—we may be highly confident about them, but we are never certain about them. We use them to understand and control the world around us. Physical processes in the world (e.g., a projectile on a parabolic trajectory) can be thought of as a sort of Image (shadow or reflection) of the Figure of a projectile in a scientific model of such a trajectory. But geometry and science are considered limitedby Socrates: they are unable to "go to a beginning because [they are] unable to step out above the hypotheses" (511a). In other words, they cannot prove axioms or establish certain laws.
Eikasia
Imagination
What is the point of the sun analogy?
It is the Sun which is the offspring of Good
Noesis
Noēsis (Dialectical-Thought or Intellection), set over eidē (Forms):Noēsis is the process of "making [our] way to a beginning...free from hypotheses; starting out from hypothesis and without the images used in the other part, by means of the forms themselves it makes its inquiry through them" (510b-c). What in the world does this mean? Good question. We're now into the murkiest and (apparently) the most mystical part of Platonic metaphysics Socrates seems to believe (511b-c) that rather than learning about the intelligible world indirectly by way of math & science, *we can come to know it directly through the Good as well as the Forms (eidē) that it illuminates*. From this "beginning of the whole," we can work our way down to a certain knowledge of everything, including the visible world (insofar as this is possible: recall the "Heraclitan flux"). Such knowledge will not just transcend mathematical and scientific thought but also allow it to be perfected. Hence Plato's belief that the philosopher kings, once they have attained "enlightenment," will be in a better position to rule the kallipolis, the Form of which they will have Intellected and the Image of which they will try to construct on earth. {form → PPE, PA, etc.}
Metaphysics I: The Sun
Opinion, on the other hand, is formed when the *soul fixes on visible objects (things/modes; images/qualities), which are "mixed with darkness" and changeable* (as part of the "Heraclitan flux")—both features of opinion as well (508e).
Metaphysics II: The Divided Line
Pistis (Folk-Wisdom* or Trust), set over Things or Modes:"that of which the first is a likeness—the animals around us, and everything that grows, and the whole class of artifacts." Also fairly clear: *Things are physical objects.*
Dianoia
Reasoning
These analogies show why the true philosopher (as opposed to the thriving sophist-politician) is shut out of politics:
Seeing the "madness of the many," he "keeps quiet and minds his own business," standing aside under a "little wall" to protect himself against the storm of sophistry and political exploitation. •His aims become strictly private and modest: "he is content if somehow he himself can live his life here pure of injustice and unholy deeds, and take his leave from it graciously and cheerfully with fair hope" (496c-e; cf. the Epicureans). •If he happens to be born in a "suitable regime," however, "he himself will grow more and save the common things along with the private," i.e., in the kallipolis the true philosopher will be able to serve both himself and others.
Ships and Beasts
Socrates is challenged regarding his assertion that philosophers should govern—lifelong philosophers, after all, "become quite queer, not to say completely vicious; while the ones who seem perfectly decent, do nevertheless suffer at least one consequence of the practice you are praising—they become useless to cities" (487b-d)
Ships and Beasts
Socrates replies with two analogies—the "ship" and "beast" analogies—that are designed to distinguish true philosophers from thriving sophist-politicians. These are arguably two of the harshest critiques of democracy (esp. Athenian democracy) ever penned.
Metaphysics II: The Divided Line
The "divided line" has two unequal segments, each of which is subdivided in the same ratio (509e). Starting from the bottom of my diagram, each epistemic* power (dunamis*):
Beast Analogy
The successful sophist-politician is like the trainer/breeder of a great beast, i.e., the demos. Learning the beast's language and desires and how to make use of them: this he considers wisdom, which he goes about teaching. "Knowing nothing in truth about which of these convictions and desires is noble, or base, or good, or evil, or just, or unjust, he applies all these names following the great animal's own opinions, calling what delights it good and what vexes it bad. "•The successful sophist-politician panders, flatters, and also blusters to achieve power over the beast; he plays to its fears and desires; he acts as a demagogue (or as the tutor of one) but in the process he is reduced to the beast's level. (Cf. the description of the tyrant in Book IX.) Rather than uplifting the masses, as the philosopher would do if he were empowered, the sophist-politician further degrades them for the sake of his own power, honor, and wealth.
What is the sun analogy?
The sun gives us light so our sight can see and the objects can be seen as well.
Summary of Plato's Republic
This is the story where Socrates introduces the sun and the line segment analogies
Noesis
Understanding
Just as the sun causes the eyes to see as well as possible...
the form of good gives to the knowing mind the power to know
Just as the Sun causes the objects to be seen clearly...
the form of good gives truth to the objects of knowledge
Just as the sun is the cause in itself, it also is the object of visibility
the form of good is as itself is the knowledge, it is also the object of knowledge
What is in the realm of knowledge?
understanding and reasoning