Week 1
Plato, The Myth of the Cave
1. The allegory of the “emerging of a cave” as describing “the philosophical mind’ s
‘ascent’ from opinion to knowledge.”
● The ascent of the person, so-called the “prisoner” from the cave to the outside. Once he
sees what’s outside, he will pity those who stayed inside. If he tries to go back to the den
again, he will see things much worse than the others, that have never left the den.
- “The prison is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun.”
- “But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good
appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be
the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of
light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the
intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in
public or private life must have his eye fixed.”
- “Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. First, he can see only shadows. Gradually
he can see the reflections of people and things in water and then later see the people and
things themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until
finally, he can look upon the sun itself.”
● Philosophers are unable to see the darkness and would be blind in the cave.
● There are two types of blindness: coming out of the light or going into the light
● Knowledge cannot be put where there is no ground for it, just like sight cannot be put in
blind eyes. But they argue that “the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul
already”
- “... the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned
from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of
being, and of the brightest and best of being, or, in other words, of the good.” -
knowledge = good
- “The virtue of wisdom has a divine power which may be turned either towards good or
towards evil.”
- “... the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always
remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand,
hurtful and useless.”
- “Neither the uneducated nor the over-educated will be good servant of the State.”
● “...he would bless himself for the change, and pity [the other prisoners]” and would want
to bring his fellow cave dwellers out of the cave and into the sunlight.
● “Men should ascend to the upper world, but they should also return to the lower.” - it is
their duty
● “The returning prisoner, whose eyes have become accustomed to the sunlight, would be
blind when he re-enters the cave, just as he was when he was first exposed to the sun
(516e). The prisoners, according to Plato, would infer from the returning man's blindness
, that the journey out of the cave had harmed him and that they should not undertake a
similar journey. Plato concludes that the prisoners, if they were able, would therefore
reach out and kill anyone who attempted to drag them out of the cave (517a).”
● “Philosophers’ obligation to their country will induce them to take part in her
government.”
- “Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is
always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager,
the worst.”
● “... for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver
and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.”
- “for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise
will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.”
- “The statesman must be provided with a better life than that of a ruler; and then he will
not covet office.”
Notes:
● “In the famous myth of the cave in the seventh book of the Republic, Plato likened the
ordinary person to a man sitting in a cave looking at a wall on which he sees nothing but
the shadows of real things behind his back, and he likened the philosopher to a man who
has gotten out into the open and seen the real world of the Forms. Coming back, he may
be less able to distinguish the shades because he has been blinded by the light outside; but
he is the only one who knows reality, and he conducts his life accordingly.” (Britannica)
● “In the allegory, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall
of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the
wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows.
The shadows are the prisoners' reality, but are not accurate representations of the real
world. The shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can normally perceive
through our senses, while the objects under the sun represent the true forms of objects
that we can only perceive through reason.” (Wikipedia) - senses vs reason
● The prisoners of the den see the shadows as reality, even though it is not, because they
have not seen anything else. Also, only a few humans will escape the cave because it is
not an easy task.
Introduction
1.1 The Tasks of the Philosophy of the Humanities
● Philosophy of the humanities:
- What do all the humanities [literary theory, history, art history, musicology, linguistics,
film studies, religious studies, and philosophy] have in common, when they appear so
different at first? - The question/s that the philosophy of the humanities strives to answer
, - “... the philosophy of humanities offers a logical and/or chronological sequence of means
and conceptual frameworks for discussions that may help those who want to think
seriously about the origins and status of their own disciplines, and that may help them in
formulating a choice for a particular approach more explicitly and in a more reasoned
manner.” p. 19
● Philosophy of science:
- “Philosophers of science have a double task. In the first place, they are expected to paint
a picture of science that captures the particular character of scientific knowledge and
scientific styles of reasoning.” p. 16
- “In the second place, philosophers of science are required to present an image of the
sciences that at least in outline corresponds to what has historically been accepted as
good scientific practice.” p. 16
- “In other words, discussions in the philosophy of science should also meet a demand for
*descriptive and/or *historical adequacy.” p. 17
- Since 1970, sketching a historically adequate picture of science has become the leading
concern: Thomas S. Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
- “Thus, the developmental model of science that presumes we have to develop pure
theories first and subsequently apply these to practical problems is no longer as
self-evident as it used to be.” p. 17
- Styles of reasoning, methods, methodology
- Какво прави тези sciences “точни науки” и как определяме кое е “scientific
knowledge”?
1.2. Knowledge and Truth
● Knowledge (épistémè) and opinion (doxa) in Greek antiquity
- “Épistémè stands for timeless necessary truths, for insights into the reality behind
deceptive appearances, and for answers to the question of why things are as they are;
doxa, by contrast, stands for beliefs that are bound to a particular perspective and that are
characteristic of a particular period, group, or individual.” p. 19-20
● How is knowledge produced?:
- Since the 17th century scientific revolution, it is stated scientific statements should
correspond with the facts.
- “The evidently true statements would be acquired by deriving our knowledge from a pure
source; subsequently, this information should be processed with impeccable means.” p.
20
- “By ‘pure source,’ the pioneers of the scientific revolution meant pure *sensory
experience; hence, one speaks of *empirical science.” p. 20
- “A second requirement is that the experience we are talking about can be *reproduced.”
p. 21 - a fact is a fact only if it has been observed by several reliable witnesses
- “Moreover, this view is informed by the idea that truth is universal: if a factual statement
is ‘true,’ it is true for everybody and at all times and places.” p. 21
, - “Thus, science becomes a self-correcting process: whenever a researcher has reported
facts that cannot be observed by others, he has apparently been misled by illusions.” p. 21
- “Put differently: we must ensure that we only draw true conclusions from true premises.
The ‘impeccable means’ suitable to this purpose are supplied in the first place by logic
and mathematics; these meet the relevant demands.” p. 21
- In order to be objective, scientific practice requires control of one’s emotions.
- “In other words, serious scientific practice presupposes a number of specific *norms and
values.” p. 21
- “Scientific knowledge is *value-free.” p. 22
● “Although the humanities, as we will see, have to an important extent developed along
lines of their own, they, too display the influence of these notions and ideals derived from
the natural sciences.” p. 22
- The example of Fogel and Engerman’s argument about slavery (they are proven to be
incorrect on multiple instances): “Thus, the attempt to avoid ideological bias and
historical error by explicit methods and technological refinements merely appear to have
led to a new kind of distortions and errors, one which is more difficult to trace by
non-specialists.” p. 23 - They tried to implement scientific research into a humanitarian
question and even though they appeared to have succeeded at first, they were very
quickly proven wrong.
1.3 Interpretation and Perspective
● “A venerable tradition rooted in the natural sciences thus argues that the primary task of
science is to find the truth.” p. 24
● “When a new statement cannot be logically reconciled with our earlier views, after all,
we face two options: either the new assertion is closer to the truth, and thus we should
drop our earlier views; or our earlier views approach the truth more closely, in which case
we must reject the new claim.” p. 24
● “In the humanities, it is not so much ‘truth’ that is sought after but rather explications of
the ‘meaning’ of texts, works of art, or cultural artefacts.” p. 24
● “Important developments in the humanities often do not consist of uncovering new facts
but of introducing new perspectives or new *techniques of interpretation that do not
necessarily exclude or contradict existing interpretations.” p. 24
● ! Science is about facts and competition, humanities are about interpretation and
co-existing.
● “When interpreting something, we are not concerned with recovering the uniquely correct
hidden meaning of, for example, a literary work of art but rather with adding new
meanings to already existing readings.” p. 24
- “In Interpretation and Overinterpretation, Umberto Eco (1932-2016), famous as the
author of The Name of the Rose (a novel in which the breaking of secret codes plays an
important role), objects against one specific interpretation of the work of the Italian poet
