Plato's Dialectics and the Theory of Ideas: Understanding Reality

Plato's Dialectics: A Path to the World of Ideas

Dialectics, the superior form of knowledge, refers to the World of Ideas, to the immutable, universal, and eternal. It is identified with philosophy itself. Plato conceived dialectics in two ways: firstly, as a rational method that uses no sensible signs, employing only reason. It rests on "assumptions" but attempts to dispense with any recourse to the senses. Philosophy, which is synonymous with dialectics, is a more reflective knowledge, one that leaves no question without examination or assessment. The goal of dialectics is to discover the relationships between ideas and to seek the ultimate foundation of all: the Idea of the Good. True philosophy is "an ascent to being": the philosopher must transition from the sensible world to the world of ideas, guiding them to the idea of knowledge and being, the Idea of the Good. (Remember the metaphor of the cave and the release of the prisoners; their life experience is analogous to that of the philosopher. The prisoner ascends to the outside world and discovers, with much effort, that the Sun is the cause of being and the intelligibility of things. Similarly, the philosopher, the dialectician, "ascends" from experience with things of the sensible world to the intelligible world, where he finds the Idea of the Good as the ground of being and intelligibility of ideas and all that is real).

Dialectics as an Erotic Impulse

But Plato also understands dialectics as an erotic impulse: the philosopher will rise from the sensible level to the intelligible. Such promotions will not be only intellectual, and will not end, as before, in the Idea of the Good, but in the Idea of Beauty. The engine of this ascent will be an erotic impulse, and the object of love (Eros) will be beauty.

The Allegory of the Cave: Understanding Our Reality

Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave describes our situation regarding knowledge. Like the prisoners in the cave who only see the shadows of objects, we live in ignorance when our concerns relate to the world perceived through our senses. Only philosophy can release us and allow us to leave the cave to the real world, or the World of Ideas.

Inside the Cave: Shadows and Echoes

Plato asks us to imagine that we are like prisoners living inside an underground cavern. Behind them, along a pathway, individuals walk, some of whom speak, carrying sculptures that represent different objects (animals, trees, artificial objects, etc.). Since between the individuals who walk the path and the prisoners there is a wall, only the shadows of the objects carried by these individuals are projected. In this situation, the prisoners believe that the shadows they see and the echo of the voices they hear are true.

The Ascent to the Real World: Discovering the Sun

Plato notes that the released prisoner slowly discovers levels of reality that are ever more real. First, he would look at the objects inside the cave and the firelight present within it. Then, he would go outside the cave and see, first, the shadows of objects, then the reflections of objects in the water, and then the objects themselves. Finally, he would perceive the Sun, concluding that it is what causes the seasons and years, governs all the visible area, and is, in some way, the cause of the things they had seen.

The World of Ideas and the Idea of the Good

The ascent and contemplation of external things (a metaphor for the World of Ideas) is similar to the path of the soul to the intelligible realm. Plato also notes that the ultimate object, and the hardest to reach in the knowable world, is the Idea of the Good (symbolized in the myth by the Sun, the last object seen by the released prisoner). It is the cause of all things straight and beautiful. In the visible realm, it has generated light and the sun, and in the intelligible realm, it is the producer of truth and intelligence. It is the reality we must see to act with wisdom in both the private and public spheres.