Plato
...rld knowable by some means more reliable, direct or true than peering through the window of the senses? …. But if perception is a representation-- a projected shadow, as he would have it-- it is not the shadow of anything which can be accessed independently of conditional mental processes, unless we are to believe that the mind does not depend on the nervous system. Rather, we see in the shadows what we need to see in order to keep our hand in the game of existence. Skepticism, far from being fruitless, renders a valuable service in making us look before we leap into action based on the too literal truth of our perceptions or beliefs. Knowledge of the world is always relative. Absolute knowledge is not knowledge of the relative world.” This quote from Bruiger clearly states how we should use skepticism and doubt based on the fundamental principles of Plato. Plato used doubt but only when required. Doubt and skepticism go hand in hand when determining and expressing our perception of certain things in life. Plato believes that skeptical thought and doubt can help one examine his or her own life through means of questioning. Plato himself at one point asked these questions “Who are we? How do we know that we really exist? What is Truth? How do we know what is true, is really true?” These questions asked by Plato are not ones that evoked doubt; they were only questions which he pondered about life. He asked these kinds of questions to ****** 3 examine life. These skeptical questions that he asked were not means of doubting society and proven facts that we truly do exist, and that truth is a perception of the mind, and that cosmos around us are composed of the same matter that we are composed of. He didn’t want to publicly doubt these facts that were widely believed throughout the philosophical community, but they were questions which he doubted himself privately as means to better understand being and fulfill his theory that “The unexamined life is not worth living to a human.” Through his skeptical school of thought he analyzed life. Many of Plato’s writings can show us that he respected and valued human life greatly, and he also showed how doubt can be a dangerous thing if doubted in the open and without reason. An excerpt to pay close attention to, when analyzing Plato and his stand on doubt, is the short story where his allegorical characters teach us a lesson on doubt. This story is called “The Cave”. In this story, there are prisoners locked up inside a cave, facing the wall. As objects pass by the cave, the light from outside of the cave, project images through the mouth of the cave and onto the wall. These prisoners interpret these shadows to be a reality, being that they have never been outside the confines of the walls. The prisoners have no doubt in there minds that certain shadows are the objects that they perceive them to be. One day a few of the prisoners are let out of the cave and are introduced into “society” where they can see the sun, where they can see the lakes, the rivers, and the creatures and objects that pass by the mouth of their cave. They find it hard at first to adapt to this change, where they can witness all the great wonder outside their enclosure and really see the things that they saw as shadows and perceived them as ****** 4 things. It was great for the time being, while they were outside the cave, but when there are brought back into the cave, they find it nearly impossible to adjust to the dark. When these prisoners finally adjust themselves to the dark, they once again see the objects as they pass through the mouth of the cave and project as shadows, but begin to doubt what they really are. The newly reintroduced prisoners doubted these things because they know what the world really is like outside their cave. The other prisoners, who were not brought outside mocked and expressed amusement at the ones doubting the many things of their “society”. This synopsis of The Cave, goes to show how dangerous doubt can be. In analysis of the introductory quo...