Dr. Davidlind Tackles Philosophy
Table of contents for 3/Writing
From time to time someone lets Dr. D out of his cage and he pounces on a keyboard and begins hammering away. Today he would like you to know that he has figured out where Plato went wrong and would like to share his thoughts with you. How will this help you? You might ask this question and its a good thing too. Socrates believed in asking questions. We should all ask questions and then answer them. Never leave a question unanswered. Especially when your wife or girlfriend is doing the asking. You may think they have forgotten about it. But you would be wrong. Go back and start over the conversation. Save yourself lots of trouble later on. But Dr. D. digresses.
Plato believed that we all possess poor vision. Why? Because he felt we are all just like folks who live in a cave and never come out. Maybe we have a fire in the cave for light and warmth but that is about it. As far as we know the whole universe is a dank, dirty little cave with poor lighting and no electrical outlets.
But right away we have a problem. Perhaps you have noticed it already. Yes. You are very perceptive. We want to know where Plato gets the wood for his fire if nobody can go out of the cave? Trees don’t grow in caves most of the time. And they would be used up if they did. And then we would not have a fire. How would we cook the mushrooms?
You see that we are already asking questions that do not seem to do well using the Socratic Method. Because a philosopher only asks questions if he knows the answers. He would undermine himself and his profession if he could not answer his own questions. But we can!
So it is quite clear to Dr D that we do not live in a cave. We live, in fact, in separate caves. And every morning we come out and wave to each other when we pick up the paper.
This is how we get firewood and other essential products like frozen waffles, baloney and cheese.
I have to go out of my cave now but next time we will discuss the problem of leaving the cave and no longer believing that the entire world is inside the cave while still remaining unclear about the nature of the universe.
Until then have a great day.
Update: The overachieving mind of Dr. Davidlind has returned to find a powerful wizard from the land of sublime stumblers has touched his post on Plato and sent it skyward. Feel free to comment or tickle it some more.
http://davidnotes.com/2007/10/04/entertainment-dr-davidlind/
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3 responses so far
Don’t make me leave the cave!
Is it raining outside or something? I know you like to be outdoors. You take so many wonderful photos out there!
Obviously, you are a “friend of the forms.” The enlightened person emerges from the Cave to experience the radiance of the form of the Good . . . which is Truth and Beauty as well.
bipolar2