ARTICLE 12

PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

As a human begins to question his/her reality, s/he will already have certain basic beliefs about the world, God, the environment and the people in his/her world, including him/her self.

When we are very young, our WHY and WHAT questions are generally answered by our immediate family.

As we grow in years we question more authorities about sacred and secular matters. Our schooling is conducted by such authorities, usually without our being aware that we are forming a belief-system that will be the determining factor of our reality.

As our reality increases in its complexity and scope we find our world necessarily corresponds to our reality. There is no way, at first, to distinguish between our reality and the world of person, place or thing our reality is describing.

Why would we question what we have accepted as the truth when we are not yet aware that our reality of meaning and feeling is being formed by other people’s opinions?

There is no way, at first, for us to be aware that our reality is made up OF OPINIONS when our beliefs are considered to be the TRUTH about the actual world of person, place or thing. In first reality we believe that we perceive the world directly, which science labels “empirical evidence”.

It is this ignorance of how we establish our reality that Plato attempted to expose with his complex theory of knowledge, viz., how we know what we know.

Plato developed a system of levels in which he explained the steps through which a human evolves as wisdom replaces ignorance.

Plato described how the human mind achieves knowledge, and indicated what knowledge consists of by means of 1. his allegory of the Cave, 2. his metaphor of the Divided Line, and 3. his doctrine of Forms or Ideas.

The first step is told by his ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE in which he asks us to imagine some people living in a large cave where from childhood they have been chained by the legs and by the neck so that they cannot move. Because they cannot even turn their heads, they can only see the back wall of the cave that is in front of them.

Behind them is an elevation that rises abruptly from the level where the prisoners are seated. On this elevation there are other persons walking back and forth carrying artificial objects, including the figures of animals and human beings made out of wood and stone and various other materials.

Behind these walking persons is a fire, and further back is the entrance to the cave.

The chained prisoners can only look forward toward the wall at the end of the cave and cannot see each other nor the moving persons having the fire behind them.

All the prisoners ever see are the SHADOWS on the wall in front of them, which are projections of the persons walking in front of the fire. They never see the objects that are being carried, nor are they aware that the shadows are shadows of other things.

When the prisoners see a shadow and hear a person’s voice echo from the wall, they assume that the sound is coming from the shadow, since they are not aware of the existence of anything else.

These prisoners only recognize AS THEIR REALITY
THE SHADOWS on the wall of the cave.

Plato asks: what would happen if one of these prisoners was released from his chains, was forced to stand up, turn around, and walk with eyes lifted up toward the light of the fire?

All his movements would be exceedingly painful. Suppose he was forced to look at the objects being carried whose shadows he had become accustomed to seeing on the wall of the cave. Would he not find these actual objects less congenial to his eyes, and less meaningful than the previously viewed shadows?

And would not his eyes ache if he looked straight at the light from the fire itself?

At this point he would undoubtedly try to escape from his liberator and turn back to the things he could see with clarity, being convinced that the shadows were more real than the objects he was forced to look at in the fire’s light.

But suppose, asks Plato, that this prisoner is not allowed to turn back, but is dragged forcibly up the steep passage to the mouth of the cave into the sunlight.

The impact of the sun’s radiance upon his eyes would be so painful that he would be unable to see any of the things that he was now told are real.

It would take some time before his eyes became accustomed to the world outside the cave. He would first of all recognize some shadows and would feel at home with them. If it were the shadows of a human, he would have seen that shape before as it appeared on the wall of the cave. Next, he would see the reflections of humans and things in the water, and this would represent a major advance in his knowledge, for what he once knew only as a solid dark blur, would now be seen in more precise detail of line and color.

A flower makes a shadow which gives very little indication of what a flower really looks like, but its image as reflected in the water provides the eyes with a clearer vision of each petal and its various colors. In time, he would see the flower itself.

As he lifted his eyes skyward, he would find it easier, at first, to look at the heavenly bodies at night, looking at the moon and the stars instead of the sun in the daytime.

This extraordinary experience would gradually lead this liberated prisoner to conclude that the sun is what makes things visible. It is the sun that accounts for the seasons of the year, and for that reason the sun is the cause of life in the Spring.

Now he would understand what he and his fellow prisoners saw on the wall of the cave, how shadows and reflections differ from the things as they really are in the visible world, and that without the sun there would be no visible world.

Plato asks, how would such a person feel about his previous life in the cave?

Plato answered this question by saying that he would recall what he and his fellow prisoners took for wisdom, how they had a practice of honoring and commending each other, giving prizes to the one who had the sharpest eye for the passing shadows and the best memory for the order in which they followed each other so that he could make the best guess as to which shadow would come next.

Plato then asks, would the released prisoner still think such prizes were worth having and would he envy the person who received honors in the cave?

Plato again answered his own question by saying that instead of envy the released prisoner would only have sorrow and pity for those that remained prisoners in the cave.

What would then happen, asks Plato, if the released prisoner were to return to his former seat in the cave? How would or could he return to his shadow realm of reality?

Plato again answers his own questions by saying the liberated prisoner, at first, would have great difficulty from going from sunlight into a cave of darkness.

He no longer competes very effectively with the other prisoners in making out the shadows on the wall.

While his eyesight was still dim and unsteady, those who had their permanent residence in the cave of darkness could win every round of competition with him.

They would, at first, find this situation very amusing and would taunt him by saying that his sight was perfectly all right before he went out of the cave. But since he has returned, his sight is ruined.

Their conclusion would be that it is not worth trying to venture outside the cave. Indeed, says Plato, “if they could lay hands on the man who was trying to set them free and lead them up, they would kill him”.

Plato is saying that most of humanity dwells in the darkness of the cave. They have oriented their thoughts around the blurred world of shadows. It is the function of educators to lead humans out of the cave and into the world of light.

Plato explains the steps that a person takes when discovering the world of light as they awaken to their awesome nature. This is shown by THE DIVIDED LINE graphic below.

In the process of discovering true knowledge, the mind, says Plato, moves through four stages of development. At each stage, there is a parallel between the kind of object presented to the mind and the kind of thought this object makes possible. These objects and their parallel modes of cognition are diagramed by The Divided Line graphic above.

The vertical line from x to y is a continuous one, suggesting that there is some degree of knowledge at every point. But as the line passes through the lowest forms of reality to the highest, there is a parallel progression from the lowest degree of truth to the highest.

The upper and larger part represents the intelligible world and the smaller, lower part the visible world. The unequal division symbolizes the lower degree of reality and truth found in the visible world as compared with the greater reality and truth in the intelligible world.

Recalling the allegory of the cave, we can think of this line as beginning in the dark and shadowy world at x and moving up to the bright light at y. Going from x to y represents a continuous process of the mind’s enlightenment. The objects presented to the mind at each level are not four different kinds of real objects; rather, they represent four different ways of looking at the same object.

The visible world of images or shadows is found in Plato’s beginning mental activity. With reference to the allegory of the cave, Plato is telling us that the sense experience of a human is mistaken for the objects themselves.

Remember, this was Kant’s discovery many centuries later: that we do not see the thing itself. We see impressions in our brain and give structure to the impressions. We never deal with the actual world itself as far as how we “see” it.

Plato stated that the images or shadows are real, however, it is the lowest form of knowing because a person at this level is unaware that s/he is dealing with images (firing neurons) in their brain and not with actual outside objects.

HP/SOS (holographic psychology/science of spirit) places this first level or stage of comprehending reality as the human’s ignorance of how we see in first reality understanding. We do not deal directly with an outside world but with neurons in our brain that have been given meaning and feeling by other people stating their current opinions.

Like the prisoners in the cave, in first reality we are prisoners of definitions without knowing it.

Behavioristic Psychology will expose this level as a human having a body with a conditioned brain. There is no self, I, ego or person to question one’s current conditioning. This body’s brain will have a “second hand” reality having no awareness of the metaphor nature of its conditioning.

This is why Plato shows this mistake in believing that we are viewing the real objects outside the cave, when in fact, we are viewing shadows (beliefs) that we have accepted from our conditioning as our actual reality.

Firing neurons in the brain are not the physical objects of our world.

Plato places beliefs a step above images (or raw sensations) because beliefs can have a higher relationship to reality. Plato therefore says that believing, even if it is based on seeing, is still in the stage of opinion.

Second reality discovers this after LOC (location of comprehension) reflection exposes that we relate to our belief-system of current acceptances, rather than to an outside world of objects. It is this discovery that for the first time justifies executing responsibility and empowerment over those beliefs.

Why would we be responsible or empowered if we were actually reacting to exterior causes rather than interior evaluations? And how or why would we be able to do anything about our reactions if they were outer caused?

This is why we are “prisoners of definitions” in first reality in the same way that Plato’s chained people were prisoners of their “shadow reality”. Until reflective second reality (LOC) humans are not aware that their currently accepted belief-system is determining their current reality.

The awesome genius of Plato was when he moved from believing to thinking. He was introducing a transcendent, innate, and an invisible world that will not be discovered by science for over two thousand years.

He moved from the visible world “out there”
to the intelligible world “within” the person.

Thinking, therefore, represents the power of the mind to abstract from a visible object that property which is the same in all objects in that class even though each such actual object will have other variable properties. We can, in short, think the IDEA HUMAN whether we observe an object human that is small, large, light, dark, young or old.

Plato opened the doorway to science by characterizing thinking as symbolism for visible objects, and reasoning about hypotheses. By a hypothesis Plato meant a truth which is self-evident but depends upon some higher truth (Forms or Ideas) that are used to pattern early levels of imaging and beliefs.

Imaging precedes beliefs because Plato is presenting an awakening understanding on the basis of his system of the transcendent or archetypes (innate patterns) which he named “Forms” or “Ideas”. Plato’s intelligible world is HP/SOS’s third reality or spiritual DNA that acts as an involution. It is Aristotle’s teleology and Kant’s innate intelligence that creates the structures of one’s reality. It is the “transcendent software” that programs the human brain.

In modern language it is the “push” to desire long term or short term “goals” beyond a person’s current reality. In HP/SOS language it is a human’s “push” to go beyond their current reality in which they will use some method of actualization.

In second reality humans believe they are “causing” change and in third reality humans are aware that they are “accepting” their pre-existing wholeness.
Plato named this process “remembering” because of the pre-existence of a human’s potential as universal archetypes. HP/SOS names this change process “replacement” or “refereeing” in which the new replaces former acceptances.

Plato prepared the way for humans that are waking up to their “divinity” as a series of steps or stages. He is telling us where change is prior to our accepting it by paradigm shifts (acceptance-by-degree replaces cause and effect). He is also saying that if we could view all things as they really are, we would discover that all things are related or connected as a unified source.

This takes us to the important basis of Plato’s “perfect intelligence”. Perfect intelligence represents the mind completely released from sensible objects. At this level, the mind is dealing directly with the FORM or IDEAS (archetypes). This is the LOC of HP/SOS in which a person is capable of separating beliefs (as acceptances) from what they represent.

Basically, the FORMS or IDEAS are those changeless, eternal, and nonmaterial essences or patterns of which the actual visible objects we see are only copies (metaphors) of what we currently believe. We believe that we are dealing directly with the actual objects when we are still “prisoners in our cave” and are actually dealing with the images and beliefs of first reality.

Plato is telling us that this highest level of knowledge is able to move toward the unity of all FORM or IDEAS. What HP/SOS relates to as third reality WHOLENESS that pre-exists a human’s ability to actualize before an individual has awakened to his or her transcendent aspect. To understand Plato’s Forms or Ideas it is necessary to think in universals. HP/SOS labels this level of understanding, “third reality”.

The doctrine of FORMS or IDEAS represents a serious attempt to explain the nature of existence. Plato’s student Aristotle further clarified his mentor’s meaning by establishing the concept of “teleology” in which evolution uses an involution (Plato’s FORMS or IDEAS) to create the world.

We find why HP/SOS explains the importance of Dr. Ernest Holmes’s Science of Mind, establishing the concept of “mind” not just as a philosophy but a “mind” that can be researched as a science in the twentieth and twenty-first century as a humanistic as well as a transpersonal psychology that can be tested.

Someone still operating in first reality cannot test this hypothesis because there is no awareness yet of a self, I, ego or person to do the testing. Remember, in first reality we are a body with a conditioned brain that determines our behavior.

This has some reality to it because humans have reacted to their world of person, place or thing for countless centuries.

The crime of this level of understanding is its limitation, because it excludes a human’s awesome transcendent pre-existing potential of wholeness. It also excludes our being responsible or empowered in how we relate to our world regarding others and ourselves. It is this ignorance that has produced the struggles between people and nations for centuries.

It is this same ignorance that motivates people to chase after love, peace and enlightenment everywhere but within their own being. A body with a brain has little time to do much awakening because there is no push within a brain to locate its current acceptances that are determining its current reality. How we relate to a brain, in first reality, is limited by its current conditioning.

We are blessed to have had people like Dr. Ernest Holmes stating that there is a universal mind that is the same mind an individual uses, and Dr. Carl Jung stating that there is a collective unconscious that individuals use as archetypes.

We have for the first time in history Plato’s universal FORMS or IDEAS related to Aristotle’s teleology, to test individually as a self-image psychology.

HP/SOS clarifies why until we had the schools of psychology testing three different cosmologies, there was no way to comprehend Plato’s philosophy as a psychology.

For example, the God of first reality, believed to be a separate Supernatural Being, changes in third reality to Universal Intelligence, Power and Presence that expresses as Love and Law within all of creation.

It is the second reality of HP/SOS (and countless other self-help systems) that is currently helping an ever increasing population of “waking-up” humans to their awesome pre-existing WHOLENESS in an infinite number of methods. 

It is second reality’s LOC that enables one to be responsible and empowered over their own reality. It is third reality awakening that enables one to be aware that life is eternal and that we are just beginning to wake up to a life of love, joy and happiness that is normal in that level of acceptance.

It seems that until a human being awakens to second reality’s reflection or LOC (location of their own comprehension or beliefs) there is no way that choice or options (free will) can make sense.

Until second reality, a human believes that they are relating to an outside world of person, place or thing that is believed to be the cause of their responses.

Remember, in first reality’s body with a brain there is no self, I, ego or person to be a chooser of options, there is only a body’s brain executing its current conditioning.
Also, if there is no “push” to think and feel beyond what one currently has been conditioned to believe, why or how could change have a chance? The “push” to achieve “goals” is the “push” or motivation to go beyond one’s current reality of beliefs or acceptances.

The use of one’s imagination is a major tool in this process of actualization or creativity in a beneficial or detrimental way. I can _______ or I cannot ______.

Third reality explains how a Spiritual DNA, as an involution, transcends the material world and justifies an evolution, whether personal or nonpersonal.

It also seems that until a human being awakens to third reality or the transcendent or pre-existing potential of wholeness, there is no way that options can make sense if one’s current understanding is incapable of entertaining change when change challenges one’s current beliefs or acceptances.

HP/SOS describes this “push” for change as our spiritual DNA that is merely another name for what ancient and modern mystery teachings have always labeled “involution”, as the basis of evolution or teleology of Plato’s FORMS.

Plato had access to the Hermetic Teachings as well as the India Teachings of an Absolute that is both transcendent and immanent within all of creation. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave shows his comprehension of the levels of understanding that a human is capable of experiencing in this lifetime.

A strong proof of the power of interpretation is the way in which Plato’s Forms or Ideas became the basis of monotheism theology with a Supernatural God representing “The Perfect” as creator and a separate creation representing “the imperfect” that is separated from the creator.

A dualism cosmology (first reality) justifies the pair of opposites in which good and evil, sick and well, rich and poor, happy and sad, are all rational to the individual that believes they are describing his or her actual world or themselves.

A monism cosmology (third reality) justifies an unlimited source in which ITS patterns, as involution, create worlds as evolution processes.

Plato and Aristotle taught a monism in which acceptance, not one’s physical world, is where one is practicing wisdom or ignorance of a universal power, love and intelligence that operates by universal laws.

Both Plato (428-348 B.C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) placed this awesome potential within creation itself awaiting discovery.

Each level justifies itself because it is the beliefs of each level that are used to do the justifying. This is why paradigm shifts are required before a new cosmology or reality can be justified and/or tested.

Question: How can Plato or Aristotle who lived over twenty five hundred years ago be more aware than humans living in the twenty-first century?
Answer: Fantastic question. Both Plato and his student Aristotle are evidence of the two basic principles they discovered and attempted to share in their writings.

1. The first principle is their discovery of the transcendent realm which Plato named “Forms” or “Ideas”. Aristotle clarified his mentor’s discovery by locating Plato’s Forms and Ideas as patterns of involution within creation itself.
2. The second principle is their discovery of the archetypes or patterns as an involution or source of creation. Aristotle again clarified his mentor’s discovery by utilizing the principle of teleology in which Plato’s Forms or Ideas are the patterns (involution) that produce a process of what will later be named “evolution”.

Both Plato and Aristotle are examples of what mystics and mystics-in-the-making of every culture have experienced in every century.

HP/SOS clarifies Plato’s use of “remembering” as the stage or level in which a human is awakening to his/her transcendent nature or third reality.

Until humans had the research of the psychological schools as a science there was no way for an individual human to be aware of his/her own personal experiences processing through the levels or stages in his/her current lifetime.

Those mystics that have had cosmic consciousness (third reality experiencing an epiphany) throughout history have been limited in explaining their experiences after returning to their normal level of understanding.

The psychological schools gave HP/SOS the necessary language to structure the levels of understanding in the twentieth century.

A human is now capable of both awakening to his/her transcendent nature and with the help of HP/SOS comprehend when and why different realities can be understood as steps or stages of one reality.

This one reality is given to us in Plato’s graphic of 1. the divided line, 2. the allegory of the cave, and 3. the doctrine of the Forms or Ideas. The stages or levels of a human’s infinite nature are now open to testing, public disclosure and public verification. This structure justifies both a science of mind and spirit.

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