Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Cave diving

You really can find all sorts of weirdness on You Tube. Here, for example, is a 'dramatic imagining' of the Cave allegory from Republic VII. Who needs to read the text when it's all acted out so beautifully? Note, however, that they interpret the Cave to refer always to a non-ideal state and so the returning escapee is executed Socrates-style but the troglodytes. Not much hope for the foundation of a new city founded on philosophical knowledge. I suppose that explains the choice of opening still -- sorry if anyone is bothered by the language there, but I wonder whether Plato himself might have had a little sympathy with it.

(Just a thought for those of us about to wallow in more eikasia as Celebrity Big Brother begins...)

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