Plato's Divided Line. FACULTIES OF. THE SOUL ... (Plato. Republic. 509c-d).
Plato. Rebublic. Translated by C.D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing ...
Introduction to Philosophy FACULTIES OF THE SOUL
Plato's Divided Line OBJECTS THE GOOD (509b) or FIRST ORDERING PRINCIPLE
FORMS (eidos, pl. eidé) "hypotheses, not as first principles, but as genuine hypotheses (that is, stepping stones and links in a chain), in order to arrive at what is unhypothetical and the first principle of everything" (511b)
MATHEMATICAL IDEALIZATIONS soul compelled to use unquestioned assumptions & actual things are examples, e.g., the line; imperfect structures, relying upon postulates
UNDERSTANDING
D
or KNOWLEDGE (epistemé)
I N T E L L I G I B L E
R E A L M
THINKING (through)
C
ACTUAL THINGS original of images, living creatures, works of nature or of man
B
IMAGES or EIKONS shadows, reflections
A
V I S I B L E
R E A L M
(mere) BELIEF
IMAGINING
(A + B : C + D = A : B = C : D) Then you should think, as we said, that there are these two things, one sovereign of the intelligible kind and place, the other of the visible... In any case, do you understand these two kind, visible and intelligible? (Plato. Republic. 509c-d) Plato. Rebublic. Translated by C.D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2004, 205f.
Sandmeyer, page 2
