::CNY this year has been cool. Somewhat better than last year... =]
Just read through the reading on Plato, and his allegories of Cave and Lines. It is really about his theory of knowledge. The things we perceive to know, to believe, he categorizes them into four divisions. The lowest having the least certainty, reality, or truth, and the highest having the most.
The lowest division is exemplified by shadows. Shadows are not real. Scientifically speaking they are not matter, they occupy no space. Does that mean they are void of reality? Do they not resemble the object that cast them? Does your shadow not tell something about you, however distorted? Hence shadows are somewhat truths, albeit distorted ones.
Moving up we have the next division- beliefs. These are based on our senses, predominantly what we see or perceive. We see a red apple and believe apples are red. They are definitely very real if you are an empiricist who believes and trusts his senses. Yet have you never been tricked by optical illusions before? Are your preceptions knowledge? What you see most true? That would make knowledge all too one-dimensional and simplistic. These are not yet knowledge, in Plato's terms, not yet intelligible ideas.
The next division is part of the intelligible world; the lower two divisions defined as the visible world. Here are thoughts. Mathematicians belong to this division. They observe physical objects, phenomenons and then they use abstractation. They take out the ideas that are behind these physical entities. The ideas are used to formulate relations and theories. Thoughts are therefore constructed. Thoughts are not found in the visible world. They are intelligible, but not yet knowledge.
The epitome of truths and reality is knowledge and this is the highest division. Here are principles about the world. They have no physical links, no worldly connections. (much like your deities and gods eh.. o.O) They are constructed by making use of thoughts. From thoughts, relations between thoughts are formed and eventually knowledge is deduced. Knowledge here is pure. It is the ultimate truth and reality in this world, and what we, when seeking knowledge should strive for.
To illustrate these ideas, Plato used the story of the Cave. An important point in the story is when the prisoner is forcifully taken to face the light, the sun and eventually thrown out into the upper world(highest reality). Accustomed to the shadows of the cave, the prisoner is confused, dazzled, and yearns to find what he deems 'real' : the Cave. Regardless that he will eventually realize whether the Cave or the upper world is reality, it is inevitable that he is bedazzled, confused, and perhaps vexed during the conversion.
KI is this tool that helps one travell to and from the Cave and the Upper World. You will decide afterwards what is real and which is the more sensible world. KI is not here to confuse you, nor here to mislead you. Rejecting it out of fear makes you no better than the Athenians who condemned Socrates to death for confusing the public.
So what if KI is the magnetic stirrer that will make you confused? Afterall the pure substance that is truth will not have been synthesized if the solution were not put on reflux.
Remember when you first left your mummy to join your classmates? Or when you first went overseas on your own? No doubt you will be confused, anxious or even intimidated. Yet those are exactly the experiences you laugh about afterwards. No new land can be found without consenting to lose sight of the shore for long periods.
Of course not everyone is suited to take KI. Only those that are curious, courageous, and unwavering in their serach for truth. Is ignorance bliss? If it is not, take KI.
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.:firestarter blogged on 4:28 PM:.
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