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洞穴之喻：這是柏拉圖在《國家篇》514-521中描述的對人類知識的基本想像。設(shè)想在一個地穴中有一批囚徒；他們自小待在那里，被鎖鏈束縛，不能轉(zhuǎn)頭，只能看前面洞壁上的影子。在他們后上方有一堆火，有一條橫貫洞穴的小島：沿小道筑有一堵矮墻，如同木偶戲的屏風(fēng)。人們扛著各種器具走過墻后的小道，而火光則把透出墻的器具投影到囚徒面前的洞壁上。囚徒自然地認為影子是惟一真實的事物。如果他們中的一個碰巧獲釋，轉(zhuǎn)過頭來看到了火光與物體，他最初會感到困惑；他的眼睛會感到痛苦；他甚至?xí)J為影子比它們的原物更真實。 如果有人進一步拉他走出洞穴，到陽光下的世界，他會更加眩目，甚至?xí)l(fā)火；起初他只能看到事物在水中的倒影，然后才能看見陽光中的事物，最后甚至能看太陽自身。到那時他才處于真正的解放狀態(tài)，會開始憐憫他的囚徒同伴、他的原來的信仰和生活。如果他返回去拯救他的囚徒同伴，他得有一段時間去適應(yīng)洞中的黑暗，并且會發(fā)現(xiàn)很難說服他們跟他走出洞穴。 這一比喻與太陽之喻和線段之喻相聯(lián)系，洞穴之中的世界相應(yīng)于可感世界，而洞穴外面的世界則比作理智世界?？墒窃目勺髟S多不同的解釋。 柏拉圖明確生成囚徒與我們想像，即是說他們代表人類的狀態(tài)；而囚徒被拉出洞穴的過程則類似于通過教育而獲得啟蒙的過程。我們可以把上升之途和對上面事物的觀照解釋成是靈魂上升到理智世界的過程。洞穴之喻對于后來的政治和教育理論影響甚巨。 “蘇格拉底的洞穴之喻是要告訴我們，人類在一般情形下是通過事物的影子來間接地看事物?！?/span> ——克隆比：《柏拉圖學(xué)說考察》，1962年，I，第117頁。 cave, simile of the：A fundamentalimage of human knowledge and reality described by Plato in the Republic (514– 21).Imagine prisoners in an underground cave who have been there since theirchildhood. They are chained in such a way that they cannot turn their heads butcan only see the shadows on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows arecast by a fire behind them and by the artifacts that men carry and pass along atrack across the cave, like the screen at a puppet show. The prisoners naturallybelieve that the shadows are the only real things. If one of them happens to bereleased and turns round to the fire and to see the objects themselves, he willinitially be bewildered, his eyes will be in pain, and he will think that theshadows are more real than their originals. If he is furtherdragged upward through the entrance of the cave and to the sunlight, he will beeven more dazzled and angry. At first, he will only be able to see the reflectionsof the real things in the water, and then the things themselves in the light ofthe sun, and finally even the sun itself. At that time, he will be in a conditionof real liberation and will pity his fellow-prisoners and his old beliefs andlife. If he goes back to save his fellow-prisoners, it will take time for himto get used to the darkness in the cave, andhe will find it hard to persuade the prisoners to follow him upward. This simile isconnected with the simile of the Sun and the simile of the Line, with the worldinside the cave corresponding to the perceptible world and the world outsidethe cave corresponding to the intelligible world, but the text has beensubjected to a variety of divergent interpretations. Platoexplicitly stated that the prisoners are like us and serve as a representationof the human condition, and the prisoner being dragged out of the cave isanalogous to a process of enlightenment by education. We can interpret theupward journey and the contemplation of things above as the upward journey ofthe soul to the intelligible realm. The Cave simile exerted great influence onlater political and educational theories. “Socrates is meant to tellus in the [simile of the] cave that the general condition of mankind is one ofseeing things indirectly through their images.” Crombie, An Examination ofPlato’s Doctrines 點擊右下角“寫留言”可以添加評論
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