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Today’s episode is all about ” learning from ancient wisdom In Part 1 we’ll cover The Republic by Plato .
WHY PLATO?
OK for those of you —and by that I mean everyone listening — if you haven’t been reading Ancient Greek philosophy, there’s a lot to catch up on. And in times like this, a lot of us are turning to deeper truths and searching for meaning.
Shoko: I think it’s worth noting that Plato emphasizes the importance of mathematics to search for truth.
プラトンが真実に迫るために数学の重要性を説いたのは注目する価値があると思います。
It’s worth noting that ～ . ～は述べる価値がある。注目に値する。
(国家 第7巻は ソクラテスとプラトンの兄グラウコンとの対話) 「 BOOK Ⅶ—–8 より ]
‘And so all arithmetic and calculations( 算術と計算）have to do with（と関係がある）numbers?’
‘Yes.’
‘And they both appear to lead the mind towards truth?’ 数にかかわるものは魂を真実へと導くようにみえる。
‘Yes, in a very remarkable manner.’ はい、非常に顕著に。
‘Then this is knowledge of the kind for which we are seeking, having a double use, military and philosophical; for the soldier must learn the art of numbers or he will not know how to organize his army, and the philosopher also, because he has to rise out of the transient world and grasp reality, and therefore he must be able to calculate.’ となると、これは我々が求めていた知識である。軍と哲学に役立つ。兵士は軍の編成の仕方を知るために、また、哲学者は生成界から抜け出して現実を把握するために算術と計算を必要とするのである。
‘That is true.’
Book VII: The Allegory of the Cave
allegory 抽象的なことがらを具体化する表現技法のひとつ。 「寓話」「「比喩」と訳される場合が多い。
summary 1-1
In Book VII, Plato presents the most beautiful and famous metaphor in Western philosophy: the allegory of the cave. This metaphor is meant to illustrate the effects of education on the human soul.
Book VII summary 1-2
As Plato retells the allegory, he describes a dark scene. A group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound like prisoners so that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and in front of the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are manipulated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the partial wall.
Book VII summary 1-3
Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. When they talk to one another about “men,” “women,” “trees,” or “horses,” they are referring to these shadows. These prisoners represent the lowest stage on the line—imagination.
Book VII summary 1-4
Later in the allegory, a prisoner is freed from his bonds, and is forced to look at the fire and at the statues themselves. After an initial period of pain and confusion because of direct exposure of his eyes to the light of the fire, the prisoner realizes that what he sees now are things more real than the shadows he has always taken to be reality. He grasps how the fire and the statues together cause the shadows, which are copies of these more real things. He accepts the statues and fire as the most real things in the world. This stage in the cave represents belief. He has made contact with real things—the statues—but he is not aware that there are things of greater reality—a world beyond his cave.
Book VII summary 1-5
Next, this prisoner is dragged out of the cave into the world above. At first, he is so dazzled by the light up there that he can only look at shadows, then at reflections, then finally at the real objects—real trees, flowers, houses and so on. He sees that these are even more real than the statues were, and that those were only copies of these. He has now reached the cognitive stage of thought. He has caught his first glimpse of the most real things, the Forms.
Book VII summary 1-6
When the prisoner’s eyes have fully adjusted to the brightness, he lifts his sight toward the heavens and looks at the sun. He understands that the sun is the cause of everything he sees around him—the light, his capacity for sight, the existence of flowers, trees, and other objects.
Book VII summary 1-7 教育の目標は視界を一変させること。正しい方向に向けさせること。The sun represents the Form of the Good, and the person who used to be a prisoner has reached the stage of understanding. Plato shows us the goal of education is to drag everyone as far out of the cave as possible. Education should not aim at putting knowledge into the soul, but at turning the soul toward right desires. Continuing the analogy between mind and sight, Plato explains that the vision of a clever, wicked man might be just as sharp as that of a philosopher. The problem lies in what he turns his sharp vision toward.
Sources: MIT
http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plato.html
https://www.plato-dialogues.org/works.htm
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/
＊魂を太陽の光へと転向させるのに効力を持つ学科 Yes, he believes, one must study the five mathematical disciplines, namely arithmetic, plane geometry, solid geometry, astronomy, and harmonics.
プラトン（ソクラテス）はharmonics(音律)を数と関連づけていた。
