Plato’s intellectual development and visual thinking

Abstract

Plato has devised texts which call the readers to collaborate cognitively with them. An important epistemic stimulation is the schematization, the line segment, which summarizes Plato’s idea of intellectual development. In this research, visual thinking will help us to make the most of the Platonic invitation to investigate further cognitive growth. It will be analyzed how visual discoveries are rendered possible by mental number lines, realizing the epistemological importance of visualization. Thanks to visualization, structuralism will be grasped. It will reveal a connection with Plato’s philosophy which suggests a novel elaboration of the Platonic concept of intellectual growth.