Ultimate Reality and Meaning in the Cave Analogy of Plato’s Republic . A Further Contribution to URAM Plato Studies ( URAM 4:24–57)

Abstract

Piscitelli's hermeneutic ontology is used to analyze the cave analogyof plato's "republic" in terms of the four moments of the structure of language as discourse: subjectivity, intentionality, reference, and intersubjectivity. Each linguistic moment, like the levels of the analogy, implies and is included in each successive moment. The idea of the good includes the other levels of reality: idea, symbol, and sense experience, and consequently qualifies as the ultimate reality. The art of conversion to this reality is the art of teaching virtue by telling the story of conversion. Comparisons are made to plochmann's five elements of plato's philosophy.