is 360 degrees. In this case you would be talking about an ideal circle which
might not exist in the physical world but which you can clearly visualize. (You
are dealing with the hidden gingerbread-man mold and not with the particular
cookie on the kitchen table.)
In short, we can only have inexact conceptions of things we perceive
with our senses. But we can have true knowledge of things we understand
with our reason. The sum of the angles in a triangle will remain 180 degrees
to the end of time. And similarly the “idea” horse will walk on four legs even if
all the horses in the sensory world break a leg.
An Immortal Soul
As I explained, Plato believed that reality is divided into two regions.
One region is the world of the senses, about which we can only have
approximate or incomplete knowledge by using our five (approximate or
incomplete) senses. In this sensory world, “everything flows” and nothing is
permanent. Nothing in the sensory world is, there are only things that come to
be and pass away.
The other region is the world of ideas, about which we can have true
knowledge by using our reason. This world of ideas cannot be perceived by
the senses, but the ideas (or forms) are eternal and immutable.
According to Plato, man is a dual creature. We have a body that “flows,”
is inseparably bound to the world of the senses, and is subject to the same
fate as everything else in this world—a soap bubble, for example. All our
senses are based in the body and are consequently unreliable. But we also
have an immortal soul—and this soul is the realm of reason. And not being
physical, the soul can survey the world of ideas.
But that’s not all, Sophie. IT’S NOT ALL!
Plato also believed that the soul existed before it inhabited the body, (it
was lying on a shelf in the closet with all the cookie molds.) But as soon as
the soul wakes up in a human body, it has forgotten all the perfect ideas.
Then something starts to happen. In fact, a wondrous process begins. As the
human being discovers the various forms in the natural world, a vague
recollection stirs his soul. He sees a horse—but an imperfect horse. (A ginger-
bread horse!) The sight of it is sufficient to awaken in the soul a faint
recollection of the perfect “horse,” which the soul once saw in the world of
ideas, and this stirs the soul with a yearning to return to its true realm. Plato
calls this yearning eras—which means love. The soul, then, experiences a
“longing to return to its true origin.” From now on, the body and the whole
sensory world is experienced as imperfect and insignificant. The soul yearns
to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from
the chains of the body.
Let me quickly emphasize that Plato is describing an ideal course of life,
since by no means all humans set the soul free to begin its journey back to
the world of ideas. Most people cling to the sensory world’s “reflections” of
ideas. They see a horse—and another horse. But they never see that of which
every horse is only a feeble imitation. (They rush into the kitchen and stuff
themselves with gingerbread cookies without so much as a thought as to
where they came from.) What Plato describes is the philosophers’way. His
philosophy can be read as a description of philosophic practice.
When you see a shadow, Sophie, you will assume that there must be