STREAMS OF KNOWLEDGE: Interpreting a Platonic Allegory

IMAGE:   A kaleidoscopic circular mandala in the shape of an icosagon with a radiant
         central point. 

Melissa: Streams of knowledge? All I see is a kaleidoscope. Where's the "knowledge?"

Tim:     Think of each image as a Rorschach test, reflecting who we are.

Satoru:  (raising his eyebrows) What's knowledge but structured information? Centuries 
         ago great thinkers suggested knowledge had an actual form – every object in 
         the universe "speaks" in its own way.

Melissa: (shaking her head) Sounds like metaphysical nonsense!

Liao:    The only true nonsense is believing our senses: they are liars. As Plato points 
         out, sensory information is akin to shadows on the wall of a cave.

Melissa: (growing impatient) Ha, why waste time on this talk?

Tim:     (sighing) Ah. Well. Ahmm.


=====================================================================================
from _Crassroom Voices - Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Education_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY: A discussion about an ancient allegory concerning knowledge.
KEYWORDS: kaleidoscopic knowledge, existential epistemology, metaphysics, anekantavada

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2001 in Nagoya, Japan  / Finished: 2024 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

< LAST    http://www.tnewfields.info/CrassroomVoices/plato.htm
  TOC     http://www.tnewfields.info/CrassroomVoices/index.html
  NEXT >  http://www.tnewfields.info/CrassroomVoices/textese.htm