Comparing Plato's Republic And Hayy Ibn Yaq

Hameeda Mohammadi

31- Oct- 2017

Andras Kraft

FYS

In what ways did the writings of Plato’s Republic and Hayy ibn Yaqzan foreshadow the theme of enlightenment?

Have you ever thought of an individual living through life utterly bound and confront a reality that doesn't even exist? Probably an individual has ever questioned himself/herself regarding the purpose of him/her being in this world and enquired about the term reality. Throughout human history such kind of questions and many others have been asked by those who thought rationally and were supposed to lead a prosperous and purposeful life.

For instance: Plato and Ibn Tufayl, who have used allegories in order to explain their philosophical views on enlightenment. In Plato's "Republic”,

Also, outside the cave realm, people were engaged in their daily work; however, a wall had been built between these two worlds and restricted the cavemen from seeing the world. They could only see the shadows of people along the wall and accepted those shadows as the reality (Plato, trans. 1997, p. 514b-515b). This masterpiece of Plato is one of the most famous and perceptive assay to illustrate the nature of reality. The cave stands for the state of most human beings, and the tale of escape from the cave is the origin of the true understanding. In this composition, Plato believes that the world is made up of two parts; the forms, and the reality. The first part, material world, which one can see, touch, hear, and smell is really the half-seen images of the reality of forms. Relying on one’s physical senses alone, trusting what one sees, or hears make him or her effectively blind. Plato, in the story of the prisoners in the cave, represents metaphorically how far is one’s perceptions through physical senses from the reality. Those prisoners in the cave who were kept there since their childhood, had been chained in a manner that they were unable to move around their heads and incompetent to experience the happenings and real things in their surroundings. They were only able to see the opposite wall and the reflections of the statues, objects and other items in the form of humans and animals which were projected by the fire behind them to opposite wall, they presumed to accept those shadowy images on the wall to be real. Comparing this situation from the story to one’s real life, it can be inferred that in most cases people just see one side of a coin while the reality is perceivable only when one be aware of the two sides. The allegory of the cave also portrays that understanding of the reality is obtainable