REFERENCE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature
"In contrast to materialism, there is the
Platonic or idealist position. It can be
expressed in many ways, but in essence
it is the view that there is a distinction
between appearance and reality, and
that the world we see around us is
simply a reflection of some higher,
divine existence, of which the human
(and perhaps also the animal)
soul/mind or spirit may be part. In his
Republic, Book VII, Plato represents
humankind as prisoners chained from
birth inside an underground cave,
unable to move their heads, and
therefore able to see only the shadows
on the walls created by a fire outside
the cave, shadows that, in their
ignorance, the cave dwellers mistake
for reality. For Plato, therefore, the soul
is a spirit that uses the body. It is in a
non-natural state of union, and longs to
be freed from its bodily prison (cf.
Republic, X, 611)."
-----
David Christainsen
|
