Dense: hard to understand because of complexity of ideas

[For title sentence, see above.]

The density of an article or passage is directly proportionate to the amount of time I may spend dilly-dallying.

But, seriously, to be fair, being in my Intro to Philosophical Problems class and having to read Plato in this class (who is indeed a philosopher) makes me at least a little more patient than I normally would be whilst reading something so dense.

The first bit, The Allegory of the Cave wasn't so bad to read. I am rather fond of allegories and analogies (analogies more so because they're less subject to interpretation). The thing about allegories or analogies is that they’re never quite flawless because they are a comparison of sorts to the original situation, NOT the original situation. That aside, the Cave was pretty solid.

For sake of not summarizing, let me just point out some key points I saw. The comparison between the illusory shadows and the real deal being confusing to those prisoners who saw only illusions was a pretty interesting way of comparing the observations we make without evidence to the real scientific explanations. Plato uses a comparison of adjusting eyesight to adjusting perception of the world and the universe as well as comparing the “journey upwards to… the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world;” all of this he states in his final paragraph.

Now, maybe this is a cop out of interpretation, but he straight says his opinion is that, “in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right.” Why should I try to restate what he already says?

As for The Universe, the main points he makes as I see it are these:
1. God made order of disorder and made the world “a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence”
2. “In order then that the world might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven.” That is to say that there is only one world.
3. “That which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible.”
4. “The Creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside.”
5. The world was created perfect and even and has a soul in the middle.
6. “The inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two-and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another; and three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion.”
7. “The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time.”
8. The sun was created to light the heavens and from that is night and day.
9. There are stars that behave in two manners: “the first, a movement on the same spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things; the second, a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and the like
10. Everything is made of fire, air, water and earth (because they all make each other and come from each other)

Post, he goes to discuss the nature of humans. Let it be noted that our own very noggins are compared to the perfection of a sphere. I can’t tell if I think that’s funny or not.

Now let me say that the extent to which Plato described the process of #5 (the making of the Earth’s Soul) got pretty technical. It’s pretty impressive how technical you can get about something that doesn’t exist, I’d say. That’s probably the most interesting thing I read. It just never occurred to me that, while I may nod to their belief that the world is alive, I would never have thought to give it a soul.

#3 also struck me. It’s the whole concept of “If I can see it, it’s not there” sort of thing.

Maybe I missed something, but it seems to me that all of these points that I pulled are all things that we no longer regard as truth.