Tom Morris writes this article for the Huffington Post comparing Plato's Cave to the current financial and economic crisis.
Plato argued that we all live under the distorting influence of illusions. Plato uses the metaphor that we humans are prisoners, chained to a wall in a cave, mesmerized by the shadows we see flickering by – thinking that these shadows are reality.
This metaphor is exemplified by the events that have created and are continuing the economic recession. We are prisoners of the economy - we stare transfixed at the movements of the stock exchanges- thinking them to be the source of ultimate reality.
Tom Morris emphasizes courage and confidence, tempered with just a little caution, as essential to overcoming the fear of the illusory and avoid immobilization.
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I loved the article :)
ReplyDeleteWhile a nice application of metaphor, I think Tom Morris endues an incredulous naivete on both "Plato's Cave" and the global economic situation.
ReplyDeleteContrary to Morris, I don't believe "the economic events of our time have arisen out of many of these illusions." These were not illusions at all: these economic events stem from malfeasance and greed. Madoff is not an illusion. The badly structured housing policies that created the sub-prime market were not an illusion. Even bankers who knew this was bad had to play the sub-prime lending game because the government changed the rules of competition. AIG bonus packages of millions of dollars for executives were not an illusion. If Tom Morris wants us to believe this is an illusion, what is his stake in the game? Is he trying to distract us with his own illusion? How can we "learn from mistakes", if something real didn't happen?
As for Plato's Cave (Republic VII), this is more than a story about illusions and reality. Like most of the Republic it advocates totalitarian ideology. The republic is a hegemony, with philosopher kings at the top of the pyramid. I disagree with Morris' assertion that the philosopher yields truth to the people in the cave. Rather, the philosopher is encouraged to be amongst the cave prisoners but never to liberate them! Rather, they should go along with the illusions, while seeing better than they do - this is manipulation by understanding others' weaknesses.