The Prometheus Trust: The Divided Line and the Cave in Plato’s Republic
May 23 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Two famous passages in Plato’s Republic are commonly known as “the divided line” and “the cave”, they are placed right next to each other, one at the end of book six, and the other at the beginning of book seven. We will read and consider both and explore how each enables us to understand the other–how the first is primarily cognitive and the other primarily vivific, and how the two together are particularly suitable for cultivating the soul. For the soul, according to the Platonic tradition, is a life-bearing and knowing being, only able to play its fullest part in the great drama of the cosmos if it combines both elements of its nature.