The Divided Line

Abstract

Explains Plato’s famous (and very controversial) image of the divided line. Also explains why what Plato says about this image is not amenable to consistent interpretation, thus revealing its own limitations as an image. The problem may be seen in the different ways in which Plato has Socrates talk about the relationships between the second-highest subsegment, which he associates with thinking, and the two subsegments just above and below that one. On the one hand, it sees he wants to have the different lengths of the segments and subsegments represent varying degrees of clarity and truth. But he then creates a proportion in which the two middle subsegments are equal in length. When he later (in Book VII) compares thinking with opinion, he declares thinking to be clearer than opinion, and associates opinion with both of the lower subsegments of the line. The proportions given in Book VI, accordingly, cannot be applied to what Plato really thinks about the advantages of thinking over opinion. Describes the different cognitive conditions that result from using cognitive powers on images (thinking and imaging), rather than their originals, producing the four cognitive conditions of understanding, thinking, belief, and imaging. Explains Plato’s discussion of hypotheses.