Shadow Dancing in the Light

Man ponders shadow, or shadow ponders itself?

I am currently working on this.

Models built for thought progression were important features in understanding what any theory does for us as we want to progress our views of the world we live in. No matter how abstract the idea, if it can lead one to new perceptions and bring new perspective to the way in which we see the world then it is not the illusions with which we wish to further perpetuate, but the understanding of our place in the world.



Plato- Book VII of The Republic-The Allegory of the Cave

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

See here as well.

This above was taken from an earlier post so one understands that what is being expounded in shadow dancing, is derived from a better understanding of the analogy of the cave. And again below it is not without the understanding of the depth of of what is implicate din Plato's cave that we struggle to define aspects of the reality .

To them, I said,
the truth would be literally nothing
but the shadows of the images.
-Plato, The Republic (Book VII)

Of course, to Plato this story was just meant to symbolize mankind's struggle to reach enlightenment and understanding through reasoning and open-mindedness. We are all initially prisoners and the tangible world is our cave. Just as some prisoners may escape out into the sun, so may some people amass knowledge and ascend into the light of true reality.

What is equally interesting is the literal interpretation of Plato's tale: The idea that reality could be represented completely as `shadows' on the walls