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Rules of Dual Worlds and Allegory of the Cave.

In previous article I described about dual world solution to prevent myself demotivating to peruse targets of the world. I also mentioned there are separate rules of the nature which governs each of these worlds. Here I would like to describe some more details of these dual worlds. First for who are unfamiliar to philosophy I will briefly describe Plato's allegory of the Cave.


A cave with shadows

Imagine a cave where there are several prisoners, they were prisoned in this underground world ever since they were born. Only things they would see are the walls in front of them. There is a fire which is unseen to them, and guards of this prison cast shadows on the prison walls, using some silhouettes of common things otherwise on the planet. They cast shadows of birds, trees, sun and moon, animals on the walls from time to time. Only things the prisoners know are these shadows and they have their own names to these shadows. They have their own theories how they work and about meaning of these things.


Now imagine one day one prisoner escaped to the outside world. With surprise, he comes to understand nothing he seen in the prison are real. Instead, there are just shadows of the reality. Now he sees, hear and feel things differently. He thinks of going back to the cave and as an obligation try to explain the prisoners that those real things, they have seen are not real at all. What will be the response of the prisoners, if they have no ability to escape the prison?


Now let's look at Plato's dual worlds


A Cameleon

Plato's dual worlds.


It is obvious Plato tries to describe how difficult it is to explain ordinary people what he believed to be true. The prisoner escaped like a Seeker, Plato himself. He believed that there are "Forms" or ideas which are perfect by nature. Although we see copy of these platonic ideas, what we observe are not real. What we observe are just imperfect reflections of platonic forms. He believed by thinking about these forms and not getting too much involved in ordinary things he could achieve some form of immortality. (You can read about platonic forms here)


Imagine that these platonic forms are also not real. When the philosophy evolved more and more intellectuals questioned the pure nature of these forms and some even did not believe that they are the building blocks of the world. What if everything is just imagination. Although we all can think about a perfect circle, that doesn't prove there are perfect circles. And it doesn't prove there are circles. What if we all are in some kind of a dream?


What is a good candidate for this second kind of the world? If there is such a world what the rules of such a world are?


Grass flowers

Rules of dual worlds.


Rules of illusionary world are difficult. These are the rules we are taught by our teachers, our parents and our society. These are the rules which we read about and learn about and graduate about. These are the rules scientists do experiments about. Causes and their effects. We have to learn these rules to live and survive a world. Mathematics, chemistry geography, languages.



Rules of Form on the other hand are easy. Everything seems to be ever changing. And change is the only constant thing which is persistent in the real world. There is no place to stop.

So far this is the best explanation I have come across.


What about you? Have you come across better rules of Form?

reflection of sky on water

Thank you for reading: Rules of Dual Worlds and Allegory of the Cave.

You may also like to read: Deterministic world and free will.

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