Dear @N. U. M. Akramul,

Thanks for your valuable answer. Due to my time limits, I have to postpone reading them in details. It will be very kind of you if you summrize your opinion about the plato's cave of Aphlaton.

Perception and education. My first thought was H.G. Wells Country of the Blind.

Problem is though, those in the cave never realise they are. They do believe theirs is the genuine knowledge. It presents an impasse not a forward stage.

I agree with you, but will the ignorant realy attempt to attack the enlighten person?

Mohamed, they do in the story Country of the Blind. The full title is In the Country of the Blind the One Eyed Man is King, but in the story the people of the tiny state attack the one eyed man and imprison him saying he is lying as there is no such thing as sight.-

A further problem/both groups consider themselves right, but the story concentrates on only one. Maybe the shadows are reality, not the sun lit reality.

Thanks Mr. Akramul for your valuable answer; it gives me more motivation to read your book as soon as possible. I agree with you that the plato's cave is just an illustration of much deeper conflicts between, for example, reality and delusions. It is a primitive illustration, but it provide a good illustration.

yes, mankind grossly overlooked the fact that knowledge had been given as human intuition by the Creator during the creation of Adam (a.) ...

OK, but, in that stage limited details were given to the humanity through Adam. These details were great, but efforts are required for fully comprehending and utilising them in Earth's life. Later, the details required for deeper understanding and modifying the life, Earth ... etc are gained through efforts i.e. learning, education, and research.

You see, unfortunately this is the considerable flaw in Plato's reasoning. What is knowledge? Mr N. U. M. Akramul Kabir Khan with your talk of creator and bringing reasoning back to what I regard as the primitiveness of religion and its accompanying paradigms, you are the one in the cave.

Again, this is the problem with Plato's reasoning. The person in the cave may not realise and never realise they are the one in shackles, but believe, always believe, they are free.

Further, as an academic the cave metaphor is further distorted by references to the knowledge given to Adam who was simply a myth, thereby never actually existed-nor did Eve (do you really believe you represent the sun and not the weak focussed rays of the moon, making shades seem solid?), nor did (probably) Abraham or Moses. These are the shadows flitting before your eyes.

Sorry, to be so blunt but even given the most generous reading of Plato you are corrupting it-in the end it is about verifiable knowledge not reconstituting the shadows.

Nevertheless, you have elaborated my point on its flaws. It can equally be read as Socrates saying, look I am the light, the sun, here to give you understanding. Those other guys are the moon misleading you with superficial understanding and lack of genuine knowledge.

Since there are two distinct world views--spiritual and secular, there will always be controversy on many issues ...