Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The orthodox interpretation holds that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is not an account of empirical inquiry but a metaphysical drama of intellectual ascent: the shadows signify ignorance, the cave represents the sensible world, and liberation symbolizes the soul’s turn toward noēsis and knowledge of theContinue reading “Excursus 040 – On the Allegory of the Cave and Induction”
Tag Archives: Plato
Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Human perception of even the most apparently straightforward phenomena—such as color—varies significantly across individuals. Differences in sensory physiology, neural processing, developmental history, and learned categories mean that two people may both call an object “green” while experiencing qualitatively distinct sensations. Similar divergences appear in brightness perception,Continue reading “Excursus 023 – On the Significance of The “Man is the measure of all things.””
Excursus 021 – On Recollection, Implicit Learning, and the Origins of Knowledge
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s account of how knowledge is acquired, as presented in Aphorism I:37 of the Novum Organum (1620), resonates with other non-dogmatic conceptions of learning, both ancient and modern. Socrates, by contrast, maintained that knowledge is possible. Although he acknowledged the limits of his own knowledge, heContinue reading “Excursus 021 – On Recollection, Implicit Learning, and the Origins of Knowledge”
Excursus 014 – On Dualism
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 The appearance of paired opposites in Bacon’s examples (“hot/cold,” “white/black”) should not be taken as evidence of a dualistic worldview. These pairs were part of the inherited scientific and rhetorical vocabulary of his time—convenient, vivid, and pedagogically familiar—but not philosophically binding. Bacon’s underlying physics was continuist,Continue reading “Excursus 014 – On Dualism”
Excursus 003 – Three Historical Roles of Dialectic
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Discussions of the history of dialectic often distinguish between different philosophers but less frequently between the fundamentally different roles that dialectic has played throughout intellectual history. A useful distinction may be drawn between three broad conceptions. The earliest conception, associated primarily with Socrates and much ofContinue reading “Excursus 003 – Three Historical Roles of Dialectic”
Hossein Jorjani 