Cave opening

pp. 9-18

in: Mats Rosengren, Cave art, perception and knowledge, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

Let us briefly look at a decisive moment in the construction of the Western notions of image and depiction: Plato's cave as it is described in Book VII of The Republic.¹ It is introduced as part of a long analogy, destined by Socrates to explain the human condition.