"Plato's cave", flatland and phenomenology

Philip Bossert

pp. 53-66

in: William Hamrick (ed), Phenomenology in practice and theory, Berlin, Springer, 1985

Abstract

Both Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink have used the platonic "allegory of the cave" to explicate certain aspects of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological philosophy. Heidegger's discussion of the allegory comes in his 1930 Freiburg Lecture, "Platon's Lehre von der Wahrheit". ¹ Without ever specifically naming Husserl, Heidegger uses the allegory to show why Husserl's phenomenology is "inadequate" as truly radical philosophy.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund

Heidegger Martin

Fink Eugen