A Kierkegaardian Reading of Platos Allegory of The Cave

i
A Kierkegaardian Reading of Platos

Allegory of the Cave
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A Thesis
Submitted to
Faculty of Arts and Letters
University of Santo Tomas
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In Partial Fulfillment
Of the requirements for the degree,
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
----------
By
OLIVER WILLIAM ANG YU

May 13, 2016
ii
Abstract
This study reads a part of Platos Republic in the light of Soren Kierkegaards three
stages of life. In particular, Platos allegory of the cave in the context of Kierkegaards
notion of anxiety and despair. Platos allegory shows the process of an individual moving
towards enlightenment. Kierkegaard likewise discusses the achieving of life with
authenticity via stages of life. The study also gives an analysis of the methodology of both
philosophers in namely namely, Platos use of anonymity and dialogue vis--vis
Kierkegaards indirect communication with the hope of providing a fresh look at Platos
allegory.
Keywords: process, anxiety, despair, cave, stages of life

iii
APPROVAL SHEET
This Thesis entitled
A Kierkegaardian Reading of Platos Allegory of the Cave
prepared and submitted by Yu, Oliver William Ang has been approved and accepted as
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts major in
Philosophy Program.
Rhochie Avelino E. Matienzo, PhD

Adviser
PANEL OF EXAMINERS
Approved by the Research Tribunal on Oral Examination with a grade of 1.25 on April 18,
2016
Franz Giuseppe F. Cortez, PhD Levine Lao, M.A.

Chairman Member
Paolo A. Bolaos, PhD
Chair, Department of Philosophy
MICHAEL ANTHONY C. VASCO, PH.D.

Dean
iv
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work, and that to the best of
my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or
written by another person nor material to which a substantial extent has been
accepted for award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other
institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in
the text.
I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is a product of my

work, even though I may have received assistance from others on style,
presentation and language expression.
________________________________________________
Candidates Signature over Printed
Name
Date: __________________________________
_____________________________________________
Advisers Signature over Printed Name
Date: __________________________________
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not be possible without the help of individuals who have
continued to help me physically and mentally in the making of this thesis. From the
bottom of my heart, I appreciate all the help you have given me.
To God, the creator of heaven and earth. Thank you for sending us your eternal
gift of eternal life, which can only be found in Jesus Christ, in whom I draw my strength
in living every single day. Thank you for the answered prayers. I am eternally grateful.
To my adviser Sir Rhochie Matienzo, who never gave up on me even when I fail
to submit the requirements on time. Who always made himself available whenever I
would have inquiries and concerns. Without you, this thesis would hardly be finished.
To my panelists Sir Cortez and Sir Lao, who took the time to read, criticize and
appreciate my thesis. For the suggestions that aids in improving my work. For the smiles
and the appreciation that was given to me in the defense that greatly lifted my spirits.
To my familys support and love for me. Thank you for always being there when I
would be troubled in life. For the support in whatever endeavor I would take in life. For
your concern and love for me that has certainly made me the man I am today.
Lastly, to all my friends especially: RJ, Gerard, Miguel, Lance, James, Edward,
John Christopher, Jackie, Joshua (and others). For making my college life full of joy and
laughter. I will forever remember the memories you have imparted on my life.
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Table of Contents
Title Page ............................................................................................................................ i
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii
Certificate of Approval for Defense ................................................................................ ii
Certificate of Originality ................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi
I. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
II. Platos Allegory of the Cave ...................................................................................... 11

A. Platonic Dialogue and Republic .............................................................................. 11
1. Platonic Dialogue .......................................................................................... 11
2. The Republic ................................................................................................. 12
B. Interconnected Analogies of Plato .......................................................................... 13
1. Analogy of the Sun ....................................................................................... 14
1. Analogy of the Divided Line ........................................................................ 15
1. The Allegory of the Cave .............................................................................. 18
C. The Allegory of the Cave: Elements and Symbolism .............................................. 21
1. Form and Its Role in the Allegory ................................................................. 21
2. Symbolisms of the Allegory .......................................................................... 23
3. Allegory of the Cave and the Artists.............................................................. 24
Chapter Summary ......................................................................................................... 25
III. Soren Kierkegaard and the Three Stages of Life .................................................. 26

A. Kierkegaards Life Experiences ............................................................................... 26
B. Kierkegaards use of Indirect Communication ........................................................ 28
C. Kierkegaard on Existence......................................................................................... 30
D. Kierkegaard on Anxiety ........................................................................................... 31
E. Kierkegaard on Despair ............................................................................................ 34
1. Despair as Defined by Finitude/Infinitude ................................................... 35
2. Despair as Defined by Necessity/Possibility................................................. 36
3. Despair as Defined by Conciousness ............................................................ 38
F. The Self and the Stages of Life................................................................................. 40
1. The Self in the Aesthetic Stage ..................................................................... 41
2. The Self in the Ethical Stage ......................................................................... 42
3. The Self in the Religious Stage ..................................................................... 43
Chapter Summary ......................................................................................................... 46
vii
IV. Kierkegaardian Reading of the Allegory of the Cave ........................................... 47

A. Cave Dweller and the Aesthetic Life ....................................................................... 49
1.. Despair of the Cave Dweller ....................................................................... 50
1.1. Despair of Finitude ........................................................................... 50
1.2. Despair of Possibility ....................................................................... 51
1.3. Despair of Ignorance of Being in Despair ....................................... 52
1.4. Despair Over the Earhly ................................................................... 53
B. Freed Individual and Ethical Life............................................................................. 54
1. Anxiety in the Freed Individual ................................................................... 55
2. Despair of the Freed Individual .............................................................................. 56
2.1. Despair of Finitude..................................................................................... 56
2.2. Despair Over the Eternal ............................................................................ 57
C. The Enlightened Individual as the Knight of Faith ............................................................... 59
1. Plato's Sun as Kierkegaard's God ............................................................................. 61
2. Enlightened Individual's Leap of Faith .................................................................... 62
D. A Kierkegaardian Interpretation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave ......................................... 64
Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................................... 67
V. Conclusion and Recommendation ............................................................................ 68

A. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 68
B. Recommendation ...................................................................................................... 72
Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 73
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
1
Chapter I
Introduction
In the field of philosophy, many regard Plato as one of the most influential
thinkers in the history of philosophy. Plato is also the key ingredient for the vast
development in the ancient period of western thought. Plato along with his teacher
Socrates and his student Aristotle laid the foundations of western thought. As the
famous philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once stated: The safest general
characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series
of footnotes to Plato1.
Plato wrote the book entitled the Republic which is composed of ten books
and which contains the ideas and principles of Socratic and Platonic philosophy. In
book VII of the Republic, we can see his analogy of the dualistic view of reality,
known to many as the Allegory of the Cave. The individuals turning away from
the shadows to see the visible objects and eventually the reality outside the cave, it
represents the philosophers journey from darkness to light, from the world of
shadows to the world of ideas, from ignorance to the knowledge of forms. Platos
analogy is thus a philosophy applied in a given situation for an individual.
After almost two thousand years after, the Dane Soren Kierkegaard is born
in Copenhagen. He is considered the father of existentialism having influenced the
1
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (New York: The
Free Press, 1957), 53.
2
philosophies of Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, and Emmanuel Levinas, among
others. He germinated the notions of subjectivity, truth, anxiety, boredom,
individual, existence, love, authentic experience via his criticism of Hegels ideas.
One of his most famed philosophy is his analysis of the stages of lifes
way. He identifies the spheres of existence into three: the aesthetic life, where an
individual seeks sensual satisfaction chasing after new things each day. A free
spirited life filled with adventure and passion. However, when the excitement
subsides, life is as boring as ever leaving the individual fall into despair.2 The
second is the ethical life, which in contrast with the aesthetic life, individuals do
not rely on sensual pleasures or excitements, instead anchors their lives in
themselves and their duty. The individuals focus is doing what is right in life.3 The
last stage and the highest is the religious life, wherein an individual establishes a
unique and solitary relationship with God which brings one to an authentic form of
existence. Richard Lee describes the highest stage as the infinite passion for the
infinite.4
What then is the relationship of these two different philosophers? They both
lived in far different time periods. It is evident that Plato had no idea of Soren
Kierkegaard. Albeit, Kierkegaard has read Plato,5 there has been no direct written
2
Richard Lee, Comparing Soren Kierkegaard and Feng You Lan on the Search for the
True Self, Journal of Chinese Philosophy Vol.40 (2013), 88.
3
Ibid., 89.
4
Ibid.
5
Kierkegaard has certainly read Plato because he even wrote the In Vino Veritas which
is a dialogue that invites comparison with Platos symposium and he even wrote a thesis on Socrates,
3
work, essay, or reference on one of the famous myths of Platos cave. It is from
these two important points in the philosophies of Plato and Kierkegaard, this
research aims to formulate a reading of Platos Allegory of the Cave in the light of
Kierkegaards philosophy of the stages of life. This thesis therefore, intends to see
Platos Allegory of the cave in the light of Soren Kierkegaards stages of lifes way.
In meeting this aim, the following sub-problems are addressed: first, how is
the journey of an individual towards freedom and truth illustrated in Platos
allegory of the cave? Second, how is the idea of the individual formulated in
Kierkegaards philosophy of existence vis a-vis the three stages of life? Lastly,
how can Platos allegory of the cave be understood as Kierkegaards Three Stages
of Life?
This thesis uses Kierkegaards Sickness Unto Death (translated by Howard
V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Published in New Jersey by Princeton University Press
on the year 1980) and other works that are relevant to the study. The study also uses
Platos Republic (Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Published in New York by Simon
and Schuster Paperbacks on the year 2010).
There are vast measures of existing literature on Plato and Kierkegaard
separately, but rarely on both, specifically on the topic Kierkegaard on the allegory
of the cave. This study is significant, therefore, for the following reasons: First, in
the field of philosophy as it serves as another contribution to the existing
so we can see that Kierkegaard really has an idea of Platos works but he has not concentrated or
has given a commentary on Platos allegory of the cave.
4
interpretations on Platos allegory of the cave and as an additional input to the
existing discussion on Kierkegaards stages of life. This will also be an introduction
to those who want to explore the philosophers Plato and Kierkegaard. Second, in
the field of philosophy as it would offer the reader insights on how to live ones life
in accordance with Plato and Kierkegaard and lastly, to the existing debate on the
concept of the state of an individual as the article would give a description that
would enhance the debate.
David Melling in his work, Understanding Plato, vividly illustrates Platos
milieu. Plato is born in 427BCE in an aristocratic family in Athens; his family is
deeply involved in the political life of their city.6 Platos advanced education is
evident in his writings ranging from the poetic classics, works of great dramatics to
the writings of earlier philosophers explained in his works. Plato lived in a time
where there was a conflict between Athens and Sparta; there was a need for new
political and social ideas in Platos Athens. There was the rise of many different
ideas and ideologies argued in the assemblies,7 and Plato too developed his own
political structure which had characterized his philosophy, The Republic.
In C.J. Rowes Philosophers in Context: Plato states that one of the features
of Platos dialogues is the Socratic presence on every page and the absence of Plato
as the author.8 According to him, what interests all is that although Plato was the
6
David J. Melling, Understanding Plato (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 1.
7
Ibid., 4.
8
C.J. Rowe, Philosophers in Context Plato (Britain: The Harvester Press Publishing
Group, 1984), 1.
5
student of Socrates, he was never found in the dialogues. It also includes the
fundamentals of his philosophy of Platos ideas and ideologies on form, knowledge,
state, sophists, soul, Natural world and even the unwritten doctrines by the
philosopher. Rowes work is an important reference for this thesis because it
provides the reader the definition and understanding of the key concepts found in
his allegory of the cave.
According to the essay Dynamics of vision in Platos thought, written by
Fritz Gregor-Hermann, Platos allegory of the cave has drawn many philosophers
and thinkers alike to study its components. For him there exists a relationship
between philosophy, vision and power. Meaning, those who have power are
qualified and are selected for office because they have seen the truth. This vision
according to Herrmann is exemplified in the allegory of the cave.9 He states that in
the allegory of the cave there are over eighty (80) words and phrases in the Allegory
that refers to seeing, sight, light, darkness, vision, blindness, spectacle, perception
and appearance and these words are used in the allegory as both literal and
metaphorical.10 This article entails to the reader that in the allegory there is a certain
power that is given to those that have seen the light.
In line with this thought, The Face of Truth by Tzachi Zamir explains
that the allegory of the cave binds knowledge and pain in a specific manner in five
9
Fritz Gregor Hermann, Dynamics of vision in Platos Thought, Helios vol. 40
(2013), 293-294.
10
Ibid., 294
6
distinct actions: first, he is freed from his chains; second, made to get up; third, turn
his neck, fourth, to walk; and fifth, to look at the light. In all actions, there is pain.11
The future knower of the light undergoes an external and violent force.
Both Zamir and Hermann studied the allegory of Plato, but in different
approaches. The approach of Hermann is focused on the power that is given to those
who have seen the light. While for Zamir, he is more focused on the process in
which the person who starts from chains emerges outside of the cave. We can see
that they both studied the allegory of Plato and both of them have different
approaches to the allegory, Hermann is focused on the power of those who have
seen the light while for Zamir he is observant on what really happened in the
allegory by giving a step-by-step approach on what really happened on the allegory.
Both articles contribute significantly to this study as it efficiently guides the
researcher in understanding Platos ideas, which are focused on the Allegory of the
Cave.
Melling however stated that the image of the cave represents the ascent of
the mind from a realm of mere images to the realm of visible things to the world of
forms and to the intuition of the good.12 For Melling the escape from the cave is the
ascent of the mind from merely shadows to the world of reality in order to know
the goodness which is found outside the cave. Greek to Me by Joseph Wood also
Tzachi Zamir, The Face of Truth, Metaphilosophy vol. 30 (1999), 84.

11
12
Melling, 110.
7
adds that Platos philosophical concepts can be found in Platos allegory of the
cave, some of the ideas are forms, politics and the good.13
From all the ideas of the authors regarding Platos allegory of the Cave
there can be no doubt that in all of their versions and different approaches to Platos
work, there is a similarity that an individual is better off outside the cave rather than
being shackled in the darkness.
For Hohlenberg, in his book entitled Soren Kierkegaard states that the
writing of Kierkegaard is unique because Kierkegaard leads his readers to the point
where they themselves discover what Kierkegaard wanted them to understand. In
order to achieve this, he used specific individual figures,14 this book is useful in this
research because it gives the milieu of the old Copenhagen, the events that
transpired throughout Kierkegaards life. Knowing the experiences that
Kierkegaard faced during his life will help the reader understand more about
Kierkegaards experiences in life. It is significant in the thesis because the
inspirations of existentialist philosophers are likely drawn from human experiences.
Two of the major themes in the complex philosophy in Kierkegaards
writings are subjectivity and existence. In his work The Philosophy of Kierkegaard,
George Pattinson states that there can be little doubt that Kierkegaards primary
interest lies in the direction of existence in a sense of the subjective and the
13
Joseph Wood, Greek to Me, Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014), 91.
14
Johannes Hohlenberg, Soren Kierkegaard trans. T. H. Croxall (New York: Pantheon
Books Inc., 1954), 12-13.
8
particular modifications of subjectivity found in ethics and religion.15 Kierkegaard
was named as the father of existentialism because his philosophy sparked a
movement, due to his writings because of its emphasis on individual existence,
freedom and choice of an individual.
In line with this thought, Self-Deception and the Life of Faith by N.
Verbin explores on the life of faith and its relation to self-deception. Faith is a
family resemblance concept. It shows itself in a variety of ways that relate to each
other in complicated manners. No single essence and no fixed set of necessary
and sufficient conditions by means of which it can be defined, can be identified.16
The article focuses on the deceptions that can exist in the life of faith. This article
is relevant in the study because faith and deception are two concepts of Kierkegaard
that can also be used in Platos allegory of the cave.
According to the article Kierkegaard as a Christian Psychologist by
Mark Tiejen and C. Stephen Evans, state that there are two notable features of
Kierkegaards thought. First is that in Kierkegaards writings aim to build up his
reader by assisting in the development of the reader and also develops the
relationship to God. Second, Kierkegaard does not see himself superior from any
other individual because he is not exempted to the challenges of human existence.
Thus for Kierkegaard we must have constant self-reflection, personal interest in
15
George Pattison, the Philosophy of Kierkegaard (Chesham, Bucks: Acumen, 2005), 23.
16
N. Verbin, Self-Deception and the Life of Faith, The Heythrop Journal Vol 1 No. 55
(2014), 846.
9
order for us to dwell on human existence and Christianity.17 This article is
significant in my paper because it incorporates Kierkegaards ideas in a
psychological way, which is focused in the individual which is a topic in the paper
and it also shows us the power of Kierkegaards ideas because it can also be
incorporated in subject matter which is outside philosophy.
In the article entitled Unamunos faith and Kierkegaards religiousness A:
making sense of the struggle, Jan Evans aims to relate Unamunos concept of faith
to the notion of Religious life of Soren Kierkegaard. Evans wants to defend
Unamuno because he is being labelled as an atheist due to his philosophical
writings. This is done by comparing him to Kierkegaards religious life that indeed
he is not an atheist.18 In the article it is about Unamuno being branded as a heretic
and an atheist using the religious life of Kierkegaard and applying it to the
philosophy of Unamuno. This article is relevant in this study because it is also a
comparison of two different philosophers who lived in two different eras.
However, in the article of Richard K. Lee, unlike Tietjen and Evans, who
made Kierkegaard into a Christian psychologist or Evans who correlated
Kierkegaard and Unamuno, Lees aim is to compare Kierkegaard with a Chinese
philosopher Feng You Lan. In his paper, he compared the identity of the self as
found in three stages of life of Soren Kierkegaard to that of Feng You Lans life
17
M. Tietjen and C. Stephen Evans, Kierkegaard as a Christian Psychologist, Journal of
Psychology and Christianity Vol. 30 No.4 (2011), 274.
18
Jan E. Evans, Unamunos faith and Kierkegaards religiousness A: making sense of the
struggle, Hispanfila Vol.168 (2013), 55-67.
10
realms. He states that Kierkegaards three stages of life stresses on the individuals
choices and volitional attitudes while Feng stresses on the consciousness.19 Lee also
states that for Kierkegaard the self can only be understood in the relation to the
highest power which is only achievable by a God-centred self.20 This article is
related in this study because it is the objective of this article is the most similar with
the objective of the paper which is the state of the individual as found in the allegory
of the cave. But in this case, it is about the life stages of Feng You Lan rather than
the allegory of the cave of Plato.
After the thorough examination of the aforementioned literature, it can be
perceived that there is a certain connection, not just between Plato and Kierkegaard,
but also with their philosophies namely the Allegory of the Cave of Plato and the
Three Stages of Life of Kierkegaard and these ideas are further discussed in the
preceeding chapters of the thesis.
19
Lee, 101.
20
Ibid., 103.
11
Chapter II
Platos Allegory of the Cave
A. Platonic Dialogue and his Republic
1.Platonic Dialogue
In the period of classical Greece, writing in the form of Socratic dialogue
was practiced by Socratic authors, but Plato was the only Socratic writer to turn this
popular genre into a major art form because he was the only one who utilized the
dialogue form as a device for presenting a full-scale philosophical world view.21
Unlike other philosophers, Plato uses anonymity in his writing because he
does not address his readers directly as an author. This platonic anonymity is
essential for the effectiveness of Platos work because a philosopher may assert his
own views and arguments but that would only invite criticisms of his ideas and
would make his claims intellectually external to his readers. Meanwhile through
Platos anonymity the readers experience is different because Plato guides his
readers to envision the world as he does rather than to prove the truth of
propositions about the world.22
A unique feature of Platos dialogues is that it is composed of real personas,
events and places. In his dialogues we can see characters such as Socrates, events
such as Agathons victory and Socrates trial and execution. Although the elements
21
Charles Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), 9.
22
Gerard Press, Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed (New York: Continuum, 2007), 146.
12
are real, the conversations and all the circumstantial details of time, place and action
are the product of Platos art.23
In Gerald Press Plato, He argues that it is wrong to attribute the ideas of
the characters of the dialogues to Plato because they are not only mouthpieces who
impart what Plato wants to say.
It is wrong to argue from a statement made by a character such as Socrates to

a conclusion about a belief held by Plato unless one can prove that Plato
intended the character to have been read as a mouthpiece in this way. But we
have no such evidence. Are Don Quixotes statements to be understood as
statements of Cervantes? Are Hamlet or Julius Caesar or Lear merely
mouthpieces for the views of Shakespeare? Surely not. What they say, no doubt,
bears some relation to what their authors believe, but the relationship is
complex, indirect and interpretation, rather than being able to be read straight
off the words themselves put into the characters mouth. And so it is with
Plato.24
If the ideas Socrates and the other characters of Platos dialogues are not
that of Plato, then Plato may have placed these individuals in his dialogue so that
they may play a role in the dialogues wherein they would be able to impart their
beliefs through the different scenarios they are placed by Plato.
2.The Republic
One of the most influential works of Plato is The Republic which contains
ten books. It follows the protagonist Socrates along with other individuals, who
ponder on the meaning of justice and the state. It also showcases some of Platos
ideologies namely the theory of forms, immortality of the soul and the roles of
23
Ibid., 97.
24
Ibid., 147.
13
philosophers. Bertrand Russell categorizes the ten books according to theme. As he
writes:
Platos most important dialogue, The Republic, consists, broadly of three

parts. The first (to near the end of Book V) consists in the construction of an
ideal commonwealth; it is the earliest of Utopias. One of the conclusions arrived
at is that rulers must be philosophers. Books and VI and VII are concerned to
define the word philosopher. This discussion constitutes the second section.
The third section consists mainly of a discussion of various kinds of actual
constitutions and of their merits and defects.25
From this classification, we can see the different themes found in The
Republic. This thesis however focuses on the theme of defining the word
philosopher because this is the area where we can see the object of the Allegory of
the Cave that is found in books VI & VII.
B. The Interconnected Analogies of Plato
In books VI and VII of the Republic, Plato discusses three analogies: The
Analogy of the Sun, Analogy of the divided line and the Allegory of the Cave.
These three are used in order to show how a philosopher should be educated. Plato
uses these three interconnected images to convey his ideas.26
25
Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2009), 97.
26
Louis Pojman, Classics of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.,
2011), 169.
14
1. Analogy of the Sun
The first analogy is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, it is given by
Socrates when Glaucon asked him what goodness is, however Socrates professes
that he cannot define it so he gave a simile instead.27 The analogy the Sun is used
as an analogy between the visible and intelligible realm just as the sun is the source
of light and growth.28 It is where Plato compares the good with the sun.
Socrates starts by stating that there are many beautiful and good at the things
we define, but there is also the absolute good and the absolute beautiful and the
absolute which may be brought under a single idea.29 Socrates then separates the
sense of sight from the other senses because for a person to see there needs to be an
addition of another nature which is light, because without the light we cannot see
color.30 The source of light is the sun, which is the author of sight, who is
recognized by sight.31 To further clarify this analogy Socrates gives the example
that when a person directs his sight at objects when there is no longer light, that
persons is nearly blind and his vision is unclear, but when a person views objects
at objects when the sun shines they see clearly.32 Socrates further expounds this
example by comparing the soul to the eye. As Plato writes:
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid.
29
Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks,
2010), 294.
30
Ibid., 295.
31
Ibid., 296.
32
Ibid.
15
And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being
shine, the soul perceives and understands, and is radiant with intelligence; but
when turned toward the twilight of being and perishing, then she has opinion
only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another,
and seems to have no intelligence?33
Socrates then defines the good as that which imparts truth to the known and
the power of knowing to the knower, the good is the cause of science, truth and
beautiful.34 In his conclusion, Socrates gives his final statement on what the good
and the sun really is as he writes:
The sun is not only the author of visibility in all visible things, but also of
generation, nourishment and growth. In this manner the good may be said to be
not only the author of knowledge to all things known but of their being and
essence, and yet the good is not essence.35
Through this analogy, we can see that the Forms define the intellectual
domain over which the Good reigns as the sun reigns over the visible world36. Using
this analogy as a foundation, Socrates would immediately continue with the
Analogy of the divided line.
2. Analogy of the Divided Line
The second analogy given by Plato is the analogy of the divided line; it is
an analogy about the intelligible and the visible world. In order for Socrates to make
this known to Glaucon, he uses the line as an instrument to make the distinction
between the visible and the intelligible world evident. Socrates starts by letting
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid., 297.
35
Ibid.
36
Kahn, 362.
16
Glaucon imagine a line that is cut in two unequal parts and the divisions are again
divided in the same portion. The two main divisions in this line represents the
visible world and the intelligible, through this distinction Socrates then compares
the different subdivisions depending on their level of clearness.37
According to Socrates the first main division of the line is divided into two
spheres wherein the first sphere of this line is where we will see visible shadows,
reflections whether from water or polished surfaces. While the second section of
the first main division consists of the things we resemble whether animals or
anything that grows or is made which is the physical things we see. Socrates adds
that both sections of the visible world have different degrees of truth and that the
copy is to the original and the opinion is to knowledge.38
The other main division of the line, the intelligible world also consists of
two divisions. The first division is the lower of the two divisions is where the soul
uses the figures given by the former division as images which inquires
hypothetically, while the higher division is where the soul passes out of the
hypotheses and goes up to a principle which is above the hypotheses, this stage
does not use images like the earlier division, but is proceeding only through ideas
themselves.39
37
Plato, 298.
38
Ibid., 299.
39
Ibid.
17
From these two divisions we can see that the visible world consists of
opinion whether derived from shadows and physical objects and the intelligible
world also consists of knowledge that is divided into two parts the first is
knowledge which the thought recognizes but is not only of the intelligible as it is
also makes use of the visible. While the last and the highest level is knowledge
which is purely intelligible this is the understanding of only ideas. This is Platos
way of showing us the hierarchy of what knowledge is for him. We can see that
Shadows is inferior to Physical objects, Physical objects inferior to Mathematics
which deals with both the intellectual and the visible realm and lastly the highest
of them all which is knowledge which does not rely on any visible object.
40
Louis Pojman uses this illustration to further clarify the divided line of
Plato; He assigns different letters to the different divisions of the divided line to
make the divided line easier to comprehend. A to B is the visible world and is the
realm of belief and opinion and the C to D is the intelligible world which is the
realm of knowledge. He states that A consists of likeness which is identified by
conjecture; B consists of the solid things from the material world which are
40
Image taken from Pojman,171.
18
identified confidently. While C and D consist of the types which are knowable but
the two are different because of their methodology.41
After stating the two analogies, Plato now has the proper foundation to
impart his third Allegory which is the Allegory of the Cave. The Allegory of the
Cave is introduced in book VII of The Republic, it is an illustration given by Plato
to show how far human nature is enlightened or unenlightened and like the previous
allegories Socrates and Glaucon are those characters engaging in dialogue.
3. The Allegory of the Cave
The third analogy given by Plato is on the Allegory of the Cave, this is the
analogy that this thesis is focused on. The setting of the story is described by
Socrates as an underground cave and in it there are prisoners. These prisoners are
said to have lived in the cave since birth, they are fixed in the same place with
chains in their neck and legs which allows them to only see things which are in
front of them. Behind the prisoners there is a fire which gives light to the cave and
between the individuals and the fire there is a path with a wall that would be used
by puppeteers in their shadow play, outside the cave people who carries all kinds
of artefacts also project shadows which are said to resemble animals and human
statues to the prisoners.42
41
Pojman, 171.
42
Plato, 302-303.
19
The illustration below will show the setting of this allegory.
43
From this setting we can see that these images projected by the passers-by
and the puppeteers have an impact on the prisoners because they would associate
names for them and they would believe that the sounds they hear also come from
the shadows, which would eventually lead them to think that truth is none other
than the shadows which they see in front of them.
After giving the setting of the cave, Socrates then proceeds and gives the
scenario that a prisoner of the cave is released, freed from his chains. The individual
would now follow the path which leads outside the cave by following the light, but
the prisoner cannot go out of the cave easily because he will be glared by the light
because he spent all of his life in the dark cave, so he needs to get adjusted before
43
Image taken from https://ethicsjusticeandsociety.voices.wooster.edu/allegory-of-the-
cave/
20
he could see things at daytime. The individual then starts studying during night
time. At first the individual is able to see shadows the best; next he will be to see
the reflections of physical objects until he will be able to see the objects themselves,
celestial bodies in the night like the moon and the stars and lastly he is able to see
at day time and look at the sun which leads him to have reason.44 He discovers that
what he sees in the cave is not real because he sees the carriers of the artefacts
which cause the shadows in the cave and when he looks at his reflection in the water
he sees himself as a separate individual and not only as a mere reflection, he would
argue on the origin of things, the guardian of the world and inquire on things
through his reason.45
After the enlightenment of individual would be reminded of his old
dwelling place, he would find that living in the real world was more superior than
living in the cave, He then pities the prisoners in the cave because the prisoners in
the cave would honor and glorify those individuals who were quick to observe the
order of the shadows seen in the cave, the prisoners would choose the individuals
who best interpret the shadows as the ideal person to draw conclusions for them in
the future46 and they believe that shadows are the truth so the freed individual plans
to return to the cave and bring his fellow prisoners out of the cave. But the
individual has to compete with the prisoners by measuring the shadows, the
44
Plato, 304-305.
45
Ibid.
46
Ibid.
21
enlightened individual would seem ridiculous to the prisoners because the
enlightened person loses to the prisoners in determining the shadows because his
eyesight is not yet fully adapted to living in the darkness again. The prisoners then
ridicule the enlightened individual by saying that he went out of the cave and lost
his eyesight. The prisoners would then think that living inside the cave was better
than ascending outside the cave and that they should not go through the same
journey as the freed individual. The prisoners will kill anyone who would try to free
a prisoner and lead them outside the cave47.
Platos Allegory of the cave is a depiction of mans tendency to see only the
shadows that is found in the cave, for them to see the shadows as truth. But an
individual who escapes this view and through a rigorous process is able to transcend
outside the cave which makes him realize that the shadows are mere illusions and
the light that illuminates the cave is not the true sunlight but the borrowed light
from the fire inside the cave, so the individual is enlightened and knows what is the
good the true and the beautiful.
C. The Allegory of the Cave: Elements and Symbolism
1. Forms and Its role in the Allegory
To better understand what Plato is trying to show in his Allegory, we must
first understand his concept of forms. Plato uses the idea of forms as a distinctive
47
Ibid. 306.
22
object of philosophical knowledge; the forms of Plato is source of values and is the
ultimate object of desire, this is why the forms play a large role in Platos
epistemology, moral psychology, philosophy of nature, cosmology and aesthetics
among others.48
The Republic is said to have the most substantial account of Forms in all
Platos work. In the Republic the forms are also discussed in Books VI and VII
where the three analogies are located but according to Charles Kahn the long
discussion on the forms is not a focused study on the forms, but it is Platos
educational framework he writes:
So the long discussions in Books VI-VII of the Republic is not a treaties on

the Forms but the theoretical framework for a program of higher education. The
great passages of the Sun, The Line, and the Cave do not pretend to give a
systematic account of human knowledge and the nature of reality. What Plato
offers us is a set of powerfully suggestive images designed to portray the need
for experience of intellectual conversion and enlightenment, and so to justify a
course of training that will permit the philosopher-kings to achieve an
understanding of what is good for themselves and for the city. We are told
enough about the Forms for us to see why Plato thinks such training is necessary
and what its goals must be.49
For Kahn, the forms play a significant role in Platos analogies because it is
an essential element in the understanding of Platos passages of the Sun, Line and
Cave that would help justify the training that is fit for philosopher kings. The forms
and the two analogies are significant in the Allegory of the Cave because they are
also found in it.
48
Kahn, 329.
49
Ibid.359.
23
2. Symbolisms of the Allegory
There are different elements found in the Allegory. Socrates already defines
some as he describes the prison house as the world of sight and the light of the fire
the sun, the journey towards the upward world as the ascent of the soul to the
intellectual world.50 But through this allegory we can see what the other elements
stand for. As the prison is the world of sight then we can see that the cave represents
the visible realm, the world we live in which is full of opinion and relative truth
which may stand for the shadows and illusion in the cave, the men who are those
who teach false knowledge, the freed individual who seeks to escape this world of
opinion may be the philosophers or individuals who sense that there is something
which transcends the visible world. The puppeteers and the carriers of artefacts that
shows the shadows stands for those who deceive the masses with their false
ideologies. The outside world represents the intellectual world, the sun as seen in
the Analogy of the Sun stands for goodness which gives us the light in order for us
to know the truth as we can see from the analogy of the sun.51 Through the
understanding of these elements one may easily relate the Allegory of the Cave and
its significance in our daily lives.
50
Plato, 306.
51
As goodness stands in the intelligible realm to intelligence and the things we know,
so in the visible realm the sun stands to sight and the things we see. (Republic 508c) Ibid., 296.
24
3. Allegory of the Cave and the Artists
The Allegory of the Cave is used by Plato in the Republic to teach on how
a philosopher-king to be should be educated, but it also lets the readers know his
standpoint on art and of the artists. Plato condemns art and the artists because they
exhibit the lowest and most irrational kind of awareness, they put us in a state of
illusion.52 The poets also mislead us by portraying the gods as undignified and
immoral, but rather for Plato poets should help ups respect religion to admire good
people, while music and theatre should encourage stoical calmness, not boisterous
uncontrolled emotion.53 It can be seen that the poets and the artists are part of those
who Plato blames for deceiving the people in his Allegory of the Cave among with
those who teach false things to the people.
52
Iris Murdoch, The Fire and the Sun why Plato banished the Artists (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1977), 5.
53
Ibid.
25
Chapter Summary
This chapter examined the following: A background on Platonic dialogue
and Platos Republic, Platos three inter-connected Allegories: Analogy of the Sun,
Analogy of the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave. It also explores Platos
view on the arts and the poets.
The researcher also included the study of key elements found in Platos
allegory of the Cave namely: intelligible and visible world, the sun, cave, shadows,
and light among others that seemed necessary to the aim of this thesis.
Platos three analogies are interconnected because they help us understand
his visible and the intelligible world. After understanding the Allegory of the Cave
we now see Platos view on those who impart false knowledge and the evolution
of the individual from living inside the underground cave to his transition of
knowing the truth outside of the cave. Through this understanding of the Allegory
of the Cave, may we now move on to the next philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard.
26
Chapter III
Soren Kierkegaard and the Three Stages of Life
This chapter aims to establish that Kierkegaards life is his philosophy. As
illustrated in his discussion on stages of life. This chapter also includes personages
that hugely affected the way of thoughts manifested in his writings. In particular,
Michael Kierkegaard and Regina Oleson. This includes the stages in lifes way
which he divided into three: the aesthetic, ethical and the religious stage.
A. Kierkegaards life experiences
Kierkegaard uses his personal experiences to start a path of self-discovery.
Along the way, he discovered central themes of existentialism such as absurdity,
miserable life, the importance of making choices and the need to live passionately
and authentically. He formulated these themes in a radically new kind of Christian
context54. He rejected traditional answers on both philosophy and the orthodox
Christianity of his time, instead, he embraced a vision of faith that cannot be
validated or justified by reason. He was also one of the first philosophers who made
philosophy personal because he believes that reasoned calculation cannot answer
the questions on how one should live, but rather how one could answer these
questions through ones self.55
54
Pattison, 16.
55
Ibid., 17.
27
One history of philosophy book speculates that there are many experiences
that may have shaped Kierkegaards philosophy, but there are specific personalities
that contribute to his writings: his father Michael Kierkegaard, his fianc Regine
Oleson and himself.56 These played significant events in Kierkegaards life that
made his philosophy the way we know it today.
The first is his father, Michael. There are two events in Michaels life that
made him an overbearing religious penitent. The first event is when he was still
young he cursed God while tending sheep which is a major sin in the Lutheran
pietism he was raised in.57 The second is when he had an affair with Kierkegaards
mother who was the former maid of the household when his wife was still
terminally ill.58 Michael saw the potential in Kierkegaard and he tried to nurture it
by letting him eavesdrop on his dinner parties with the elites of Copenhagen and
sent Kierkegaard to Latin school with the instruction that he should bring the third
best grade because it is easy for a genius to get good grades, but to get the third best
he must figure out the second and fourth best and place himself in the middle.59 His
father also introduced the young Kierkegaard to Christianity by teaching him who
Jesus is. As we can see from the experiences he gained through his father, a serious
and religious man who moulded Kierkegaard at a young age, the influence in his
56
Donald Palmer, Kierkegaard for Beginners (New York: Writers and Readers, 1996), 2.
57
Ibid., 3.
58
Ibid., 4.
59
Ibid., 6.
28
works the existential themes such as guilt, remorse, pain and anguish;
characteristics of his fathers personality.60
The second influence in his future writings is Regine Olsen, a woman
Kierkegaard solely loved in his life. Kierkegaard met her when he was twenty-one
and she was fourteen, so he waited three years before he could properly court her.
He used the three years finding more about Regine and even befriending her partner
Fritz Schlegel and eventually winning her heart, fell in love and became engaged.
However, out of nowhere Kierkegaard cancelled the engagement because he was
not sure that he could continue to do Gods work and be married at the same time.61
Both of these experiences in Kierkegaards life helped him formulate his
philosophy because through them he was inspired to formulate the themes that
would later be used by future existentialists in their philosophies.
B. Kierkegaards use of Indirect Communication
Kierkegaard believes that subjective truth is the most important kind of
truth. Unfortunately, subjective truth cannot be communicated directly because it
is composed of deep insights about ones life which differs in the case of each
individual. In order for Kierkegaard to write about subjective truth he makes use
of a theory of indirect communication.62 He secretly writes books with different
60
Christopher Panza and Gregory Gale, Existentialism for Dummies (New Jersey: Wiley
Publishing Inc., 2008), 16.
61
Ibid., 228.
62
Palmer, 21.
29
pseudonyms to communicate for him; each pseudonym has his own personality,
style of writing and belief.63
In the last section of Kierkegaards work Concluding Unscientific
Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, he admits that he is indeed the authors of
the works that are published under pseudonyms. He says this use of different
individuals is necessary because they have different views and personalities he does
not take credit for any of the ideas of the authors. As Kierkegaard writes:
What is written is indeed therefore mine, but only so far as I have put the
life-view of the creating, poetically actualized individuality into his mouth in
audible lines, for my relation is even more remote than that of a poet, who
creates characters and yet in the preface is himself the author. For I am
impersonally, or personally, in the second person, a souffleur1 who has
poetically produced the authors, whose prefaces in turn are their production,
yes, as are their names. So in the pseudonymous books there is not a single
word by myself. I have no opinion about them except as third party, no
knowledge of their meaning except as reader, not the remotest private relation
to them.64
Much of Kierkegaards inspiration for this method is from Socrates as
depicted by Plato wherein he uses metaphors to help others discover the truth that
is present within them, letting them discover the truth themselves65. As
Kierkegaard admits that the virtue of the production of his equivocal authorship is
Socratic.66
63
Ibid., 26.
64
Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. Alastair Hannay (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 527-528.
65
C. Steven Evans, Kierkegaard an Introduction (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2009), 29.
66
Ibid.
30
C. Kierkegaard on Existence
Kierkegaard is considered to be the founder of existentialism.67 It is
surprising how he laid the foundations to existentialism, influencing the likes of
Nietzsche, Heidegger ad Jaspers among others. Kierkegaard even claimed that his
writings are religious, like that of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, this
religiousness is significant for them to reach the aim of their philosophical work.68
Kierkegaards importance to the field of philosophy is his concept of existence
which could be known objectively but more genuine subjectively.
Kierkegaard contrasted his notion of existence with that of Hegel because
he believes that mathematics and logic should not be involved when dealing with
existence because they are both objective and cannot deviate from their own rules.
Objective sciences make them consistent and fixed. Hegel believes that logic is
applicable as a way of understanding existence. However, Kierkegaard stresses
that this method has no room for experience, memory and prejudice.69 As
Kierkegaard wrote:
Abstraction may go on by paraphrasing this as much as it pleases it will never

come any further. As soon as the being of truth becomes empirically concrete,
truth itself is in the process of becoming and is indeed in turn, by intimation,
the agreement between thinking and being, and is indeed actually the way for
God but it is not that way for any existing spirit, because this spirit, itself
existing, is in the process of becoming70
67
Palmer, 17.
68
Pattison, 5.
69
Ibid.,18.
70
Soren Kierkegaard, The Essential Kierkegaard, edit. Howard Hong and Edna Hong
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000), 200.
31
Kierkegaard views existence as a work in progress, which is completed
when a person finds who he really is71. An individual must know that he is a definite
person that has the capability to choose whatever the individual wants to be in life
because it possible that one lives his life purely in terms of ritualized formats and
social roles but never realizes the truth of ones subjectivity.72
He believes that our beliefs will be expressed in our actions so if we change
our beliefs then our actions would also change and this would make us a different
person. This change in ones life is evident in Kierkegaards three stages of life
because in it we can see the change of belief could change the person completely.
D. Kierkegaard on Anxiety
Anxiety is commonly defined as a desire to do something that is typically
accompanied by worry, nervousness and unease. Kierkegaards view on anxiety is
seen in his work The Concept of Anxiety written under the pseudonym of Vigillus
Haufneinsis. This book brings together two disciplines psychology and
dogmatism,73 which takes its orientation from the doctrine of original sin and the
transition from the unconscious life to the preconscious life.74 This is patterned on
the story of the fall of man seen in the book of Genesis.
71
Martin Blok Johansen, Darkness Overcomes You: Shaun Tan and Soren Kierkegaard,
Childrens Literature in Education Vol. 46 (2015), 43.
72
Palmer, 44.
73
Joakim Garff, Soren Kierkegaard a Biography, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 2007), 269.
74
Pattison, 49.
32
In this story it depicts how God created the first human beings, Adam and
Eve and placed in the Garden of Eden wherein they have everything they need in
life. They are in the presence of God, they have dominion over all the animals and
they have everything they need to live a happy and content life. They are able to
eat every fruit in the garden except the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil because if they eat from this tree then they will surely die. A serpent then
came and talked to Eve and said that when she eats from that tree they will not die
but rather their eyes will be opened and they will be like gods knowing what is
good and evil. Eve is persuaded and eats the fruit; she then gives some to Adam.
After eating from the fruit they realized that they were naked so they sewed fig
leaves together to make clothes, God knew of their wrong doings so they were
driven out of the garden, made child birth painful and man should earn their food
through work.
Kierkegaard views this story of the fall of man as an allegory of each
individuals passage from preconscious, animal-like life to self-conscious
adulthood.75 He sees the state of Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall as a
state of innocence and ignorance. This is the state they still do not have the
attributes of the spirit but only with immediate unity with nature,76 but this does not
make them as merely animals because according to Kierkegaard man is a synthesis
of the psychical and the physical which is united by the spirit which makes them
75
Ibid., 50.
76
Ibid.
33
not merely animals because if man is merely an animal then he cannot be a man.77
Anxiety then came to man when God prohibited Adam from eating of the forbidden
fruit it induced Adam in anxiety because this prohibition awakens in Adam
freedoms possibility.78 This is because Adam became conscious in the fact that he
can become a person who does not do what God tells him to.
Kierkegaard urges us that we must be like a young man from the Grimms
fairy tales, which is the story of the young man who embarks on an adventure in
order to learn what it is to be in anxiety. Every human being must go on a similar
adventure to learn to be anxious so that he may not live without anxiety or be
defeated by it.79 As He writes Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way
has learned the ultimate.80
He also defines that anxiety is a synthetic antipathy and an antipathetic
sympathy.81 Palmer provided an explanation of this remark by Kierkegaard, As he
writes:
That is, dread (anxiety) is the desire for what one fears and the fear of what
one desires. Once Adam knows he can disobey God, he desires to do so, and
he dreads his own desire, because he knows that as a free being there is
nothing but himself to stop him from sinning.82
77
Soren Kierkegaard, The Essential Kierkegaard, edit. Howard Hong and Edna Hong
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000), 140.
78
Ibid.
79
Ibid., 153.
80
Ibid.
81
Ibid., 139.
82
Palmer, 61.
34
Anxiety is when one fears the monstrousness of freedom because there is
nothing that could prevent Adam from eating the forbidden fruit but himself.83
E. Kierkegaard on Despair
Another negative emotion Kierkegaard dwells on is Despair. Despair is
defined as the complete loss or absence of hope. It can be seen to those who no
longer have hope and is on the verge of giving up. Kierkegaard gave a deeper
meaning to the term in his work entitled The Sickness Unto Death written under the
pseudonym of Anti-Climacus.
Despair arises when an individual fail to be the self that one truly is and this
is what he calls the sickness unto death.84 This death is not a physical death but
rather to long for death. For Kierkegaard despair is something which is present even
if one is not in despair or one is not conscious of being in despair it is still a form
of despair.85 If despair is present when we do not have despair, then all individuals
whatever the situation in life there will always be despair.
In order to be free from despair must strive to overcome it rather than to
deny its existence. Through acknowledging that one is in despair the more the
individual becomes a conscious spirit, he writes:
those who say they are in despair are usually either those who have so deep
a nature that they are bound to become conscious as spirit or those whom bitter
83
Palmer, 60.
84
Ibid., 70.
85
Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death, trans. Howard Hong and Edna Hong
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980), 23. Hereafter SUD
35
experiences and dreadful decisions have assisted in becoming conscious as

spirit86
Kierkegaard gave three forms of despair which are the following:
1.Despair as Defined by Finitude/Infinitude
The first classification views despair in the aspect of finitude and infinitude.
Kierkegaard begins by stating that the self is the conscious synthesis of both
finitude and infinitude that relates itself to itself, whose task is to become itself,
which can only be done only through the relationship with God,87 In order for the
self to be concrete one must neither become finite nor infinite but in order to
become concrete it should be a synthesis of the two, he writes:
Every moment in which a human existence has become or simply wants to

be infinite, is despair. For the self is the synthesis of which the finite is the
limiting and the infinite the extending constituent. Infinitude's despair,
therefore, is the fantastic, the unlimited, for the self is healthy and free from
despair only when, precisely by having despaired, it rests transparently in
God.88
This form of despair is born out of ignorance when man is in a state wherein
he is not aware of the infinite that created us. This is where one accepts living a
finitude life without knowing the infinite so he is in despair. According to
Kierkegaard is not apparently seen because of man being preoccupied with
temporal matters, have a family and be honored by his fellow men that would make
it hard to see that one lacks a self.89
86
Ibid., 26.
87
Ibid., 29-30.
88
Ibid., 30.
89
Ibid., 32.
36
We can see in our world today that losing the self is does not cause a huge
concern in our world today this is dangerous as he writes:
The greatest hazard of all, losing the self, can occur very quietly in the world,
as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss
an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc.is sure to be noticed.90
We can see that in our world today losing a self goes unnoticed;
losing material things such as money would be more noticeable.
2.Despair as Defined by Possibility/Necessity
The second classification is despair viewed in the aspect of possibility and
necessity, which for Kierkegaard are both essential for ones becoming, so both of
these are essential if one wants to be free from despair. As Kierkegaard states that
A self that has no possibility is in despair, and likewise a self that has no
necessity.91
Kierkegaard defines a self that is lost in possibility as missing the power
to obey, to submit to the necessity of ones life, to what may be called ones
limitations. The tragedy is when he did not become aware of himself, aware that
the self he is a very definite something and thus the necessary. Instead, he lost
himself because this self fantastically reflected itself in possibility.92
If a man only lives by possibilities, then we can see that he is not aware of
himself. A man who thinks of his possibilities without necessity would not be able
90
Ibid., 32-33.
91
Ibid., 35.
92
Ibid., 36-37.
37
to make his possibility an actuality because without a person knowing himself and
taking action on these possibilities then these will only remain in ones imagination
which leads to despair and frustration on the individual.
On the other hand, a person who has necessity without possibility is in
despair. According to Kierkegaard a person without possibility is unable to
breathe.93 As he writes:
Personhood is a synthesis of possibility and necessity. Its continued existence

is like breathing (respiration), which is an inhaling and exhaling. The self of
the determinist cannot breathe, for it is impossible to breathe necessity
exclusively, because that would utterly suffocate a person's self94
Without possibilities then an individual is incomplete because they are
necessary with each other, our possibilities as finite beings are limited but in God
everything is possible so we should believe in God in order to combat this despair.
As he writes:
The believer has the ever infallible antidote for despair possibility
because for God everything is possible at every moment. This is the good
health of faith that resolves contradictions. The contradiction here is that,
humanly speaking, downfall is certain, but that there is possibility
nonetheless. Good health generally means the ability to resolve
contradictions95
As finite beings our possibilities are limited, so we should trust in
God because for Him all things are possible.
93
Ibid., 39.
94
Ibid., 40.
95
Ibid., 39-40.
38
3.Despair as Defined by Consciousness
The third classification views despair in the aspect of consciousness,
whether one is conscious or unconscious of being in despair. Unconscious despair
is the most common form of despair is the when one does not know that he is in
despair, thus he does not eliminate it.96
Kierkegaard identifies two forms of conscious despair the despair of
weakness and the despair of defiance. The Despair of Weakness has two forms
which are the despair over the earthly and the despair for the eternal.
Kierkegaard gave the description of the despair over the earthly. As
he writes:
This is pure immediacy or immediacy containing a quantitative reflection.

Here there is no infinite consciousness of the self, of what despair is, or of the
condition as one of despair. The despair is only a suffering, a succumbing to
the pressure of external factors; in no way does it come from within as an
act.97
The despair of the earthly comes from the external causes. The individuals
despair comes from the loss of material things in this world and if the external
condition is changed and the individuals desire is fulfilled then the individual would
be alive again. This man of immediacy does not identify his own self, but he
identifies himself with the clothes he wears.98
While the despair for the eternal happens when one knows that he is in
despair of earthly things. Kierkegaard regarded this kind of despair as different
96
Lee, 95.
97
Ibid., 50-51.
98
Ibid., 53.
39
from the despair over earthly because in this state one is already aware of ones
weakness. As he writes:
Despair over the earthly or over something earthly is in reality also despair
of the eternal and over oneself, insofar as it is despair, for this is indeed the
formula for all despair but the individual in despair depicted above is not
aware, so to speak, of what is going on behind him. He thinks he is despairing
over something earthly and talks constantly of that over which he despairs,
and yet he is despairing of the eternal, for the fact that he attributes such great
worth to something earthlyor, to carry this further, that he attributes to
something earthly such great worth, or that he first makes something earthly
into the whole world and then attributes such great worth to the earthlythis
is in fact to despair of the eternal.99
In this state compared there is a greater consciousness of what despair is,
compared to the despair on earthly despair of the eternal is closer to salvation.100
But this despair is still a despair who does not will to be oneself. Kierkegaard
compares people in this state of despair as like that of young children. As he writes:
"In fact, it is only purely immediate manwho in the category of spirit is just
about on the same level as the young child, who, with utterly lovable
unconstraint, tells allit is only purely immediate people who are unable to
hold anything back. It is this kind of immediacy that often with great
pretension calls itself 'truth, being honest, an honest man telling it exactly as
it is,' and this is just as much a truth as it is an untruth when an adult does not
immediately yield to a physical urge. Every self with just a minuscule of
reflection still knows how to constrain the self." And our man in despair is
sufficiently self-inclosed to keep this matter of the self away from anyone who
has no business knowing about it101
This is where ethical person acknowledges that there is despair on
the earthly, but he does not address this problem.
The second form of the conscious despair is the Despair of Defiance.
Individuals in this kind of despair wills to be themselves, they would be motivated
99
Ibid., 60-61.
100
Ibid., 62.
101
Ibid., 63.
40
by desire to be whoever they want to be. This is the where one believes that one is
able to the task of becoming all on their own, who refuses dependency on God.102
As Kierkegaard writes:
In this form of despair, there is a rise in the consciousness of the self, and
therefore a greater consciousness of what despair is and that one's state is
despair. Here the despair is conscious of itself as an act; it does not come from
the outside as a suffering under the pressure of externalities but comes directly
from the self. Therefore, defiance, compared with despair over one's
weakness, is indeed a new qualification.103
Although this stage is a self that wills itself, it is in despair because they the
task of becoming who they are through themselves which makes them the ruler of
their lives.
F. The Self and the Stages of Life
Kierkegaard gives three different stages of existence which are the aesthetic,
ethical and the religious stages. These different stages of existence represent the
different passions of life that gives shape to the different configurations of human
existence. These steps are presented by Kierkegaard as stages that show human
existence as developing, starting from the aesthetic to the ethical and eventually to
the religious.104
102
Panza and Gale, 209.
103
Kierkegaard, SUD, 67.
104
Evans, 68.
41
1. The Self in the Aesthetic Stage
The first stage of existence is the aesthetic stage. This is the stage wherein
an individual living in the moment, listening to their own immediate desires.105 If
a new interest comes up to them one day, then they will pursue it. In this stage there
is a need for continuous entertainment in order for them not to be bored. This can
be seen in the essay of A as seen in Kierkegaards Either/Or, wherein he states
that boredom is the root of all evil.106 As A writes:
It would be quite impossible to prevail if one wanted to demand a divorce

because one's wife is boring, or demand that a king be dethroned because he
is boring to behold, or that a clergyman be exiled because he is boring to listen
to, or that a cabinet minister be dismissed or a journalist be executed because
he is frightfully boring. Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of
all evil.107
The aesthete is comparable with that of a young child because a young child
is dominated by immediate desires.108 Individuals in this stage have their lives
governed by principles sensuousness. As a result of being guided by pleasure one
is never in control of ones self, but rather the aesthetes life is governed by external
circumstances.109
In this stage there is no fixation of the self, which Lee calls to be a centre-
less self.110 As seen in the earlier discussion on Kierkegaards concept of despair,
we saw a kind of despair that is the self that is unconscious of being in despair. The
105
Lee, 94.
106
Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Part I, trans. Howard Hong and Edna Hong (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 286. Hereafter EO
107
Ibid.
108
Ibid., 70.
109
Palmer, 83.
110
Lee, 95.
42
self in stage of aesthetic life is experiencing that despair. We can also say that the
individual in this stage also experiences the despair over the earthly because the
aesthetes life is fixated on the earth, earthly passion and material things are his
object of desire.
2.The Self in the Ethical Stage
The Second stage of existence is the Ethical Stage. This is the state
wherein the self has a quest for identity; the ethicist sees the aesthetic life as
living in the moment reduces the self to a collection of moments.111 So the
ethicist seeks to be something more than a collection of desires, he wants to
have some degree of coherence and unity.112 For Kierkegaard to be a self is to
know ones self and he should have something to live for,113 one must have a
concrete set of values and commitment that does not change often like that of
the aesthetic sphere.
This is where the individual has to make a choice on what set of morals
he should live his life; the ethicists choice of what he wants is important
because it dictates the course of his life.
The ethical stage we can see the despair of the eternal because individuals
in this stage are more conscious of themselves and of despair, they are aware
111
Evans, 90.
112
Ibid., 91.
113
Ibid.
43
that they are in despair but they would aim for achievements or dissolving ones
self to sensuous living in order to forget the despair.114
Although the self in this stage has discipline and is living an ethical life,
the self that is found in this stage is still not free and despairing.115 The true
individual who is free from despair is one who is aware of the eternal and lives
by faith; this is what this stage lacks.
3.The Self in the Religious Stage
The last and the highest stage of existence is the Religious Stage. As we
can see from the previous stages of life, individuals found in them are still in
despair, which has a positive side because it reminds an individual of something
eternal.116
The ethical stage is connected with the religious stage because an
individual may be ethical but not religious, but being religious means being
ethical also. What differs between the Religious and the Ethical stage is the
commitment an individual makes, in the ethical stage man is committed to a set
of moral values on which he follows, but on the religious is committed to the
will of God.
114
Lee, 95.
115
Ibid., 96.
116
44
In Kierkegaards work entitled Fear and Trembling written under the
pseudonym of Johannes de silento, is an attempt to understand the biblical story
of Abraham and Isaac.
The story is when God promised to Abraham that his wife would conceive
a child in their old age. Sarah then was able to conceive and gave birth to Isaac,
who made Abraham happy, but God talked to Abraham and ordered him to sacrifice
his son Isaac on an altar. Without hesitation Abraham obeyed Gods command. He
placed his son in the altar and as he was about to strike his son, an angel of the Lord
stopped him saying that Abraham passed the test.117
Amazed at this story, Johannes de silento found two movements of
Abraham in this story that occurred at the same time and in the same act,118 which
are the movement of the infinite resignation and the movement of faith. As
Johannes writes:
Abraham makes two movements. He makes the infinite movement of

resignation and gives up Isaac, which no one can understand because it is
a private venture; but next, at every moment, he makes the movement of
faith. This is his consolation. In other words, he is saying: But it will not
happen, or if it does, the Lord will give me a new Isaac 119,
From his leap or movement of faith is performed when an individual
moves from one stage of experience from the other by putting behind ones old
self that is performed by virtue of the absurd.120
117
Palmer, 111.
118
Ibid., 113.
119
Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling Repetition, trans. Howard Hong and Edna
Hong (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983), 115.
120
Palmer, 134.
45
In this story we can also see that Abraham had a teleological suspension
of the ethical,121 wherein Abraham has suspended the ethical for what he
believes is a higher purpose.
The story of Abraham shows what an individual in the Religious Stage
is, an individual who is able to put God above first, above pleasure and worldly
moralities. This is Kierkegaards highest stage of existence wherein the self is
related absolutely to the absolute.122 The self in this stage is identified by Lee
as a God-centred self, who is a free and the true self.123
From these ideas of Kierkegaard, we will now see how this is
compatible with that of Platos allegory of the cave in the next chapter.
121
Ibid., 66.
122
Lee, 96.
123
Ibid.
46
Chapter Summary
This chapter examined the following: some key events in Kierkegaards life,
his view on existence, indirect communication, anxiety, despair and his stages of
life. The researcher included two individuals that influenced Kierkegaards
philosophy: first is his father, Michael Kierkegaard and second, Regina Olsen, the
love of his life.
The chapter also examined Kierkegaards use of different pseudonyms in
his writings, which he admits is his way of giving the authors their own identity
that helps the reader understand what is presented. It also tackles his idea of Anxiety
which defined as a sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy which is
caused when man has freedom as seen in the story of the fall of man. This is
followed by his idea of despair which arises when an individual does not become
himself. Despair has two kinds which are the despair of the weakness and despair
of defiance.
This chapter also analyzed the self in Kierkegaards three stages of life
which shows what the state of the individual is in each stage.
In the aesthetic stage, an individual living in sensual pleasure, he is still
bound by earthly desires. Until the aesthete follows his own set of morals which
leads him in the ethical. Lastly transcending that of the ethical which is the
religious stage where one individual complete surrenders himself to God.

47
Chapter IV
A Kierkegaardian Reading of the Allegory of the Cave
In this chapter, the author seeks to reexamine Platos allegory of the cave in
the light of Kierkegaards philosophy of the three stages of life. This study
illustrates Plato and Kierkegaards indirect way of communication as their
methodologies, particularly the use of anonymity and dialogue.
George Pattison notes that throughout his life, Kierkegaard is fascinated by
Socrates. From the beginning of his first major work entitled The Concept of Irony
with Constant Reference to Socrates, until his last work a pamphlet series entitled
The Moment, wherein he declared that the only analogy I have for what I am doing
is Socrates.124 Socrates then plays a role in Kierkegaards philosophy and appears
regularly throughout his works.
It is important to note that Plato is the one who preserved Socratess ideas
and thus, implies indirectly that Kierkegaard reads Socrates via Plato.
Kierkegaard is aware of the difference of the ideas of Plato and Socrates.
As Rebecca Elleray in her essay entitled Kierkegaard, Socrates and Existential
Individuality writes:
Kierkegaard draws a distinction between Socrates and Platos thought.

Platos thought is characterized by our coming to know an eternal realm
124
Pattison, 172.
48
of Forms the archetypes of which all our changing experiences are

instances. Kierkegaard sees Socrates to be an ironist, bringing us to a
state of doubt in which we are thrown back on to our existential (lived)
situation when making decisions. On realizing this, we cannot avoid
responsibility for our basic understanding of truth by simply referring our
thought to absolute standards of objectivity.125
Kierkegaard is aware that Plato and Socrates are two different individuals.
Although Kierkegaard is more drawn with the ideas of Socrates with that of Plato,
Plato is still the one who made all of it possible.
Platos allegory of the cave depicts the different experiences the individual
faces, as the individual progresses his journey there is a process of self-realization
in the individual. While in Kierkegaards three stages of life, he depicts the different
stages in ones life starting from the lowest to the highest stage in ones life.
One may ask however, is it not that the process of realization and the
different stages are synonymous because both are processes of the realization of the
self, where an individual recognizes a higher understanding of life. In this manner,
the Allegory of the Cave is similar to that of the three stages of life because both
depict a process wherein the individual becomes better than what he previously
was.
The researcher would like to explain in a simple manner, the allegory of the
cave and how this is seen in the aspect of Kierkegaards stages of life.
125
Rebecca Elleray, Kierkegaard, Socrates and Existential Individuality, Richmond
Journal of Philosophy Vol. 16 (Winter 2007), 1.
49
A. Cave Dwellers and the Aesthetic Life
The first stage in Kierkegaards stages of life is the aesthetic stage. This
stage is present in the allegory symbolized by the prisoners in the cave.
In the allegory, the prisoner is bound by chains. He is only able to
understand things through sight by seeing shadows casted by the and by hearing
through the sounds they hear. The prisoner is only limited to a sensuous
understanding of life. He has no other possibility of understanding his surroundings
because he is constrained in a fixed manner. They would incorporate meaning to
the shadows in the cave and glorify those who could give the best interpretation.
Previously, we defined the aesthetic life as a life which is dictated from
principles of sensuousness. As the result of being dictated by the senses an
individual is not in control of himself, but rather he is in controlled by external
circumstances. In this stage of existence, the self is a center-less self.126
There are similarities between the state of the prisoner and the aesthete. The
Prisoners life is also dictated by sensuous principles because he knows by what he
sees and hears, thus he is also not in control of himself he is also dictated by his
external circumstance. He is also in despair; the prisoner has four kinds of despair:
126
See Chapter III page. 41.
50
despair of finitude, despair defined by possibility, despair of ignorance of being in
despair and the despair over the earthly.
Another aesthetic characteristic that the prisoner has is the importance of
art. The shadows seen in the cave represents Platos view on art, which is a false
form of truth. In the aesthetic stage the arts have an important role with the aesthete.
As Evans states that the arts have a connection to the immediate because the arts
in some way appeal to the senses.127 This prisoner like the aesthete views highly
of art. Another point in relation to this is despair. For Kierkegaard despair arises
when one fails to be the self that one truly is. The prisoners fall into four kinds of
despair.
1. Despairs of the Cave Dweller
1.1. Despair of Finitude
The first kind of despair is the despair of finitude. This despair arises when
one is not aware of the infinite because for Kierkegaard a self is a synthesis of
finitude and infinitude that relates itself to itself, whose task is to become itself,
which can only be done only through the relationship with God.128 The despair of
the finite is when he lacks the infinitude. As Kierkegaard writes:
127
Evans, 70.
128
Kierkegaard, SUD, 29-30.
51
As a matter of fact, in the world there is interest only in intellectual or esthetic

limitation or in the indifferent (in which there is the greatest interest in the
world), for the secular mentality is nothing more or less than the attribution of
infinite worth to the indifferent. The secular view always clings tightly to the
difference between man and man and naturally does not have any understanding
of the one thing needful (for to have it is spirituality), and thus has no
understanding of the reductionism and narrowness involved in having lost
oneself, not by being volatilized in the infinite, but by being completely
finitized, by becoming a number instead of a self, just one more man, just one
more repetition of this everlasting Einerlei [one and the same].129
In the allegory the prisoner is bound inside the cave. He is still in the
presence of shadows. He is still in a state wherein; he is not aware that there is an
infinite who created him, this causes him to have this kind of despair.
The prisoner is like the aesthete because both are ignorant of the fact that
there is an infinite. Both only dwell on things which makes them happy. As
Kierkegaard writes:
What is glorious and divine about esthetics is that it is associated only with the
beautiful; essentially it deals only with belles lettres and the fair sex. It can give
me joy, it can joy my heart130
Without knowledge of the infinite, the prisoner in the cave has the despair
of finitude/infinitude.
1.2. Despair of Possibility
The second kind of despair is the despair of possibility. This despair arises
when an individual does not have a possibility. As Kierkegaard states:
129
Ibid., 33.
130
Kierkegaard, EO, 428.
52
The necessary is like pure consonants, but to express them there must be
possibility. If this is lacking, if a human existence is brought to the point where
it lacks possibility, then it is in despair and is in despair every moment it lacks
possibility.131
In the allegory the prisoner is in this despair because does not have any
possibilities. He cannot do anything aside from looking at the shadows in front of
him. He is unable to move from his position. He cannot do the simplest movement
like moving ones neck. The lack of basic movement shows that there is hardly any
possibility for the prisoner.
1.3. Despair of Ignorance of Being in Despair
The third kind of despair is the despair of ignorance of being in despair.
This despair arises when an individual is not aware that he is despair, thus an
individual is unable to fix his despair. This kind of despair is the most common in
the world. As Kierkegaard writes:
This form of despair (ignorance of it) is the most common in the world; indeed,
what we call the world, or, more exactly, what Christianity calls the world
paganism and the natural man in Christendom, paganism as it was historically
and is (and paganism in Christendom is precisely this kind of despair) is despair
but is ignorant of the fact.132
Likewise, the prisoner in the allegory is like the pagan because he is also
ignorant that he is in despair. The aesthete also is unaware that he is in despair
131
132
Ibid., 41.
53
because the aesthete category does not provide a criterion of what is a despair.133
Due to the ignorance of his despair, then the prisoner would do nothing to remove
the despair.
1.4. Despair Over the Earthly
The fourth kind despair is the despair over the earthly. This despair arises
when an individual losses material things and his external condition is changed,
where an individual desires something temporal and worldly. As Kierkegaard
writes:
he himself, is an accompanying something within the dimensions of

temporality and secularity, in immediate connection with "the other" and has
but an illusory appearance of having anything eternal in it. The self is bound up
in immediacy with the other in desiring, craving, enjoying, etc., yet passively;
in its craving, this self is a dative134
Socrates says that the cave represents our world. The prisoners represent the
individuals who desire earthly pleasures, honors and objects. They would rely on
the cave for truth and they would choose among themselves who is the best
interpreter of the shadows. Their whole lives are based on this cave, they are like
the aesthete who also exists for worldly pleasures and desires.
133
Ibid., 45.
134
Ibid., 51.
54
From this examination, the prisoner in the allegory of the cave is an
individual living in the aesthetic stage because the prisoner has characteristics
similar to that of the aesthete. Due to these similarities, we can say that the prisoner
is an aesthete.
Later in the allegory, a prisoner is eventually freed, which enables him to
reach the next stage of existence.
B. The Freed Individual and the Ethical Life
The second stage in Kierkegaards stages of existence is the ethical stage.
This stage is present in the allegory symbolized by the freed individual.
In the allegory, Socrates depicts the release of a prisoner from the cave, He
then decides to embark in a journey out of the cave. The journey is a tedious process
because he takes time before he is able to see the sun. After some time, the gradation
of his sight slowly improves from seeing shadows, to being able to see the objects
themselves; however, he still is not able to see the sun.
Previously, we defined the ethical life as the state where a self has a quest
to find his identity. This is the stage wherein one seeks to be more than a collection
55
of desires. The ethical individual is on a quest to find meaning in his life by adapting
a set of moral principles on how to live his life.135
Likewise, the freed individual also undergoes this ethical process. This
process leads him to know his own identity. He is no longer sees the world as
collection of shadows. The freed individual now discovers his form of identity. He
no longer sees himself in shadows but in concrete terms, He sees the absurdity of
his old self. This realization allows him to live different from those inside the cave.
1. Anxiety in the Freed Individual
When the prisoner is released, he experiences a moment of decision. He is
in the state of anxiety. Kierkegaard defines anxiety as the dizziness of freedom that
emerges when a spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom now looks into its
own possibility.136 The freed individual fears of monstrousness of freedom.
Kierkegaard also defines consciousness of the future as anxiety.137 The
future is not like the past, which is unchangeable. The future is still uncertain, one
must create his own future possibilities. Anxiety arises from this fear of ones self
creation. One must create his future and this also leads to anxiety.
135
See Chapter III Page. 42.
136
137
Palmer, 62.
56
In the allegory, the freed individual is in the state of anxiety because there
is nothing stopping him from going outside the cave. He is contemplating whether
he should go outside of the cave or remain inside. He could stay in the cave and
live seeing shadows, but knowing that there is a possibility of living differently
outside the cave causes him anxiety. He fears this decision because whatever
decision he will choose it will define what kind of person he will become in the
future
Like the prisoner the freed individual is also affected by despair. He is
affected by two kinds of despairs.
2. Despair of the Freed Individual
2.1. Despair of Finitude
The first kind of despair is the despair of finitude. Like the prisoner the freed
also experiences this kind of despair. Although the freed individual has discovered
who he is, he still does not have a relation to the infinite which leads to his despair.
In the ethical stage, the ethicist still does not have a relationship with the
infinite. Kierkegaard views Socrates as an ethicist but he is not a religious ethicist.
As he writes:
Socrates was indeed an ethicist, the first (in fact, the founder of ethics, as
antiquity unconditionally claims), just as he is and remains the first of his kind,
57
but he begins with ignorance. Intellectually, he tends toward ignorance, toward

knowing nothing. Ethically, he interprets ignorance as something quite different
and begins with that. On the other hand, Socrates naturally is not an essentially
religious ethicist, even less a Christian dogmatician. Therefore, he does not
really enter into the whole investigation with which Christianity begins.138
Kierkegaard sees Socrates as a person living in the ethical life because he
does not have a relationship with God. So Socrates also falls in this despair.
2.2. Despair Over the Eternal
The second kind of despair is the despair over the eternal. This despair arises
when one knows that he is in despair of earthly things. This kind of despair differs
from the despair over earthly because in this state one is already aware of his
weakness.139 The individual now knows that he is in despair of the earthly but he
does not address his problem. Kierkegaard says that those individuals who know
they are in despair, yet does nothing to get rid of it experiences a more intensive
kind of despair. As he writes:
However, it is in only one sense, in a purely dialectic sense, that the individual
who is ignorant of his despair is further from the truth and deliverance than
one who knows it and yet remains in despair, for in another sense, an ethical-
dialectical sense, the person who is conscious of his despair and remains in it
is further from deliverance, because his despair is more intensive.140
138
140
58
In the allegory, the freed individual still relies on the visible world to know
himself; he is still unable to venture completely outside the cave in broad daylight
to see the sun. He has the despair over the eternal because he knows that despair
over the earthly leads to despair, but he does not make a solution. It is because he
still relies on the visible world for knowledge, so he is still unable to leave the cave.
From this examination, the freed individual is in the ethical stage of
Kierkegaards stages of existence. He also ventures on a similar process of finding
his true identity.
There will come a time wherein a man would realize that there is something
more to life than pleasures and worldly things and then as a result he will seek the
unchangeable. As Kierkegaard writes:
There will also come times when you will have occasion to discover for
yourself a saying which the language has suppressed, and you will say to
yourself: 'Change is not pleasant how could I ever have said that variety is a
pleasure!' When this experience comes to you, you will have especial occasion
(though you will surely not forget this in the first case either) to seek Him who
is unchangeable.141
When a man yearns to seek God, then he will proceed to the next stage
where in his process of realization is now complete.
141
Soren Kierkegaard, For Self-Examination and Judge for Yourselves, trans. Walter
Lowrie (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944), 239. Hereafter FSE
59
C. The Enlightened Individual as the Knight of Faith
The third stage in Kierkegaards stages of existence is the religious stage.
This stage is present in the allegory symbolized by the enlightened individual. In
the religious stage, an individual completely surrenders himself to the will of God.
He sees that there is something higher than morality and rules imposed to him by
the society. He becomes aware that there is a God who has a higher authority in his
life. He understands the duty given to him by the Absolute. As Kierkegaard writes:
that there is an absolute duty to God, for in this relationship of duty the
individual relates himself as the single individual absolutely to the absolute. In
this connection, to say that it is a duty to love God means something different
from the above, for if this duty is absolute, then the ethical is reduced to the
relative. From this it does not follow that the ethical should be invalidated;
rather, the ethical receives a completely different expression, a paradoxical
expression,142
The individuals in the religious stage of life is called by Kierkegaard as
the knight of faith. Abraham is an example of the knight of faith because he
follows the duty of the Absolute. By sacrificing Isaac, He is able to do what
seems unethical. As Kierkegaard writes:
The absolute duty can lead one to do what ethics would forbid, but it can never
lead the knight of faith to stop loving. Abraham demonstrates this. In the
moment he is about to sacrifice Isaac, the ethical expression for what he is doing
is: he hates Isaac. But if he actually hates Isaac, he can rest assured that God
does not demand this of him, for Cain and Abraham are not identical. He must
love Isaac with his whole soul. Since God claims Isaac, he must, if possible,
142
60
love him even more, and only then can he sacrifice him, for it is indeed this
love for Isaac that makes his act a sacrifice by its paradoxical contrast to his
love for God.143
In the allegory, the freed individual is enlightened when he finally is able to
see the sun. He is now able to see himself as himself. As Plato writes:
Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the
water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he
will contemplate him as he is.144
He now has now a clear understanding of what he is. This is all due to the
sun because once he was able to see its light he attained reason.
For Kierkegaard the enlightened individual is courageous because he had
the courage to undergo the journey outside the cave. As he says that it takes a
purely human courage to renounce the whole temporal realm in order to gain
eternity.145
The enlightened individual lives in the religious stage because he now sees
the intelligible world. He is like the knight of faith because he now sees the true
meaning of living life. he has already become what he really is.
The self for Kierkegaard is a synthesis of finitude and infinitude with a
relationship with God. The enlightened individual in the same manner knows of the
visible and the intellectual world and he has a relationship with the Good, thus He
143
Ibid.,74.
144
Plato, 305.
145
61
is living in the religious stage which is the highest form of existence. Unlike the
previous stages of existence, Kierkegaard sees the religious individual as free from
despair. As he writes:
We are touched; we look back to those beautiful times. Sweet sentimental

longing leads us to the goal of our desire, to see Christ walking about in the
promised land. We forget the anxiety, the distress, the paradox.146
One may argue that enlightened individual is not in the religious life
because there is no God mentioned in the allegory.
1.Platos Sun as Kierkegaards God
In his Analogy of the Sun, Plato compares the Sun to his idea of the good.
The good is described as seen with effort. When it is finally seen it is inferred as
the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and the lord of
light in this visible world and the immediate source of reason and truth in the
intellectual.147
Plato did not clearly state a concept of God, but when Kierkegaard sees
Platos idea of the good, he will relate it with God because he believes that God is
the creator and the provider of all things. As Kierkegaard writes:
Behold the birds of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns.' Yet the birds certainly do not live on air any more than men do. So there
146
Ibid., 66.
147
Ibid., 307.
62
must be one who sows and reaps and gathers into barns for them? That there is
indeed, namely God, the great caretaker and provider, or, as we call Him,
Providence. He sows and reaps and gathers into barns, and the whole world is,
as it were, His immense store-room.148
From this we can see that the sun in the allegory in Kierkegaards
perspective because Platos good is the universal author of all things, it is described
as the lord of light in this visible world. Kierkeaards God is the Christian God,
who is also described as the Alpha and the Omega, creator of heaven and earth.
Platos did not give a definite definition of God. This is because Plato and
the other ancient Greek philosophers lived before Christ existed. In Platos time,
the gospel was not made known to the gentiles and was exclusive for the Israelites.
Platos good is a pagan view of God.
2.Enlightened Individuals Leap of Faith
The enlightened individual sees the real world as more superior compared to
the cave, which reminds him of his old habitation. He pities the prisoners in the
cave, so he wants them to lead them out of the cave. The individual acts like a
knight faith, he believes in the absurd through faith. As Kierkegaard writes:
The knight of faith realizes this just as clearly; consequently, he can be saved
only by the absurd, and this he grasps by faith. Consequently, he acknowledges
the impossibility, and in the very same moment he believes the absurd,149
148
Kierkegaard, FSE, 239.
149
63
His return to the cave can be seen as a leap of faith because he does not
know what will happen to him when he returns back to the cave. He surrenders
everything to God.
Upon his return to the cave, his eyesight is still not adjusted in the darkness.
The prisoners used his poor eyesight to conclude that the journey outside the cave
only causes harm. No one should be allowed to go in the same journey. When one
attempts to lead another outside the cave he will be killed.
The prisoners would rather believe in the shadows rather than the truth
themselves. Kierkegaard describes these kinds of people as dominated by the
sensations. As he writes:
For example, if a man is presumably happy, imagines himself to be happy,

although considered in the light of truth he is unhappy, he is usually far from
wanting to be wrenched out of his error. On the contrary, he becomes indignant,
he regards anyone who does so as his worst enemy, he regards it as an assault
bordering on murder in the sense that, as is said, it murders his happiness. Why?
Because he is completely dominated by the sensate and the sensate-psychical,
because he lives in sensate categories, the pleasant and the unpleasant, waves
goodbye to spirit, truth, etc., because he is too sensate to have the courage to
venture out and to endure being spirit.150
Just like the prisoners in the cave, they far from wanting to be
corrected in their error. They would view those who correct them as their
worst enemy because the enlightened individual would destroy their
happiness.
150
Ibid., 43.
64
D. Kierkegaardian Interpretation of Platos Allegory of the Cave
It is noticeable as well that Plato did not explain or provide details on
how exactly the individual is able to free himself and eventually go outside
the cave. Plato also did not give the real motive, on why the individual
returned back to the cave. This portion would like to push through with the
story by incorporating Kierkegaards philosophy, particularly the personages
of the stages of existence, in the hope to see an answer to these mysteries left
by Plato.
The prisoner (aesthete) is able to go outside the cave because he is
experiencing anxiety and despair and boredom, which is caused out of his
aesthetic situation. He is bored because of the false truth he is living in. He
yearns to be something more in life not just a life full of shadows (aesthetic
desires), which sparks his journey outside the cave. The journeying individual
(ethical man) learns that life is not full of shadows (aesthetic desires), he
follows a moral virtue to live his life on. But in the end boredom, anxiety and
despair still persist because he is bored out of his daily cycle, which leads him
to seek a higher form of living. This is when he reaches outside the cave able
to see the Sun(God) instead of the fire(sun) he sees the Sun (God) and reason
came to him. He now becomes an enlightened individual (Knight of Faith).

65
In this state the individual is living the most fulfilling stage in life, there
would be no more sense of boredom, anxiety and despair. In this stage, one is
contented in life. While Plato did not say how or why the individual who is
content in life would plan on returning back to the cave, but through
Kierkegaards stages of life, we can see why the enlightened individual
(Knight of Faith) would dare go back inside the cave, without regard for his
own safety he returns back into the cave because he would like to enlighten
the prisoners in the cave. This return (Leap of Faith) to the cave brings him
misfortune as he is mocked and ridiculed.
A summary of the Kierkegaardian reading of Platos Allegory can be
seen in the illustration below:

66
151
As we can see that through Kierkegaard, the allegory of the cave of Plato
is now seen in a new interpretation. Voids left by Plato are also answered
through the incorporation of Kierkegaard.
151
Image taken from http://www.wolverton-mountain.com/articles/platos-allegory-of-the-
cave.html
67
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, the researcher established a connection between the Platos
allegory of the cave and Kierkegaards Stages of Existence. How these stages of
existence are seen in Platos allegory. The researcher included a brief discussion of
each stage and the relationship within them.
The aesthetic stage governed by sensuous principles. This kind of stage is
seen in the allegory as the prisoner bound inside the cave. there are four kinds of
despair experienced by the prisoner.
The ethical stage involves the process of an individual to be guided by
certain moral principles on which he is to live upon. In the allegory this can be seen
in the freed individual. The freed individual experiences anxiety and is in despair.
The religious stage is when an individual commit himself to God.
Kierkegaard calls the religious man as the knight of faith. The enlightened
individual of the allegory is a knight of faith.
The enlightened individual makes a leap of faith. He returns by the principle
of the absurd. He entrusted everything to God.

68
Chapter V
Conclusion and Recommendation
The journey of being enlightened is a laborious task. In Platos allegory it
is where he depicts individuals who are living in shadows which are shown to them
by the manipulators. A shadow for Plato is art because it is only an imitation of the
original which is shown by the artists. It is only when an individual is able to go
beyond outside the cave then he will know what the truth is. Only then will the
individual be able to be enlightened. Then the enlightened individual then makes
his discovery known to those who live in darkness. In this story enlightenment is
achieved through a rigorous process the individual does not know the truth all at
once, but rather it is achieved through a process.
The prisoners are the people in our world who views truth as mere opinion
and false knowledge. These individuals include those living in Kierkegaards
aesthetic stage because they are in false belief because they view pleasure as the
highest good; they are manipulated by deceivers who cast false goals in life.
In Kierkegaards Sickness unto Death, He defines sin as the intensification
of despair, which is an intensified weakness or defiance152. He sees the person
living in the aesthetic life as sinful. As Kierkegaard writes:
Christianly understood, every poet-existence (esthetics notwithstanding) is sin, the

sin of poetizing instead of being, of relating to the good and the true through the
imagination instead of being thatthat is, existentially striving to be that.153
152
Soren Kierkegaard, SUD, 77.
153
Ibid.
69
The aesthete is like a prisoner in the cave because he does not know what the
true meaning of life is, he does not know of God. He has no identity he does not
know of himself, but is only a collection of desires.
The ethical man is also found in the allegory of the cave. He is the freed
individual of the cave. He realizes that there is more to life than living in desires
and pleasures so like the freed individual he embarks on a process of realization, a
realization that is higher than shadows and desires. He now knows the truth that
living on desires is not right, so the ethical man adapts a set of moral values he lives
in.
In the same manner the freed individual is able to see that shadows are mere
reflections of objects which lead him to live a different life.
The ethical man did not know about sin because it takes a revelation from
God to know what sin is154. The freed individual still is not able to see the Sun
outside the cave which is likened to the ethicists failure to live in Gods will. In
the case of the ethical man he may be living in a righteous manner. He no longer
does evil things, but still this falls short because one has no relation with God. This
leads the individuals realization that there must be a higher form of living which
is God.
The religious person now sees that there is a God. Kierkegaard names this
man as a knight if faith. This stage is where one is enlightened he now knows who
154
Ibid.
70
he really is. The religious person makes a leap of faith like that of Abraham where
he left everything to the hands of God.
We should not live not only aesthetically and ethical because living that way
would be like living in an underground cave. But rather we must seek a relationship
with God as our goal in life. It is only by submitting oneself to God that one is able
to be free from any despair and is able to live an authentic life. Living the religious
life requires much effort; Kierkegaard admits that in his life he still has not seen a
knight of faith. As he writes:
I honestly confess that in my experience I have not found a single authentic

instance, although I do not therefore deny that every second person may be such
an instance. Meanwhile, I have been looking for it for many years, but in vain.
Generally, people travel around the world to see rivers and mountains, new
stars, colorful birds, freakish fish, preposterous races of mankind; they indulge
in the brutish stupor that gawks at life and thinks it has seen something. That
does not occupy me. But if I knew where a knight of faith lived, I would travel
on foot to him, for this marvel occupies me absolutely. I would not leave him
for a second, I would watch him every minute to see how he made the
movements; I would consider myself taken care of for life and would divide my
time between watching him and practicing myself, and thus spend all my time
in admiring him.155
But Kierkegaard himself is a knight of faith because he has surpassed the
ethical and the aesthetical sphere in life. He made his leap when he broke of the
engagement with Regine Oleson because although it seems absurd. He did it
because he trusts God in all aspects of his life. He must let Regine go in order for
him to fulfill his duty to God.
155
Ibid. 38.
71
Being a knight of faith does not mean that there will be more struggles in
life, but rather the opposite is true. The knight of faith experiences trials in life. As
Kierkegaard writes:
The tragic hero is soon finished, and his struggles are soon over; he makes the
infinite movement and is now secure in the universal. The knight of faith,
however, is kept in a state of sleeplessness, for he is constantly being tested
[prves], and at every moment there is the possibility of his returning penitently
to the universal, and this possibility may be a spiritual trial [Anfoegtelse] as well
as the truth156
Through Kierkegaards reading of the allegory, we can see the similarities
between the two. The aim of the allegory and the stages of existence are to make
their readers aware that one should strive to become enlightened. The only
difference of the two studies is that Kierkegaard wrote his idea in a Christian view,
while Plato sees it as the education a state ruler. When Kierkegaards philosophy
is incorporated with the allegory, it results in a new interpretation of Platos cave.
It is now seen as a mans path to know God.
156
Ibid., 78.
72
Recommendations
For the future Kierkegaardian (and Platonic scholars), the following are
recommended for further exploration:
Examine the significance of Kierkegaards stages of existence in post-
modern Religion
Venture on an in-depth investigation on the psychology of despair and anxiety
in Platos philosophy
Venture on an in-depth investigation on Kierkegaards criticism of
Christianity in relation to the current branches of Christianity in the post-
modern world
Examine the relevance of Kierkegaards Philosophy particularly, anxiety and
despair in the Post-Modern world
Examine the relevance of Platos Philosophy, particularly, the Allegory of the
Cave in the post-modern world

73
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Kierkegaard, Soren, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. Alastair Hannay

(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
, Either/Or Part I, trans. Howard Hong and Edna Hong (New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 1987)
, Fear and Trembling Repetition, trans. Howard Hong and Edna Hong
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983)
For Self Examination and Judge for Yourselves, trans. Walter Lowrie
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944)
, The Essential Kierkegaard, edit. Howard Hong and Edna Hong (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000)
, The Sickness Unto Death, trans. Howard Hong and Edna Hong (New
Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (New York: Simon and Schuster
Paperbacks, 2010)
Secondary Sources:
Books:
Evans, C. Steven, Kierkegaard an Introduction (New York: Cambridge

University Press, 2009)
Garff, Joakim, Soren Kierkegaard a Biography, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (New

Hohlenberg, Johannes, Soren Kierkegaard trans. T. H. Croxall (New York:

Pantheon Books Inc., 1954)
Kahn, Charles, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press, 1996)
74
Melling, David J., Understanding Plato (New York: Oxford University Press,
1987)
Murdoch, Iris, The Fire and the Sun why Plato banished the Artists (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1977)
Palmer, Donald, Kierkegaard for Beginners (New York: Writers and Readers,
1996)
Panza, Christopher and Gale, Gregory, Existentialism for Dummies (New Jersey:
Wiley Publishing Inc., 2008)
Pattison, George, the Philosophy of Kierkegaard (Chesham, Bucks: Acumen, 2005)
Pojman, Louis, Classics of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.,
2011)
Press, Gerard, Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed (New York: Continuum, 2007)
Rowe, C.J., Philosophers in Context Plato (Britain: The Harvester Press Publishing
Group, 1984)
Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2009)
Whitehead, Alfred North, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (New York:
The Free Press, 1957)
Journal Articles:
Evans, Jan E., Unamunos faith and Kierkegaards religiousness A: making sense
of the struggle, Hispanfila Vol.168 (2013)
Elleray, Rebecca, Kierkegaard, Socrates and Existential Individuality,
Richmond Journal of Philosophy Vol. 16 (Winter 2007)
Hermann, Fritz Gregor, Dynamics of vision in Platos Thought, Helios vol. 40

(2013)
Lee, Richard, Comparing Soren Kierkegaard and Feng You Lan on the Search
for the True Self, Journal of Chinese Philosophy Vol.40 (2013)
75
Johansen, Martin Blok, Darkness Overcomes You: Shaun Tan and Soren
Kierkegaard, Childrens Literature in Education Vol. 46 (2015)
Menn, Stephen, Aristotle and Plato on God as Nous and The Good, The Review
of Metaphysics Vol. 45 No. 3 (March 1992)
Tietjen, M. and Evans, C. Stephen, Kierkegaard as a Christian Psychologist,

Journal of Psychology and Christianity Vol. 30 No.4 (2011)
Verbin, N., Self-Deception and the Life of Faith, The Heythrop Journal Vol 1
No. 55 (2014)
Wood, Joseph, Greek to Me, Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)
Zamir, Tzachi, The Face of Truth, Metaphilosophy vol. 30 (1999)

76
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
Name: Oliver William Ang Yu
Date of Birth: March 28, 1995
Place of Birth: Metropolitan Hospital, Manila
Current Address: 1680 Bambang St. StaCruz. Manila
Contact Number: (02) 7117842
E-mail Address: oliveryu2k14@gmail.com
Educational Background
Primary Level: St. Stephens High School (2002-2008)

Secondary level: St. Stephens High School (2008-2012)
Tertiary Level: University of Santo Tomas (2012-2016)
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i

A Kierkegaardian Reading of Platos

OLIVER WILLIAM ANG YU

towards enlightenment. Kierkegaard likewise discusses the achieving of life with

philosophers in namely namely, Platos use of anonymity and dialogue vis--vis

Keywords: process, anxiety, despair, cave, stages of life

This Thesis entitled

A Kierkegaardian Reading of Platos Allegory of the Cave

Rhochie Avelino E. Matienzo, PhD

Franz Giuseppe F. Cortez, PhD Levine Lao, M.A.

Paolo A. Bolaos, PhD

Chair, Department of Philosophy

MICHAEL ANTHONY C. VASCO, PH.D.

I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is a product of my

Title Page ............................................................................................................................ i

Certificate of Approval for Defense ................................................................................ ii

Certificate of Originality ................................................................................................. iii

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi

II. Platos Allegory of the Cave ...................................................................................... 11

III. Soren Kierkegaard and the Three Stages of Life .................................................. 26

IV. Kierkegaardian Reading of the Allegory of the Cave ........................................... 47

V. Conclusion and Recommendation ............................................................................ 68

characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series

analogy is thus a philosophy applied in a given situation for an individual.

in Copenhagen. He is considered the father of existentialism having influenced the

philosophies of Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, and Emmanuel Levinas, among

others. He germinated the notions of subjectivity, truth, anxiety, boredom,

not rely on sensual pleasures or excitements, instead anchors their lives in

the journey of an individual towards freedom and truth illustrated in Platos

This thesis uses Kierkegaards Sickness Unto Death (translated by Howard

Platos Republic (Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Published in New York by Simon

and Schuster Paperbacks on the year 2010).

There are vast measures of existing literature on Plato and Kierkegaard

the field of philosophy as it serves as another contribution to the existing

interpretations on Platos allegory of the cave and as an additional input to the

existing discussion on Kierkegaards stages of life. This will also be an introduction

would enhance the debate.

David Melling in his work, Understanding Plato, vividly illustrates Platos

milieu. Plato is born in 427BCE in an aristocratic family in Athens; his family is

political structure which had characterized his philosophy, The Republic.

fundamentals of his philosophy of Platos ideas and ideologies on form, knowledge,

philosopher. Rowes work is an important reference for this thesis because it

his allegory of the cave.

According to the essay Dynamics of vision in Platos thought, written by

according to Herrmann is exemplified in the allegory of the cave.9 He states that in

power that is given to those that have seen the light.

allegory by giving a step-by-step approach on what really happened on the allegory.

Both articles contribute significantly to this study as it efficiently guides the

Tzachi Zamir, The Face of Truth, Metaphilosophy vol. 30 (1999), 84.

being shackled in the darkness.

where they themselves discover what Kierkegaard wanted them to understand. In

transpired throughout Kierkegaards life. Knowing the experiences that

Kierkegaards experiences in life. It is significant in the thesis because the

inspirations of existentialist philosophers are likely drawn from human experiences.

Two of the major themes in the complex philosophy in Kierkegaards

particular modifications of subjectivity found in ethics and religion.15 Kierkegaard

was named as the father of existentialism because his philosophy sparked a

movement, due to his writings because of its emphasis on individual existence,

freedom and choice of an individual.

In line with this thought, Self-Deception and the Life of Faith by N.

other in complicated manners. No single essence and no fixed set of necessary

and sufficient conditions by means of which it can be defined, can be identified.16

that can also be used in Platos allegory of the cave.