Plato’s Metaphysics: Two Dimensions of Reality and the Allegory of the Cave

Right now, as I write this, I’m perceiving stuff in the world. I see an antique lamp next to me. Its shade is porcelain and base copper. I have an idea of it in my mind that enables me to identify it as a lamp. I use the word ‘lamp’ to talk about it. It’s reasonable to assume that there’s an object out there in reality that corresponds to that idea and word; the idea and the word pick out that object.

If I start to remove parts from the lamp, at some point it will no longer be a lamp. What has that object lost that makes it a lamp rather than a djembe or a pigeon? What constitutes that object’s ‘lamp-ness’?

This question may seem a bit silly or even pointless to ask. But if we ask it of things that matter to us, the question takes on gravity. What constitutes a person or value? What constitutes health or a species? What constitutes blame or evil?

These are the kinds of questions raised under Metaphysics, the study of the nature of reality. Philosophers in this field attempt to explain all the phenomena that constitute reality: objects, time, space, quantity, quality, causation, and so on. Metaphysics attempts to ‘carve out reality at its joints’.

This question may seem a bit silly or even pointless to ask. But…