Eikasia

The term eikasía (Ancient Greek:), meaning imagination in Greek, was used by Plato to refer to a human way of dealing with appearances.^[1] Particularly, it is identified as the lower subsection of the visible segment and represents images, which Plato described as "first shadows, then reflections in water and in all compacted, smooth, and shiny materials".^[2] According to the philosopher, eikasia and pistis add up to doxa, which is concerned with genesis (becoming).^[3]

Eikasia has several interpretations. For instance, it is the inability to perceive whether a perception is an image of something else. It therefore prevents us from perceiving that a dream or memory or a reflection in a mirror is not reality as such. Another variation posited by scholars such Yancey Dominick, explains that it is a way of understanding the originals that generate the objects that are considered as eikasia.^[4] This allows one to distinguish the image from reality such as the way one can avoid mistaking a reflection of a tree in a puddle for a tree.^[4]

It is part of Plato's Analogy of the Divided Line.

References

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