The Divided Line analogy of Plato’s Republic presents in a few lines perhaps the single greatest discussion of human epistemology among all philosophical works. More than 2000 years later, we are still far short of realizing its full implications.
The passages identifies an essential distinction between discursive reasoning, dianoia, and a superior form of knowledge, noesis.
Modern culture is dominated by dianoia; indeed, one of the main problems with contemporary psychology is that it ignores the noetic dimension of the human intellect.
This article considers the subject in practical terms: how our inability to use, especially at a collective level, noetic knowledge contributed to so colossaly unwise a thing as US decision to pursue the Iraq War:
The Pathology of American Thinking: How Plato Might Have Helped Us Avoid an Iraq Debacle
Filed under: Cognitive psychology, Culture of peace, International Affairs, Iraq War
