Sight and Sunlight and the Form of the Good

17 March 2025

Sight and Sunlight and the Form of the Good

“Socrates: Sight may be present in the eyes, and the one who has it may try to use it, and colors may be present in things, but unless a third kind of thing is present, which is naturally adapted for this very purpose, you know that sight will see nothing, and the colors will remain unseen.

“Glaucon: What kind of thing do you mean?

“Socrates: I mean what you call light.

“Glaucon: You’re right.

“Socrates: Then it isn’t an insignificant kind of link that connects the sense of sight and the power to be seen – it is a more valuable link than any other linked things have got, if indeed light is something valuable.

“Glaucon: And, of course, it’s very valuable.

“Socrates: Which of the gods in heaven would you name as the cause and controller of this, the one whose light causes our sight to see in the best way and the visible things to be seen?

“Glaucon: The same one you and others would name.  Obviously, the answer to your question is the sun.

“Socrates: And isn’t sight by nature related to that god in this way?

“Glaucon: Which way?

“Socrates: Sight isn’t the sun, neither sight itself nor that in which it comes to be, namely, the eye.

“Glaucon: No, it certainly isn’t.

“Socrates: But I think it is the most sunlike of the senses.

“Glaucon: Very much so.

“Socrates: And it [the sense of sight] receives from the sun the power it has, just like an influx from an overflowing treasury.

“Glaucon: Certainly.

“Socrates: The sun is not sight, but isn’t it the cause of sight itself and seen by it?

“Glaucon: That’s right.

“Socrates: Let’s say then, that this is what I called the offspring of the good, which the good begot as its analogue.  What the good itself is in the intelligible realm, in relation to understanding and intelligible things, the sun is in the visible realm, in relation to sight and visible things.

“Glaucon: How?  Explain a bit more.

“Socrates: You know that, when we turn our eyes to things whose colors are no longer illuminated by the light of day but by night lights, the eyes are dimmed and seem nearly blind, as if clear vision were no longer in them.

“Glaucon: Of course.

“Socrates: Yet whenever one turns them on things illuminated by the sun, they see clearly, and vision appears in those very same eyes?

 “Glaucon: Indeed.

“Socrates: Well, understand the soul in the same way: When it [the soul] focuses on something illuminated by truth and what is, it understands, knows, and apparently possess understanding, but when it focuses on what is mixed with obscurity, on what comes to be and passes away, it opines and is dimmed, changes its opinions in this way and that, and seems bereft of understanding.

“Glaucon: It does seem that way.

“Socrates: So what gives truth to the things known and the power to know to the knower is the form of the good.  And though it is the cause of knowledge and truth, it is also an object of knowledge.  Both knowledge and truth are beautiful things, but the good is other and more beautiful than they [knowledge and truth].  In the visible realm, light and sight are rightly considered sunlike, but it is wrong to think that they are the sun, so here it is right to think of knowledge and truth as goodlike but wrong to think that either of them is the good – for the good is yet more prized.

“Glaucon: This is an inconceivably beautiful thing you’re talking about, if it provides both knowledge and truth and is superior to them in beauty.  You surely don’t think that a thing like that could be pleasure.

“Socrates: Hush! Let’s examine its image in more detail as follows.

“Glaucon: How?

“Socrates: You’ll be willing to say, I think, that the sun not only provides visible things with the power to be seen but also with coming to be, growth, and nourishment, although it is not itself coming to be.

“Glaucon: How could it be?

“Socrates:  Therefore, you should also say that not only do the objects of knowledge owe their being known to the good, but their being is also due to it, although the good is not being, but superior to it in rank and power.”

(Plato, The Republic, Book VI, translated by G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve, Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 1997, pages 1128-1130, 507d-509b, ISBN: 9780872203495)

1.  The sun is a central symbol and metaphor for Platonism.   Understanding the significance of the sun and its symbolic power and meaning assists the reader in understanding the Dialogues at a deeper level; as opposed to reading the Dialogues without taking into account symbolic, metaphorical, and allegorical dimensions.

2.  This passage reinforces my previous post that highlights an occasion where Socrates answers a question by using a comparison, variously translated as simile, allegory, and so forth.  As I mentioned in that post, the use of these kinds of comparisons is necessitated by the ineffable nature of the ultimate which is called The Good and The One, but cannot actually be described through either affirmation or negation.  For this reason, inferences about the One take the approach of what the One resembles, or what approximates the One, or what approximates an aspect, or facet, of the One.

Definitional inferences, which are a very significant part of Platonism, are not efficacious in this fully transcendental context.  As we move from the noetic to the fully transcendental a shift in our method of communicating about these realities happens.

3.  I also think that the symbol of the sun arises out of an approach to contemplation in which the practitioner waits for the sun to rise; I mean that the practitioner, or student, would literally wait in silence and stillness for the sun to appear.  This is mentioned in Plotinus and I have posted about it before, but I think it is worth repeating here.  I think there is a connection between contemplative practice and the use of the sun as a symbol of the One.  To be clear, many scholars regard the passage in Plotinus where Plotinus talks about ‘waiting for the sun’ as a metaphor; and that is possible.  But others, including non-scholars like myself, think that the passage relates to an actual practice rather than being ‘just’ a metaphor.  

I don’t know enough about Greek Pagan practices regarding Apollo and the Sun; but I wonder if waiting for the sun to rise might have been a practice used in the context of temples dedicated to Apollo.  I know that waiting for the sun, and also practices at sunset, were used in a number of cultures.  And I suggest that this was also the case in Ancient Greece.

4.  You can give the practice a try yourself.  It’s very simple.  You rise before the sun and then face East.  If there is an outdoor location you can go to that’s a good idea.  And if you can do it with friends that is also helpful.

You simply stand facing East and wait for the moment of sunrise.  When the sun has risen a simple bow to the sun concludes the practice.  Like I said, it’s very simple.  

Keep in mind not to look directly at the sun; always glance a bit off, or at a distance away from the sun; using sunglasses is a good idea as well.  Looking directly at the sunrise will strain, and possibly damage the eyes.  

5.  Solar contemplations are widespread in many cultures.  Paul Brunton (1898 - 1981) wrote about his use of a solar contemplation done at sunset (waiting for the sun to set).  It is in Volume 3 of his Notebooks.  Chapter 7 outlines his instructions for a sunset solar contemplation and it starts on page 125.  As was Brunton’s style, Brunton’s presentation contains aphorisms about the meaning of solar contemplation which, if you are interested in this approach, you might find valuable.

I believe Brunton learned this solar contemplation in India when he journeyed to India around 1930.  Solar contemplation is a significant practice in Brunton’s teaching.

6.  Engaging in a solar contemplation deepens the understanding of the symbolic nature of the sun in Platonism and, in addition, related symbols of the sun, such as swans because swans, in Greek Paganism, were thought of as related to Apollo.  I have found that this kind of practice helped me to spot passages in the Dialogues that refer to the sun; most of these explicitly mention the sun, but some are indirect.  I think this is an aspect of Plato’s thought that needs to be highlighted more.

7.  I have used the word ‘contemplation’ in the context of ‘waiting for the sun’ because I think it falls in that category, as opposed to meditation or concentration.  In Platonism contemplation is the lifting of the soul from material realities to transcendental realities, from time bound realities to timeless realities.  Contemplating the sun lifts the soul from the material solar manifestation to the Good.  This can happen because the two are so intimately related.  In other words, the sun becomes a kind of platform whereby the practitioner can step into the transcendental.

8.  Notice that in this quoted passage, the sun is considered to be a God.  For some moderns this might be a barrier to understanding this passage, as well as the idea of waiting for sunrise as a kind of contemplation.  We have been taught that the sun is simply a ball of fire at roughly the center of our solar system.  Our reductionist tendencies lead some to conclude that the sun is nothing but a ball of fire.  

If, however, we think of the sun as the source of all life on earth, and of the earth as a whole, this can lead us to a more expansive sense of the sun in our lives.  From there it is possible to think of the sun as more like a living presence that directly impacts my life; and from there gratitude for the sun can arise naturally.

The sun is a ball of fire AND the sun is the source of all life on earth.  It is both of these.

And I think it is possible, even for a modern person, to think of the sun as a living being with a soul, a life, and as part of the great web of becoming and begonning in which we dwell.

9.  “What the good itself is in the intelligible realm, in relation to understanding intelligible things, the sun is in the visible realm, in relation to sight and visible things.”

The Good, the fully transcendental, is the light by which the soul can ‘see’ or comprehend intelligible, or noetic, realities.  These realities are accessible to us only through the light of the Good because they are non-sensory realities.  The sun is a symbol of the Good because the sun reveals visual things to our sense of sight as the Good reveals noetic things to the soul.  

The Sun is, therefore, an emanation of the Good; it is the presence of the meaning of the Good in the material world.

10.  “. . . the good is not being, but superior to it in rank and power.”

The Good transcends being.  The Good is the source of being and the full range of noetic realities.  This is one of the things that signals to us that Platonism is, at its heart, a mystical path.  Non-mystical paths tend to configure being as the conclusion of the spiritual journey.  This means that the ultimate can be approached through the mind (small ‘m’ mind) which is a primary noetic reality along with being and life.  In Platonism the trio of being, mind, and life are noetic realities where one does not come before the others; the three of them are the first differentiation that appears from the Good.

In Platonism, however, the Good transcends being, gives birth to being, but the Good itself is not being (and the Good is also not non-being or nothingness).  This can be experienced in contemplation to a greater or lesser degree.

11.  There is much to ponder in this passage and much to learn at many levels; particularly the symbolic level and how that level is foundational for Platonism and the Way of Philosophy.