[584d]
“Do you know, then, what their quality is
and what they most resemble?” “What?” he said.
“Do you think that there is such a thing in nature1 as up and down
and in the middle?” “I do.” “Do you
suppose, then, that anyone who is transported from below to the center would
have any other opinion than that he was moving upward2? And if he took his
stand at the center and looked in the direction from which he had been
transported, do you think he would suppose himself to be anywhere but above,
never having seen that which is really above?” “No, by
Zeus,” he said, “I do not think that such a person would
have any other notion.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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