The Philosopher Who Stole the Heavens: The Immortal Hero and the Challenge of the Eternal

Building upon the distinction between philo-sophos an d philo-zophos, I offer a reinterpretation of the Allegory of the Cave, which will unearth hidden meaning not just in the Republic, but in all of Plato’s dialogues. The clash between the philo-sophos and the philo-zophoi will be illustrated as a clash between a Time-bound ontology and a Being-centered ontology.In the second half of this chapter, I focus on Plato’s method of reaching out of the ‘cave’ and grasping the realm of the unchanging, eternal Being, while paralleling paideia with Heidegger’s urge for ‘un-learning’ and ‘learning’. This endeavor will bring Plato’s philosophical project and Heidegger’s later account of ‘thinking’ closer together.