The Vision as the Source of Knowledge in Plato

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine Plato's thoughts about the relation between vision and knowledge. Plato expresses his thoughts which indicated in his dialogs called Theaitetos, Republic, Meno and Timaios, in metaphorical therms where the Sun, light and color are used. In addition we attempt to consider plato'sthoughts with respect to his general philosophical assumptions. Since the optics was accepted as a science of vision in Plato's time, in this article, the questions considered by Plato within the epistemology, are evaluated from the perspective of the science of optics.