Plato makes an analogy between what the sun means in the visible realm and what the form of good means in the intelligible realm of forms (508a). First, just as the light of the sun makes visible reality visible to the eyes, so through the light of the form of good the nature of reality is made comprehensible to the soul. Secondly, thanks to the sun the eye can see. Likewise, the form of good gives us the ability to have knowledge. Finally, the sun causes things to exist or be in the visible realm. For example, adjust the seasons. It is the cause of nourishment and generation. Likewise, the form of good is responsible for the existence of all other forms. Therefore, Socrates says that “the form of good is beyond being; it is the cause of all existence" (507b). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, until the next metaphor, it does not explicitly show how important this form of good is to knowledge. This split line character is something by which we can distinguish it from previous images of the sun. The line analogy is intended to illustrate the degrees of access to the world, the levels of knowledge and opinion available to us (509d – 511b). Socrates gives us a line divided into four segments. A line is cut into two unequal parts and each of them is again divided in the same proportion. The two main divisions represent the intelligible world and the visible world. The bottom segment includes imagination as the lowest degree of cognitive activity, plus a higher stage in this segment which is belief. In the imagination section we have shadows or reflections of sensitive objects. Belief or opinion is also the realm of the visible, but it touches sensitive objects. In belief, we have 6 humans, animals, plants, artifacts. A human being in this belief segment thinks that sensitive details are the most real things in the world. Further up the line, the top two segments (intelligible division) are made up of thinking and understanding. Although thought deals with forms, it needs details and sensible hypotheses, as when in geometry we use the image of a triangle to reason about triangularity, or we appeal to axioms or hypotheses to prove theorems. The other section, higher in the intelligible division, is also the The highest and largest segment of the line is also made up of modules but is accessible through understanding. But understanding does not require axioms or assumptions in reasoning. This is why thinking is inferior to understanding. Reasoning in the intellect deals exclusively with forms, working with the first non-hypothetical principle of everything, which is the form of the good. It is possible to interpret reasoning in understanding in dialectical terms. Through dialectics, the philosopher would question assumptions and ultimately arrive at a non-hypothetical first principle of all that is the form of the good. As we see, the divided line operates with images absent in the allegory of the sun.