nted this idea graphically in the allegory of the cave in The Republic, where the shadows on the walls represented the imperfect likeness of the perfection of the real objects, much as the real world in which we live is only a reflection of the world of forms. This is Plato's cosmology, and it requires the Forms, the particulars modeled on those forms, and the agent who does the modelling, the Craftsman. Order is imposed on the formless reality of this world by the Craftsman, and this occurs as the four basic elements are mixed in varying proportions to form the matter of this world. These four elements are themselves unchanged--fire, air, water, and earth. He agreed with the atomists that the varieties of sensible objects came from the differences in the shapes and sizes of the particles of which they were composed, but he saw these primary solids as in turn made up of polyhedrons of specific types.
The allegory of the cave demonstrates the state in which we live, a state where our reality is enclosed as it would b
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