Eikasia

The term eikasía (Ancient Greek: εἰκασία), meaning imagination in Greek, was used by Plato to refer to a human way of dealing with appearances. Particularly, it is identified as the lower subsection of the visible segment and represents images, which Plato described as 'first shadows, then reflections in water and in all compacted, smooth, and shiny materials'. According to the philosopher, eikasia and pistis add up to doxa, which is concerned with genesis (becoming). The term eikasía (Ancient Greek: εἰκασία), meaning imagination in Greek, was used by Plato to refer to a human way of dealing with appearances. Particularly, it is identified as the lower subsection of the visible segment and represents images, which Plato described as 'first shadows, then reflections in water and in all compacted, smooth, and shiny materials'. According to the philosopher, eikasia and pistis add up to doxa, which is concerned with genesis (becoming). Eikasia has several interpretations. For instance, it is the inability to perceive whether a perception is an image of something else. It therefore prevents us from perceiving that a dream or memory or a reflection in a mirror is not reality as such. Another variation posited by scholars such Yancey Dominick, explains that it is a way of understanding the originals that generate the objects that are considered as eikasia. This allows one to distinguish the image from reality such as the way one can avoid mistaking a reflection of a tree in a puddle for a tree. It is part of Plato's Analogy of the Divided Line.