ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a general comparison between Plato and Heidegger, formulated in terms of the image of the cave and the sun, gave the example of Kant as an intermediate position between them. It summarizes the particulars of Heidegger's treatment of Plato throughout his writings. The chapter combines generality and particularity by taking up certain pervasive features of Heidegger's interpretation of Plato. The image of the cave is central to Heidegger's interpretation of Plato. The 'releasement' of the cave dweller by the instantaneous agency of wonder is reminiscent of what Heidegger calls Gelassenheit. The openness which characterizes man in the 'cave' of the world is not the same as the openness of the Good in the domain of the Ideas. Man shares in the openness of the Good thanks to his share of the divine nous, or noetic intuition.
