Universe of Platonic Thought 2025

33rd International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Platonism and Literary Forms of Philosophy” (Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, St Petersburg)

Valeriya Ismiyeva, CSc in Philosophy, Associate Professor; University of World Civilizations (Moscow, Russia), Associate Professor

Reflections of Plato's Concepts and metaphors in J. R. R. Tolkien's epic novel The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien's epic fantasy is a multi-layered metaphorical text that provides rich opportunities for various allusions and interpretations. Tolkien's interpretation of Plato's cave metaphor is particularly noteworthy. In the novel, the image of the cave is end–to-end, its main meaning is the designation and symbolization of the stages of overcoming their own delusions by the main characters (Frodo, his friends, Gandalf, etc.), which is associated with increased awareness of choice and ethical enthusiasm. The themes of the cave and the magical artifact of Gyges in Tolkien's discourse are closely intertwined, which complicates the problem of rejecting the temptation of illegitimate domination and emphasizes the impossibility of self-knowledge and acceptance of truth without following ethical principles.; Failure to understand and maintain this connection inevitably leads to tyranny, madness, and death, as illustrated by Tolkien's text. In the novel, the opposition of good and evil acquires a tinge of the binary opposition of the living – inanimate, authentic-inauthentic in connection with the interpretation of Sauron and the orcs created by him as a kind of simulacra. There are also some parallels with Plato's texts: the compositional structure of the "State" (the beginning and end of the story of Frodo's journey), elements of the vision of Er (in connection with the disappearance and transformation of Gandalf), Gandalf's reasoning in the spirit of Socratic dialogue, and some others.

Keywords: Platonic metaphor of the cave, the Lord of the Rings, simulacrum, tyranny, ethics

Among the most famous and most significant ideas that are played out in Tolkien's text is the so—called Cave metaphor from the seventh book of The State. In some aspects, the entire novel "The Lord of the Rings" could be considered as a kind of expanded metaphor or meta-metaphor of Plato's cave, more precisely, Tolkien's interpretation of some of its aspects, related, as in Socrates' story, to the process of cognition and self-knowledge and the solution of ethical issues. It should also be noted that the mixture of literary genres (mythology, poetry, epic, rhetoric, philosophy, and some others) in Tolkien's text recalls the genre polymorphism of Plato's dialogues.

From the point of view of composition, the "beginning" of "The Lord of the Rings" and the finale have direct parallels with Plato's dialogue "The State".

The semantic parallel with the dialogue "The State" and the metaphor of the Cave, to which I will refer, is not straightforward.

Just as for Plato's Socrates, knowledge is impossible without virtue (a crafty ignorant mind, neglecting the truth, will distort knowledge for the sake of a narrowly understood "benefit", but virtue can be learned), so in each trial Tolkien's characters reach a new level of self-knowledge, which occurs with the next moral choice and following this choice to the next reference point. When comparing "The Lord of the Rings" with the prehistory set forth in "The Silmarillion", the question arises about the connection between Plato's other idea – simulacrum. Melkor is the ultimate distortion of the Creator's (world's) eidos, his shadow and antipode. In this version, Sauron, in his claim to supremacy over the world, is a simulacrum, both in the Platonic and Baudrillardian sense, since he copies something that does not exist. being a copy of a copy himself, Sauron the simulacrum cannot create a genuine living being and, producing countless hordes of evil, stamps out a kind of shadow of a previously living one, hordes of zombies or automatons.

Let's now take a look at the cartography related to the journey of the Guard squad, and list the most significant of them.

A HOBBIT HOLE is a kind of toy cave, and so is the "toy" view of the world among the inhabitants of the Shire, who do not want to go beyond their cozy edge. On the way to the border town, Frodo and his company almost die, first in the crevice of the trunk of an old elm tree, and then in an underground cave under a mound inhabited by ghostly undead. The next CAVE awaits the replenished group of guardian travelers who made up the "brotherhood of the Ring" in Moria. It is worth considering that in ancient Greek, stupidity, absurdity, madness. The next version of the CAVE is a tunnel in the Cirith Ungol pass, through which Frodo and Sam are trying to get into Mordor under the leadership of Gollum. The final chord of the metaphorical katabasis of Sam and Frodo, but more broadly, of all the Guardians who have made their own version of the epistemological journey, is the denouement of the relationship of the dichotomous Frodo–Gollum couple in the CAVE of Orodruin. Let's emphasize that the image of the cave is obviously end–to–end for the whole novel, and its main philosophical meaning is marking the stages of overcoming their own delusions by the main characters, increasing their awareness and ethical enthusiasm. The themes of the cave and the story of Giga in Tolkien's interpretation are closely intertwined, reinforcing the understanding of the difficulty of rejecting claims to domination and the impossibility of gaining access to knowledge/ self-knowledge without following ethical imperatives; according to Tolkien's text, the lack of understanding of this connection inevitably leads to tyranny and death. Moreover, the binary opposition of good and evil acquires a new connotation in the novel: living-inanimate, authentic-inauthentic in connection with the interpretation of Sauron and his creatures as simulacra. We noted some associations with the compositional construction of Plato's "State" (the beginning and end of the story of Frodo's journey), the inversion of the metaphor of philosophical knowledge as ascension (for the sake of establishing justice and saving the lives of the inhabitants of Middle-earth, Frodo and the Ring Keepers descend into the infernal layers of existence, but this is accompanied by their ethical growth), an allusion to the vision of the Era, which It occurs in connection with the disappearance and transformation of Gandalf and the finale of the epic.; We drew attention (without going into detail about this interesting feature) to the stylistic similarity of Gandalf's reasoning with the Socratic dialogue and some other details.