Eikasia Column

In Platos Republic in Book VI, there is a reference to four stages of cognition. The first two stages are the World of Appearances and the latter two stages relate to the Intelligible World. The World of Appearances is in turn divided into two stages viz. images and visible things. The lowest form of cognition is called Eikasia. The word defies translation. It is connected with eikon (which means image) and eikos (which means likely or estimation of likelihood or conjecture). Perhaps `imagining is the least unsatisfactory rendering. Eikasia seems to be the wholly unenlightened state of mind which takes sensible appearances at face value.(Source: Cornford F.D, The Republic of Plato, Oxford University Press (1951).