The Form of the Good II
This chapter is concerned with the image of the Divided Line, in which dianoia illustrates the use of the image-original relation. Dianoia employs visible objects such as the diagrams used in geometry as images for the purpose of gaining insight into intelligible objects. In the process of making its inquiries, dianoia employs hypotheses as starting points. These hypotheses include but are not limited to the definitions that mathematicians set forth as they make their demonstrations. Philosophers are expected to make a further transition from dianoia to dialectic and thus to move to the highest section of the line. In making this transition, the hypotheses or definitions fashioned by dianoia are taken over by dialectic and used as images of the objects associated with dialectic, the forms.