What Path does Philosophy Take in Heidegger’s Interpretation of Plato’s Cave Allegory?

Von Schomberg, L. (2015). Master Thesis, KU Leuven.

During the winter semester of 1931/32 Martin Heidegger delivers one of his most important Freiburg lecture courses: The Essence of Truth. Through his interpretation of Plato's cave allegory, he provides an understanding of truth as ἀλήθεια, i.e. truth as the unhiddeness of beings; an understanding which he believes to be abandoned by western philosophy already at the beginning of its own history. Instead, the Grundhaltung expressed in the basic meaning of the word ἀλήθεια transitioned into what is still a common conception of truth today, i.e. truth as the correctness of propositions. Heidegger accuses Plato for initiating this transition as an occurrence wherein philosophy takes an erroneous path. 

What then is the path philosophy should have taken, and by asking so, what path does philosophy take in Heidegger’s interpretation of Plato’s cave allegory? Having the latter formulated as my main research question, rather than hoping to find - if there even is - a graspable answer, it will serve as a guiding question in analyzing what I find one of the most significant themes in Heidegger’s philosophy: the distinction between truth as the correctness of propositions and truth as the unhiddenness of beings.

Full thesis available upon request