“You must philosophise, b ut why must you bore me to tears?” (Fairport Convention 1969) Sorry ... I’m afraid that it’s time for a spot of (largely uninformed ! ) philosophical rambling... In some of my recent reading, I was reminded of some philosophy. What I am talking about here, is Plato’s cave allegory (The Republic - Book VII). This is essentially, a story that is discussed by Socrates and Glaucon – Plato’s mentor and brother respectively. In the outline, the story is as follows. Some men are (and almost always, have been) imprisoned in a cave, and are forced to face one of its walls, and not to turn around. Behind them is a fire and between that and the prisoners is a low wall. Behind this wall, their guards walk and while they are hidden by it, they hold above it, representations of some (obviously, very far from all!) real world objects. These cast shadows on the wall that the prisoners face, and this is all that they can see, or have ever seen. (Needless t