Claim: There is valid information supplied by the images in the cave wall in the Republic Good question, Fooloso4.
What I am saying, is that Forms or Ideals are not impossible, according to Plato and Socrates; they are real, they exist.
If that is true, then all the chairs whose silhouette images we see on the cave walls, can be combined (properly) to produce the Form of a chair.
This ought not to be impossible, given enough data (observation of silhouettes) and combining power (human mind possibly with computer help).
My question remains, can you see this opinion of mine (once properly understood) as a way to get to the Forms of things, and Plato and Socrates just did not think of this approach?
Of course if there exists a proof that it is impossible to create the Forms, then the Forms don't exist, and the images on the cave wall are not a good analogy of how we ought to observe reality.