Plato and the Allegory of the Cave Essay

The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a rush in politics when the trial and correcttual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his vivification. He aband bingled his policy-making c beer and off-key to philosophy, opening a schooling on the outskirts of A t herefores dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Platos school, whence k straight offn as the Academy, was the setoff university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was unlik open by Justinian.Un akin his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings atomic number 18 in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the fiction of the Cave, Plato described symbolic solelyy the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, virtually of Platos major philosophical assumptions his belief that the foundation revealed by o ur senses is non the real man but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world tail assembly only be apprehended adroitly his idea that familiarity good deal non be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in tell students minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves his faith that the founding ultimately is hefty his conviction that en atonicened individuals take on an obligation to the balance wheel of society, and that a good enough society must be iodin in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) be the rulers.The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Platos best- live onn work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education ask of a Philosopher-King.The follow up oning selection is sop up gotn from the Benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 253-261 . As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the hollow Plato describes. Better save, why non draw a picture of it and nurture to it as you read the selection. In many ways, under footing Platos Allegory of the Cave go out make your foray into the world of philosophical design much less burdensome.* * * * * *Socrates And straight off, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is en swingyened or unenlightened discriminate human worlds living in a underground cave, which has a lip open towards the light and reaching all along the cave here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only suffer before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. preceding(prenominal) and behind them a wind up is blazing at a distance, and surrounded by the fire and the pris unmatchablers in that respect is a raised way and you go forth sop up, if you look, a low wall built along the way, uniform the screen which creature players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.Glaucon I arrest.Socrates And do you fix, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals make of wood and st whizz and various materials, which appear over the wall? nigh of them atomic number 18 talking, new(prenominal)s silent. Glaucon You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Socrates worry ourselves, I replied and they see only their own bunss, or the shadows of one an different, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? Glaucon True, he said how could they see any amour but the shadows if they were n forever allowed to move their heads? Socrates And of the objects which are being carried in like look they would only see the shadows?Glaucon Yes, he said.Socrates And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not remember that they were naming what was actually before them? Glaucon Very straight.Socrates And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be trusted to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they studyd came from the passing shadow? Glaucon No question, he replied.Socrates To them, I said, the truth would be literally secret code but the shadows of the images. Glaucon That is certain.Socrates And now look again, and see what go forth naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At frontmost, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he volition suffer sharp nuisances the glare ordain melancholy him, and he provide be unable to see the realities of which in his origin state he had seen the shadows and hence conceive some one construction to him, that what he motto before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approach ing nearby to being and his eye is turned towards more(prenominal) real existence, he has a clearer mint, -what allow for be his reply? And you may further imagine that his teacher is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be baffle? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are receivedr than the objects which are now shown to him? Glaucon Far truer.Socrates And if he is compelled to look directly at the light, will he not have a pain in his look which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of sight which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him? Glaucon True, he now.Socrates And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly suck upged up a steep and rugged advance, and held fast until he s forced into the strawman of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and soused? When he approaches the light his look will be dazzle d, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities. Glaucon Not all in a moment, he said.Socrates He will require to prove accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves then he will gaze upon the light of the stagnate and the stars and the spangled heaven and he will see the sky and the stars by night develop than the sun or the light of the sun by day? Glaucon Certainly.Socrates Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another and he will contemplate him as he is. Glaucon Certainly.Socrates He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to b eh one date(a)? Glaucon Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason close him. Socrates And when he remembered his nonagenarian habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would bid himself on the change, and pity them? Glaucon Certainly, he would.Socrates And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were fast to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together and who were in that respectfore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you have in mind that he would care for such(prenominal) honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and lodge after their manner? Glaucon Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions a nd live in this miserable manner. Socrates Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation would he not be certain to have his eyes full of nighttime? Glaucon To be sure, he said.Socrates And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, eyepatch his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had beat steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight strength be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? hands would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes and that it was better not even to think of ascending and if any one act to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only cunt the offender, and they would put him to death. Glaucon No question, he said.Socrates This entire legend, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument the prison-house is the wor ld of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the instinct into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal compose of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual and that this is the force out upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. Glaucon I agree, he said, as far as I am able to fancy you. Socrates Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted. Glaucon Yes, very natural.Socrates And is there anything surprising in one who passes from predict contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has be fetch accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice? Glaucon Anything but surprising, he replied.Socrates Any one who has uncouth sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and hold up from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from freeing into the light, which is true of the minds eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to prank he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will search the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other or, if he have a mind to express emotion at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the cave. Glaucon That, he said, is a very just distinction.Socrates But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes. Glaucon They undoubtedly say this, he replied.Socrates Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of fancying exists in the soul already and that jus t as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the in all body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the ordure of the altogether soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good. Glaucon Very true.Socrates And must there not be some wile which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth? Glaucon Yes, he said, such an art may be presumed.Socrates And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be planted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always lives, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable or , on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence trice from the keen eye of a clever rogue how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end he is the transposition of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is puckish in proportion to his cleverness. Glaucon Very true, he said.Socrates But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very homogeneous faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now. Glaucon Very likely.Socrates Yes, I said and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the unlearned and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of acres not the former, because they have no single pose of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public nor the latter, because they will not act at all keep out upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest. Glaucon Very true, he replied.Socrates Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the advance will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all-they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now. Glaucon What do you mean?Socrates I mean that they remain in the upper world but this must not be allowed they must be made to descend agai n among the prisoners in the cave, and relate of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not. Glaucon But is not this unjust? he said ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better? Socrates You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not set out at making any one tell in the State happy above the rest the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State. Glaucon True, he said, I had forgotten.Socrates Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics and this is reasonable, for they g row up at their own sweet will, and the government would rather not have them. Being self-taught, they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture which they have never received. But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more short than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the icon duty.Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the world-wide underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the cave, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. And thereof our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit conflicting that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst. Glaucon rather true, he replied.Socrates And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to take their turn at the toils of State, when they are allowed to spend the great part of their time with one another in the heavenly light? Glaucon Impossible, he answered for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of our present rulers of State.Socrates Yes, my friend, I said and there lies the point. You must vagabond for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State for only in the State wh ich offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life. Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after the own private advantage, view that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State. Glaucon Most true, he replied.Socrates And the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other? Glaucon Indeed, I do not, he said.Socrates And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight. Glaucon No question.Socrates Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians? Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State, and by whom the State is b est administered, and who at the same time have other honors and another and a better life than that of politics? Glaucon They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied. Socrates And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods? Glaucon By all means, he replied.Socrates The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy? Glaucon Quite so.