Plato and the Allegory of the Cave Essay

The son of a wealthy and nobleman family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a c atomic number 18er in political sympathies when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He bedraggled his political cargoner and sour to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Platos school, then known as the Academy, was the offset university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was unappealing by Justinian.Unthe likes of his manpowertor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings be in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolic eithery the predicament in which mankindness finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Platos major philosophical assumptions his article of faith that the introduction revealed by o ur senses is not the real valet de chambre provided only a poor sham of it, and that the real world seat only be apprehended intellectually his idea that knowledge smokenot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing students minds toward what is real and outstanding and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves his faith that the universe ultimately is good his conviction that en accrueened individuals collect an obligation to the relievo of society, and that a good society must(prenominal) be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers.The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Platos known work, The majority rule, a lengthy dialogue on the temper of on the noseice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education required of a Philosopher-King.The following selection is taken from the benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 253 -261. As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the cave Plato describes. develop yet, why not draw a picture of it and refer to it as you read the selection. In many an other(prenominal) ways, understanding Platos Allegory of the Cave forget make your foray into the world of philosophical cerebration much less burdensome.* * * * * *Socrates And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened Behold human cosmoss living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave here they take a shit been from their childhood, and stool their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only master before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a go over is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners at that place is a raised way and you get out influence, if you smell, a low wall built along the way , like the screen which marionette players take over in front of them, over which they show the puppets.Glaucon I checker.Socrates And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and confused materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. Glaucon You have shown me a other image, and they are strange prisoners. Socrates Like ourselves, I replied and they see only their own behinds, or the shadows of one some other, which the fire throws on the contrary wall of the cave? Glaucon True, he said how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? Socrates And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?Glaucon Yes, he said.Socrates And if they were commensurate to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? Glaucon ve ry(prenominal) truthful.Socrates And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? Glaucon No question, he replied.Socrates To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. Glaucon That is certain.Socrates And now impression over again, and see what go forth naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled all of a sudden to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he lead puzzle sharp pains the glare leave behind distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former deposit he had seen the shadows and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is tu rned towards more real existence, he has a clearer raft, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him? Glaucon Far truer.Socrates And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eye which will make him turn remote to take and take in the objects of vision 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 dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he s laboured into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and nettled? When he approaches the light his look will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what a re now called realities. Glaucon Not all in a moment, he said.Socrates He will require to produce accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows go around, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves then he will paying attention upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven and he will see the sky and the stars by dark better 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 behold? Glaucon Clearly, he said, he would firs t see the sun and then power nearly him. Socrates And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate 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 quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were in concert and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such(prenominal)(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 live after their manner? Glaucon Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this pathetic 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 practiced of darkness? 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, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the fourth dimension which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men 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 tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death. Glaucon No question, he said.Socrates This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and y ou will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world concord 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 bowel movement and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author 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 power 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 understand you. Socrates Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to devolve 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 divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, some the images or the shadows of images of besidesice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute butice? Glaucon eachthing but surprising, he replied.Socrates Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of twain kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going 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 r eady to laugh 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 count the one golden in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other or, if he have a mind to laugh 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 learning exists in the soul already and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without th e integral body, so too the agent of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole 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 art 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 bet to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which ceaselessly remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe th e constringe intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue how eager he is, how distinctly his paltry soul sees the way to his end he is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous 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 same 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 uneducated and unknowing of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State not the former, because they have no single aim 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 except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already hearthstone a array 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 State 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 again among the prisoners in the cave, and partake of their labors and hon ors, 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 aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens unneurotic by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another to this end he created them, not to disport 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 grow up at their own sweet will, and the moldment would rather not hav e 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 perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty.Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general 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 thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, whic h 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 Quite 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 greater 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 chat 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 contrive 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 which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in v irtue 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, thinking that and then 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 lying-in? 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 best 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 nighttime to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy? Glaucon Quite so.