Plato and the Allegory of the Cave Essay Example for Free

Plato and the Allegory of the Cave EssayThe son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a carg adept(a)r in governing when the trial and eventual(prenominal) execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He aband unmatchedd his political c areer and turned to philosophy, escapeding a school on the outskirts of Athens consecrated to the Socratic hunting for wisdom. Platos school, then kn accept as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A. D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian.Un give care his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolic whollyy the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a panache of salvation. The Allegory arrays, in brief form, most of Platos major philosophical assumptions his belief that the wo rld revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world tummy only be appreh closedowned intellectually his idea that k directledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but quite a that education consists in directing students minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves his faith that the universe ultimately is good his conviction that enlightened individuals befuddle an obligation to the consist of society, and that a good society must be wizness in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers.The Allegory of the Cave can be tack to filmher in Book VII of Platos lift out-known 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 required of a Philosopher-King.The following selection is taken from the Benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 2 53-261. As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the cave Plato describes. Better yet, why not draw a picture of it and refer to it as you read the selection. In many carriages, mind Platos Allegory of the Cave will make your foray into the world of philosophical thought much less burden nearly.* * * * * *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 present been from their childhood, and own their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners at that place is a raised way and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, all e genuinelywhere which they show the puppets.Glaucon I see.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 various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. Glaucon You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Socrates Like ourselves, I replied and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite 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 able to converse with one another, would they not figure that they were naming what was moldually before them? Glaucon Very true.Socrates And suppose hike up that the prison had an ech o 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 righteousness would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. Glaucon That is certain.Socrates And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and engageled absolutely to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp striving the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows and then c formerlyive 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 turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may fur ther imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be pose? 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 away 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 runged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he s forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not possible to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, 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 grow apparelua ted to the sight of the speeding 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 idle and the stars and the spangled heaven and he will see the sky and the stars by night soften than the sun or the light of the sun by mean solar 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 descry? Glaucon Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him. Socrates And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisd om 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 surveil the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think back that he would care for such 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, earlier 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 miserable manner. Socrates Imagine once more, I said, such an one approach suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation would he not be certain to have his eyes full 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 be stick steady (and the time 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 you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the mortal into the intellectual world according to m y poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my judging 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 author of all things beautiful and right, foster 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, all 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 descend to human affairs for their intelligences 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, 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 common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two 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 ready to laugh he will first ask whether that spirit 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 happy 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 the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of bei ng, 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 ability 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 deservingnesss of the soul seem 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 always stays, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing 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 t he 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 uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of situate 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 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 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 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? Socra tes 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 stay put 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 stimulate 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 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 wo rld 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 crusade 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 piano g overned, 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 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 contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well- secerned State for only in the State which 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 priv ate advantage, thinking 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 laying waste 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 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 suc h 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.