Plato's Cave Only

A detailed Summary of Plato's Cave Only

In Book VII of Plato's, "Republic", Socrates attempts to show his belief of how people can come to know "justice", and how such knowledge can be used to lift the level of justice within the state.

The Republic comprises ideas and hypothetical arguments that are quite abstract and removed from the commonplace thought of everyday people. Plato, and indeed his mentor Socrates, are very intelligent men in that their intellect and imagination can create and sustain unorthodox or uncommon ideas that everyday people do not bother to think about or do not have the mental faculties or intellect to do so. Plato recognizes this fact and uses dialogue between the character of Socrates and "everyday" people such as Glaucon to explain such strange ideas to the reader of "The Republic".

A very useful technique used to portray these intangible ideas is through various analogies relating commonplace objects and situations to complicated and in depth trains of thought. Some of Plato's analogies include that of the sun and its light relating to the form of good and truth, the line analogy relating to our varying degrees of understanding and comprehension and the cave analogy.

This 'cave analogy' is helpful in illustrating the

This cave analogy describes a released prisoner returning to his chained and restrained friends with the experience of the true, outside world. This free prisoner cannot explain true concepts of goodness and justice to the prisoners as it in no way relates to their fundamentals. This knowledge of goodness is very abstract and cannot be explained using the vocabulary of a shadow reality. Also being told that one's whole existence and values are totally false would not only be too painful a blow for someone in the chained prisoner's place to take, but it would seem a completely ludicrous statement. After all, the whole population they know exists believes their "shadow existence", how could one person be right and everyone else be wrong? A person in modern-day terms who has a completely different set of beliefs and conception of reality is general defined as "insane". It is insanity the original prisoners see in the freed prisoner. This, we understand, is Plato's explanat!

Plato, The Republic,

ion of why he can not explain justice to his friends, or indeed any person who has not traveled the metaphorical journey to the outside of the cave.

Socrates explains that, as all these prisoners have ever known is this shadow world of insubstantial half-truths and illusions, it has become their reality. As, even the voices from the passing people are echoed off this wall, they have not seen or heard anything apart from these shadows, therefore they believe that these shadows are all that exists. In the same way we are said to exist. Our sunlight is the analogy's fire, all we experience is the cave's shadows, and our human inertia and value for superficial desires are the chains that prevent us from changing our perspective. We live our lives believing only what be can see and hear exists, only that which can be proven. Unfortunately what we see, according to Plato's beliefs, are illusionary representations, and what we see as genuine and good are merely shadows of true goodness.

These people returning from the place of enlightenment will be the only people knowing justice, therefore they must be made to govern the state. They will not have the superficial and impure desires for trivial wants that others posses. Desires for power and popularity, among others, will not seem important to them as they are recognized as being only of the world of shadows, which they came to comprehend as being false, as explained by Socrates saying they would rather

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Approximate Word count = 1678
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics