|
Here's a breakdown of Plato's
"Allegory of the Cave":
Definition from "Literary Terms" (http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/allegory.html):
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in
which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated
with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The
underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political
significance, and characters are often personifications of
abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.
Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning
and a symbolic meaning.
Speakers in the allegory (each
paragraph break indicates a switch in speaker):
-
Socrates: read a biography
of him here:
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm. Socrates
is the teacher and speaks first. His role is to
help his students reach enlightenment. He believed the
best way to do this was through the dialectic method,
also called the Socratic method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method).
Basically, Socrates asks probing questions, setting up
situations that the student can respond to, usually with
a yes or no response in Plato's dialogues.
-
NOTE: I am using
Wikipedia entries that I feel are accurate. However, you
may NOT use Wikipedia as a source in your work for
this class. I only cite them here to give you general
background information that is easy to access.
Set up: Socrates has just finished
discussing the worlds of being/becoming (http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/timaeus.htm),
the dividing line (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy_of_the_divided_line),
and the theory of forms (http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2f.htm#forms).
Now, he addresses the issue of how anyone becomes enlightened in
this world of becoming. Since enlightenment is a
mental/spiritual act, not a physical one, Socrates gives Glaucon
the allegory of people trapped in a cave in order to explain the
soul's journey from darkness (ignorance) into light
(truth/good/knowledge). This journey is composed of several
steps:
1. People are locked in a dark
cave. Chained from birth, they are unable to move their bodies
and can only stare straight ahead at the wall of the cave. On
this wall flash objects, like images on a movie theatre screen.
The prisoners believe what they see is reality, but these
objects are merely shadows thrown against the wall by objects
behind the prisoners. A fire behind these real objects (or
"forms" as Socrates calls them) creates the shadows. As these
objects (including people) walk in front of the fire, some of
them speak, and the prisoners hear the echo of their voices and
believe that these faint echoes are real words/sounds as well.
Along the side of the cave is a rocky and steep path leading to
the mouth of the cave. At the mouth, there is a faint glimpse of
the sun.
2. A prisoner somehow gets free
(Socrates does not explain how. Since this is his allegory on
how we become enlightened, it's safe to guess that this can
happen in many ways - at times by external forces and sometimes
because of internal forces - ourselves). Since the prisoner has
been chained since birth, even moving about is painful. He
stumbles and is unsteady. Something compels him up the steep
path to the mouth of the cave. This trip is difficult, and once
the prisoner reaches the mouth of the cave and is in the light
of the sun, he may try to return to the darkness because he is
in such pain. But the force that compels him won't let him
return.
3. Once outside, the prisoner will
be blinded by the sun and at first cannot see. Eventually, he
will begin seeing shadows and outlines of objects. Next, he will
begin growing accustomed to the light and can distinguish one
object from another. He can see the reflection of the brightest
objects in water (sun and moon). Last, he can look at the sun
itself. The sun represents good, which for Socrates is
truth/knowledge. Basking in the sun, the prisoner sees truth. He
realizes that life in the cave was an illusion, and that the
honors bestowed there are meaningless.
4. Though the ex-prisoner might
want to stay in the sun, meditating on truth, he cannot. His
duty is to return to the cave and let others know truth. When he
enters the cave again, though, his eyes will not be able to see
in the dark any longer. He will stumble and look foolish. His
words will not make sense. Some will mock him, others will fear
him. Some will try to kill him because he is trying to bring
change. Socrates says that those who return will at first not
even be able to compete with prisoners because the darkness is
so foreign to them. They must learn how to see in the dark again
in order to communicate to the prisoners.
5. Socrates then tells Glaucon that
the cave is the prison house of the soul, and that the journey
out of it is equal to the soul's journey to enlightenment.
Because of this, he says that educators who believe people have
to be taught in order to know anything are wrong. In fact,
everything we need to obtain enlightenment is within us already.
We only have to work to unlock it. Socrates is not talking about
finite knowledge, such as historic dates or who landed on the
moon first. Instead, he is talking about the knowledge that is
more ethical, that is governed by reason and mathematics.
6. Socrates believes that there is
one art that promotes such enlightenment and that this type of
wisdom is divine (there are many types of wisdom, but that which
leads to enlightenment is what's being discussed here -
philosophy). Because this is divine, understanding it means a
wholehearted effort. One cannot partially attain it. Here, he
mentions the clever rogue - a person who has wisdom, but has
only accepted it as a means to gain advantage over others as
opposed to the philosopher-king (as Plato calls him) who uses
his wisdom to better society and others. Socrates then states
that some clever rogues are created because society makes them.
If a person is not given the right kind of care, then he can go
astray. Socrates, in another work, likens our soul to a
charioteer driving 2 horses, one black and one white. The black
horse is evil, and the white horse is good. Good judgment holds
the reins, and if the dark horse is in control, then the clever
rogue wins. If the white horse is in control, then the
philosopher king wins because the soul can escape the prison
here and rise close to the world of being (for more, watch the
Youtube video here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WgPJUTltITk). With the right
training, good judgment has a better chance of maintaining
control over evil. Socrates also suggests that people can become
rogues because they do not have the basic necessities of life.
This might be explained by using
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (diagram below; read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs).
Maslow was an American psychologist who believed that people had
needs that had to be met, and these needs were not all equal.
The highest level, self-actualization, is similar to Plato's
enlightenment. According to Maslow, it is harder for people to
attain the upper levels of needs if any lower level is unmet.
The most lowest level, also the largest, are physiological
needs, such as eating and drinking (what Socrates mentions in
the dialogue when discussing rogues). You can see below the
other categories. Thus, Socrates seems to be suggesting that
unless we create a society where people can have the time to
focus on self-actualization, they will be more than likely
distracted by meeting their more pressing needs. Think of how
much more easier it would be to make good grades if you didn't
have to work, worry about money, take care of your kids, etc.
This is what Socrates is talking about. Remember,
Plato's overall purpose in the Republic is to create an
ideal society, and this would include social reform as well.
7. Socrates then begins to
discuss who can help make this change in society. He says that
neither the uneducated nor the eternal student qualifies. The
first doesn't have the skills to focus on one direction and the
second do not feel the need because they already live in what
they think is paradise and do not want to leave their pleasant
life. Instead, those who have created the 'state' must take the
best and brightest, educate them in this method, and them force
them to return to the cave. This is not cruel because the state
does not exist to privilege any one class but to create a world
where our happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else.
So those who are educated and know the light of truth must
return to the cave and learn to see in the dark. Once they have
adapted to the dark, they will be able to see 10,000 times
better than the prisoners. They can discern shadows from truth
and thus can lead the state. He says
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, 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.
Socrates says that those who do not
want to rule because they place their importance on things of
the next world not on this world are the perfect people to rule
because they are rich in wisdom and virtue. People who want to
rule are usually hungry for power or money and will thus be
corrupted and cannot rule the state wisely or justly.
Philosophers, because they look down on politics, are the best
then to be these leaders. |
