Analysis Of ' The Republic ' By Plato

The Allegory of the Cave, also know as The Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave or Parable of the Cave is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic “ as a theory concerning the perceptions of human kind and compares the effects of education to the lack of education on our observations. The passage is written as dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is also termed as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It was used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". It comprises of a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon. Socrates gives a description of a group of people who spent their lifetime facing a blank wall chained to the wall of a cave. These people saw and tried to assign forms of the shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them. These shadows as put by Socrates, are what the prisoners can view close to reality (Law 2003). He further compares a philosopher to the prisoner who is freed from the cave and comprehends that he can envision the true form of reality instead of the shadows which the prisoners saw in the cave and these shadows do not depict reality at all.

In Plato’s Republic he has many examples of rhetoric. In regards to the controversial topic of women and eugenics in which Plato is almost forced into mentioning because of Adeimantus and Glaucon, he uses various rhetorical statements to portray his view on the matter. His readers believe women should be equal, so Plato attempts to persuade his readers into thinking he believes the same. For example, in the passage on women and family Plato states, “we shall assign these to each accordingly; but if the only difference apparent between them is that the female bears and the male begets, we shall not admit that this is the difference relevant for our purpose, but shall still maintain that our male and female Guardians ought to follow the same occupations” (164). He uses the women are equal and can do the same things as men strategy in order to make Athenian men understand what he is trying to say while still stroking their egos by using rhetoric. Men are in general are hard to persuade when it comes to power, so as a result Plato gives a sense of gender equality while at the same time still giving men the upper hand.

The prisoner’s process of apprehending knowledge in The Allegory of the Cave is depicted as an arduous yet spiritual process. When the prisoner begins to acclimate into the world outside of the cave, he has to learn and observe in steps. The prisoner first starts with seeing shadows because it is what he is used to when he inhabited the cave. Then, he can see the reflections of objects. After, he is able to move on to watching the actual objects. The released prisoner eventually can observe the night sky. Finally, he can look at the sun and truly understand the importance and meaning of it (Plato.153). The prisoner cannot merely stop at looking at objects because he has to comprehend the new world and look deeper into its meanings. He is unable to physically contact the sky which causes a feeling of uncertainty and wonder. The sun represents the truth and realities of the world, which is why he was so blinded by it when he first was forced out of the cave. The knowledge that the prisoner now possesses gives him the strength to rise above the standing of those who are stilling living in the shadows. In order to fully grasp the knowledge of the world, an individual must slowly understand smaller concepts before attempting to gain the full truth.

Humankind is filled with individuals testing each other and competing with one another to be the greatest, ignoring the reality of life. In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato justifies this by displaying a parable that serves as a metaphor for life. This parable teaches the reader how people wish to remain in their comfort zones and disregard the truth. It portrays the struggle of facing different realities that alter the illusion of one's life. In the story, he described a group of prisoners chained inside a dark cave; their only source of light comes from a burning fire that is used to create shadows. These shadows display images that the prisoners each interpret as the reality; however, once one is released and is struck by the light, he

In the end of Plato’s Republic Book I, Socrates and Thrasymachus who had just finished a set of vigorous arguments on what the definition for justice is and whether the just or the unjust life is the best life to live, come to a conclusion. Regarding the true definition of justice, at the end of Book I, Socrates mentions that their discussion have not led them to the true definition of justice (Republic 354b). On the other hand, their discussion on which life is more profitable does come to a conclusion, “So the just man is happy and the unjust man is miserable…but being miserable is not profitable, whereas being happy is” (Rep. 354a) Socrates says, indicating the just life tends to be more profitable than the unjust life. Following their

Plato uses this section of the dialogue to emphasize that he is now out of his realm of understanding and is in the Intelligible World where true reality, according to Plato, exists. Because the man can analyze and reason to move up to the Intelligible World, Plato shows this as a shift to the Realm of Mathematics. At the time, great value and importance was placed on the concepts of mathematics such as analytical and reasoning faculties of the mind and thus would have influences Plato to place it on a higher level. Due to his level of understanding and the major shift from one World to the other, he is overwhelmed and takes time to slowly learn the new concepts. However, once the man is adapted enough, he can look directly at the beings and the objects that cause the shadows on the wall. In the theory of the Divided Line, Plato exemplifies that the man is looking at what are the known as the Forms. The Forms are the perfect objects that exist in the higher realm of understanding and are shadowed on the wall of the cave. Thus, he is stating that what the people in the cave see are simply imperfect and skewed representations of the true and perfect forms from which they originate.

In Books VI and VII of the The Republic, Plato uses the four analogies to represent his theory of justice in the ideal state. The four analogies include the ship, the sun, the divided line, and the cave. The analogies of the ship, and the cave are used by Plato to represent the people of the state and proving his argument that philosophers are the true rulers of the state. The divided line and the sun analogies also supports Plato’s point about philosophers obtaining intellectual knowledge apposed to the ordinary citizens who only have sensible knowledge. Plato argues that the ordinary citizens can be educated but will never reach the level of knowledge that the philosophers have. Plato’s points, although supported by the four analogies

In his Allegory Plato shows us how a man ascends from the darkness of a cave to the light of the outside world. In this ascent Plato’s man passes through four distinct stages of cognition: from imagination, to belief, understanding, and finally knowledge.

Philosophy is a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom." Throughout Plato's Republic, wisdom plays an important role. According to Plato, education is wisdom. In the passage, 518d, Plato discusses the true meaning of education vicariously through Socrates. Some literary mechanisms can be found in the passage and I will show how they fit in the text and how they contribute to the main themes of Plato's Republic.

An extension of the Sun simile where Plato attempts to explain ‘goodness’ and the nature of reality and knowledge, the ‘Divided Line’ extrapolates on the relationship between the two realities and their corresponding knowledge. The line is divided into two unequal parts – the smaller part would be the ‘Visible Realm’ while the larger part would be the ‘Intelligible realm’. The two parts are then divided into two unequal parts again of the same ratio – the smaller part of the ‘Visible realm’ is labelled ‘Shadows and Images’ while

Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.

The main idea presented by Plato in his infamous Allegory of the Cave is that the average person's perceptions are severely limited by personal perspective. Plato uses the metaphorical situation of prisoners chained together in a way that limited their visual perception to the shadows projected from behind them onto a wall in front of them. He uses that metaphor to illustrate that perspective determines perceptions and also that once an individual achieves a wider or more accurate perspective, it becomes difficult for him to communicate with those who are still limited to the narrower perspective that he may have once shared with them. Plato meant his allegory to apply to the limitations of perspective attributable to social experiences as well as to the absence of formal education and training, particularly in logical reasoning. Plato believed that logical reasoning is a skill that must be learned through formal training and that without adequate training, it is substantially impossible to understand the logical perspective.

Republic, perhaps Plato’s most famous work focusing on justice and its values, is also home to Socrates’ unique ideas and the challenges that he faces throughout his dialogues with other philosophers. Nevertheless, justice is not the only topic that Plato examines in his work. In the Republic, a simple discussion of the justice and the different characteristics of cities, escalates into a discussion about the souls of individuals. Socrates starts out by offering an agreement to the fact that since cities are made of individuals, their characteristics can also be found in individuals. From his writings, Plato exemplifies most of Socrates’ arguments towards the development of his own arguments. One very famous theory developed by Plato from

The Republic by Plato was a fascinating piece of literature to read. This book focuses on issues that are still very relevant to this day. That just really shows two things, how smart Plato was and also how humans haven’t changed. Over the years’ humans may have developed and advanced so much, but who we are and how we behave, think and feel hasn’t changed a bit. Prior to reading this, I believed that as time has gone on we have developed as a people, but Plato shows that the problems and issues of Ancient Greece are similar, if not the same as our modern day ones. Plato has made me aware that we have only developed on the surface, our natural desires and instincts however are something that hasn’t changed. In fact, it bares to question if we will ever change.