Plato - Allegory of the Cave - The Republic - Book VII

and now I said let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened behold human beings living in an underground den which has a mouth open towards the lights and reaching all along the dead here they have been from their childhood and have 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 there is a raised way and you will see if you look how a low wall built along the way like the screen which marionette players have in front of them over which they show the puppets I see 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 you have shown me a strange image and they are strange prisoners 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 true he said how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads and of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows yes he said and if they were able to converse with one another would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them very true 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 no question he replied to them I said the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images that is certain and now look again and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their at first when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light he will shuffle shot panes 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 conceived someone saying to him that what he saw before was an illusion but that now when he is approaching narrative being and his eye has turned towards more real existence he has a clearer vision 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 far truer and if he is compelled to look straight at the light will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge 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 true he said and suppose once more that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the Sun himself is he not likely 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 not all in a moment he said he will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world and first he will see the shadows best next the reflections of men and other objects in the water and there the objects themselves then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the Sun or the light of the Sun by day certainly last of all 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 certainly he will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season in 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 clearly he said he would first see the Sun and then reason about him and when he remembered his old habitation and the wisdom of the Dead and his fellow prisoners do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change and pity them certainly he would 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 together and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future do you think 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 adore anything rather than think as they do and live after their manner yes I think he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner imagine once more I said such and one coming suddenly out of the Sun to be replaced in his old situation would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness to be sure and if there were a contest and he had to compete at measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den while his sight was still weak and before his eyes had become 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 anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light let them only catch the offender and they would put him to death no question he said 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 miss apprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief which at your desire I have expressed whether brightly 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 the seed only with an effort 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 I agree he said as far as I am able to understand you moreover I said you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to dissent the 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 yes very natural 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 anything but surprising he replied anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderment 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 mind's eye quite as much as of the bodily eye and he who remembers this when he sees anyone whose vision is perplexed and weak will not be too ready to laugh he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark or having turned from darkness to the day is bedazzled 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 am I to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light there will be more reason in this than in the laughs which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den that he said is a very just distinction 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 they are doubtedly say this it replied 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 to the instrument 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 state of being and of the brightest and best of being or in other words of the good very true and must there not be some art which will affect 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 yes he said such an art may be presumed and whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seemed to be akin to bodily qualities for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains 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 so clearly his poultry 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 very true he said 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 dragged them down and turned 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 very likely yes I said and there is another thing which is likely oh rather unnecessary 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 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 northern matter because they will not act at all except upon compulsion fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the Blessed very true he replied 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 what do you mean I mean that they remain in the upper world but this must not be allowed they must be made to descend among the prisoners in the den and partake of their labors and honours whether they are worth having or not but is not this in just he said aren't we to give them a worse life when they might have a better you have again for my friend I said the intention of the legislator who did not aim to make anyone class in the state happy above the rest 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 and he created them not to please themselves but to be his instruments in binding up the state true he said I had forgotten 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 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 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 where for 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 10,000 times better than the inhabitants of the den and you will know what the several images are and what they represent because you have seen the beautiful and just at 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 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 word by true he replied and when our pupils when there hear this refuse to take their turn at the toils of states when they are allowed to spend the greater part of their time with one another in the heavenly light 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 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 virtue and wisdom which are the true blessings of life whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs poor and hungry after their own private 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 brows which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole state most true he replied and the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy do you know of any other indeed I do not 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 no question whom then are these 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 they are the man and I will choose them he replied 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 by all means the process I said is not the turning over of an oyster shell an allusion to a game and we two parties fled or pursued according us an oyster shell which was thrown into the air fell with the dark or light side uppermost 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 quite so

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Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 27 2013